I'm running red hat 9.0 with a kde desktop. I'm running linux 2.4.20.6. Everything was working great but suddenly the system slowed considerably. It now takes 5 minutes to log in. It takes 5 minutes to start evolution email. Essentially, everything is alot slower. The system also freezes occasionally.

Here's what I'v e checked:

I checked the boot log and the system logs. The only errors I found were "Aug 24 11:57:26 lsanca1-ar10-4-60-170-025 kernel: EXT2-fs warning: maximal mount count reached, running e2fsck is recommended"

I've also checked the system monitor but I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary.

I don't know what would cause the slowing. I'm worried its hardware. Can anyone suggest any way to ascertain the cause? J

have you ran e2fsck?

I suggest you try it. BUT DONT RUN IT ON A MOUNTED PARTITION.

Boot into a cd or floppy distro and run the check. Its the safest way.

Sorry, I'm kind of a newbie. What options should I use to check my hard drives. Sould I do e2fsck -C /dev/hda1? Also, how do I boot by cd? Sorry, i'm a rookie in this area.

Do you get any errors if you start these apps via a terminal? Anything about DCOP, or loopback interface lo? Have you disabled a 'Network' service?

Check the available space you have on your mount points, most importantly your root (/) partition.
Some users make the mistake of having their /home partition on root's, only to end up with a "VERY slow" machine.