This goes in the wierd problem of the month category. I have duplicated this with Slackware 14.1 32 bit and 64 bit.

When running Slackware 14.1 and xfce as windows manager, the entire gui will pause every minute or so, for a duration of .5 to 2 seconds, typically for a second or less. I'll be typing, and the system will stop responding for a second, then continue on. And when it does pause, any keystrokes entered during the pause are not buffered, and are lost. If music is playing, it pauses for a second. If I'm moving the mouse around, it pauses for a second. If I'm playing a game, it pauses. And to make it really weird, if I'm running glxgears, the animation does *not* pause. The only thing common is that it happens with Slackware 14.1, both 32 and 64 bit, and it does not happen with Slackware 14.0.

Gigabyte motherboard (forget what model, I can look it up if anyone wants to know), phenom 6 core 3600MHz cpu, 8GB ram, nVidia 660 video card.

Right now I have reverted to Slackware 32 bit 14.0, and it is smooth and responsive as can be.

Does ths sound familiar to anyone? I'm not even sure where to begin with this problem.

Just some guesses and questions:
- Which video driver is used?
- Does it happen with other 3D accelerated software, like games?
- Same problems with Fluxbox or KDE?
- Have you checked the CPU temperatures and if anyhow power saving or throttling is involved?
- Have you checked the harddisk for errors or activity during the pauses?

Video driver = latest nVidia driver. This is a very likely suspect, nVidia hasn't been making the best of drivers for linux lately. Sadly, neither has ATI.
Fluxbox/KDE - have not tried, good idea, I'll look into that.
CPU temp - don't think this is the problem, I have the bios set to ramp up fan speed upon moderate cpu temps, and when the system is under even moderate load it sounds like a vacuum cleaner. Unless something included with this version of slackware is over riding the fan controls - doubtful. I would think it would throttle down upon overheat - or just crash. There is nothing in any of the logs.
Hard drive error check - yes. Activity - no.

Strangely enough, these pauses seem to correspond to network activity. Not 100% certain about this yet.

I'm shying away from hardware problems because the same box doesn't do this with Slackware 14.0 - it seems to be specific to 14.1.

I have problems with 14.1 and wine - several windows apps that work under 14.0 and wine crash under 14.1. Not sure why, have not had a chance to look at it. Same version of wine, different version of Slackware. Gcc? Kernel version differences? Idk, but 14.1 for me was not a smooth transition, whether it is an upgrade from 14.0 or a clean install makes no difference. I'm still working through it to see if I can use it or if I'm going to have to stick with 14.0 for now.