Re: how to find reason for computer pausing often?

Derek Sivers <openbsd@q7r7.com> wrote:
> This past month or so, my Lenovo T440s laptop has started doing strange 2-second pauses at random intervals, sometimes a few times per minute.
>
> How would you look for the source of this trouble? There's nothing in /var/log showing when it happens. No log entries added there. Where else would you look?
>
> The easiest way to spot it in action is with a simple ls :
>
> cd /tmp
> mkdir a b c
> time ls a
> 0m00.00s real 0m00.00s user 0m00.01s system
> time ls b
> 0m03.22s real 0m00.00s user 0m00.01s system # there is the random pause
> time ls c
> 0m00.00s real 0m00.00s user 0m00.00s system
> time ls b
> 0m00.00s real 0m00.00s user 0m00.00s system
>
> I've tried it running OpenBSD 6.3 RELEASE, STABLE, and CURRENT. Happens with all.
>
> I wiped the entire drive (dd if=/dev/zero) then re-installed from scratch, and it still happens.
>
> It happens whether running X or just in the initial raw console without startx.
>
> I know it isn't an OpenBSD problem, but any suggestions where you'd look if it was you?
>
> Thank you.
>
> - Derek

Hi Derek

I think that your hard drive is failing. Is it a SSD? If no, it's
typical of an old failing hard disk.

Could you try to mount a mfs filesystem and see if your example makes a
pause? That should not trigger any disk read as it's an in-memory
filesystem, if it doesn't block that mean that the hard disk is failing.