Re: how to find reason for computer pausing often?

On Wed, Aug 08, 2018 at 08:59:40AM +0200, Solene Rapenne wrote:
> 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.

Thanks for the reply and suggestion. It's an SSD - https://www.cnet.com/products/adata-premier-sp600ns34-solid-state-drive-128-gb-sata-6gb-s/specs/ - but I'll try the MFS thing, too.