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Date:	Sun, 13 May 2001 12:17:27 PDT
From:	Peter Skye <pskye@peterskye.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Big...Huge problem

Content Type: text/plain

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Sheridan George wrote:
>
> All of a sudden my main computer stops doing its thing
> about every two minutes. This stopped situation lasts
> for about 15 seconds. During that time the hard drive
> light stays on (one of the 4 drives can be heard rattling)
> and the CPU meter in Warp Center goes to no activity

Here's another possibility. The HPFS file system reorganizes its file
pointers when it gets "out of balance" (when there are too many pointers
on one side and not enough pointers on the other). If you're doing a
lot of disk writing you may be experiencing this reorganization.

I've paid a lot of attention to my own "momentary hangs" since you
posted your message and these are the apparent causes on my systems:

-- 1. Netscape. When Netscape is running I get a lot more momentary
hangs than when it isn't. Steven Levine suggested the Netscape cache as
a cause but he didn't give any suggested settings. On my own Netscape
4.61, my Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Cache settings are Memory
Cache = 1024 KB and Disk Cache = 1 KB, and they've been that way for
over a year. What are your settings?

-- 2. Thermal resets. At least one of my drives is occasionally doing a
thermal reset which takes a few seconds.

-- 3. HPFS reorganization. (see above)

Sheridan, try this: Go to the Netscape Cache settings in #1 above and
drastically change whatever you have. If your momentary hangs then
change in rate or duration, they're at least partially due to the NS
cache.

The WarpCenter CPU meter doesn't seem to be a perfect indicator of cpu
activity. There are times that mine is at zero and I _know_ there's
something going on. I've brought up SmartBar and watched the activity
on all of my processes (typically in the 70 to 100 range) and there have
been some surprises as to where my cpu cycles are actually going but I
can't find a process that's running heavily when the cpu meter goes to
zero. Perhaps heavy driver activity isn't represented in the cpu meter
display, for example if interrupts are masked.

Hope this helps.

- Peter

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