High load average on Ubuntu 7.10/8.04

[Bruno Friedmann]

Could you check your harddrive with a smartctl -a /dev/sda

And perharps launch a long test
smartctl -t /dev/sda

Your harddrive have perharps some trouble inside.

a lspci -vv could help to identify the bus use
and the report of smartctl to identify (completely the harddrive )



Andrew Carter wrote:
> I've been dealing with a problem with my Dell Precision 490 for some
> time now. I've been using this machine since late last year at work. The
> problem is that the load average goes through the roof (around 10) when
> the disk is is used heavily. For example, tar xvzf on a 4GB tarball
> brings the machine to its knees.
> 
> I originally was running Ubuntu 7.10 64-bit. I recently did a clean
> upgrade to Ubuntu 8.04 64-bit. I've tried turning off all the compiz
> effects, killing as many other processes as I can but it always kills
> the machine when the disk is heavily accessed.
> 
> I'm not exactly sure how to diagnose this problem. I'm thinking it could
> be a kernel problem, a driver problem for the SATA disk, or a firmware
> issuee. I believe I have the newest Dell BIOS. I'm not sure about the
> whole kernel thing since I don't see widespread talke about it. And my
> newer OptiPlex at home hasn't shown any issues (and I mess with lots of
> large video and audio on it).
> 
> Specs:
> Dell Precision 490
> BIOS A07
> 4GB RAM
> Intel Xeon 1.6GHz (2 dual cores)
> Ubuntu 8.04
> Kernel Linux 2.6.24-17-generic
> 250GB WD SATA hard drive
> 
> Thanks,
> Andrew
> 
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     Bruno Friedmann  bruno at ioda-net.ch

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