Short freezes when accessing HDD

snufkin · 2013-12-27 18:40:54

I'm having trouble with my ASUS UX31E laptop. I first came across this problem late September/early October. I fled to elementary OS since they use older packages, thinking it was just some weird package bug, but when the problem arrived there too I finally switched back to Arch yesterday.

Whenever a program tries to read/write to my hard drive (SanDisk SSD U100 128GB) it takes forever (ranging from a single second to half a minute) causing a freeze of the program. Meanwhile every other program that tries to access the hard drive freezes too. When the hard drive has 'catched up' again eveything works as intended until the next time I try to access my hard drive. It's extremely annoying since this can occur several times per minute.

I even noticed this when installing Arch from my USB stick using nothing more than a CLI. When I installed the base package group, several packages installed themselves quickly in a 'spurt', then the laptop waited 30 - 60 seconds before continuing. In between the 'spurts' the cursor just flashed on a blank line. The same problem also occured when tab autocompleting a command. I'd hit tab, the computer would freeze for roughly 30 seconds, and then the command would be successfully autocompleted. The latter implies the problem is more than a failed hard drive.

The only common factor I can think of is the kernel.

I can't find anything in the logs of interest, but I'll post whichever if you need me to. I'm completely stumped. What should I do to locate and fix the problem?

graysky · 2013-12-27 18:48:08

Try linux-ck... BFS is known to increase responsiveness.

snufkin · 2013-12-27 19:26:24

Thanks for the advice, but it didn't do nothing to resolve my problem. Been using it for about 30 minutes now just to be sure.

Web pages still freeze the entire browser before the page is loaded, typing commands into gnome-terminal still freeze the terminal before the command is executed, etc, etc.

snufkin · 2014-01-03 21:17:31

So, I'm gonna test downgrading to an older kernel version. Can I compile Linux 3.0 (for example) without causing any compatibility issues with any drivers (especially my intel graphics drivers)?

adee · 2014-01-04 22:23:37

Try tune these values:
https://lwn.net/Articles/572921/

This helped me a _lot_.

Edit: little background story:
https://lwn.net/Articles/572911/

Last edited by adee (2014-01-04 22:24:35)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-12-27 18:40:54

Short freezes when accessing HDD

#2 2013-12-27 18:48:08

Re: Short freezes when accessing HDD

#3 2013-12-27 19:26:24

Re: Short freezes when accessing HDD

#4 2014-01-03 21:17:31

Re: Short freezes when accessing HDD

#5 2014-01-04 22:23:37

Re: Short freezes when accessing HDD

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