Arch Linux

tomeklechu1122

Member

Registered: 2016-10-10

Posts: 21

i3/xfce/kde bad performance problems

Hello everyone, since I'm kind of newbie in Arch I need your help with my sick problem.
I've been Arch user for nearly a year, but I don't really remember after what operations my problem occurred. I also don't know whether it's hardware problem or software problem since I'm a very bad in diagnostics.

Hardware: Thinkpad X220, i5-2520M, HD3000
Software: Arch  4.8.8-2
SSD -> LVM, volgroup with / and [SWAP] both encrypted.
Occurs on i3/xfce4/kde (not compositing problem)

I don't know why but sometimes (every 10min-5h, it doesn't depend on anything) I get really big performance problem, mouse slows down and doesn't move constantly it kind of teleports on display, everything is slower and computer is very hard to use. Sometimes after couple seconds it comes back, sometimes it stays for minutes. I need to reboot the system because restarting Xorg doesn't help. For most parts it occurs when I start browser more often on chromium rather than firefox but stii. It can work well for hours and then suddenly starts lagging. Sometimes but very rare it loses usb adapter so that it needs to be pulled out and plugged again. It occurs on every mouse I've tried

Htop shows that CPU usage holds between 20%-50% but it's never fully occupied, same goes for RAM (3-5G used form 8G available)
Temperatures are usally something between 60-70 Celsius degrees.

What I suspect what it could be:
- SSD is dying (not even 2 years, 5060 working hours, SMART says ssd life = 96/100)
- Maybe new LVM system encryption is badly configured or something.

It wasn't always this way, I had well working arch for very long time and it was always lightning fast so I think it's software problem rather than hardware.
I'd appreciate all suggestions, any dotfiles, configs etc. will be provided by me if asked.

Last edited by tomeklechu1122 (2016-11-25 18:26:51)

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 51,035

Re: i3/xfce/kde bad performance problems

"between 60-70 Celsius" which is pretty hot (notably for low CPU load) - D.U.S.T. error? Broken fan?

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

tomeklechu1122

Member

Registered: 2016-10-10

Posts: 21

Re: i3/xfce/kde bad performance problems

Allright, I've replaced cooling paste on CPU, Temperatures have dropped to 45-55 so it's positive I guess. Old paste was hard, not soft like new one I've put.

Hopefully It will help, but I need some time to know for sure whether the problem was solved. Thanks for advice with temperatures.

HiImTye

Member

From: Halifax, NS, Canada

Registered: 2012-05-09

Posts: 1,072

Re: i3/xfce/kde bad performance problems

does iotop hold any clues when it happens? this sounds reminiscent of my old PC whenever updatedb would run

tomeklechu1122

Member

Registered: 2016-10-10

Posts: 21

Re: i3/xfce/kde bad performance problems

Allright, there it is again. CPU 20%, Temp 55 C, and got me for 20 seconds.

I'm not sure what to look for in iotop. Is it updatedb entry?
EDIT: there was some entry flashing couple times on the top of the list when laggs occured but I was incapable of reminding it and no screenshot shortkey configured. Is there history of entries?

Last edited by tomeklechu1122 (2016-11-28 12:50:59)

HiImTye

Member

From: Halifax, NS, Canada

Registered: 2012-05-09

Posts: 1,072

Re: i3/xfce/kde bad performance problems

sudo iotop -qqqbon 30

adjust 30 to a number of seconds you feel is adequate. further reading

edit: no italics in code blocks

Last edited by HiImTye (2016-11-28 18:32:38)