System extremely slow under light load

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Mon, Apr 25, 2011 at 04:03:49PM +0200, Bartosz Fabianowski wrote:
> >Sorry to hear none of that helped.  It seems a very serious problem, and
> >it would be useful to know if it behaves any better under linux or not.
> 
> I am still on the hunt for a bootable Linux distribution. I am in
> the unfortunate situation of having no CD-Rs at hand. And because it
> is Easter, shops are closed.
>
> Most Linux distributions require you to run a proprietary tool from
> inside Windows or another Linux installation to create a bootable
> USB medium. I found a USB image for OpenSUSE but that failed to
> boot. I am continuing to hunt...

Try Knoppix, or Ubuntu LiveCD.  I tend to use the former for rescue
situations:

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

Saves you from having to install anything as well.  Don't expect good X
performance, but even if it's software-driven that's still a good stress
test for the CPU.

> Thanks for all the tips. I will report back once I have had a chance
> to compare with Linux. If nothing else helps, I will call Dell again
> in the futile attempt to have them magically fix the issue somehow.

I'll be very surprised if Dell is of any assistance, as the last I
checked they did not officially "support" FreeBSD (that's usually their
statement).  I think testing Linux and/or Windows will overall act as a
better confirmation.

I wish I knew what else to recommend too, or what else to check.  :-(
Folks familiar with ACPI tables might be able to shed some light on the
situation, if it is indeed a problem there.

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                   jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                  Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.               PGP 4BD6C0CB |