Picks of disk usage

[trintadosete]

My girlfriend and I use Kubuntu 14.04 with almost the same computer configuration: Intel i3, 2 GB RAM and 500 HD.
The differences are: I have a basic Nvidia Geforce 8400 and she has no video, her processor is 64 bits while mine is 32 bits.

The uses are also almost the same: web browsing (Chrome), LibreOffice, Dolphin, dropbox, pdf and images viewers, some image editing (Gimp) and amarok.

Although, her computer is presenting annoying picks of disk usage 2 ou 3 times a day. During those picks, the system can barely alternate windows and they last a few minutes (not only a few seconds!).

After some online research, I changed some configurations: disabled desktop search, reduced graphical effects, removed some "useless" services from initialization and expanded the swappiness.
But the picks still occurs sometimes.

Does anybody have suggestions to help diagnose and solve the problem?
Could it be related to 64 bits (considering I have almost the same computer but have no problem)?
We both don't have a swap partition. Could it be the problem?

[Snowhog]

Without more specific data, I'd suggest running Top from a console on her rig and having it on top of all other windows so it remains visible all the time. When the 'pick' (?) occurs, see what processes are taking up huge amounts of CPU and/or RAM.

[vinnywright]

in addition to what SnowHog has asked you to do ,,,,,,,,,,,,,run

df -h

in a terminal on her box and see if the disk usage IS really High (post the output hear),,,,,,,,if yes remove some stuff .

VINNY

[claydoh]

and expanded the swappiness.

We both don't have a swap partition. Could it be the problem?

If you edit the swappiness, but have no swap, it does not do much

With 2gb ram, it is wise to have a swap partition, it is easy to run out of ram especially with multiple browser tabs and the like.

Your problem, not being 100% sure what "picks" are, sounded to me initially like the system was hitting swap too soon, which is something that is fixed or at least alleviated by reducing the swappiness setting down from the default of 60 to say, 10. If your hard drive is a slow one, it really can bog things down while hitting the swap. But you don't have any swap, so that goes out the window.

[millusions]

I take it you mean peaks, or maxed out.
2 gigs of ram you would definately use a swap file as suggested earlier.. When your computer runs out of physical memory it uses a swap file as if it was physical memory, its a lot slower than actual memory chips but prevents PC running out of RAM.

i dont think your processor is 32 bits since it's i3

try running Ksysguard and monitor RAM and disk usage

if you want to be super cool do: sudo apt-get install conky; conky in a terminal
Conky is a system monitor application, ultra customizable.

if available to you upgrade the memory to 4GB or more.

[kubicle]

64 bit installations use/need more memory than 32 bit installations. Also, if the other machine has an integrated video chip, it'll tap into the system ram as well. So it will run out of memory (and start swapping) sooner.

[trintadosete]

First of all: Sorry! I misused the word pick. I meant peak.

During today, I am going to work on her computer, to get more data as you asked. What kind of data can be usefull?
Ksysguard doesnt show info about disk.
I am running top and iotop in a Konsole, waiting for a peak of disk usage, but I am not sure about wait info is really usefull on them.

Answering the questions:

About swap:
- Kinfocenter says the system has 1.91 GB of Swap (so, I suppose she has swap)
- The swappiness is 25 now

About 32 and 64 bits:
- In fact, my processor is 64 bits, but (I dont know why) I have a 32 bits installation while my girlfriend has a 64 bits

[trintadosete]

All day long I got a single peak while loading Google Street View.

The RAM got full and for the first time the system used the swap.

[claydoh]

In Ksysguard, if you look at the System Load tab, you will see a running graph of your ram and swap usage. if your system is hitting the swap too soon, you can see it there - you may see plenty of ram available but swap still being used. Setting swappiness lower can help prevent this from happening so fast. 10 seems to be a good number, but if 25 is working for you, feel free to use that

[trintadosete]

I just bought a basic graphics card for her (Geforce 8400, same as mine).

Let's see if it solves the problem...

[trintadosete]

The problem was almost solved by the presence of the new graphic card.

The only situation when it still happens is while navigating on Google Maps (using Street View) on Chrome. The memory usage is much bigger than on my computer...

[trintadosete]

The problem is quite better, but her computer still almost freezes when she navigate in Google Maps with Street View mode on.

The only differences between the computer is the 64 bits (hers) against 32 bits (mine). Could this the the source of the problem?