[plug] System slowdown help

[Steege, Phil E]

I am running redhat 7.3 on a new installation.
I have a problem where at certain random times the system seems to slow down
significantly.  I am running a KDE 3 desktop.
Some of the symptoms are that when I type 'su -' there is a long delay
before the password prompt returns (by long delay, I mean 10-15 seconds).
When I jump out to a virtual terminal (Ctrl-Alt-F1) the same delay is seen.

I used 'top' to monitor processes, with a 1 second refresh, and do not see
anything 'hogging' excessive CPU or MEM usage.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can trap the culprit that slowing my
system down?

Phil