Slow access to one directory

[John Coppens <john jcoppens com>]

Hi all...

I'm experiencing terrible slowdown when accessing one directory. Lastly
it's the root directory, but I've know it to be other directories.

I first thought it was a firefox problem, but now I notice  it's also
present in GIMP. During the delay (which takes up to 20-30 seconds or so)
one of the CPUs is at 100%. Either entering or leaving the directory has
this delay. During the delay, 'top' marks GIMP (or whatever program is
doing the access) as taking up all CPU.

Accessing with xterm is instantaneous. The directory has few files (maybe
20/30). Any - _any_ - other directory is accessing much more rapidly.
After reboot, things normalise for a while. GTK libs are 2.8.20, distro
is Slackware. 

Anyone have an idea where to look? Is this some kind of cache problem?

John