Why does my whole computer freeze for a fraction of a second

True multithread does not exist

>>58570404
HDD might have powered down and is spinning back up. Same shit happens on windows, except it's more than a second, it's fucking 3-5 seconds.

File: 1468141729214.jpg (579KB, 1080x1080px) Image search: [Google]

579KB, 1080x1080px

>>58570429
>HDD might have powered down and is spinning back up.
Yes, I understand that. But while the OS is waiting for something to be read from an external HDD, for example, the video I have inside of a browser freezes too. It doesn't play while some other application, in this case the file browser, is waiting for that data to be read.

What's going on? Some kind of an IRQ is getting triggered?

Anyone with some OS knowledge know for sure?

>>58570404
install gentoo

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139KB, 900x900px

>>58570672
I run Gentoo. Still freezes.

I'm not sure how or why this happens but this has to do something with the CPU and/or IRQs.

>>58570468
Maybe your browser is the problem? I haven't noticed anything like that.

>>58571028
nope. it happens when I play something with mpv as well.

>>58570404
IOwait

>>58571154
Using ionice can significantly lower it.

>>58571154
maybe it's I/O scheduler?

Why isn't Async I/O default for external storage? Is the overhead too much?

>>58570404
>If the OS is multithreaded (I run Linux), why does the whole thing freeze?
Interrupts.

>>58571287
>>58571243