superslow mode on 6386 WGS

[g.l.sicherman]

I'm running AT&T Vr3.2 on a 6836 WGS.  Our application programs
do a lot of message-passing.

Now and then the system goes into "superslow" mode.  Response time
is measured in minutes.  Keyboard input loses data if you type faster
than 15 cpm.

The only useful symptoms are (1) heavy floppy I/O (apparently), and
(2) the bdflush process seems to have a lot of CPU time (5 minutes).

Has anybody else seen this problem?  Fixed it?  And what's bdflush?
-- 
G. L. Sicherman
gls at odyssey.att.COM