[ale] dragging response times

[walter Sams]

I recently installed mandrake 9.1 on my network and notice that when
typing emails or word processor documents, I get a severe pause after
typing 18 or 20 words.  The cursor dissapears and no letters show up
when I type for 10 or 15 seconds.  then everything I typed  (in the
dark) pops on the screen and the program acts normal for a few more
words.  This acts like a buffer problem to me.  How would one begin to
identify and correct a problem like this?  I am not running any programs
now that I did not run before I switched.  

I have an accounting program, evolution 1.2.2, a pyla fax gui and open
office running.  I watched the system monitor to see if resources were
used up but saw nothing, the scales never showed more than 3-6% usage

Thank you
Walter Sams