System hangs randomly for several minutes

[Adrian]

My system hangs and become unresponsive. The mouse does not move and the hard drive light is on while the system is like this.
If I leave the system till alone for a few minutes it works normally again. It seems a lot like what the person is describing here on Ubuntu forums. http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1478787.html

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: firefox 3.6.8+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.39-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Aug 17 09:00:36 2010
FirefoxPackages:
 firefox 3.6.8+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.04.1
 firefox-gnome-support 3.6.8+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.04.1
 firefox-branding 3.6.8+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.04.1
 abroswer N/A
 abrowser-branding N/A
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: firefox

[Adrian (ruewan)]

I don't think this is a Ubuntu problem. I had top running the last time it hung and a java process was running and consuming all of the cpu. I figure it maybe garbage collection or something.