[VM] debugging why emacs / vm becomes non-responsive

[Kyle Farrell]

I'm noticing emacs become non-responsive and take 100% of cpu
frequently on my Windows machine for about 15-20 seconds.  This may
happen 2-3 times in 5 minutes, making the overall experience unusable.

I have two instances of emacs running, one for VM and another doing
other tasks (org-mode mainly).  I only see the non-responsiveness in
the VM instance (which is why I'm starting here).  When emacs becomes
non-responsive, I sometimes see a garbage collection messages.  The
non-responsiveness does not seem tied to any particular action.

I'm using VM version 8.1.93a on GNU Emacs 23.3.1 (also verified with
23.1) on Windows Vista.  The emacs process is at roughly 50 megs,
which should not tax the system.

What would be next steps in debugging this?  I'm trying to debug why
this is happening and am looking for suggestions.  While I'm not
convinced it's in VM, it only happens in the emacs process that I'm
using for VM.

thanks,
Kyle