I need help diagnosing high CPU usage by gnome-vfs-daemon et al.

["Oscar A. Valdez" <oscar valdez-bicard com sv>]

The offending processes on Gnome 2.8 are:
gnome-settings-daemon
gnome-vfs-daemon
gnome-panel
nautilus

Sometimes the first three, sometimes nautilus also joins in, and they
hog 100% of the CPU. I understand nautilus is the "explorer" in the
Gnome desktop, and gnome-panel is, well, the panel. I also understand
gnome-vfs-daemon manages connections for Gnome to other file systems
(such as nfs, WebDAV, etc.). This all makes me suppose that the high CPU
usage is related with connections to other file systems. But why should
they? And what would gnome-settings-daemon have to do with it all?

I'm no developer. I need help from knowledgeable people, to help make
the Gnome desktop usable to people in my oganization.
-- 
Oscar A. Valdez