Lately the load on my computer has been increasing significantly (above 10 at times) when I log in to gnome. The load decreases when I switch to one of the gui-less login options (ctrl+atl+F1 sorry I don't know the proper name for this) back to a reasonable level. We are using networked home directories via NFS and likewise to manage home directories and logins between machines. This problem persists when I log in to any of our other machines, but it only occurs for myself and one other member of our group. Also, when I log in via blackbox instead of gnome this does not occur as frequently, if at all. The machine that maintains our home directories also seems to increase in load as my machine does.
EDIT: The load does appear to increase within blackbox as well and I'm not able to get it to decrease via switching to the terminal. top shows no cpu processes running, but there is currently a load of 5.91 on my computer.