but as far as I can see you don't have a specific problem per se, just that yum is slow which has been addressed
Um... I guess I didn't convey the problem. Yum isn't just slow, it freezes my machine. It halts the system to the point where the mouse and keyboard are unresponsive, and the only way I can regain control of my system is to do a hard reset. Yum is the only program on my system which causes this to happen.
If I run Yum immediately after a reboot, it's usually safe. This is how I've managed to keep up to date.
But, if I have been using my computer for a while, and then I run Yum, it is just as likely as not to freeze my computer. Or, if I run Yum more than once, it may freeze my computer on the second, or third time.
If Yum was just slow, I wouldn't mind so much. But having to hard reset is a pretty big issue.
Dave