Slow response, "file not found" errors

[SMAguy]

I just launched/publicized my new forum yesterday, and over the course of a few hours it ran slower and slower until finally I could not reach my site at all (received "connection refused", although it was still ping-able).  Couldn't even SSH into it.

There were only maybe a couple dozen visitors to it.  Trying to review what might have happened (having not yet gotten a response from my web host) I did find several system-logged errors referring to files not found.

It appears that some script or code expects an "images" directory directly off the smf root directory, but that directory should only reside with  the respective themes, no?
Thus I get errors for [my root dir/] "smf/images/layout/bot_left_speak.gif", "smf/images/layout/top_left.gif", etc. 
I also get some errors for not finding the file "favicon.ico" in the actual root dir of my entire website as well.

Might these errors be responsible for the boggy (and then suicidal) behaviour of my site?  Any ideas what's causing them, or what took down the site?

It's http://vivasma.com if you would like to test it, since it is now (more-or-less) up again, mysteriously.

Thanks muchos!

[[Unknown]]

What were/are the load averages?  Memory usage?

The missing files are probably due to the theme you're using.

-[Unknown]

[SMAguy]

According to my webhost, the server load is "under 2".
Not sure about memory or how to discover that.

I already had tweaked my sites with some of the config options mentioned elsewhere (e.g. checking urls, sizing avatars, etc.).

Perhaps I'll post a message to the message listing for my theme.

Thanks.