Snapshots are performance snapshots taken when the IDE detects slow behavior. For obvious reasons, slower computers are more likely to start assembling (taking longer than a given amount of time to complete tasks), which requires saving a snapshot. The save process slows down the system even more, occasionally leading to (for all practical purposes) an inoperable IDE.
Check the configuration file netbeans.conf(in the folder etc). You will find a string for netbeans_default_options. Make sure it -J-eadoes not appear on the line. This flag included Java statements that would not be a problem in their own right, but NetBeans slowness detector also uses this flag to significantly reduce the timeout before the auto profiler is turned on.