my iChat was just using 80% my CPU

wrong robotwrong robot
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
is that normal?! it was lingering on 60% hiking to 80% occasionally. WITH NO ACTIVE CHATS



that can't be normal?



my computer is running REALLY hot right now, typing this message is lagging, and I only have 4 applications open

Activity monitor(telling me that my computer is aching)

Safari(writing this post)

Mail(checking every minute)

iTunes(not playing anything)



I just turned of iChat because it was causing so much stress on my CPU



what's the deal? do I need a swift reboot? maybe a good FSCKing?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    I have a few culprits that love to eventually suck up about 80%+ of the cpu time. I don't notice it as much because I have a dual CPU box, but you eventually notice. Then you fire up top and check out the load averages and about faint.



    The two major culprits for me that require me to have to restart the applications on a very regular basis are Safari and iChat. Glad to hear it isn't just me, but alas, I don't have an answer as to why.
  • Reply 2 of 7
    silentechoessilentechoes Posts: 288member
    Yeah my iChat was up to like 120% the other day with no active chats. Actually I don't think I had any active chats since I started it...
  • Reply 3 of 7
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    It happens to me, but not frequently at all. I notice it maybe once every two weeks, I'll start to lag while writing a message here, or on iChat, it goes away after a few minutes so I don't let it bother me.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    silentechoessilentechoes Posts: 288member
    Really it does it to me every time I run iChat.



    Oh well just another reason I am an adium user.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    sonofsylvanussonofsylvanus Posts: 579member
    Ditto for it happening to me in Safari. Twice a week maybe.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    dcmac32dcmac32 Posts: 67member
    Try this:

    1. ID your app that is taking up your processing power: Open up activity monitor and from the top-right pop-up menu select WINDOWED PROCESSES, then click the CPU chicklet at the bottom, on the left hand side should be a column titled Process ID, then take note of the applications process ID number.



    2. Now you are going to have to use terminal and the renice command. A nice program demands less computing power, while a not-so-nice program takes more power for itself. Every program starts off with a value of 0, and the spectrum goes from +20 (the nicest) to -20 (the non nicest). So launch terminal, and type sudo renice program value ID, where value is your value of niceness and ID is the program's ID (ex. sudo renice 20 824). Then press enter, you will be prompted for an administrator's password. Enter it and press return. Terminal will then tell you what the old priority was and what the new one is. OS X will then automatically start giving you program more or less processor juice.



    On a side note, renice can shift the balance of power but it can't make your mac faster.



    Hope this helps.

    Brian
  • Reply 7 of 7
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    Renicing isn't really the issue, the issue is that Safari/iChat is doing something wrong, like infinite looping, and sucking up so much cpu. A relaunch solves the problem.



    Even if you reniced, ichat/safari will suck all the cpu because there is no competition for the processor.
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