Finder eats CPU % at random

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
The Finder on my machine goes - apparantly random - in overdrive for no reason and slows the computer down big time. In the Terminal it goes from 74% to 95% CPU time. A quick relaunch of the Finder [alt-cmd-esc] solves it. But it always comes back.

Does anyone have the same problem ? Or do you know what causes it ? (Permissions and Disk Repair were done - OS X 10.3.5 - Powerbook 1.25 - 1G RAM)

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    After closely monitoring the Terminal, I saw that the Finder goes beserk each time I open a window with (large) jpg previews in it. More people having this, or is it a bug ?
  • Reply 2 of 13
    Quote:

    Originally posted by BigBlue

    After closely monitoring the Terminal, I saw that the Finder goes beserk each time I open a window with (large) jpg previews in it. More people having this, or is it a bug ?



    I have the same problem on a Dual G5... I always run Activity Monitor to track down 2 culprits who are eating my processors for fun : 1) The Finder and 2) Netstat



    These are bugs
  • Reply 3 of 13
    If you have any type of Quicktime preview showing, it will do that. In column view, the display of a movie or mp3 preview (just sitting there, not necessarily running) will cause the finder to suck up resources.
  • Reply 4 of 13
    quaremquarem Posts: 254member
    I have had similar problems with the Finder as well. From time to time the Finder just goes CPU hungry.



    One time the Finder would immediately suck up 95% of CPU right after boot and login. Nothing else was running, no windows open, nothing. It would just launch and start sucking CPU.
  • Reply 5 of 13
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    Keep in mind that any process that wants CPU and is not competing with anything else will get 100% of the CPU. That's what you want it to do.



    The other question is if the Finder is wasting our CPU time, taking time from other processes, doing something we don't want, wasting time with an inefficient process or has a bug of some kind...
  • Reply 6 of 13
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Scott

    Keep in mind that any process that wants CPU and is not competing with anything else will get 100% of the CPU. That's what you want it to do.



    The other question is if the Finder is wasting our CPU time, taking time from other processes, doing something we don't want, wasting time with an inefficient process or has a bug of some kind...




    The Finder is wasting CPU time, because everything gets sticky and there's a lag time when I type.
  • Reply 7 of 13
    Quote:

    Originally posted by BigBlue

    The Finder is wasting CPU time, because everything gets sticky and there's a lag time when I type.



    The only app i know, which is constantly going to waste resources big time is

    M$ WORD!!!! It picks up ± 10% CPU nevertheless it is front or not.





    Concerning your finder ...er ... issue, i'd trash cachefiles, which is mostly the culprit of misbehavior.
  • Reply 8 of 13
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Vox Barbara

    Concerning your finder ...er ... issue, i'd trash cachefiles, which is mostly the culprit of misbehavior.



    Nope. Trashed all caches (a so called 'Deep Trash'), threw Disk Warrior and Tech Tool Pro over it, but no avail.

    Maybe it's just normal behaviour ? We already know for a long time now that the Finder needs some serious work.

    Here's hopes for Tiger ... \
  • Reply 9 of 13
    I had the same problem and think I know why the finder is eating CPU.



    I accidentally found out that when your harddisc is quite full, say less than 4 GB free space, i think the finder starts to defrag the disc to get it to work faster, which is actually slowing down the system while defragging and working at the same time.



    Try to get 10 GB free space on your harddisc, restart computer and see if the cpu-meter is still up.



    If that doesn't help, clean up your desktop.

    Watch out for strange files like .download files from safari (files that were cut off during transfer), installation files of programs also tend to open when downloaded and then re-open as an disk-image, this might be the cause why the finder is working so hard.

    In short, keep your desktop as clean as possible.



    Hope this helps...
  • Reply 10 of 13
    Well, I still have +20G left on my HD. Cleaned caches, prebinded everything (even forced), Disk Utility is ran every day.



    No, it must be something else. I noticed that it only happens on a fairly large preview of large jpg-files. It takes a while before the preview appears after the generic jpg-icon. As if he's having trouble building the preview.

    But I'm out of options now ...
  • Reply 11 of 13
    I solved my "Finder eating 99% CPU" bug by tracking down a corrupted (presumably) JPEG. Every time I opened the folder with that image, CPU usage shot up and stayed up until I killed the Finder. If I put the image on my desktop, as soon as the computer booted same thing happened. Even killing the Finder doesn't help in this circumstance, because as soon as the Finder restarts, it shoots up to 100% again.



    Find the image, trash it. Use deduction.



    Open the folder that causes the problem. Remove a picture (put it on your desktop) and restart the finder. Repeat until you've figured out the culprit. There may be more than one, although not in my case.
  • Reply 12 of 13
    Yeah I'm still having finder problems, it doesn't only happen with .jpeg files as 1337_5L4Xx0R mentioned, it also happens with mp3's...



    Does anybody know how to trash the finder's preferences/plist?

    Obviously I can't trash finder files with the finder running...

    Btw i'm on 10.3.3....
  • Reply 13 of 13
    You should be able to put the files in the trash, and even if it won't let you delete them, next time you start the finder, it'll make new ones and use those.
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