CPU going crazy?

Discussion in 'MacBook Pro' started by nampramos, Mar 22, 2012.

Most Liked Posts
  1. nampramos, Mar 22, 2012

    nampramos macrumors 6502

    Joined:
    Dec 14, 2010
    Location:
    Portugal
    #1
    Hi guys!


    I've noticed that in the past weeks my CPU activity is going crazy!

    For example, just now I'm looking at a news clip from cnn.com and my MacBook 5,1 CPU (Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz) is doing 40-50% just to manage it.

    Yesterday I used VLC Streamer for the first time and when streaming a movie to my iPhone the CPU was doing 140-160% just to manage the VLC Streamer.

    I don't understand how it needs to use such amounts of processing power to handle such simple tasks.

    Just with the simple clip watching, doing the 40-50%, the fans immediately jump to the max.

    Is my MacBook going to die soon?

    Thanks.
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  2. simsaladimbamba, Mar 22, 2012

    simsaladimbamba Guest

    simsaladimbamba

    Joined:
    Nov 28, 2010
    Location:
    located
    #2
    On CNN you were probably watching Flash embedded video?
    Adobe Flash Player is CPU intensive, thus more power is needed to feed the CPU, which results in higher temperatures and often higher fan speed(s) on mobile computers. As more power is used due to Flash, the battery life of mobile computers is shortened by a good bit.
    To check, if Adobe Flash Player is responsible for less battery time or the heat, go to Applications / Utilities / Activity Monitor and select to show ALL PROCESSES and sort by CPU.

    There are a variety of Flash blockers for all the four major browsers available.
    A Flash blocker does what it says, it blocks Flash content, but via a click on the marked Flash object, the Flash object can be activated and used.

    • Safari: ClickToFlash, for which there is an extension and a plug-in; CTF allows you to download YouTube and other kinds of MPEG-4 encoded video too.
    • Opera: has a built-in Flash blocker
    • Firefox: Flashblock is an add-on to block Flash
    • Chrome: FlashBlock is an extension to block Flash

    Also make sure to have the latest Adobe Flash Player version running, you can get it here.​

    And VLC Streamer, for whatever purpose you use it, might have to do a live transcode during playback?
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  3. nampramos, Mar 22, 2012

    nampramos thread starter macrumors 6502

    Joined:
    Dec 14, 2010
    Location:
    Portugal
    #3
    When going to the adobe website, they don't list Chrome on the browsers.

    They have IE, Safari and Opera.


    I just feel that lately, just by surfing the web my MacBook needs to push much more...
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  4. thundersteele, Mar 22, 2012

    thundersteele macrumors 68030

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2011
    Location:
    Switzerland
    #4
    It's getting old :)

    btw, Chrome has it's own built in flash player. Like all other flash players, it eats a lot of CPU power!
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  5. nampramos, Mar 22, 2012

    nampramos thread starter macrumors 6502

    Joined:
    Dec 14, 2010
    Location:
    Portugal
    #5
    Even doing other normal stuff without flash involved...

    Fans start working much harder lately for no apparent reason...

    I have the iStat Pro bar installed so I can see the CPU core graphs and they're all over the place!
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)

Share This Page