Leopard Finder 100% CPU usage

[crucesignati]

View Options

Hello FareThoughts,

Did you try Cyanist's solution yet? right-clicking on the desktop > show view options > deselecting show item info?

Crucesignati

For me, both Show item info and a Firefox window maximized (I'm on a MBP, so widescreen here) was causing this, separately and in combo.

I read in MacOSXHints about the same problem in 10.3; they suggested deleting the following from your User->Library->Preferences folder: com.apple.finder.plist, com.apple.systemuiserver.plist, com.apple.loginwindow.plist. I did that and restarted. (I suggest leaving these files in your Trash until you're sure you haven't done something bad, but since they're just preferences files you should be safe.) From what I am reading, these files can become corrupt and/or bloated over time. You will have to reset a few of your Finder preferences if you've modified them, but that took all of 5 seconds for me.

Right now I have my Firefox window maximized and item info showing. The Finder is hovering around 0.3 percent, and my fans aren't about to send my laptop into orbit. All of my temps are dropping, and so is my blood pressure.

I have no idea if this solution will last, but it's working fine so far.

 

[FareThoughts]

I did, but it did not work for me. As I said, both the Show item info option and maximized windows were causing problems — together and separately. I could turn off Show item info and have a window maximized with the very same problem as before.

I actually use the Show item info a lot, and I realized that this problem started after a period of time, meaning that a related file had been corrupted and/or bloated. I was unsure of the maximized windows part of the problem, so I thought I would chase down the other as I couldn't just trash WindowServer.

My method, as I posted earlier, is a fix, at least for me. I have windows maximized and Show item info turned on. The Finder has not pulled more than 0.3 percent CPU when sitting idle.

 

[Lotiat]

For me, both Show item info and a Firefox window maximized (I'm on a MBP, so widescreen here) was causing this, separately and in combo.

I read in MacOSXHints about the same problem in 10.3; they suggested deleting the following from your User->Library->Preferences folder: com.apple.finder.plist, com.apple.systemuiserver.plist, com.apple.loginwindow.plist. I did that and restarted. (I suggest leaving these files in your Trash until you're sure you haven't done something bad, but since they're just preferences files you should be safe.) From what I am reading, these files can become corrupt and/or bloated over time. You will have to reset a few of your Finder preferences if you've modified them, but that took all of 5 seconds for me.

This worked very well for me. Finder is generally <1% now.

 

[Edd]

me too

Just recently I noticed Finder going nuts to 100-105% CPU and unclicking the 'show preview' option solved it for me instantly.

now all is quiet and calm. maybe finder was creating thumbs for all the files on my hdd or maybe it was stuck on one that was not right.. either way.. more battery life and much happier MBP.

Thanks for the solution, and thank you google.

 

[iHenkka]

133% finder

I have also the same, Finder uses about 133% all the time on MacBook Pro with Leopard. I've had all these little unexplained glitches with the Leopard and I really miss the old operating system, was it Tiger.

I never had the "show item info" on, so that didn't solve anything.

Also when I'm trying the: Leopard Graphics Update 1.0, it says:
"You cannot install Leopard Graphics Update on this volume. This volume does not meet the requirements for this update." And this is the OSX drive, maybe I have a newer version of the OS already or something that this doesn't work.

It's really annoying this that the Finder takes 133% constantly and somewhat slows the machine down...draining the battery. Also I'm a bit concerned when I have to capture in some video footage with this thing...oh my.

---> PROBLEM SOLVED: DELETE: User->Library->Preferences folder: com.apple.finder.plist, com.apple.systemuiserver.plist, com.apple.loginwindow.plist.
Don't worry when those are created again soonish, but then after the delete of those, restart, and Boom! it works again, without the Finder sucking up all the processing power!! Great stuff, thanks guys!!

 

[philler]

Voila!

For some reason I remember having this issue a while back, and the solution was this: right-click on the desktop > show view options > deselect show item info. It worked for me, but it wasn't Finder that was giving me 100% cpu, it was Safari or Camino.

Give it a try.

My Finder and mds were gobbling up 40-50% of the cpu. I didn't know how to find it to deselect Show Item Info, so I right-clicked on the desktop, went to More>Configure Folder Actions> and deselected Enable Folder Actions. Voila! The Finder and mds were relegated to their normal processor allotment (<1%). Furthermore, I did some experimenting and learned that with my Powerbook G4 running 10.5.6, all I had to do was right-click on the desktop ANYWHERE and the Finder and mds become featherweights. Thank you, thank you.

 

[dsrichmond]

I was having this problem too.
All of a sudden after upgrading to 4gig of ram, Finder was taking 100% cpu power while I was using iCal, Lightroom, Photoshop, etc. The strange thing was that it was normal if I was using firefox, safari, or pathfinder.

I took the advice of unchecking the show item info and that seemed to fix it but I really like knowing the extra info. So I checked "show item info" and restarted the computer. Then when the problem was still there, I went hunting for a solution to the problem and finally found someone suggesting that it could be a corrupt file on my desktop. After looking, I decided to ejected the CD that was in my macbook pro and poof the problem is now gone.

Funny thing is that the CD that was in the drive was a Windows XP SP2 cd that i was using to install some extras on my bootcamp partition. I guess finder really hates windows...haha

Just thought I'd share since this resolved my problem.

Wow. I was just looking through here after having the 100%+ CPU Finder issue, and this is EXACTLY my problem. Took the Windows CD out and no more problems. There must be some files on there that it just can't cope with...very interesting. I suspect unchecking "Show Item Info" would have solved the problem temporarily as it would keep the Finder from looking on the CD and getting confused by Windows files. Stupid Windows files. Anyway, I'm glad I noticed it - time to finish up Bootcamp and put the CD in a far far away place =)

 

[nout72]

It is well known that the system slows down when a CD or DVD is inserted, in my experience the system even can become sluggish with some older CD-R's inserted, so I think it's not specifically Windows related.

But it has improved in time, especially with the dual cores and increase in RAM: My old iMac G3 Bondi became so slow with a CD inserted, to the point the system was practically unusable.

 

[Picazsoo]

This thing is just crazy. I was seriously getting ready to open my machine up. I suspected that there might be dust blockage or something. This helped me soo much

Thanx Cyanist

 

[Tesselator]

I was having the same problem so I searched the web and this popped up as #1 hit.

It wasn't doing this till I put in my old original Mac boot drive. I'm not booting off of it but for some reason that being present triggered it.

Mine goes up and down from 0.1% to 100% in 3 sec intervals like:

_-```````-______-```````-______-```````-_ and etc.

I monitored the finder process but it's making system calls I'm not familiar with and who's names are NOT descriptive enough for me to make a guess at. They rapidly opened during the 100% and almost nothing was called during the 0.1%. Lots of the calls had the name loop in the middle of it tho.

I didn't try the finder view settings info off but it does stop as soon as I made all windows as small as they would go. Making them big again did NOT restart the cycle but opening a new one (large) started it off again.

Very strange indeed! I wonder if Apple even knows about this?


My system: Mac Pro 1,1 Upgraded to 8 core x5355, 12 GB RAM, 5 HDDs, a removed (broken) DVD player, 7300GT, Dual 24" LDCs, 2009 KB, LogiCool G5 Mouse, Wacom 9x11, cheap-o card reader, EDIROL UA-1000 Audio Interface, M-Audio oZone MIDI KB, OS X 10.5.7

 

[carlosl3g]

That worked for me

For some reason I remember having this issue a while back, and the solution was this: right-click on the desktop > show view options > deselect show item info. It worked for me, but it wasn't Finder that was giving me 100% cpu, it was Safari or Camino.

Give it a try.

I had the finder problem, it was taking 107 CPU in activity monitor. But I solved by following the above advice.

 

[seisend]

I had the finder problem, it was taking 107 CPU in activity monitor. But I solved by following the above advice.

Got the same problem here with my macbook pro and Finder. Hope this will work. I'll give it a try.

 

[archtechfl]

Definitely had an effect

For some reason I remember having this issue a while back, and the solution was this: right-click on the desktop > show view options > deselect show item info. It worked for me, but it wasn't Finder that was giving me 100% cpu, it was Safari or Camino.

Give it a try.

Disabling show item info on the desktop definitely had an effect. It already seems like windows and applications are responding faster. Thanks!

 

[codeslinger]

In my case, this was caused by a corrupt file on desktop. I deleted it (it was locked) and problem was solved.

In my case it was that finder was indexing the many gigabytes of new images I had imported recently into iPhoto. In fact it is still running. I found out by
opening a terminal, and typing

lsof | grep Finder

When I did that repeatedly, I saw that it was going over different parts of the iPhoto library, so it is not stuck and just doing what it is supposed to, so I will just let it run and assume when it is done it will return back to normal load...

 

[danpritts]

"calculate all sizes" in finder's view options

I just ran into this and it was "calculate all sizes" in the finder's view options causing it.

Apple could fix this without munging filesystem internals. I just did a command-line "du" of my home directory and it took .42 seconds of CPU time (less than a minute of wall clock time, mostly it was doing disk i/o).

I let the finder run about its business yesterday while i was trying to figure this out and it used EIGHTY MINUTES of CPU time.

 

[jeven]

Icon Preview was the culprit

Ok I already know I will likely be heckled on this as a "so-simple-its-stupid" but I solved my issue of high CPU due to the Finder issue by removing the preview view option for icons. I tried previous thread replies without any luck on stumbled on this.

To do this:

CTRL + click on open area of desktop
Choose "Show View Options"
Uncheck "Show Icon Preview"

Hope it helps someone else as it did me. I was absolutely tired of the fan running, slowness & battery drain!

Cheers,
Jeven

Yeah rocks!

 

[YaddaMinski]

Run the Disk Utility then Repair boot hard disk. Usually this fixes it for me.

 

[superfisi]

Hello *,

this is the first thread that gives useful hints for solving my problem, which is exactly as described above so many times.

Anyway, I tried all of the tricks:

-- disabled the icon-thingy

-- repaired & scanned the boot drive

-- did all the updates Apple wanted be to do

-- disabled (or better: renamed) those three plist-files mentioned above

So far nothing helped, my finder still runs on about 100% percent... but only if I select some folders - actually most of the folders on my disk.

My personal "workaround" is to select my desk-folder (a good one) after "I am done browsing" somewhere else in the file system... pretty frustrating after all.

I am quite new to OSX and was very happy with 10.5 as long as it lasted (for me about two weeks)... and then there was snow.

If I missed some tricks, please tell me... apart from that I will wait and follow this thread.

Thanks & bye.

 

[HyperX13]

I share all my mac shares and then use VM ware and have Windows 7 do all finder duties. Works great and fast and I can use cut and paste!

 

[dpn48312]

I just ran into this and it was "calculate all sizes" in the finder's view options causing it.

I turned off Calculate All Sizes, and then Set as Default. The CPU activity died down within seconds. Then I turned Calculate All Sizes back on, and Set as Default, and it is still quiet and appears to be still fixed. Perhaps just re-setting this option is enough to clear the problem.

Also, for those less experienced, who may have trouble finding this option, in Snow Leopard, have the Finder window open less than full screen so you have some desktop space available next to it. (***If you have Spaces turned on, be in a Space that has a Finder window open in it, else when you click on the desktop, the options dialog will open in a space where you don't see it.***)

Right click on the desktop. Click Show View Options. The dialog box for Finder options opens over the center of the Finder window. Calculate All Sizes and Set Icon Preview are there.

Cheers, all!

 

[immovableobject]

Run DiskWarrior

Hi, I saw the above problems, and have found a solution. With the idea that file permissions (or something else wrong with a file) was the core of the issue, I booted a DiskWarrior DVD.

DiskWarrior found thousands of small problems with incorrect information on files. After rebuilding the directory information with DiskWarrior, the Finder is running normally once again.

I swear by DiskWarrior. It finds things that Disk Utility doesn't find, and, it allows you to optimize your directories and block structure.

So, in short, if your finder is going nuts, or, other weird problems are occurring, give DiskWarrior a try.

 

[jabberwock.jack]

Thanks, Cyantist

Worked perfectly. I appreciate your post as I would never have thought to uncheck that particular box.

 

[jlorre]

Parallels pauze-animation causes high CPU, especially on a big window

Abstract:
aug 20, 2010: Parallels desktop 5: the pauze-animation (showing a frozenlike window) causes high CPU load in the WindowServer process. The CPU load can be lowered by switching OFF the Parallels preference "Animate: virtual machine window" or by dragging the pauzed virtual machine window to a smaller windowsize.

Full article:
When the Parallels desktop 5.0.9370 (on OSX 10.6.4) virtual machine pauzes (after a few minutes of inactivity) this pauzed state is shown in the screen of the virtual machine in one of two ways (depending on parallels preferences setting). When "animate virtual machine window" is OFF the screen shows a static screen-image. When "animate virtual machine window" is ON, the screen shows a frozen-like animation where the dimly projected machinename slowly moves.
THIS animation can be a real CPU-hog: on my machine (iMac core 2 duo 3.06 GHz, 4 GB ram) this animation causes the Mac to consume more than 40% CPU when the virtual machine screen is big (1600 x 1200). Contrary to what you might expect for a 'pauzed' virtual machine the CPU temperature goes up to 80 deg C and the fans start running at max speed (and noise). If this would be a macbook, that would drain the battery quickly.
There are two ways to to avoid this high CPU load:
1. when the virtual machine is in "window" viewmode, you can drag the screensize to it's minimum size: you'll immediately see the CPU-load drop accordingly from 40% to 2 % when the virtual (pauzed animated) screensize shrinks.
2. switch off the pause animation alltogether in the parallels preferences setting:
Parallels > Preferences > Appearance > Animate: virtual machine window:OFF
--

 

[Siabod]

Finder CPU drain fixed - but check this out...

Hey, I just fixed my Finder draining the CPU, but not quite with the fix mentioned above - it certainly helped get me there though - thank you.

What I did was go to a Finder Window showing my user folders (when viewed as List) and went to "Show View Options" and un-checked "Calculate All Sizes".

...it worked! ...but I investigated further and opened up Activity Monitor, re-checked the Show View Options, as expected CPU on Finder went up to 97-105%, so I went to my Finder Window and moved to my Documents (from the sidebar menu; when viewed as List) - the CPU went right down!

Is Finder getting stuck in a loop? ...just opened up the Library folder (again in List view) and there - somewhere, lies the problem; I think finder is always working to calculate a size of an Invisible file.

Anyone else have the same problem? ...can Apple fix this?

 

[Shirotai]

Me too, me too.

I have also the same, Finder uses about 133% all the time on MacBook Pro with Leopard. I've had all these little unexplained glitches with the Leopard and I really miss the old operating system, was it Tiger.

...

DELETE: User->Library->Preferences folder: com.apple.finder.plist, com.apple.systemuiserver.plist, com.apple.loginwindow.plist.

Don't worry when those are created again soonish, but then after the delete of those, restart, and Boom! it works again, without the Finder sucking up all the processing power!! Great stuff, thanks guys!!

I had been having the same problem, and found that the above suggestion worked. This is a useful, if not old, thread!