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Lots of apps taking 100% CPU - fan going crazy!

R

ramparts

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 11, 2008
173
1
Hi - I've had my black Macbook (early 2008) running Leopard for just over a year now, and I've had a pretty persistent problem (since November or so). A lot of different things that are even somewhat CPU intensive seem to always make my fan go crazy (up to ~6200 RPM), and a look at Activity Monitor shows that they're taking up 100% CPU. Here's a few things that sometimes make it happen:

-Finder, when I'm in a folder with video files (doesn't happen with every video, but with certain videos it always happens - Activity Monitor says Finder is running over 100% CPU and I need to relaunch it to get it to stop!)
-Flash videos in Mozilla/YouTube
-Any kind of game utilizing some amount of graphics
-Running a Windows virtual machine (sometimes)

I really doubt these things are actually that CPU intensive, so something's wrong. Any ideas?
 
If I'm not mistaken the video card in that system is not all that powerful. So any video games could potentially cause the CPU to be used.

Have you tried turning off previews in Finder? That should help it out. In a folder hit Command-J and uncheck Show Icon Preview.

VMs can and will cause your CPU to max out depending on what they are doing. Flash is a known issue.
 
Sure, I can understand about games and VMs :) Although I'm talking about relatively low-intensity games (like, this just happened with Pocket Tanks, which should never send fans spinning). But things like the flash and (especially) Finder are really suspicious.

What do you mean by Flash being a known issue? Is this sort of thing (Flash making Firefox use 100% CPU) common?

Thanks for the tip on icon preview!
 
ramparts said:
Hi - I've had my black Macbook (early 2008) running Leopard for just over a year now, and I've had a pretty persistent problem (since November or so). A lot of different things that are even somewhat CPU intensive seem to always make my fan go crazy (up to ~6200 RPM), and a look at Activity Monitor shows that they're taking up 100% CPU. Here's a few things that sometimes make it happen:

-Finder, when I'm in a folder with video files (doesn't happen with every video, but with certain videos it always happens - Activity Monitor says Finder is running over 100% CPU and I need to relaunch it to get it to stop!)
-Flash videos in Mozilla/YouTube
-Any kind of game utilizing some amount of graphics
-Running a Windows virtual machine (sometimes)

I really doubt these things are actually that CPU intensive, so something's wrong. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Finder is loading up with previews for the video files = CPU Intensive
Flash videos (Infact, any and all Flash for OSX) = CPU Intensive
Games (you're using an integrated video card) = CPU Intensive
Virtual Machines = Massively CPU Intensive
 
Alright, thanks. So does that mean that anyone else watching Flash videos on a Macbook (older versions, at least) also have issues with the fan driving up?
 
ramparts said:
Alright, thanks. So does that mean that anyone else watching Flash videos on a Macbook (older versions, at least) also have issues with the fan driving up?
Click to expand...

Every mac will have a heat build up from flash. Depending on what system model, they would have either a better heat management (better heatsink/fans) or have 6000/6200RPM fans running.
 
I have the same issue on my macbook with Flash. I first started noticing it not long after installing Adobe Air for the first, but I think I installed Flash 9 around that time as well. After clearing a load of space off the harddrive (20+ gigs) it stopped for a bit.

It's really annoying whatever is causing it.
 
It's been happening lately when my Apple screensaver has opened up, too :) It's "Flurry" and I'm running it on two monitors (not sure it happens with the monitor off, as it doesn't always happen). That can't be right... right?
 
Flash stinks for Mac. If you watch a lot of Youtube videos, I can't recommend Clicktoflash enough. It loads the h.264 version of videos on youtube, which I believe are gpu powered in Snow Leopard (correct me if I'm wrong.) So when I watch videos on youtube, by cpu isn't breaking a sweat :cool:
 
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