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macuser1232

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 20, 2012
668
4
Hey I just noticed my fans are running like crazy and the cpu usage is really high and I'm only running Google Chrome, Firefox(1 tab), Skype, and Mail.
 

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Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
As you can see, Skype is using a lot of CPU.

Anyway, if you do video chat with Skype, it uses a lot of CPU, due to compressing the video to a smaller file size in order to upload it faster.

To edit your posts, you can use the
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macuser1232

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 20, 2012
668
4
As you can see, Skype is using a lot of CPU.

Anyway, if you do video chat with Skype, it uses a lot of CPU, due to compressing the video to a smaller file size in order to upload it faster.

To edit your posts, you can use the Image button.
Yes I'm not stupid!!! I knew you'd say that! And I wasn't video chatting. I just had skype open. Should I reboot? I'm kinda paranoid now that that happened. It has never happened before. Are those CPU and Disk readings really bad? And after quitting FireFox and Skype it is back to normal with no fan. Keep in mind, this has never happened before.
 
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
30
located
Yes I'm not stupid!!! I knew you'd say that! And I wasn't video chatting. I just had skype open. Should I reboot? I'm kinda paranoid now that that happened. It has never happened before. Are those CPU and Disk readings really bad? And after quitting FireFox and Skype it is back to normal with no fan. Keep in mind, this has never happened before.

As you posted three screenshots of various sorting, how should I know, that you see it.

Anyway, the disk activity is quite high, but that may be due to some process (Skype, Firefox) writing a lot of temporary data onto the HDD.

Check the Console for hints.

And no need to restart the Mac, if quitting FF and Skype does suffice.
What were you doing in Skype?
Does it also happen in another, even temporarily created, user account?
 

macuser1232

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 20, 2012
668
4
As you posted three screenshots of various sorting, how should I know, that you see it.

Anyway, the disk activity is quite high, but that may be due to some process (Skype, Firefox) writing a lot of temporary data onto the HDD.

Check the Console for hints.

And no need to restart the Mac, if quitting FF and Skype does suffice.
What were you doing in Skype?
Does it also happen in another, even temporarily created, user account?
I don't know what your talking about when you said
Does it also happen in another, even temporarily created, user account?
And I wasn't doing anything on skype. Anyway. I restarted and uninstalled and reinstalled Skype and now everything is working like normal again without high CPU readings. But I am still worried about why it happened just now. I hope it doesn't have anything to do with what I did with my account on the previous post I made. Anyway I'm going to monitor my CPU and Disk Activity to make sure it stays normal like it always was.
 

macuser1232

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 20, 2012
668
4
Is this normal?
 

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GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,541
942
And I wasn't video chatting. I just had skype open. Should I reboot? I'm kinda paranoid now that that happened.
There's no need to be paranoid and no need to reboot. Just quit Skype and relaunch it. If it happens again, make note of what you're doing at the time. Skype can be a big resource hog, so it's not unusual to see high CPU usage when running it. As for your disk activity, it's not out of the ordinary.
 

macuser1232

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 20, 2012
668
4
There's no need to be paranoid and no need to reboot. Just quit Skype and relaunch it. If it happens again, make note of what you're doing at the time. Skype can be a big resource hog, so it's not unusual to see high CPU usage when running it. As for your disk activity, it's not out of the ordinary.

I did try quitting and restarting and it was acting really strange(Laggy, beachball, and triggering fans and crazy CPU usages). So no that I have uninstalled and reinstalled it's much better now. And really? Could I compare my my disk activity with another picture from someone else's Mac?
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,541
942
Could I compare my my disk activity with another picture from someone else's Mac?
Such a comparison would be meaningless, as others would have a completely different mix of running apps/widgets/processes/system settings than you.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,541
942
Oh ok. So anyway, you think those are normal readings?
Yes, you're fine. There is no "right" or "wrong" reading. It depends on what you have running. While a meaningless comparison, if it makes you feel any better, this is mine at the moment:
ScreenCap 2012-08-21 at Tue, Aug 21,11.57.28 AM .PNG
 

sweetbrat

macrumors 65816
Jun 17, 2009
1,443
1
Redford, MI
I did try quitting and restarting and it was acting really strange(Laggy, beachball, and triggering fans and crazy CPU usages). So no that I have uninstalled and reinstalled it's much better now. And really? Could I compare my my disk activity with another picture from someone else's Mac?

Just something to keep in mind...even launching Skype on my 15" MBP causes the discrete graphics card to kick in. When that happens, the fans tend to spin up. So that part of the behavior is completely normal.
 

macuser1232

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 20, 2012
668
4
Just something to keep in mind...even launching Skype on my 15" MBP causes the discrete graphics card to kick in. When that happens, the fans tend to spin up. So that part of the behavior is completely normal.

Hm. Well everything seems back to normal to me. The only thing I can think of that caused my CPU to freak out was the SMC reset. There's also a really good chance that it was Skype but I have no idea why Skype would do that and force me to uninstall it and reinstall to fix the problem.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,541
942
Hm. Well everything seems back to normal to me. The only thing I can think of that caused my CPU to freak out was the SMC reset.
Resetting the SMC won't cause your CPU usage to be high or cause it to "freak out". Resetting the SMC solves some problems; it doesn't create them.
 

macuser1232

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 20, 2012
668
4
So why is your Data Read/sec and Data Written/sec 0kb? My Data Written/sec is getting up to 1mb and jumping around. Is this bad?
 
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sweetbrat

macrumors 65816
Jun 17, 2009
1,443
1
Redford, MI
Is 1gb page in's bad? By the way, I have 8gb of Ram and less than half of it is used right now.

Page ins aren't important, but page outs are. If you're having a lot of page outs then you might need more RAM. Since you're using less than half of it, it sounds like your 8GB RAM is sufficient. To check, use the computer under your normal workload for a while and then check page outs. Just keep in mind that the number resets each time you restart your computer.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,541
942
Is 1gb page in's bad? By the way, I have 8gb of Ram and less than half of it is used right now.
You will always have page ins and it doesn't matter how much of your RAM is used. Your RAM is there to be used. If it's not used, it's wasted. The only thing you have to watch for is page outs, which indicate that you've maxed out your RAM.

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

So why is your Data Read/sec and Data Written/sec 0kb? My Data Written/sec is getting up to 1mb and jumping around. Is this bad?
I highly recommend you close Activity Monitor and stop obsessing about all the data there. Just enjoy your Mac. It will take care of itself. You only need to open Activity Monitor if you're having an issue.
 

macuser1232

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 20, 2012
668
4
You will always have page ins and it doesn't matter how much of your RAM is used. Your RAM is there to be used. If it's not used, it's wasted. The only thing you have to watch for is page outs, which indicate that you've maxed out your RAM.

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor


I highly recommend you close Activity Monitor and stop obsessing about all the data there. Just enjoy your Mac. It will take care of itself. You only need to open Activity Monitor if you're having an issue.

Yeah. I'm really OCD about my Mac. Since I paid good money for it I'm always obsessing over little things that go wrong and think that it causes permanent damage to my computer or is causing it to act abnormally.

----------

But, what about the data read and written?
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,541
942
Yeah. I'm really OCD about my Mac. Since I paid good money for it I'm always obsessing over little things that go wrong and think that it causes permanent damage to my computer or is causing it to act abnormally.
Nothing is going to cause permanent damage to your computer, unless you damage it physically, such as dropping it or spilling water on it.
But, what about the data read and written?
What about it? As you use your Mac, it reads and writes data to your drive. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Your Mac wouldn't operate otherwise. Don't worry about it. That's akin to freaking out because when you're driving your car, you notice the wheels are turning.
 
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