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Macbook pro running slow (usually 100% cpu)

F

fritzov

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 11, 2009
70
2
I am running a Macbook Pro 15" 2.8ghz with 4gig of ddr3

For the last 6 month or more my computer have been running awfully slow from time to time.

The CPU can usually run at 80-110% and for exampel firefox can use 70%+ and slowing down my entire system.

The issue stops me from running multiple application and i that can't be right with a 2.8mhz and 4 gig of RAM.

Also the computer can run real hot sometimes well over 100 celsiuce

What could be causing my problems?

Edit: I usually 30 gig of free harddisk space on my harddrive.
 

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In Activity Monitor, change "My Processes" to "All Processes", then sort by CPU utilization to identify what's using system resources. Also, click the System Memory tab at the bottom and check your "page outs" and "swap used".
 
If the CPU is used a lot and is used to the maximum, more power gets drawn, thus more heat gets generated, therefore the body will feel warmer.
What do you do in FF and Skype that could produce such high CPU usage?
 
simsaladimbamba said:
If the CPU is used a lot and is used to the maximum, more power gets drawn, thus more heat gets generated, therefore the body will feel warmer.
What do you do in FF and Skype that could produce such high CPU usage?
Click to expand...

Thank you for your answer.

On skype i am hosting a conference call with 2 other people (all my computer can handle these days) and on Firefox i am 4 tabs open and if i play youtube video (flash) it goes up to close to 100%)

Edit: Right now i only have 2 tabs open with no flash and Firefox is running 84%
 
fritzov said:
Thank you for your answer.

On skype i am hosting a conference call with 2 other people (all my computer can handle these days) and on Firefox i am 4 tabs open and if i play youtube video (flash) it goes up to close to 100%)
Click to expand...

Any multimedia, including music, video and Flash, will put more work on the CPU/GPU and produce more heat in the process.
 
GGJstudios said:
In Activity Monitor, change "My Processes" to "All Processes", then sort by CPU utilization to identify what's using system resources. Also, click the System Memory tab at the bottom and check your "page outs" and "swap used".
Click to expand...

The application that i am currently using takes up all the CPU
 

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GGJstudios said:
It also looks like you're maxing out your RAM. You're paging quite a lot.
Click to expand...

I think that is a bit strange with the specs I have, I am currently running 2 other applications that are some what heavy but firefox and Skype for that Mather acts almost the same with nothing else running
 
Safeboot and test for the problem, to see if you have something that isn't playing nice with FF.

Repair permissions and delete the FF cache.

Try a different browser.
 
Firefox can be a memory and resource hog. I noticed it was taking up a lot of memory and CPU cycles on my MBP, so I did some tests, comparing different browsers. Firefox was more piggy than Safari. Safari was more piggy than Chrome. Chrome seemed to consistently use fewer resources. So, for the time being I've switched to Chrome (it's pretty good).

The more browsing windows or tabs you have going, the more demands the browser will make for CPU and RAM. I typically run 10-15 tabbed browser windows in Chrome, and it typically hovers between 2% and 6% CPU, and between 50-200MB Memory. Firefox was *much* higher, and I think it gets worse the longer you leave the system up without a reboot. It used to have a reputation for memory leaks... don't know if that's still true, but it could explain some of the behavior I've observed.

I haven't tested Skype, but have noticed it being a bit of a hog on other computers.
 
If Firefox is using all your resources, try a different browser.

From the look of it, you like shady "poker" sites. They might have installed some firefox extensions.
 
fritzov said:
I am running a Macbook Pro 15" 2.8mhz with 4gig of ddr3
Click to expand...

Dont expect a 2.8 mhz processor to be very fast :p

seriously though, use adblock + flash block in firefox to see if that helps and kill unnecessary background applications.
 
nikhsub1 said:
This is a good place to start... maybe you have an extension in FF that is going nuts?
Click to expand...

Consultant said:
If Firefox is using all your resources, try a different browser.

From the look of it, you like shady "poker" sites. They might have installed some firefox extensions.
Click to expand...

Problem with this is that it is not firefox that uses awfully lot of CPU it is almost every application. For exampel converting a file with handbrake uses well over 100% of CPU at all times (with firefoxed closed).
 
fritzov said:
Problem with this is that it is not firefox that uses awfully lot of CPU it is almost every application. For exampel converting a file with handbrake uses well over 100% of CPU at all times (with firefoxed closed).
Click to expand...

That is normal, as Handbrake is programmed to take as much CPU power as it can get its hands on.
 
Ccrew said:
20% of CPU right there on the two. God only knows what they're doing in the background.
Click to expand...

But the problem is the same with them 2 completely shut down and from a reboot.

And by the way none of them are "shady".
 

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fritzov said:
But the problem is the same with them 2 completely shut down and from a reboot.

And by the way none of them are "shady".
Click to expand...

That last image looks fine - Handbrake is supposed to peg the processors. It's meant to use all the cycles it can.

Try using some flash blocking software or another browser. I use Safari without flash installed and the youtube5 plugin that forces the html5 playback of youtube content. Works fine.
 
I stopped using FF because of that very issue... too much ram/CPU usage.

I use Chrome almost 100% of the time and also use Handbrake, etc... and don't see my processor go above normal levels for their use.

I would try another browser. FF is not very good, IMO, anymore.

As far as heat, I have my MBP with a old iPhone under the rear of it to elevate and allow heat to dissipate better rather than sitting on the table getting the wood all hot and bothered.
 
Chundles said:
That last image looks fine - Handbrake is supposed to peg the processors. It's meant to use all the cycles it can.

Try using some flash blocking software or another browser. I use Safari without flash installed and the youtube5 plugin that forces the html5 playback of youtube content. Works fine.
Click to expand...

I will try this but i don't am not sure it is the cause of the problem when even skype (that i use alot) also uses a lot of the recources.
For example 50-80% of cpu when i am hosting a conference call and then it can only be with 3 people and if i try to ad anyone else to the call it can't handle it.
This problem did not happen with a update of Skype because i had the same problem with the "old" Skype that i am having with Skype 5.x
 
macmikey2 said:
I stopped using FF because of that very issue... too much ram/CPU usage.

I use Chrome almost 100% of the time and also use Handbrake, etc... and don't see my processor go above normal levels for their use.

I would try another browser. FF is not very good, IMO, anymore.

As far as heat, I have my MBP with a old iPhone under the rear of it to elevate and allow heat to dissipate better rather than sitting on the table getting the wood all hot and bothered.
Click to expand...

I will move everything over to Chrome and then stop using firefox and see what happens.
 
fritzov said:
I will try this but i don't am not sure it is the cause of the problem when even skype (that i use alot) also uses a lot of the recources.
For example 50-80% of cpu when i am hosting a conference call and then it can only be with 3 people and if i try to ad anyone else to the call it can't handle it.
This problem did not happen with a update of Skype because i had the same problem with the "old" Skype that i am having with Skype 5.x
Click to expand...

Well then that's just Skype being Skype.
 
After a SafeBoot (Shift down on boot) and restart, if this is still happening, I would consider looking at maybe disk utilities to clean up drive, and maybe even an Archive/Install and get a new, clean OS in there.

It seems very odd to me that this is occurring. It might just be some OS X software not behaving.
 
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