MBP Molasses?...CPU usage at 99.7 for single Camino page load?

[jman995x]

For some reason my MBP is running like Molasses when using Camino (and sometimes Firefox).

Recently I'm getting a lot of the rainbow pinwheel (i.e.: "I'm thinking") from my MBP...especially while using Camino (and it's loading a new page).
I booted Activity Monitor and when I'm just reading a webpage (on Camino), my CPU usage is around 27-35....but when I load a new page, I get the rainbow pinwheel and CPU usage for Camino jumps up to 99.7-107.9...the computer freezes for about 5-10 seconds while the pinwheel spins and once the page has loaded, the CPU usage goes back down to the 20's.

Interestingly enough, while I was typing out this post, I was getting the pinwheel as well (even though I'm only typing).

Anybody have any idea why this is happening?....it's not like I'm really taxing the system (i.e.: running Photoshop, Illustrator, iDVD, etc. all at the same time)....for instance, I only have Camino, Chrome and QuicKeys open right now...nothing else...this should be a walk in the park for my MBP (2.33 GHz IC2Duo, 3GB of 667 MHz Ram, and 177 GB of free space still left on my HDD).

Any suggestions?

P.S. Scrolling seems to make it chug (i.e.: pinwheel) as well.

 

[mulo]

use safari...

 

[jman995x]

use safari...

Get the lag with Safari too (which is why I started using Camino).

 

[Eddyisgreat]

is there any flash on the scene?

 

[davidlv]

Get the lag with Safari too (which is why I started using Camino).

Camino is probably not the source of the issue, though it could be version/OS version/flash related. The Camino development team has done a very good job of debugging Camino, and it has Never crashed in the last 2 years or so for me (Safari has almost never run for an hour without a crash, so I rarely use it, but I still install the latest version for the security updates just in case). I am running Camino ver. 2.0.4, and while typing this my CPU usage is 1.7-2.6%. Are you running SL and the latest version of Camino? Does Activity Monitor show any page outs? I have the latest version of Flash (hardware accelerated version) installed as it supports my hardware. You could try a different version, but do download and use the uninstaller when changing versions.
You can ignore the "use Safari" comments, browsers are personal preferences all the way, regardless of the wide and varying experiences people have. Use what works for you. I suspect the likeliest suspects for your problems are 1. DNS name server (your CPU spikes when opening a new page is a hint here) or 2. flash related (small chance of video card compatibility related), but check to see what other processes are running, is there anything else taking up the CPU? Have you tried Firefox, and does it have the same issue, it is of course based on the same Gekko (spelling?) engine.
As usual, troubleshooting web problems is really difficult. You may have DNS problems, so try running "namebench" (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/32784/namebench) to see if you should be running with another DNS name server.

 

[jman995x]

is there any flash on the scene?

No, I'm actually experiencing the most problems with an ALL HTML site, which doesn't make any sense since they are the easiest to load.

 

[davidlv]

No, I'm actually experiencing the most problems with an ALL HTML site, which doesn't make any sense since they are the easiest to load.

It would make sense if the DNS servers you specified in the Network preference pane are not working.

 

[jman995x]

Camino is probably not the source of the issue, though it could be version/OS version/flash related. The Camino development team has done a very good job of debugging Camino, and it has Never crashed in the last 2 years or so for me (Safari has almost never run for an hour without a crash, so I rarely use it, but I still install the latest version for the security updates just in case). I am running Camino ver. 2.0.4, and while typing this my CPU usage is 1.7-2.6%. Are you running SL and the latest version of Camino? Does Activity Monitor show any page outs? I have the latest version of Flash (hardware accelerated version) installed as it supports my hardware. You could try a different version, but do download and use the uninstaller when changing versions.
You can ignore the "use Safari" comments, browsers are personal preferences all the way, regardless of the wide and varying experiences people have. Use what works for you. I suspect the likeliest suspects for your problems are 1. DNS name server (your CPU spikes when opening a new page is a hint here) or 2. flash related (small chance of video card compatibility related), but check to see what other processes are running, is there anything else taking up the CPU? Have you tried Firefox, and does it have the same issue, it is of course based on the same Gekko (spelling?) engine.
As usual, troubleshooting web problems is really difficult. You may have DNS problems, so try running "namebench" (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/32784/namebench) to see if you should be running with another DNS name server.

I'm running the latest version of my OS and Camino.
I ran the NameBench and here are the results:

Here are also some screenshots of my one open tab (and the CPU usage at @ 20.0):...

and then the CPU usage when I clicked on a link within the webpage:

Just typing this reply, I got 7 rainbow pinwheel lags.
What is chugging my system so badly (even with simple things like typing)?

 

[davidlv]

Sorry fresh out of ideas, except, can you try a new user's account and see if the same issue appears?

 

[rhett7660]

What happens when you close all the programs that are open and restart your system?

What about logging in under a different user name?
Are all the plugins up to date?
What about uninstalling camino and reinstalling it with no plugins?

 

[Boxcar Edit]

Any updates or solutions? A "me too" post.

jman995x I've been having the same issues for at least a year, maybe close to two. If I wasn't a die-hard Camino fan I'd have given up long ago.

I tend to have a bunch of windows and tabs open and it seems inevitable that, after a bit of use, the CPU usage spikes up and stays around 100%. Some time a bit later something changes and everything grinds to a near halt, speeding up a bit once I close the majority of the windows and tabs (but it's never the 10-40% of CPU I'd expect).

Have you found any other solutions or heard of any other good discussions on this? I've seen some on the Camino boards but none lately with any unresolved bugs.

Thanks for posting the issue.