MBP 17'' first gen intel core duo
Snow Leopard 10.6.2
Ever since I installed SL, I've noticed my system's CPU and RAM usage randomly spike in my menubar-installed iStat Menu widgets.
Inspection with Activity Monitor reveals several processes owned by "_lp" using upwards of 500 MB of RAM and 50% CPU. The processes appear randomly (even when Finder is the only app running) and there are three of them: "Photosmart", "cgpdftoraster", and "pdftopdf". There might be another one. They're terrorists; stealing much of my system resources before running away to hide. Trying to kill them with Activity Monitor's quit command works but they appear again.
I've done research online and apparently, processes spawned by "_lp" have something to do with printing.
I don't understand why they're running if I'm not printing anything. And I also don't understand why they're using up so much of my computer. Finally, I don't understand why one of the processes is called "Photosmart"; does this mean that HP's driver crap is screwing me up?
Thanks so much.
Snow Leopard 10.6.2
Ever since I installed SL, I've noticed my system's CPU and RAM usage randomly spike in my menubar-installed iStat Menu widgets.
Inspection with Activity Monitor reveals several processes owned by "_lp" using upwards of 500 MB of RAM and 50% CPU. The processes appear randomly (even when Finder is the only app running) and there are three of them: "Photosmart", "cgpdftoraster", and "pdftopdf". There might be another one. They're terrorists; stealing much of my system resources before running away to hide. Trying to kill them with Activity Monitor's quit command works but they appear again.
I've done research online and apparently, processes spawned by "_lp" have something to do with printing.
I don't understand why they're running if I'm not printing anything. And I also don't understand why they're using up so much of my computer. Finally, I don't understand why one of the processes is called "Photosmart"; does this mean that HP's driver crap is screwing me up?
Thanks so much.