Why some widgets use cpu when closed?

[jkandell]

I noticed that most widgets go down to 0 cpu when dashboard not evoked. But for some reason one I loaded today, VoiceNotes, shows up in activity monitor using a 9% of my cpu even when dashboard is not being used. Is this a defect of the widget programming? And am I correct to assume that if a widget process is inactive in Activity Monitor when not in use then there is no memory 'cost' to having a widget on machine, and vice versa?

 

[Coheebuzz]

I've noticed that if you shutdown your computer instead of putting it to sleep fixes these problems. Dashboard has been working fine for me, only using the cpu when i enter Dashboard. But if i put my comp to sleep and wake it up a couple of times i notice the same as you do - most probably a bug that would be hopefully solved with 10.4.3.

Also they should make widgets eat up less memory, 12MB for the translation widget??? Why does a 500k widget that only needs to hold a single word into memory will need to address 12MB's?? That seems like a memory leak to me!

Now when you load a widget it stays in memory until you close it, not until you hide the dashboard.

 

[jkandell]

I've noticed that if you shutdown your computer instead of putting it to sleep fixes these problems.

I'll try it. However, when waking from sleep the only widget which stays at moment is Voice Notes. It sometimes takes a few "passes" for the cpu usage to go down to zero on everything else once I close dashboard, but they do seem to go down.

Now when you load a widget it stays in memory until you close it, not until you hide the dashboard.

Then why are they using 0 cpu? And, forgive me, but how do you close a widget other than turning off dashboard? I've noticed that even widgets with info on them (like stickies) seems to go down to zero when not in use.

 

[Coheebuzz]

Then why are they using 0 cpu? And, forgive me, but how do you close a widget other than turning off dashboard? I've noticed that even widgets with info on them (like stickies) seems to go down to zero when not in use.

By 'turning off' i will assume you mean 'hiding', because turning off dashboard completely is another 'solution'.
A widget will only use the cpu when you are doing work with it. When the dashboard is hidden but the widget is open it will only use RAM and not the cpu.

Also when you close a widget by clicking on the "X" icon top right corner, the widget *should* free up the memory it used to hold and if you don't use a widget very often disable it with the Widget Manager.

 

[jkandell]

By 'turning off' i will assume you mean 'hiding', because turning off dashboard completely is another 'solution'.
A widget will only use the cpu when you are doing work with it. When the dashboard is hidden but the widget is open it will only use RAM and not the cpu. Also when you close a widget by clicking on the "X" icon top right corner, the widget *should* free up the memory it used to hold and if you don't use a widget very often disable it with the Widget Manager.

Yes, I meant hiding. Forgive my naivite, but in evaluating whether to keep widgets or disabling them, should I be looking at RAM (or even virtual memory) used rather than CPU? If a process is using a lot of RAM (although it is using no active cpu) is that tying up my system? Which matters more? Or, more precisely, how exactly does one evaluate the system efficiency of a widget?

I like the widgets but hate the idea of using up my 1.5gb with things I don't use often.