Maxed out CPU!?

[Cambo105]

This strange occurrence has happened to me a few times in the past couple of days. It starts when I notice my cooling fans are running at full tilt, which they never do. Then I notice the temperature of my CPU is climbing towards 60 degrees when it usually runs in the high 40s. So I open the system process monitor and and either one or both of my CPU cores is maxed out at 100%. The strange thing is if I look at the running processes, everything is listed as consuming 0% of the CPU with the occasional 1-3% for gnome-system-monitor. What could this be? The only way I can solve it now is to reboot.

[solar1951]

I found this was happening to me on Daryna and I closed down MintUpdate and now its much better.
I removed MintUpdate from autostarted apps and only run manually now occasionally. I dont have dual core so this may not help.

[MagnusB]

mintUpdate has some memory leaks, though I haven't experienced any CPU issues with it. I would suggest running top in a terminal window next time this happen, to see what causes the usage.

[solar1951]

magnusB,

I dont know whether this is the same problem as with my Celeron processor but running 'top' in a terminal did not show any significant CPU usage but the fan still ran at top speed trying to cool the chip ( my motherboard does not support temperature monitoring) - it still happens very occasionally sometimes with Firefox running videos and the screen greys out - I am running compiz so maybe that also has an effect.
Its not really an issue for me now but thought it may help Cambo105 to try the mintUpdate thing.

[MagnusB]

It might be the speedstep-centrino module or something not working. Try:

Code: Select all

lsmod | grep power

Or it could be the sensor not working properly, and gives wrong reading and makes the fan start without being needed.
EDIT!
Sorry, I mixed the AMD module with the Intel one, giving you a weird combination of em. It is called speedstep-centrino.

[solar1951]

It might be the speedstep-centrino module or something not working. Try:

Code: Select all

lsmod | grep power

Or it could be the sensor not working properly, and gives wrong reading and makes the fan start without being needed.
EDIT!
Sorry, I mixed the AMD module with the Intel one, giving you a weird combination of em. It is called speedstep-centrino.

Celeron not Centrino - I dont want to be too modern !

bill@Main:~$ lsmod | grep power
cpufreq_powersave 2688 0

[Lantesh]

I assume you use Firefox for web browsing. If so websites that use Flash heavily can overload your processor. I don't know why flash does this, but it does. The fix is to install the Flashblock plugin. It stops all flash items on a given web page, and if you want to see an item you simply click on it to enable it. This fix solved my issue 100%.

[Husse]

Don't know if it's connected but my wifes Toshiba laptop with XP frequently just shuts down with all signs of overheating when accessing sites with flash content. She uses the Win Firefox

[Fred]

Cambo105,

I would look in two different, but probably related directions. The first would be the proprietary graphics driver. These tend to be a buggy pain, regardless of the manufacturer. Though I have had better luck with Nvidia over time. You might try an earlier version, or a later version of the driver and see if that helps.

The other problem could be Fire Fox itself. I am becoming more and more dissolutioned with FF. I am afraid they are squandering their hard fought gains of the past year or two. The later version 3 betas seem to be more stable than the 2.0 series, this really shouldn't be.

Unless you are dependent on some particular extensions, I am almost to the point of recommending going to Opera. It appears to be a much better browser. And that hurts me to say.

Fred

[Cambo105]

I have an intel x3100 graphics card, so I have no proprietary graphics drivers installed. I will whole heartily agree that firefox is spiraling downward at an alarming rate. But the problem with Opera is twofold: If I use the current stable release I have no flash support and I am a big youtuber so this is a problem, although not a total deal breaker. If I use the beta release of Opera, flash works fine but a webpage I need to access daily for school doesn't display properly. So I guess I am between a rock and hard place as they say.

[Husse]

Why not use Opera or FF according to circumstances?

[Cambo105]

Thats is my temporary solution. I am hoping the new Opera due out this summer is as good as it is touted to be.

[Cambo105]

Opera doesn't seem to display the index page of the forum as nicely as FF, is this a font issue? If it is what font should I switch opera to instead of the default?

[Fred]

Cambo105,

Just try a few and see which you like best. I think I am using sans serif, but then again I am kinda plain and don't have much "taste."

If memory serves, you have to check a little box to force it to use your fonts instead of the ones specified by the web page. Opera's preferences are laid out completely different from FF. The zoom function on Opera is really nice. Especially if you have old eyes.

Fred

PS: Toggling the fit to page option can help with the display quality on some web pages too.