Seriously high CPU usage and sluggish operation on new install

[Raife]

I consider myself basically be a Linux newbie, though I have used various flavors for a few years. And, I have now moved my last system (a laptop) to Linux. I just recently installed Mint-18 (64-bit with Cinnamon) on a new hard-drive which I had installed in a "Toshiba Satellite L875D-S7332". I did this after physically removing the Windows-8.1 hard-drive.

This particular model of laptop has known keyboard/mouse chip-set issues with Ubuntu-derivatives. The OS, apparently, frequently fails to properly access the I/O hardware for the mouse and keyboard during boot. The result is that, the mouse and keyboard randomly simply fails to work, at all, after powering-on this laptop model (this happens at least once in every two or three, boots). After I discovered this situation with a few "live" Linux versions (prior to this install) I did a little online research, and the course of action I followed, was to connect an external USB mouse and keyboard to the laptop. I then installed Linux Mint-18 from a DVD with the external mouse/keyboard attached. Then, after fully installing the OS, I used the external keyboard/mouse to boot the laptop and edit the "/etc/default/grub" file, adding the line:

"GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="atkbd.reset=1 i8042.nomux=1 i8042.reset=1 i8042.nopnp=1 i8042.dumbkbd=1"

...I believe, resetting the keyboard/mouse during boot, thereby bypassing the random failures of proper device, and software, initialization during the Ubuntu boot process (on this particular model of laptop). This fix seems to allow time to detect the proprietary hardware used by this laptop. This was suggested in various discussions I found online.

After I updated grub ("sudo update-grub" in terminal), I removed the external mouse and keyboard and rebooted. The (built-in keyboard and mouse) problem completely disappeared. I tested the system for a couple of weeks just to make sure that the intermittent keyboard/mouse issue was actually gone, and it hasn't reappeared.

Since then, I have installed the Arduino programming environment, and the "Eclipse" IDE (configured for C++), along with "GAMBAS 3". I have also configured the laptop to use my internal-network shares and servers, as well as my server's shared printer. All of this has been successful. I have also installed the available updates (including the "Mint-18.1 Sarah" and "18.2 Sonya" updates). Overall, I am really, very, pleased with Linux Mint-18 on my laptop... when it is working properly.

However, I have discovered a problem while using my laptop (before, and after, all of the updates). After turning-on the laptop (from a cold-boot) I began to realize that the computer was frequently running very, very, slowly. It would take a second, or more, for a menu to appear when selected. And, there was often a long lag between what I was typing and when the text would actually appear on the screen. Also, boot and launching programs seemed to be taking far too long, merely, for the software to load. Additionally, the applications, themselves, often ran really slowly while I was using them (often taking two or three times as long to accomplish a task, as at other times). I investigated using "System Monitor", and found that the CPU usage (AMD Dual-core "A6 Vision") had the first core usage at around 30-40% and the second core was nearly pegged at around 90-100% usage when nothing but the OS ("Cinnamon") was theoretically running. This does not occur when the laptop is warm-booted (I.E. "shut-down screen" => "restart"). After a warm-boot, the first core runs at around 5-20%, and the second core usually idles at under 15%. Also, I discovered that, in the cold-boot case, the "high CPU usage" isn't entirely consistent. Around one in four or five, cold-boots, the CPU usage is low and the laptop runs as well as after a warm-boot (Also, I have not observed any occurrences of unusually high CPU usage, or severely sluggish performance, after any warm-boots).

This makes me think that a timing issue may also be occurring from a cold-boot state (a device not responding quickly enough, or correctly) which either prevents something from running correctly (eating-up a lot of CPU resources), or triggers some kind of bug in the OS, GUI, or drivers.

When the CPU usage is low (after a warm-boot) Mint, and the software, runs really well on the laptop. Frankly, it is a freaking-awesome system, and I am totally satisfied with my move from "Windows". However, I don't want to have to keep booting my laptop, checking the CPU usage, and then, almost always, immediately needing to restart it, to get it to run correctly. In other words... actually booting my laptop twice, every time I use it.

Does anybody have any advice? And, please remember, I am not terribly experienced inside Linux. I have frequently seen online advice that, to me, looks like... have you checked yyy-internal-function..? or, You might try zzz-allotment, and throttling kernal-sss vivage-arbitration. And, while Google has become my best friend, and though, I am eager to learn... I really don't mind being given examples of what I should type at the Command-line, or being told exactly where to find a utility, and what output information is relevant to exploring problems.

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. I really need this system up, and running.

[WharfRat]

Hello Raife

Welcome to Linux Mint and the Linux Mint forum

It would help if you could paste back the results of sudo inxi -GSCMm -t c -P -x especially when you're' experiencing high cpu usage.

Also take a look at this topic viewtopic.php?f=208&t=252371

[syg00]

Nice bunch of options WharfRat.

Sounds like driver/interrupt handler acting up. Can we also see the output of this

Code: Select all

top -b -n 3 | grep -E -A 10 "^top" > top.out

It'll run for about 10 seconds, then post the file it generates (top.out)

[Raife]

Here are the results for "sudo inxi -GSCMm -t c -P -x" :

Code: Select all

System:    Host: Mint-Laptop Kernel: 4.4.0-92-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.4.6 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.2 Sonya
Machine:   System: TOSHIBA (portable) product: Satellite L875D v: PSKFQU-008003 serial: XC429070R
           Mobo: AMD model: PLCSC8 Bios: Insyde v: 6.10 date: 10/02/2012
CPU:       Dual core AMD A6-4400M APU with Radeon HD Graphics (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 10779
           clock speeds: max: 2700 MHz 1: 2700 MHz 2: 2700 MHz
Memory:    Array-1 capacity: 8 GB (est) devices: 2 EC: None
           max module size: 8 GB
           Device-1: DIMM 0 size: 2 GB speed: 800 MHz type: DDR3
           part: M471B5773CHS-CK0
           Device-2: DIMM 0 size: 4 GB speed: 800 MHz type: DDR3
           part: M471B5173BH0-CK0
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Trinity [Radeon HD 7520G]
           bus-ID: 00:01.0
           Display Server: X.org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           tty size: 80x24 Advanced Data: N/A for root
Partition: ID-1: / size: 453G used: 10G (3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 5.87GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
Processes: CPU: % used - Memory: MB / % used - Used/Total: 661.3/5428.6MB - top 5 active
           1: cpu: 21.8% command: cinnamon pid: 2355 mem: 161.66MB (2.9%)
           2: cpu: 16.0% command: Xorg pid: 1271 mem: 66.27MB (1.2%)
           3: cpu: 9.4% command: gnome-terminal-server pid: 5487 mem: 36.77MB (0.6%)
           4: cpu: 6.4% command: nemo pid: 3401 mem: 65.80MB (1.2%)
           5: cpu: 2.0% command: file-uploader.py (started by: python2) pid: 3532 mem: 48.65MB (0.8%)

And for "top -b -n 3 | grep -E -A 10 "^top"" :

Code: Select all

top - 20:00:26 up 8 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.60, 1.43, 0.89
Tasks: 174 total,   1 running, 173 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 48.8 us, 16.6 sy,  0.0 ni, 27.6 id,  6.8 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.3 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem :  5558860 total,  4478140 free,   525920 used,   554800 buff/cache
KiB Swap:  5730300 total,  5730300 free,        0 used.  4755356 avail Mem 

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
 3397 zybotics  20   0   41812   3692   3148 R  30.0  0.1   0:00.12 top
    7 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   5.0  0.0   0:05.81 rcu_sched
  143 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   5.0  0.0   0:05.91 kworker/1:2
    1 root      20   0  185400   6144   4104 S   0.0  0.1   0:03.25 systemd
--
top - 20:00:30 up 8 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.56, 1.40, 0.89
Tasks: 174 total,   1 running, 173 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  9.5 us,  4.0 sy,  0.0 ni, 86.5 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem :  5558860 total,  4478024 free,   526020 used,   554816 buff/cache
KiB Swap:  5730300 total,  5730300 free,        0 used.  4755280 avail Mem 

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
 2355 zybotics  20   0 1768640 153296  71984 S   8.1  2.8   2:08.43 cinnamon
 1271 root      20   0  320012  64996  39924 S   3.2  1.2   2:06.65 Xorg
 3397 zybotics  20   0   41780   3736   3148 R   1.9  0.1   0:00.18 top
 2376 zybotics  20   0  609812  34568  26256 S   0.6  0.6   0:05.08 nm-applet
--
top - 20:00:33 up 8 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.56, 1.40, 0.89
Tasks: 174 total,   1 running, 173 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  3.8 us,  2.6 sy,  0.0 ni, 89.5 id,  4.1 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem :  5558860 total,  4478024 free,   526020 used,   554816 buff/cache
KiB Swap:  5730300 total,  5730300 free,        0 used.  4755280 avail Mem 

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
 1271 root      20   0  320012  64996  39924 S   2.6  1.2   2:06.73 Xorg
 2355 zybotics  20   0 1768640 153296  71984 S   2.0  2.8   2:08.49 cinnamon
 3397 zybotics  20   0   41780   3736   3148 R   2.0  0.1   0:00.24 top
 3061 zybotics  20   0  490984  37532  28340 S   0.3  0.7   0:02.01 gnome-term+

And, thanks again for all the help. This is great.

[WharfRat]

It looks like your desktop is hogging cpu time. Cinnamon us not as cooperative with gpu's as the other desktops.

You can try tweaking the environment as per this post viewtopic.php?f=208&t=252371#p1357731

If that doesn't help I would suggest is trying the live mate desktop version to see if you still experience the same symptoms.

[Raife]

Thanks. However, as I said before, this problem has never occurred after a warm-boot, the system simply runs incredibly well (it also runs well, without exhibiting this problem, about one out of four or five, cold-boots).

Based upon the functional behavior, I am thinking that this is purely a driver, timing, or hardware, initialization issue. It simply does not appear to be a more general issue with the hardware not running well under Cinnamon (which, frankly, I am really unwilling to give up at this point). The system runs GREAT after a warm-boot... or, seemingly randomly, runs GREAT after some cold-boots.

Remember, the mouse/keyboard sub-system, in this Toshiba laptop. has a similar issue (on this particular system hardware under Ubuntu-based OSes). The way I have seen these, proprietary Toshiba laptop problems, described is "flaky behavior... with some Linux distributions". However, simply forcing the OS to reset the hardware during boot completely alleviates the random mouse/keyboard issue within Mint-Cinnamon.

So, I was hoping for a similar fix/work-around (I.E. telling the OS to reset the system-components during boot), or possibly implementing a delay during boot to allow the system to more consistently, and correctly, initialize components during a cold-boot, so that the system initializes and runs optimally after every single boot (warm, or cold).

Again, thanks for all of this help and support. I really like, and have come to depend upon, Linux (especially, "Mint" with "Cinnamon" for personal-use). And, I am really dedicated to getting my laptop to consistently run this particular distribution (as as well as it does after a warm-boot... or, as well as it does... occasionally... after a cold-boot).

[syg00]

So, I was hoping for a similar fix/work-around (I.E. telling the OS to reset the system-components during boot),

There is no indication of such a problem from that top output - did you run it when things were bad/sluggish ?. Maybe run it again when so - that file will be overwritten so just post the new data.

[WharfRat]

I didn't suggest that you replace Cinnamon, but just run the Mate DE from the live media.

It could help narrow-down the problem.

In any event have you stumbled on this Toshiba Linux support site

[Raife]

Here is the latest "top.out" file with the "System Monitor" showing CPU-1 at around 20-30%, and CPU-2 around 90%:

Code: Select all

top - 20:29:28 up 5 min,  1 user,  load average: 1.97, 1.84, 0.88
Tasks: 175 total,   2 running, 173 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 50.0 us, 16.6 sy,  0.0 ni, 22.5 id, 10.4 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.4 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem :  5558860 total,  4515816 free,   496156 used,   546888 buff/cache
KiB Swap:  5730300 total,  5730300 free,        0 used.  4785896 avail Mem 

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
 2292 zybotics  20   0 1766696 148988  71480 R  55.6  2.7   1:21.92 cinnamon
 1270 root      20   0  323276  67888  39480 S  38.9  1.2   1:10.30 Xorg
 2787 zybotics  20   0   41812   3820   3268 R  22.2  0.1   0:00.09 top
 2552 zybotics  20   0  507608  49320  33784 S   5.6  0.9   0:20.10 gnome-syst+
--
top - 20:29:31 up 5 min,  1 user,  load average: 1.89, 1.82, 0.88
Tasks: 175 total,   3 running, 172 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 44.4 us, 12.4 sy,  0.0 ni, 42.4 id,  0.8 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem :  5558860 total,  4515804 free,   496132 used,   546924 buff/cache
KiB Swap:  5730300 total,  5730300 free,        0 used.  4785936 avail Mem 

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
 1270 root      20   0  323276  67888  39480 S  51.8  1.2   1:11.89 Xorg
 2292 zybotics  20   0 1767720 148988  71480 R  25.1  2.7   1:22.69 cinnamon
 2552 zybotics  20   0  507608  49320  33784 S  11.1  0.9   0:20.44 gnome-syst+
    7 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   1.6  0.0   0:03.74 rcu_sched
--
top - 20:29:34 up 5 min,  1 user,  load average: 1.82, 1.81, 0.88
Tasks: 174 total,   3 running, 171 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 43.0 us, 13.6 sy,  0.0 ni, 43.4 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem :  5558860 total,  4515688 free,   496236 used,   546936 buff/cache
KiB Swap:  5730300 total,  5730300 free,        0 used.  4785828 avail Mem 

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
 1270 root      20   0  323276  67888  39480 R  53.9  1.2   1:13.54 Xorg
 2292 zybotics  20   0 1767720 148988  71480 S  22.9  2.7   1:23.39 cinnamon
 2552 zybotics  20   0  507608  49320  33784 S  12.7  0.9   0:20.83 gnome-syst+
 2787 zybotics  20   0   41780   3856   3268 R   2.0  0.1   0:00.19 top
 

It looks like, with nothing but "System Monitor", and "Terminal", running CPU Usage is around 75% and up (for "root" and "zybotics"(my user).

As I said, after a reboot (warm-boot), CPU-1, and CPU-2, generally, run less than 15% each.
also, at low CPU usage... boot, login, the system menus, and my applications are all very noticeably much faster.



Here is the "top" output after a warm-boot (with low CPU usage according to "System Monitor":

Code: Select all

top - 20:51:31 up 5 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.82, 0.71, 0.38
Tasks: 183 total,   2 running, 181 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  7.4 us,  3.7 sy,  0.0 ni, 72.2 id, 16.5 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.1 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem :  5558860 total,  4298520 free,   541268 used,   719072 buff/cache
KiB Swap:  5730300 total,  5730300 free,        0 used.  4713784 avail Mem 

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
 1123 root      20   0  323048  64368  41004 S  12.5  1.2   0:16.76 Xorg
 1797 zybotics  20   0 1770764 153240  71720 S   6.2  2.8   0:17.47 cinnamon
 2463 zybotics  20   0  507612  51416  33840 S   6.2  0.9   0:05.42 gnome-syst+
 2926 zybotics  20   0   41820   3748   3168 R   6.2  0.1   0:00.01 top
--
top - 20:51:34 up 5 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.82, 0.71, 0.38
Tasks: 183 total,   2 running, 181 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  6.2 us, 13.7 sy,  0.0 ni, 36.9 id, 42.7 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.5 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem :  5558860 total,  4282348 free,   541272 used,   735240 buff/cache
KiB Swap:  5730300 total,  5730300 free,        0 used.  4710540 avail Mem 

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
   30 root      20   0       0      0      0 S  13.3  0.0   0:03.11 kworker/u8+
 1123 root      20   0  323048  64368  41004 S   8.6  1.2   0:17.02 Xorg
  133 root      20   0       0      0      0 S   8.0  0.0   0:02.36 kworker/u8+
 2920 root      20   0    7456   2404   2028 D   4.3  0.0   0:01.13 updatedb.m+
--
top - 20:51:37 up 5 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.83, 0.72, 0.39
Tasks: 183 total,   1 running, 182 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  8.7 us,  9.3 sy,  0.0 ni, 38.4 id, 42.7 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.8 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem :  5558860 total,  4267784 free,   541428 used,   749648 buff/cache
KiB Swap:  5730300 total,  5730300 free,        0 used.  4708000 avail Mem 

  PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S  %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND
  133 root      20   0       0      0      0 S  13.3  0.0   0:02.76 kworker/u8+
 1123 root      20   0  323048  64368  41004 S   7.6  1.2   0:17.25 Xorg
 1797 zybotics  20   0 1771788 153240  71720 S   4.0  2.8   0:17.70 cinnamon
 2920 root      20   0    7456   2404   2028 D   3.3  0.0   0:01.23 updatedb.m+

[WharfRat]

When you had high cpu usage was your drivers set to ati,radeon

[Raife]

- "When you had high cpu usage was your drivers set to ati,radeon"

How do I check that? I haven't changed any drivers, so I think I am simply running a basic install as created by the "Mint-18 64-bit with Cinnamon" installer. Remember... I really am a Linux newbie, but I really do appreciate all the help.

I did install "Mint-18 with MATE" on my wife's desktop computer (Cinnamon didn't like her computer's built-in graphics and kept running in software mode. However, MATE didn't report any problems. I also have "Mint-18 64-bit with Cinnamon" installed on another desktop of mine, with no problems.

However, live disks do have the problem, on this laptop, of frequently having no keyboard or mouse upon boot. So, I will have to attach a USB set to test. What am I looking for? The Cinnamon install didn't seem to have any problems. Also, "Driver Manager" reports: "no proprietary drivers in use", and "AMD64-microcode" is not working, with "do not use device" selected. Does that give any useful information?

[catweazel]

If a machine fails to operate correctly after a cold boot but then proceeds to operate correctly after a warm boot, I'd suspect hardware before anything else.

[WharfRat]

- "When you had high cpu usage was your drivers set to ati,radeon"

How do I check that?

inxi -Gxx

However, live disks do have the problem, on this laptop, of frequently having no keyboard or mouse upon boot. So, I will have to attach a USB set to test. What am I looking for? The Cinnamon install didn't seem to have any problems. Also, "Driver Manager" reports: "no proprietary drivers in use", and "AMD64-microcode" is not working, with "do not use device" selected. Does that give any useful information?

The Toshiba laptops seem to suffer from some idiosyncrasies that I can't explain

Was that Toshiba Linux support site any help

[Raife]

The drivers are set to ati,radeon during both conditions (high, and low, CPU usage). Sorry, I didn't think "inxi" first thing. I have been Googling and investigating "top" and I didn't look right in front of me. It was plainly in the output of "inxi" (my only excuse is that I have been working six days a week for a while, as well as having gone back to school to refresh my aging computer knowledge, so I have been a little... hhhm... fuzzy, in the evenings).

However, I hope to be getting back up to speed with networking, modern hardware, and basic systems administration over the next few semesters. Especially, with Linux. After years of maintaining, and fighting "Windows" based systems... and drifting away from the field... Linux has basically rekindled my interest in, and enthusiasm for, computers again. Frankly, Linux has made them FUN again.

I am still exploring the Toshiba support website, but I haven't found any useful information about my particular laptop series or this problem yet (I wonder if that is due to the fact that the site is in the UK instead of the US. My model doesn't seem to bring up much). As I said I am still searching the Toshiba site, and I am trying to make my searches broader.

Again, thanks for all of this help. I am convinced that there is still a relatively simple answer (...something other than an actual hardware problem in the laptop. It was running Windows 8.1 fine, and everything runs without problems under Mint, except or the extreme resource usage after a cold-boot). I like the laptop, and it is amazing running Mint... after a warm-boot. I am just hoping that this Toshiba laptop model isn't effectively chained to the officially supported OS-family it shipped with.

[WharfRat]

The ati,radeon are the correct drivers for that card. I was just wondering if, for some reason on cold boot, it loaded fbdev or vesa.

Those generic drivers often cause higher cpu usage than the radeon driver.

[syg00]

I can't explain why cold boot versus warm boot should be different, but kworker threads should never show up near the highest of that top listing (ignore the first stanza, that's why I asked for 3). Might be worth keeping an eye on iotop because something appears to banging away on disk - other than updatedb which should be transient on a day-to-day basis.

When you have a "good" boot, try opening a terminal and running this - let it finish, then see if following boots are ok.

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sudo updatedb

[mr_raider]

You are the 3rd person with amd graphics to report issues.

Maybe this thread will help

viewtopic.php?f=90&t=252819

[Raife]

I ran "sudo updatedb", both from a cold-boot (with low CPU usage), and a warm-boot (always low CPU usage). However, I didn't see any difference in the problem... other than my noticing that the laptop, now, seems to have low CPU usage about one in three cold-boots (as opposed to about one in five, but, I honestly don't know if things have really changed, or I am, now, just more observant and meticulous in keeping track of the event).

My hopes really went up when I read the thread that suggested that I simply needed different AMD drivers viewtopic.php?f=90&t=252819. However... SADLY... after entering the first part of the repository code:

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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers

All I got for my troubles was a message stating: "the PPA does not support xenial (Mint 18) ...PPA not added"... ARGH!!!!

This is really starting to seriously depress me. This version of Linux works GREAT after a warm-boot. It is powerful, fast, and I have loaded exactly the set-up, and software, that I want. The display and speed are simply amazing (when CPU usage is low... I.E. after a warm reboot). This laptop would absolutely be my go-to personal-travel, and class, PC... except for this infuriating issue. I have even thought of putting a shell-script on my desktop, or as a start-up item, to boot the machine twice every time I turn it on. I like the system (when it runs correctly) that much, -and I am becoming that desperate.

Doesn't anybody know of a soft-reset or delay-methodology, during boot, to allow the OS time to properly bypass/access whatever flaky, proprietary, issues are present in this Toshiba system during a cold-boot? Could it be a charging-system, or thermal-monitoring, process that is only properly initialized... 100% of the time... if the system is warm-booted? It really seems to me, based upon the symptoms, that something in the hardware is simply not responding correctly, from a cold-start state.

[Raife]

UPDATE: The PPA problem was actually due to a typo by me. After I discovered my typo, I went ahead and successfully added the PPA, and updated. However, after most cold-boots the laptop still runs too slowly (the CPU is obviously running in circles, doing something). The laptop running Mint is still AWESOME... after a warm-boot, but unfortunately, I'm thinking... Mint with Cinnamon just isn't going to work. I really think that's too bad. Possibly... Fedora.

[mr_raider]

UPDATE: The PPA problem was actually due to a typo by me. After I discovered my typo, I went ahead and successfully added the PPA, and updated. However, after most cold-boots the laptop still runs too slowly (the CPU is obviously running in circles, doing something). The laptop running Mint is still AWESOME... after a warm-boot, but unfortunately, I'm thinking... Mint with Cinnamon just isn't going to work. I really think that's too bad. Possibly... Fedora.

Try installing laptop management tools:

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sudo apt install tlp

then

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sudo tlp start

If that fails, try a different version of Mint. The Cinnamon compositor really flogs the open GL renderer. You can verify if your GPU is working overtime by running:

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sudo apt install radeontop

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sudo radeontop