Re: [ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem
From: Simon Greenwood sfgreenw...@gmail.com That is very similar to my problem: both Flash and Java apps caused exponential CPU usage. Shutting down everything would cause the machine to settle down but it wouldn't become stable until a full reboot. I would suggest checking to see if there's a BIOS update for the machine as I've just done that and it's seemed to resolve the heating issues that I had that apparently came from the Nvidia GPU. Also you don't mention the version and architecture of Ubuntu that you're using which might be useful to know. I managed to update the bios last night. I've done a couple of tests after that and so far it looks good. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Thanks to everyone who responded! Rossen -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
[ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem
Hi- Apologies if this isn't the right place. Having started as a Ubuntu user in 7.04 I find myself completely baffled by the this one. Every now and then an application starts using a lot of CPU. This is typically when running Flash or Java typically in a browser but I'm not completely sure about what triggers. The strange thing is that once the problem occurs all applications become affected. Even simple things like opening a file browser or dragging windows around spikes the CPU to 100% for 10-15 seconds or longer. It's like a gradual melt-down with the system becoming unusable even for simple tasks. The only solution at that point is powering off the laptop completely, which takes a long time since all processes are now really slow to close down. Needless to say a very debilitating problem to have and I'm baffled as to how to narrow things down. I know how to look up CPU usage by process with top but when all applications begin to exhibit this behavior that's pretty much useless. Thanks, Rossen -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem
Hi Rossen, I have had similar problems in the past where having many tabs open in firefox would eventually cause the whole DE to freeze up. When this happens I would drop to tty1 and kill the firefox-bin process, and that would restore things. Start with the obvious: run an update, upgrade - to make sure you have the latest packages. Ditch compiz effects and try running like that for a while. What are your system specs? Try to narrow down the issue by recording trends, does it usually happen at a certain time of day, does it happen on certain websites etc. - it may be worth creating a new user and seeing if it happens on that account. Hope this helps, Bodsda Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device -Original Message- From: Rossen Stoyanchev rstoyanc...@yahoo.com Sender: ubuntu-uk-boun...@lists.ubuntu.com Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2011 01:29:07 To: ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com Reply-To: Rossen Stoyanchev rstoyanc...@yahoo.com, UK Ubuntu Talk ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com Subject: [ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem Hi- Apologies if this isn't the right place. Having started as a Ubuntu user in 7.04 I find myself completely baffled by the this one. Every now and then an application starts using a lot of CPU. This is typically when running Flash or Java typically in a browser but I'm not completely sure about what triggers. The strange thing is that once the problem occurs all applications become affected. Even simple things like opening a file browser or dragging windows around spikes the CPU to 100% for 10-15 seconds or longer. It's like a gradual melt-down with the system becoming unusable even for simple tasks. The only solution at that point is powering off the laptop completely, which takes a long time since all processes are now really slow to close down. Needless to say a very debilitating problem to have and I'm baffled as to how to narrow things down. I know how to look up CPU usage by process with top but when all applications begin to exhibit this behavior that's pretty much useless. Thanks, Rossen -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem
HI Rossen, I have seen the same problem from time to time. Once the load average gets above 4/5 I typically reboot, or kill the process responsible and go make a cup of tea while everything settles down again. What browser are you running? Until recently I was having a real headache with the flash plugin in Chromium. I switched to Google Chrome and haven't suffered nearly as much since. I have seen that video calls in Skype can be the culprit as well... not much i can do about that though Cheers, Matt On 24 February 2011 06:37, bod...@googlemail.com wrote: Hi Rossen, I have had similar problems in the past where having many tabs open in firefox would eventually cause the whole DE to freeze up. When this happens I would drop to tty1 and kill the firefox-bin process, and that would restore things. Start with the obvious: run an update, upgrade - to make sure you have the latest packages. Ditch compiz effects and try running like that for a while. What are your system specs? Try to narrow down the issue by recording trends, does it usually happen at a certain time of day, does it happen on certain websites etc. - it may be worth creating a new user and seeing if it happens on that account. Hope this helps, Bodsda Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device -Original Message- From: Rossen Stoyanchev rstoyanc...@yahoo.com Sender: ubuntu-uk-boun...@lists.ubuntu.com Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2011 01:29:07 To: ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com Reply-To: Rossen Stoyanchev rstoyanc...@yahoo.com, UK Ubuntu Talk ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com Subject: [ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem Hi- Apologies if this isn't the right place. Having started as a Ubuntu user in 7.04 I find myself completely baffled by the this one. Every now and then an application starts using a lot of CPU. This is typically when running Flash or Java typically in a browser but I'm not completely sure about what triggers. The strange thing is that once the problem occurs all applications become affected. Even simple things like opening a file browser or dragging windows around spikes the CPU to 100% for 10-15 seconds or longer. It's like a gradual melt-down with the system becoming unusable even for simple tasks. The only solution at that point is powering off the laptop completely, which takes a long time since all processes are now really slow to close down. Needless to say a very debilitating problem to have and I'm baffled as to how to narrow things down. I know how to look up CPU usage by process with top but when all applications begin to exhibit this behavior that's pretty much useless. Thanks, Rossen -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem
On 24 February 2011 09:29, Rossen Stoyanchev rstoyanc...@yahoo.com wrote: Hi- Apologies if this isn't the right place. Having started as a Ubuntu user in 7.04 I find myself completely baffled by the this one. Every now and then an application starts using a lot of CPU. This is typically when running Flash or Java typically in a browser but I'm not completely sure about what triggers. The strange thing is that once the problem occurs all applications become affected. Even simple things like opening a file browser or dragging windows around spikes the CPU to 100% for 10-15 seconds or longer. It's like a gradual melt-down with the system becoming unusable even for simple tasks. The only solution at that point is powering off the laptop completely, which takes a long time since all processes are now really slow to close down. Needless to say a very debilitating problem to have and I'm baffled as to how to narrow things down. I know how to look up CPU usage by process with top but when all applications begin to exhibit this behavior that's pretty much useless. I had that problem with Flash on 64-bit on my Dell XPS M1330. I've now gone to a PAE kernel as the only reason I had 64 bit was for memory access and that's mostly gone away. A BIOS update has also solved some of the colling problems that that model has with its NVIDIA graphics card. We would need more information about your setup to come up with a more specific solution. s/ -- Twitter: @sfgreenwood My CV: http://bit.ly/sfg http://bit.ly/sfgreenwood_cv_new_cv Is this your sanderling? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem
On 24 February 2011 09:29, Rossen Stoyanchev rstoyanc...@yahoo.com wrote: Hi- Apologies if this isn't the right place. Having started as a Ubuntu user in 7.04 I find myself completely baffled by the this one. Every now and then an application starts using a lot of CPU. This is typically when running Flash or Java typically in a browser but I'm not completely sure about what triggers. The strange thing is that once the problem occurs all applications become affected. Even simple things like opening a file browser or dragging windows around spikes the CPU to 100% for 10-15 seconds or longer. It's like a gradual melt-down with the system becoming unusable even for simple tasks. The only solution at that point is powering off the laptop completely, which takes a long time since all processes are now really slow to close down. Needless to say a very debilitating problem to have and I'm baffled as to how to narrow things down. I know how to look up CPU usage by process with top but when all applications begin to exhibit this behavior that's pretty much useless. Thanks, Rossen https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ The plugin-container of Firefox can go berserk on occasion. I have this problem on Ubuntu 10.04 64bit version. When I open system monitor I notice that the firefox process is file, bu the plugin container is on a bit of a rampage through system resources. If I kill the plugin-container process, things are back to normal and it does not kill firefox - although of course all the flash bits die but in a managable way. If you have this issue with the plugins causing problems, then try using flashblock firefox plugin, you will find you are using less memory if you do and it will help you control how much flash runs concurrently, especially if you have many tabs open. Thank you -- John Stevenson Lean Agile Consultant / Coach jr0cket.com | leanagilemachine.com -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem
On 24 February 2011 09:29, Rossen Stoyanchev rstoyanc...@yahoo.com wrote: Hi- Apologies if this isn't the right place. Having started as a Ubuntu user in 7.04 I find myself completely baffled by the this one. Every now and then an application starts using a lot of CPU. This is typically when running Flash or Java typically in a browser but I'm not completely sure about what triggers. The strange thing is that once the problem occurs all applications become affected. Even simple things like opening a file browser or dragging windows around spikes the CPU to 100% for 10-15 seconds or longer. It's like a gradual melt-down with the system becoming unusable even for simple tasks. The only solution at that point is powering off the laptop completely, which takes a long time since all processes are now really slow to close down. Needless to say a very debilitating problem to have and I'm baffled as to how to narrow things down. I know how to look up CPU usage by process with top but when all applications begin to exhibit this behavior that's pretty much useless. Thanks, I have actually experienced this quite a lot recently. The only way I know to properly stop it is to kill it in System Monitor. It seems to be quite specific to when Flash crashes. -- Regards, Kris Douglas. T. 0845 004 2066 | M. 07728574285 -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem
On 24 February 2011 09:47, John Stevenson j...@jr0cket.com wrote: On 24 February 2011 09:29, Rossen Stoyanchev rstoyanc...@yahoo.com wrote: ... If you have this issue with the plugins causing problems, then try using flashblock firefox plugin, you will find you are using less memory if you do and it will help you control how much flash runs concurrently, especially if you have many tabs open. +1 for the flashblock plugin. The effect is that flash is not run till you explicitly start it on the web page, unless you have told it to allow flash for that site. Colin -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem
Hi- Thanks for your responses. I will try to answer in one rather than individually. I have a Dell M2400 laptop, Nvidia graphics card (http://dell.to/fqyD5M). I run updates regularly. I am currently using the proprietary nvidia graphics driver. I was using nouveau previously but suspend wasn't working with it. The key to the problem is it affects all other processes and it doesn't go away by simply killing a specific process. What happens usually is I kill or stop firefox-bin, plugin-container, chrome and all other apps until the CPU calms down completely. However I can't start any new apps (e.g. nautilus) without seeing the CPU go to steady 100% for 10-15 seconds even for simple things. The only way out is to shut down and reboot. Because of this pattern it makes me think there is a bug in some lower-level service (like accessing the file system or graphics) that applications rely on but I'm not sure how to pin it down. I will try to look out more for patterns but it happens a lot when watching flash video (e.g. parleys.com) for extended periods of time, sometimes when using skype video. Recently I noticed a fairly isolated case when running a CPU-intensive Java build process (no browsers open at all). thanks, Ross -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem
On 24 February 2011 12:05, Rossen Stoyanchev rstoyanc...@yahoo.com wrote: Hi- Thanks for your responses. I will try to answer in one rather than individually. I have a Dell M2400 laptop, Nvidia graphics card (http://dell.to/fqyD5M). I run updates regularly. I am currently using the proprietary nvidia graphics driver. I was using nouveau previously but suspend wasn't working with it. The key to the problem is it affects all other processes and it doesn't go away by simply killing a specific process. What happens usually is I kill or stop firefox-bin, plugin-container, chrome and all other apps until the CPU calms down completely. However I can't start any new apps (e.g. nautilus) without seeing the CPU go to steady 100% for 10-15 seconds even for simple things. The only way out is to shut down and reboot. Because of this pattern it makes me think there is a bug in some lower-level service (like accessing the file system or graphics) that applications rely on but I'm not sure how to pin it down. I will try to look out more for patterns but it happens a lot when watching flash video (e.g. parleys.com) for extended periods of time, sometimes when using skype video. Recently I noticed a fairly isolated case when running a CPU-intensive Java build process (no browsers open at all). That is very similar to my problem: both Flash and Java apps caused exponential CPU usage. Shutting down everything would cause the machine to settle down but it wouldn't become stable until a full reboot. I would suggest checking to see if there's a BIOS update for the machine as I've just done that and it's seemed to resolve the heating issues that I had that apparently came from the Nvidia GPU. Also you don't mention the version and architecture of Ubuntu that you're using which might be useful to know. s/ -- Twitter: @sfgreenwood My CV: http://bit.ly/sfg http://bit.ly/sfgreenwood_cv_new_cv Is this your sanderling? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem
Hi Simon - out of interest, can I ask what BIOS version you have on the M1330 at the moment? I'm using my 32bit M1330, and have frequent issues with overheating. I'm wondering if a BIOS update might go some way to resolving it. Cheers, Matt On 24 February 2011 06:46, Simon Greenwood sfgreenw...@gmail.com wrote: On 24 February 2011 09:29, Rossen Stoyanchev rstoyanc...@yahoo.comwrote: Hi- Apologies if this isn't the right place. Having started as a Ubuntu user in 7.04 I find myself completely baffled by the this one. Every now and then an application starts using a lot of CPU. This is typically when running Flash or Java typically in a browser but I'm not completely sure about what triggers. The strange thing is that once the problem occurs all applications become affected. Even simple things like opening a file browser or dragging windows around spikes the CPU to 100% for 10-15 seconds or longer. It's like a gradual melt-down with the system becoming unusable even for simple tasks. The only solution at that point is powering off the laptop completely, which takes a long time since all processes are now really slow to close down. Needless to say a very debilitating problem to have and I'm baffled as to how to narrow things down. I know how to look up CPU usage by process with top but when all applications begin to exhibit this behavior that's pretty much useless. I had that problem with Flash on 64-bit on my Dell XPS M1330. I've now gone to a PAE kernel as the only reason I had 64 bit was for memory access and that's mostly gone away. A BIOS update has also solved some of the colling problems that that model has with its NVIDIA graphics card. We would need more information about your setup to come up with a more specific solution. s/ -- Twitter: @sfgreenwood My CV: http://bit.ly/sfg http://bit.ly/sfgreenwood_cv_new_cv Is this your sanderling? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/ -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem
From: Simon Greenwood sfgreenw...@gmail.com That is very similar to my problem: both Flash and Java apps caused exponential CPU usage. Shutting down everything would cause the machine to settle down but it wouldn't become stable until a full reboot. I would suggest checking to see if there's a BIOS update for the machine as I've just done that and it's seemed to resolve the heating issues that I had that apparently came from the Nvidia GPU. Also you don't mention the version and architecture of Ubuntu that you're using which might be useful to know. Sorry, I am running Ubuntu 10.04. Dell does have a new bios update for download (http://dell.to/ez3bkC), which I can try. However I thought I'd double check here before running it .. :) From the instructions: . If not already logged in as root, change user ID to root. 2. At the shell, switch to run level 1 by executing init 1. 3. Make the update program executable by executing chmod u+x update_program_name. 4. Run the update ... ... Is this a common way of updating the bios on Ubuntu? Running sudo init 1 from a gnome-terminal didn't quite work for me. I got a screen with text that eventually stopped running. Thankfully pressing the power button briefly responded by shutting down. Should I be doing all this without running X? Thanks, Rossen -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
Re: [ubuntu-uk] Strange high CPU usage problem
On 24 February 2011 12:30, Matt Sturdy matt.stu...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Simon - out of interest, can I ask what BIOS version you have on the M1330 at the moment? I'm using my 32bit M1330, and have frequent issues with overheating. I'm wondering if a BIOS update might go some way to resolving it. It was on A08 but I've just updated it to A15. I've actually gone back to using the machine for the first time in a year or so and decided to do something about the heating problem, and updating the BIOS was suggested. It can be done from Linux with a bit of judicious Googling. s/ -- Twitter: @sfgreenwood My CV: http://bit.ly/sfg http://bit.ly/sfgreenwood_cv_new_cv Is this your sanderling? -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
