Excessive CPU usage

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CollieJim
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Joined: June 23rd, 2007, 4:08 am

Excessive CPU usage

Post by CollieJim »

I have T-bird on 2 machines: a Toshiba Satellite M200 with a proper dual-core processor, and a Toshiba netbook with the Atom N280 which pretends to be dual-core (hyperthreading).

CPU usage on the Satellite is mostly around 4%, while on the netbook it is around 14%. It's the same for both T-bird 12 & 13. This is during what appears to be an idle state. No messages displayed, uploaded, or downloaded. No 'in-progress' animated icon. Compacted folders.

Why is more CPU used on the netbook? It's a noticeable drag on response time in other programs.

Thanks
Jim
daxx
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Re: Excessive CPU usage

Post by daxx »

maybe it's indexing ......... is global indexing enabled ?


 
CollieJim
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Joined: June 23rd, 2007, 4:08 am

Re: Excessive CPU usage

Post by CollieJim »

dunno - I'll check. But does it do it *all* the time???
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DanRaisch
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Re: Excessive CPU usage

Post by DanRaisch »

Does it do WHAT all the time? Global Indexing? No, it does that when there are new messages to be indexed but when first installed, or when a new account is added, it will take some time to build the index for all existing messages.
CollieJim
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Joined: June 23rd, 2007, 4:08 am

Re: Excessive CPU usage

Post by CollieJim »

Sorry. Global Indexing. I think global indexing is not the problem unless it's stuck in a loop. The extra 10% CPU over what the other system uses is all the time - 24/7 if I leave the computer on that long. When new messages are handled, CPU goes up to between 50% and 70% for a few seconds and then drops back to 14%.

There is something I can't find that is different about the netbook. They both use the same .thunderbird directory which is on a USB device. Perhaps it's the way USB is handled, but other USB operations do not appear to suffer.
dunsz
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Re: Excessive CPU usage

Post by dunsz »

CollieJim
Posts: 21
Joined: June 23rd, 2007, 4:08 am

Re: Excessive CPU usage

Post by CollieJim »

I am aware that the 4% system has a dual core 2GHz processor and the netbook's Atom N280 has a single core 1.66GHz processor. I would think that should only make things slower, not change the percentages. In the past T-bird has not been at the top of the 'top' screen.

BTW I use regularly updated Gentoo Linux on both machines.
wsmwk
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Re: Excessive CPU usage

Post by wsmwk »

same results in safe mode?
same results if you put thunderbird offline via File | offline | work offline ?
CollieJim
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Joined: June 23rd, 2007, 4:08 am

Re: Excessive CPU usage

Post by CollieJim »

Safe mode is not available, and offline makes no difference.
When T-bird is running, response to keyboard and mouse is sluggish.
I did find that I had the kernel configured for SMP - symmetric multiprocessing. When I cancelled that, the 14% dropped to 11.5%. This suggests that there may be another setting in the kernel's configuration that is contributing.
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James
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Re: Excessive CPU usage

Post by James »

Safe mode in Thunderbird, not Linux safe mode. Make sure Thunderbird is completely exited before trying to start Thunderbird in -safe-mode

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Safe_mode
CollieJim
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Joined: June 23rd, 2007, 4:08 am

Re: Excessive CPU usage

Post by CollieJim »

Thanks. It was the 'Everygain Translator' that was chewing cycles. Back to normal now.
wsmwk
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Re: Excessive CPU usage

Post by wsmwk »

CollieJim wrote:Thanks. It was the 'Everygain Translator' that was chewing cycles. Back to normal now.

you might want to contact the author of the addon
wsmwk
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Re: Excessive CPU usage

Post by wsmwk »

wsm wrote:
CollieJim wrote:Thanks. It was the 'Everygain Translator' that was chewing cycles. Back to normal now.

you might want to contact the author of the addon

Collie, did the addon get updated and fixed?
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