[Solved] CPU at 100%

[T6]

from that lspci i can conclude that you have the same video card i have with the same amount of vram, 128 mbs, it is reporting 256 in my machine too

your monitor is reverting to 1024 because your xorg doesn't have more entries for bigger resolutions

it would be good that you reconfigure the video card by opening pclinux control center/hardware/configure video card/graphic card

select the option vendor/ati/radeon x1950 and earlier

in the next window set enable 3d hardware acceleration and translucency, also enable graphical interface

go back to the configure video card and in the monitor search for your monitor, if it is not present use generic and search for the maximum resolution you can do with it, if this doesn't work try monitor plug and play

if this causes you to not being able to log in to graphical desktop you can call pcc again by writing in console drakconf(as root)

[melodie]

Hi,

I agree with T6 for what he says just above. In the PCC you ought to setup monitor *and* resolution to the same values. Additionally, I suggest you install libmesagl1 (Mesa is an OpenGL 2.1 compatible 3D graphics library) if you don't already have it. You may avoid mesa and mesa-demos, but maybe would you want to see the info from the command "glxinfo" or "glxinfo | grep rendering".

It doesn't matter if the rendering is enabled, you will have a nicer display. Just don't use Compiz which needs more resources, and the cpu should not be 100% used.

[T6]

the thing is that compiz is not the problem, i have similar hardware and my system is usually at 5% of usage

the problem is not compiz

[melodie]

the thing is that compiz is not the problem, i have similar hardware and my system is usually at 5% of usage

the problem is not compiz

Hi,

The specs of the machines need to be compared : cpu brand and model, and ram. My guess is that if the cpu and ram are more generous on one machine than on another, the result will be different, not to mention the desktop chosen.

[T6]

"The specs of the machines need to be compared : cpu brand and model, and ram."

the specs of the op machine

"I am using an old P4 1.8Mhz machine with 768MB RAM and running PLOS 2010 (Gnome)"

my specs, semprom at 1.6 ghz, 1280 mbs of ram and kde4

i have less cpu using a heavier desktop and still run very fast compiz while rarely i see more than 500 mbs of ram used, normally is only 200 to 400 mbs

the only difference here is the monitor

i ruled out compiz from the list of possible problems for that, it is a driver problem i believe caused by the resolution of the monitor but can't be 100% sure

[melodie]

Maybe are your right, and maybe not. You have AMD Sempron, vs Pentium 4. It's possible that AMD Sempron provides more power (regardless to the speed, which is not the only criteria). What about the motherboard, the FSB, the bogomips ? And you have more ram too.

[T6]

"Maybe are your right, and maybe not. You have AMD Sempron, vs Pentium 4. It's possible that AMD Sempron provides more power (regardless to the speed, which is not the only criteria)"

in the best case it is as fast as that P4

bogomips?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogomips

"BogoMips (from "bogus" and MIPS) is an unscientific measurement of CPU speed made by the Linux kernel when it boots, to calibrate an internal busy-loop.[1] An oft-quoted definition of the term is "the number of million times per second a processor can do absolutely nothing."

"And you have more ram too"

if the ram is not used, it doesn't help

[melodie]

Ok, bogomips and ram are out on this one. Still, the cpu's are different.

[T6]

yes, mine is slower or as fast as that but lets stop hijacking this post 

[melodie]

yes, mine is slower or as fast as that but lets stop hijacking this post 

Ok !

[gdesilva]

Hi all,

Sorry I missed out on the interesting exchange of ideas - I was just about to try out some of the ideas when disaster struck! My hard disk has died - in fact I was wondering whether this could have caused some of the problems. Most likely this was not the case as the moment I offloaded compiz everything was looking good at least in terms of cpu utilization. I will need to wait a couple of days more before I can get a new hard disk installed and try out your ideas.

Thanks for all your time and suggestions and I will get back to you once I have a spinning hard disk!

[T6]

"I was just about to try out some of the ideas when disaster struck! My hard disk has died - in fact I was wondering whether this could have caused some of the problems"

sorry to hear that, i hope you didn't lost important information

i once had a failing hard disk in linux, cpu usage indeed went to sky but hard disk also sounded like a turbine so if this wasn't the case, no, probably not

[gdesilva]

My hard disk also was making a lot of noise before packing up completely and hence my suspicion about the disk causing high cpu utilization. However, as I mentioned earlier, unloading compiz did bring the cpu utilization down to less than 5% at idle.

Anyway, I will keep you posted on this issue once I get the new hard disk installed which may not be till next week.

[gdesilva]

My system is back up after many other heartaches

I replaced the broken hard disk and tried to install the system - end up trying to install more than six-seven times but could not get grub installed. As a last resort I swapped the disk with another one and voila! it all came good.

I checked the cpu utilization after the install and was within 1 - 2 % (idle) as I expected. However, the moment I install and run compiz cpu hits the ceiling. Yes, I have libmesagl1 installed as well and glxinfo tells me that direct rendering is enabled.

Although my card is the same as what T6 has it appears running compiz is not an option in my system - so I have uninstalled compiz. Happy to run without compiz and have a better performance - thanks to both of you for your suggestions.

[T6]

sorry to hear you have those problems