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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Osx Finder Causes High Cpu Usage

redsnapper - Jun 17, 2005 - 1:36 pm

whenever i have the Finder running on my powerbook (running OSX10.3.9) it sends the CPU into overdrive, consuming over 85% of the capacity...and as a result verything crawls to a halt...

this only seems to have happened in the last week or so..and i'm not sure if thr latest Apple update that i did may have altered something somewhere


any suggestions

bobw - Jun 17, 2005 - 2:23 pm

Hi Keith

Are you seeing this in the Activity Monitor?
Have you added any Startup Items?

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Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support

redsnapper - Jun 17, 2005 - 2:51 pm

Are you seeing this in the Activity Monitor?

yes....with no Finder active the activity monitor shows 15% user / %5 system and 80% idle. Start up finder and the system immediately shoots up to 80% with 0% idle. If i use Quit Process to close down Fiinder the CPU usage returns to the previous low level

Have you added any Startup Items?

no

any ideas?

bobw - Jun 17, 2005 - 2:55 pm

Keith

Have you tried restarting?
Repairing Permissions?
Running 'fsck'?


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Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support

redsnapper - Jun 17, 2005 - 3:00 pm

Have you tried restarting?

several times....

Repairing Permissions?
Running 'fsck'?

neither of those....remind me how to repair permissions?!

bobw - Jun 17, 2005 - 3:08 pm

Keith

Repair Permissions using Disk Utility in your Utility folder.
When done that, trash the Finder Preference - com.apple.finder.plist

located here;

user>library>preferences

Then run 'fsck";

To run fsck, you first need to start up your Mac in single-user mode. Here's how:

1. Restart your Mac.

2. Immediately press and hold the Command and "S" keys.

You'll see a bunch of text begin scrolling on your screen. In a few more seconds, you'll see the Unix command line prompt (#).

You're now in single-user mode.

Now that you're at the # prompt, here's how to run fsck:

1. Type: "fsck -f" (that's fsck-space-minus-f).

2. Press Return.

The fsck utility will blast some text onto your screen. If there's damage to your disk, you'll see a message that says:

***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

If you see this message--and this is extremely important-- repeat running fsck. It is normal to have to run fsck more than once -- the first run's repairs often uncover additional problems..

When fsck finally reports that no problems were found, and the # prompt reappears:

3. Type: "reboot" to restart,

or type "exit" to start up without rebooting.

4. Press Return.

Your Mac should proceed to start up normally to the login window or the Finder.






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Bobw - Macosx.com Tech Support

redsnapper - Jun 17, 2005 - 3:15 pm

thanks Bob.....i managed to delete the preferences file and all seems hunky dory again now....I;ll run a check on permissions now

Mightily impressed with the speed and thoroughness of your replies

Keith