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Getting very high System CPU usage


stupid2ass
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Hi all.

 

My specs:

Asus A8N-e

Opteron 165

1GB dual channel PC3200

Nvidia 6200 128MB (non-TC)

200GB IDE drive

 

I just did the 10.4.3 install and I was puzzled why iTunes was skipping.

I loaded up Activity Monitor and saw very high CPU usage (low user but 50% CPU Usage).

 

What do I tune to get it down to reasonable levels? Both CPUs are getting very high usage which is abnormal since I'm not doing anything.

 

This is a native install off the DVD image floating around and I haven't tweaked anything.

 

Thx for the help.

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Where do you type that in (is that at the "boot:" screen)?

If it's at the "boot:" commandline screen then I did that already and the CPU usage has not improved (System resources still taking 50%.

 

I'm wondering if it's perhaps because I'm not running in SSE.

 

I'm confused where to get the patches necessary to undo the SSE3 emulator patch.

 

There is that Pacthes dir in the root but when I restored the mach_kernel.orig I ended up having to reinstall since OSX refused to boot at that point.

 

TIA for helping a n00b.

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The boot screen is the part you see when you first begin to boot into OSX, where you'll see something about Darwin, and Pressing F8 to enter advanced boot options. Press F8, and then try typing Platform=x86PC.

 

In regards to the patches, did you rename the mach_kernel.orig to just mach_kernel after replacing it? BTW, you only want to replace your current kernel with the original kernel if you do have an SSE3 processor.

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That's exactly what I did, hit f8, boot: prompt comes and I type Platform=X86PC and hit Enter.

I do have an SSE3 capable CPU (CPU-Z reports it properly in Windows) which is why I did the rename. I dunno why it refused to boot soonafter.

I don't remember it being this slow when I installed 10.4.1 before. Now everytime there's a disk activity the system essentially "pauses".

 

Looking at the Activity Monitor, kernel_task is taking 100% of a CPU core. I tried selecting the mach_kernel.orig (copied it over to the root) at the boot: screen and same behavior as when I did the file replacement where it seems to get stuck and the PC eventually resets.

 

Also is there any way to do patch just the kernel and not the entire DVD image?

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Resolved the issue with the high CPU usage.

The Mac didn't like one of my RAM sticks in dual-channel mode. Took out one of the RAM and it worked fine. Odd thing is it works great in XP. Ah well, at least I can use the Mac just fine now :dev:

Thanks all for the suggestions.

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Hi all.

 

My specs:

Asus A8N-e

Opteron 165

1GB dual channel PC3200

Nvidia 6200 128MB (non-TC)

200GB IDE drive

 

I just did the 10.4.3 install and I was puzzled why iTunes was skipping.

I loaded up Activity Monitor and saw very high CPU usage (low user but 50% CPU Usage).

 

What do I tune to get it down to reasonable levels? Both CPUs are getting very high usage which is abnormal since I'm not doing anything.

 

This is a native install off the DVD image floating around and I haven't tweaked anything.

 

Thx for the help.

 

 

hey there, my opteron bretherin!!!

we have the same processor.

you do know that you're packin' a FX-60 if you overclock that sum-bish!!!????

im currently running at 2.6 ghz =)

 

anyways.

i had the same problem. try booting to darwin (press F8 right after selecting OSX from the boot menu) and then when its at the darwin bootloader, type:

 

idlehalt=0 platform=ACPI

 

you should be fine =)

no more stuttering, works amazing. faster than any G5 i've used at my current speed.

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Thanks careless. THat worked even better. I guess it's ACPI that's screwing it up.

I don't feel the need to OC just yet. I doubt my crappy RAM can handle it. It's fast enough native and I don't do much PC gaming which is why I'm kicking the tires with OSX. I'm willing to pay up for this OS if Stevie ever puts one out that's standalone :P.

 

Now if only I can get video.google.com to work :whistle:

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