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10.4: Increase the system's process limits
Authored by: ChrisAllison on Jul 27, '05 05:47:19PM
I have a thing on my menu bar that tells me what % of the processor is being used.

Since I upgraded to Tiger, it's at or near 100% most of the day. Even if all that is open is Mail.

This thing lists Processor, Uptime, Tasks/Threads, and Load Average.

The Processor readout indicates how much of your computer's processor is being used at any given time. The Tasks/Threads readout is specifying how many processes are running.

As you know from firsthand experience (ie: just having mail running), the number of processes is not necessarily tied directly to the percent of the processor being used. One process can tie up the entire cpu if it's either doing a lot of work (on purpose), or doing a lot of unecessary work (sitting there and spinning its wheels - malfunctioning).

That's what I call "sluggish." It was definitely not the case pre-Tiger upgrade.

The Activity Console shows WindowServer using the most of the CPU at all times.

The parent hint describes how to allow your computer run more processes, but from the sound of things, (WindowServer chewing up most of your processor), you need to fix what you already have running. Your problblockquote is not a limit on how many processes you can run, but one (perhaps more?) runaway process.

While I have not updated to Tiger yet, my experience with Major OS X updates has been performance improvblockquoteents, and I have not heard that contradicated anywhere. Sounds like something might be messed up on your systblockquote.

I use Macaroni on automated schedules, DiskWarrior once a month

A quick Google turned up this Macaroni Page. While it doesn't look (based on the description) that Macaroni could be responsible for the WindowServer running out of control, I don't really know anything about Macaroni, and it's possible that a failure to upgrade that (or perhaps some other systblockquote modification?) could be responsible.

Without knowing more about your system (and, ideally: access to it), I can't really tell you anything more, but I wish you luck in regaining those processor cycles.



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