High Cpu usage
 

I've tried everything I can think of I don't think its "debian" that is my problem however that is the distro I'm using and I dunno where to post this...

I'm using the latest version of Xorg ..Kernel 2.6.8-2 ..I load up after a fresh install Xfce (doesn't matter what GUI I use I've tried them all including flux) ..Check cpu usage in Top everything looks ok untill I open a program or start doing something then it spikes to 99% lets say I'm viewing a web page or browsing the internet the cpu usage goes very high and doesn't come down ..I've been struggling so much with this and I have no idea what to do any help I would appricate :)

Are you able to post your system specs?

Also, does it only happen in XFCE or in all WM/DEs?

all gnome,kde,Xfce,fluxbox

AMD AthlonXP 3000+
Asus AV7400A
512 DDR400
80Gig HDD

it happens with Xfree86 but mostly Xorg since its the one I use (latest version)

Kernel 2.6.8-2

my GFX is onboad S3 UniChrome (not installed just using via that comes with basic setting up xorg)

open a term and type top

you'll see what's eating all your CPU cycles.

If you need a gui program instead of top, you can use ksysguard or gnome-system-monitor

Sorry was afk for a while ...Like I said in my first post its xorg thats taking up my cpu hence the gui say I scroll in a browser window while looking at a website xorg goes up

Hmmm, thats odd. Debian's X.org packages come from Ubuntu, and Ubuntu doesn't have those problems.

Which video card are you using?

its intergrated S3 Unichrome on my ASUS baord

Please post the output of lspci :)

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [KM400/A] Chipset Host Bridge
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge
0000:00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
0000:00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
0000:00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
0000:00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
0000:00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
0000:00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
0000:00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
0000:00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [S3 UniChrome] Integrated Video (rev 01)

I'm thinking this may be a problem with the X.org driver for your video card. Do you happen to have Debian running on another computer? Also, which version of X.org are you running?

I have a feeling you are correct, I've searched around alot and I have a feeling thats it as well, I'm using the latest version of Xorg I have also tried Xfree86 and noticed it had the same problem though, when ever I did something the CPU usage would go up, prehabs I should try a different distro? (even though I tested it on Ubuntu and debian) and I don't see how that would make much differnce however I did find a thread once about high CPU usage with S3 UniChrome GFX card, however it was beyond me on how to install that patch or driver they gave no information on how to do it or what to do they just mentioned it.

Hmmmm.....How did you try XFree86? Did you try an older distro or did you compile it yourself? Anyways, you could always try something like a SUSE live CD or Knoppix or Mandriva Move or something. In that other thread with the same card as yours, was the person using Debian or a derivative?

I just used apt-get to install Xfree86, was when I first used debian ...Ill try using FeatherLinux rite now and see how that goes ill pop in the cd and check :)

hmm same results with Featherlinux although Xorg wasnt on the live cd so it was Xvesa and it wasn't AS bad but still I noticed when I opened firefox XVesa and firefox took up all my CPU ...it doesn't seem normal I've used linux on the machine im on right now for a long time and never had problems like this... btw what post were u speaking of?

Go into your BIOS after running your computer for a bit and see how hot your CPU is running. I have an AMD Athlon XP 2200+, so not too far down from yours, that was overheating at one point and causing my computer to run slow. I put some new thermal paste on the CPU, and it started running cooler and faster.

An AMD Athlon XP should be somewhere in the range of 43-48 degrees in my experience, even after running the computer for a few days.

ok Ill check that now, its been running for about a week straight, rite now the sensors tell me 47.5 but ill check my bios ...I've put a new fan on with some paste etc it was in the 50s but its dropped a few degrees ...

Let me know if it starts running better after this. :)

Although the 50's shouldn't have boosted up the CPU usage that much. Try FreeSBIE (FreeBSD based live CD) to see if it is a Linux only problem or if it affects X Windows in General, including on the BSD's. Might lead to some more clues.

Anyways, ttyl

Tried the freebsd live cd and tbh I dunno what im doing there is no GUI

Hmm, that's odd. http://www.freesbie.org/?section=screenshot-en

Maybe your card isn't supported under BSD, which doesn't make sense seeing as it is a fairly common card that I have used under FreeBSD on my old computer.

Did you try a live CD from a different distro like Mandriva or SUSE?

hmm I had a live CD of something laying around but Ill try another distro see how that goes

Same problem even with the correct driver
 

I'm using Kubuntu, and I'm having similar problems. The cpu usage doesn't go that high, but remains around 40%, with X.org being responsible for somewhat more than 20%. Things were worse before, but this cpu usage is still much higher than it was before yesterday. Yesterday restarting X still worked, as cpu usage droped down to 8%, but today this doesn't work anymore. Reading this thread, I've looked for the correct driver and I've noticed that it wasn't installed, although it was in xorg.conf. I've installed it using adept_manager and things got slightly better, but it's not the ideal yet. I don't know how to check if this is due to logging activity or anything else, because the only crazy app in 'top' is Xorg.