Hi,

not sure under what topic to post this but here goes...

I am running Mandrake 10.1 OE. I have 3 user accounts. One for me, one for my wife and one used as a test bed for settings, software etc.

I am running kernel 2.6.8.1-12 with KDE 3.2.

I noticed that when I log into my account the CPU usage hovers around 28%. I run 'top' in console and 99% of the 28% is associated with X.

However, if I log into my wife's account only about 4% of CPU usage is quoted, most of which is associated with X.

The test bed account repeats the behavior of my account, 28% CPU usage with no programs running.

The only program that all accounts run at starts up is superkaramba with the same systems monitor theme, but 'top' does not indicate that this is taking up much resources, only X on 2 of the accounts.

I have no idea where to begin looking to explain this and fix it. I suspect it is something that is preloading in KDE for 2 of the accounts but not sure what. Is there anyplace I can get a list of what is being run by X? Is there a log file I can reference?

Any help is appreciated and let me know if there is any data I could post that would help.

Regards,
Crispus

I don't know of any fix, but have you tried adding another user account and logging into it and see if the same thing occurs? Also, are your three user accounts the same like privilagewise?

Yes, all three accounts have the same privileges.

I think I fixed it. It turns out it was the superkaramba theme I was running. I modified it to increase or delete some of the interval settings (such as for HDD space monitoring) and it reduced the CPU usage. The theme I was running under the other account did not have these settings.

Regards,
Crispus

That would probably be the problem.

You will also notice an increase in CPU usage if you use a lot of KDEs effects such as shadows and see through menus. So one desktop that is heavily customised will show different CPU usage to one that is left essentially standard on the same machine.

Cheers