DJWillis

Q: "google chrome helper" using too much CPU?

If you open the Activity Monitor and see that a process called "google chrome helper" is using too much CPU, here's how I fixed it:

 

I went to Chrome settings/content settings/Plugins and selected Click To Play for all plugins.  (The default is Run Automatically.)

 

This fixed my problem.  Now you have to click whenever you want to run a youtube video or other plugins, but it's worth it.  It stops those stupid Flash ads from loading, too, so that's an extra bonus.

 

I'm posting this because when I had the problem, I couldn't find any solutions at all.

Posted on Nov 17, 2013 4:34 PM

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Q: "google chrome helper" using too much CPU?

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  • by SGfromrockbourne,

    SGfromrockbourne SGfromrockbourne Jun 6, 2015 6:33 AM in response to DJWillis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2015 6:33 AM in response to DJWillis

    Hi -  please can you tell me if the  'let me choose when to play plug-in content' in content-settings  is the 'click to play' setting you are referring to?

     

    many thanks

  • by lovelycrimsonred,

    lovelycrimsonred lovelycrimsonred Jun 6, 2015 6:59 AM in response to SGfromrockbourne
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2015 6:59 AM in response to SGfromrockbourne

    I tried both "Detect and run important plugins" and "Let me choose when to run plugin content." I decided to go with "Dectect and run" because there were some plugins that I couldn't click to run, like the Facebook photo uploader, so it was a royal pain to have it set to "Let me choose." I am still getting some unusual fan action and I've had one computer "freak out" since making the switch, but at least my computer has been performing better and the problem isn't happening as often.

  • by SGfromrockbourne,

    SGfromrockbourne SGfromrockbourne Jun 6, 2015 9:21 AM in response to lovelycrimsonred
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 6, 2015 9:21 AM in response to lovelycrimsonred

    great thanks so much - I need to restart to see if it's made a difference but fingers crossed for some renewed speed and less beach ball viewing 

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM Jun 6, 2015 12:15 PM in response to Mursa ArtDragons
    Level 6 (14,147 points)
    iPad
    Jun 6, 2015 12:15 PM in response to Mursa ArtDragons

    What video are you trying to stream?

    I have been using Firefox for many years to stream video from Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Vimeo,etc. with no lag or issues.

    I use pop-up ad blockers with Firefox and other extensions that squelch banner ads, as well.

    You need to keep most web browsers from processing other web content on a site to be able to more effectively stream video?

    Your Mac may have other issues, also, preventing your Mac from processing Streaming video.

    What year and model Mac do you own?

    How much RAM does your Mac have?

    How full is your Mac's hard drive?

    Do you run a lot of other applications in the background while trying to stream online video.

    How many apps do you have launching at startup/login?

    Too many apps running in the background use up RAM and other CPU processes.

    Do have any unnecessary anti virus and/or cleaning apps like MacKeeper, CleanMyMac, TuneUpMy Mac, MacCleanse, etc on your Mac?

    Is Adobe Flash Player up to date?

    Do you use Google Drive, as well? I would either disable or totally uninstall Google Drive, if you do.

  • by SGfromrockbourne,

    SGfromrockbourne SGfromrockbourne Jun 8, 2015 9:28 AM in response to lovelycrimsonred
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 8, 2015 9:28 AM in response to lovelycrimsonred

    Just to say my laptop is MUCH better so thank-you VV much!

    Wow evil Chrome Helper - or should we call it Chrome Unhelper

  • by Steve Basile,

    Steve Basile Steve Basile Jul 2, 2015 9:50 PM in response to SGfromrockbourne
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Apple TV
    Jul 2, 2015 9:50 PM in response to SGfromrockbourne

    Chrome has been a kludge of bad code for years. It's a resource hog even on good days. This is just one of many things it does badly.

  • by ShlomitH,

    ShlomitH ShlomitH Jul 28, 2015 3:31 AM in response to DJWillis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 28, 2015 3:31 AM in response to DJWillis

    Hi,

    I'm unable to find "settings/content settings/Plugins and selected Click To Play for all plugins"

    I do find contend settings under Privacy, but there is no "click to play".

    Perhaps it's different now? What do I need to turn off?

    thank you

    Shlomit

     

     

    Screen Shot 2015-07-28 at 13.20.35 28-7-15.png

  • by Scott Wager,

    Scott Wager Scott Wager Aug 11, 2015 8:51 PM in response to ShlomitH
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 11, 2015 8:51 PM in response to ShlomitH

    Hi, I am 95% sure that 'Let me choose when to run plugin content' is the exact same as 'click to play'. When this option is enabled and something needs to run a plugin you literally need to click on it to make it play. Hope this helps.

  • by gjedwards,

    gjedwards gjedwards Sep 16, 2015 5:21 PM in response to Scott Wager
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 16, 2015 5:21 PM in response to Scott Wager

    Hi folks, I'll share a solution I found to my version of this problem.

     

    I've been having very high cpu, driving both fans to max on my MBP Mavericks 10.9.5, latest Chrome 45.0.2454.85 (64-bit) when playing some vides from news sites, eg. New York Times. The cpu usage was from Google Chrome Helper, several instances.


    My screen resolution was in a funny state, supposedly 1680 x 1050 but my Terminal screen was anti-aliasing the text instead of plain sharp-edge pixels. I used my little menubar helper app SetResX to reset to1680 x 1050. The screen size didn't change, but the Terminal font went back to normal (not anti-aliased) and the Helper usage dropped way down to reasonable levels.

     

    My guess is that the screen was in a funny state and possibly forcing expensive AA (Anti Aliasing) on the video rendering (of the NYT clip). So if you're having huge cpu when playing video, try changing your screen resolution, and change it back to what you want, to "shake up" the rendering settings. If you don't have SetResX, which gives you direct access to all the sizes the Nvidia chip can do, incl. the nice 2800x1880, you cpould just the dumbed-down native options in the Prefernces / Displays panel.

     

    Ciao, Greg E.

  • by cgaybba,

    cgaybba cgaybba Sep 16, 2015 10:27 PM in response to DJWillis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 16, 2015 10:27 PM in response to DJWillis

    I have a MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012) with OS X Yosemite (10.10.5) and found that my fan speed is way fast and I could hear it as I would when doing high CPU processing.

     

    I reset my PRAM and SMC to no avail. Then, searching around and found that 'Google Chrome Helper' was the problem. Well, I've tried the Chrome tricks listed in this thread but it didn't work.

     

    I have 4 pinned tabs permanently in Google Chrome. When I "Force Quit" the two Google Chrome Helper CPU hogs, I saw that 2 of my pinned tabs have the "Aw, snap" icons and my fan speed when down until I can't hear it any more.

     

    I opened up the two tabs, refresh the pages and viola... no more fan noise and 'Google Chrome Helper' isn't hogging my CPU any more (the max CPU usage is about 11%).

     

    Well, this seemed to fix my problem.

  • by vikas027,

    vikas027 vikas027 Oct 17, 2015 8:16 AM in response to DJWillis
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 17, 2015 8:16 AM in response to DJWillis

    Does anyone know what is the correct option in the latest version of Chrome 46.0.2490.71 (64-bit) ? These are my default settings.2015-10-18_02-12-02.png

    Any, 'Manager individual plugins' have this.

    2015-10-18_02-12-38.png

  • by Tiny Wits,

    Tiny Wits Tiny Wits Nov 11, 2015 12:11 PM in response to Steve Basile
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 11, 2015 12:11 PM in response to Steve Basile

    ok, but what do I do if I really need help w/ Chrome going all weird?  I've lost Chrome App Launcher and can't get any apps w/o a search!

  • by Tys294,

    Tys294 Tys294 Nov 17, 2015 2:00 AM in response to khloros
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 17, 2015 2:00 AM in response to khloros

    I got the same problem before, first I tried to check how many tabs in my chrome that I did used before, and after that I tried to close some tabs and it works to decreased the Google Chrome Helper.

  • by TimothyLowe,

    TimothyLowe TimothyLowe Dec 7, 2015 5:45 AM in response to DJWillis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 7, 2015 5:45 AM in response to DJWillis

    Awesome, thanks!
    My CPU went from 106% for google chrome helper to

    2%. Freaking awesome!

    I couldn't type let alone scroll in my browser now all is smooth.

    Thanks!

  • by bmoved,

    bmoved bmoved Dec 22, 2015 3:53 PM in response to DJWillis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 22, 2015 3:53 PM in response to DJWillis

    I have been battling with my Macbook Pro hanging and running slow for awhile now, and I only recently discovered that Google Chrome Helper may have been part of the problem. I tried the fix with the "click to play" Plug-In, and I was still having an average of 10 instances of Helper bogging me down. I recently switched to Opera. Opera does have a similar "helper", but so far it doesn't affect things as drastically as Chrome was. Time will tell. Opera is worth a look as a browner, at least in my opinion.

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