CPU "hung up" when switching apps

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CPU "hung up" when switching apps

A few day ago whenever i noticed that my computer was getting these weird "hang ups" every time I switched applications. If I were looking for a file in finder, and wanted to look something up on safari, then when I switched to safari it would take about 80% of my cpu power, as soon as that was done, a thread named systemUIserver would come up for a half second, using the same amount of cpu power, happening(the beach ball was spinning while this was all happening) and when all that was finally finished I could get on with doing what I wanted. The same thing sometimes will happen if I am working on something, like for example, typing this message in safari, twice I think it happened, when I was typing safari started using about 80% of my cpu power, followed by the systemUIserver, it only happens for about 3-4 seconds, but it completely stops everything from happening during that time. this happens in all my apps, mail, system monitor, iTunes, finder. this is really annoying, as I often times am switching between apps very frequently, and it slows everything way down.

Any help would be appreciated
TAC

iBook G4, 1.42 GHz, 512, Super drive, Mac OS X (10.4.8), iPod mini, and a 801.11 D-link wireless base

Posted on Oct 11, 2006 9:48 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 11, 2006 1:38 PM in response to ace chef

ace chef,

I've seen your other threads on the same issue.

If your iPod is plugged in to the Mac, eject and remove it.

Have you tried trashing com.apple.systemuiserver.plist, logging out and then logging in to create a "clean" copy?

It's still a really good idea to make your normal account an ordinary user.

-Wayne

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Answer 2

ace chef Author

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Oct 11, 2006 1:57 PM in response to ParentalUnit

Thanks for the suggestion,

But...I just tried it, and there was no change what-so-ever, my ipod is not hooked up, so that's not it either.

The only thing that fixes it is giving my user account admin powers, which I no you (and others) said is a bad idea, but I will continue to do that until I can figure out what the problem is. Plus i was thinking, what is the advantage of not having your whole computer effected by something, i am the only user, so there is only one account with anything on it, if i lost that account, would it really matter is i had the rest of my system? maybe I am missing something obvious, and if so please tell me so.

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Answer 3

Oct 11, 2006 4:00 PM in response to ace chef

I'm a little confused. There MUST be at least one administrator account on each Mac. So, it's not a surprise you can't turn of administration from the only user that's on your computer. If you want to use a non-administrator user for your day-to-day activities, you'll have to create at least one new user and give up administration rights for one of them.

If you don't want to mess with moving all your existing pictures and files around to a new user, you can create a new administrator user THEN turn off administration by your original account and keep using it.

As far as troubleshooting your problems, I'd be very curious to know of a brand new user has the same kinds of trouble. If they do, then you have a system-wide problem. If they don't then your original user has a preference or setting that's causing the problem.

-Doug

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Answer 4

ace chef Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 11, 2006 4:07 PM in response to Douglas McLaughlin

let me explain.

A few days ago I created a new admin account, and revoked my user accounts admin abilities, so I now have an admin account, and a user account. But then the problems started, with switching between apps and all. But I found that I could stop those probs by giving the admin privileges back to my user account. so until I can figure out what the problem is (whit my user account, when it is a standard account) I am planing to keep the admin privileges on my user account, as the switching problem made my computer deathly slow. If you have any other questions I would be glad to answer them, as I would like to resolve this issue.

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Answer 5

Oct 11, 2006 5:27 PM in response to ace chef

Ah, I see. That makes much more sense now. So, if you log in as the brand new user (admin or otherwise) does that user experience the same or similar trouble? Does it make a difference if you change the administration abilities on that user? If we can determine that it's only happening to your original user, then there's some different troubleshooting we can try.

-Doug

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Answer 6

ace chef Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 11, 2006 6:28 PM in response to Douglas McLaughlin

The problem does not effect my admin account. My user account (which right now has admin privileges) is not currently effected either, but as soon as I take away the admin privileges, it starts funking up. I do not know if the admin account would be effected if I revoke the admin privileges on that. I will try tomorrow and see.

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Answer 7

Oct 11, 2006 7:30 PM in response to ace chef

ace chef,

Dumping and rebuilding the plist didn't help?

Here are some reasons why it's a bad idea to run as admin:
1) When an admin messes up, the entire machine is borked. An ordinary account can accidentally damage only its own home folder.
2) Access (from the keyboard or over the internet) to an admin account gives control over everything. Things can be done to/installed on your computer and hidden from you much more easily.
a. Which means that if you surf as an admin and install anything, you've
opened yourself up to a world of hurt.
3) When things go wrong, a separate admin account can fix other accounts. On a single account machine, you're, um, totally out of luck.

-Wayne

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Answer 8

ace chef Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 11, 2006 7:40 PM in response to ParentalUnit

Ok,

Thanks for the reasons of why I should use a user account, I want to, but until can figure out this problem then I can't. though if I lost my accout couldn't i just reinstall the os and start over, basicly the same as just creating a new user, only reinstalling the os first, so as to wipe everthing? (I know I am nit picking here, but I just want to make sure the reasons are sound)

No, dumping and rebuilding the plist, did not have any effect what so ever

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Answer 9

Oct 11, 2006 8:12 PM in response to ace chef

Post back and let us know if the other account is affected.

-Doug

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Answer 10

ace chef Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 12, 2006 9:33 AM in response to Douglas McLaughlin

Ok,

I couldn't revoke the admin privileges on the admin account that had I made a few days ago, so I just made a new standard user account, and there were no problems with it. So I guess that the problem is in my home folder. But as I said before, it only happens when I revoke the admin abilities on the account that I use, if it has admin powers, then there is no problem.

Ohhh, well, for the last year I surfed, downloaded, installed and basically lived out of my admin account (the only one that I had at the time)...so hopefully I didn't screw up the system to much.....:-(

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Answer 11

Oct 12, 2006 11:04 AM in response to ace chef

There's nothing, technically, wrong with living inside an administrator account. It's a question of security whether or not you want to do that. If there was some kind of breach of your security, there could be more damage done from an administrator account than a standard account.

Since we can be fairly certain the issue is only with your original account (ignoring the admin/standard issue for now), then there is another step we can try to troubleshoot the issue, if you like. Since the issue is only with your user, we could move your user's entire "Preferences" folder to the Desktop, log out and log back in to see if the trouble continues. A new Preferences folder will automatically be created. If this fixes the trouble, then you can add your original preference files (two or three at a time) to the new folder, log out and log back in to see if you can determine which file is causing the trouble.

Now, there will need to be at least one other administrator user on the computer before you will be allowed to take away your own administrator privileges. If you have another test user, you could make them the administrator and then revoke your own privileges for this testing.

-Doug

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Answer 12

ace chef Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 12, 2006 11:28 AM in response to Douglas McLaughlin

Thanks Doug,

I will try removing and rebuilding the Preferences file when I find the time to do it all, (probably some time this weekend). Just making sure that we are talking about the same file though, It is the one inside my user library, labeled "preferences". Correct?

There is one other administer account, (that I set up about a week ago) and the test account, which I will most likely delete.

About using an admin account: I understand that it is more "secure" to use a user account. But look at this situation, and tell me what you think: say you have only one account, and it is an administer. We will say that that user downloads an application that contains a virus. Now say they lose there whole home folder. All doc's, picture, etc. They would have to either, a). find and get ride of the virus, or b). Reinstall the OS, after first wiping the disk. Now if you had an administer account, and a user account, and the same scenario happened: the user account gets a virus, and it wipes to home folder. The person has lost all there "stuff" and, as far as I know, having the administer account will do nothing to remedy that. it would allow you to start over form scratch, but that is basically the same as wiping the disk and reinstalling the OS, correct? I Know this is rather nit-pickish of me, but I am just curious as to what the admin account is really good for.

Thank you for all time,
TAC

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Answer 13

Oct 12, 2006 11:38 AM in response to ace chef

Yes, the folder you'll want to move to your Desktop can be found in this path:

<Macintosh HD>/Users/<your user short name>/Library/Preferences

If you're logged in as an administrator, a virus or some kind of malware could, potentially, move out of your user's folder and infect system files/folders and/or other users. Since standard users do not have access to files/folders outside of their own user's home folder, an infection could not easily move out of the standard user's home folder. That's the protection that using a standard user for day-to-day operations should give you.

-Doug

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Answer 14

Oct 12, 2006 11:46 AM in response to ace chef

TAC,

That's an extreme (and extremely unlikely) scenario.

Malware is much more likely to corrupt a subset of your user's files. From the administrator account, you should be able to clean the bad files from the infected user's home folder - keep some, lose some, depending on the infection itself - and retain the rest.

It is extremely rare to have to wipe and reinstall. It's done so often in the Windows world for several reasons. Here are just a few:
1) Manual cleaning is much more difficult to do correctly, and the costs are high. (Just how valuable are your files?)
2) It's technically a no-brainer to wipe and reinstall. The vendors who offer a cheap cleanup do it dirt cheap: They stick in a slipstreamed disk and walk away for 45 minutes.
3) It's far more profitable than true system recovery: Manual disinfection and file recovery are high-skill, time-intensive tasks.
4) If you make it cheap enough, you gain a repeat customer.

Recovery is far simpler in UNIX-y systems.

-Wayne

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Answer 15

ace chef Author

Level 1

20 points

Oct 12, 2006 11:50 AM in response to Douglas McLaughlin

Yep, That's the file I though it was. I will rebuild at with in the next few days.

It seems to me that the only protection that a user account gives is from not infecting any other accounts, (if you have three user account then only open would be infected) but if you only have one user account, then there is no were else that the malware could go, and if you have just an admin account then there is no where else that the malware could go, besides the system, which you could easily reinstall anyways.

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