Fan noise and Google Chrome Helpers eat too much CPU

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Level 1

10 points

Fan noise and Google Chrome Helpers eat too much CPU

I just bought my mac pro this week and I actually changed a new one in apple store because some weird problems and they decided just gave me a new Mac. But the new one has a same problem with the first one. Sometimes, when I use Mac its own battery without charge and watch videos on Google Chrome, the fan suddenly make loud noise for about 10 seconds. It will become lower and eventually quiet. This situation only happens ONCE A DAY. Sometimes, it happens I already use Mac for a couple of hours, or I just start my Mac (I will shut down my computer every night before I go to bed) and open Chrome to watch videos.

In fact, I am not sure if the fan noise because of Chrome helpers eat too much CPU, but anyway, helpers do occupy on too much CPU.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on May 17, 2015 9:25 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BobHarris

Level 9

56,777 points

May 17, 2015 3:47 PM in response to nonowine

Chrome is a resource hog for both CPU and Memory. When a resource hog ***** a lot of CPU, it drives the CPU temperature up, which means the fan has to run faster. If Chrome is also causing paging to disk (or SSD) that requires more power as well, and power translated directly into heat, and we are back at the fan needing to run faster, and thus louder.

You should try another way to view the video, especially if it can use HTML5 instead of Flash (flash being a resource hog all by itself).

Depending on what you are using to watch videos, there may be a more efficient program to play the video. But as tbirdvet says, playing videos does tend push the CPU more.

If online source, see if you can find an HTML5 playable video. Try Safari or Firefox. If offline, will Quicktime or iTunes work, or VLC.

And when playing video, make sure other apps are not running in the background pushing up CPU, network, and storage access fighting with your video playing.

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Answer 2

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

May 17, 2015 11:19 AM in response to nonowine

Chrome has built in Flash support. Can you check if the videos are playing as Flash files? See if a right click (or ctrl+click) shows 'About Adobe Flash version…'

Do the same in Safari, Flash is not installed on OS X unless you add it manually. It may be that you are viewing via the site in 2 slightly different ways that are not totally comparable.

You can also try disabling all Chrome (& Safari) extensions to see if that has any effect.

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Answer 3

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

May 17, 2015 11:24 AM in response to nonowine

nonowine wrote:

The fan noise also happened when I was not using any browser.

How much ventilation does the Mac have?

It may get warm if surrounded by other hot devices like hard disks, meaning that a light CPU load pushes it into requiring the fans.

Another thing to consider… is this a clean install or was it migrated/ upgraded?

Older software can conflict causing it to waste CPU, memory etc. We can try looking at that if you didn't clean install this OS.

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Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

685,203 points

May 17, 2015 9:38 AM in response to nonowine

I'd take it back to the store again. There is a 14 days return policy, no questions asked. Google Chrome is a resource hog. Try using another browser such as Safari or Firefox. Same problem?

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Answer 5

tbirdvet

Level 6

17,030 points

May 17, 2015 11:10 AM in response to nonowine

It is common for fan speed to increase when watching videos. I have a Mini and it does the same thing depending on the video and resolution. I do not believe it has anything to do with Chrome at this point. However, check to be sure you have the latest Chrome Version which is 42.0.2311.152

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Answer 6

Oct 29, 2015 5:43 AM in response to BobHarris

Agreed. All above is good info.

From my limited experience, if Time Machine is running a backup the rest of the issues are amplified. All calms down after TM backup has run.

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Answer 7

nonowine Author

Level 1

10 points

May 17, 2015 9:52 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks for your reply.

When I use Safari, it does not takes too much CPU. But because the fan noise only happens once a day, I don't know if safari also will cause this problem. Actually I even do not know what cause the fan noise. I just know this usually happens when I am watching videos online or just on the Mac Quicktime player or I just stop the video for a while, and then the noise. Actually it should be called as noise, it sounds like regular heat removal, but just too loud)

Maybe something overheat the computer and so it start to remove the heat to protect itself.I thought the noise because of default setting

But from any perspective, it should not have this noise, especially I just bought it and changed it. Both two Macs have this problem. I will go to store this afternoon and see if they could help me.

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Answer 8

nonowine Author

Level 1

10 points

May 17, 2015 11:19 AM in response to tbirdvet

Yes, I do not really think it is the chrome problem. My Chrome has the latest version However, I also want to solve it occupied on too much CPU which may cause other software works slowly in the future. ]The fan noise also happened when I was not using any browser.

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