Computer Troubles
May 11 2020
So I've been having trouble with my computer. After a bit kernel_task process takes up all the CPU to the point where it locks up the UI and even mouse cursor.
At first I thought it was heavy disk or network access doing it. But after a week I thought maybe it was the GPU since. Going down to one monitor helped a bit. Turning off Chrome and Firefox hardware acceleration helped more, though it means they both run slowly.
I have an old MBP with an AMD Radeon R9 M370X (2GB VRAM). So maybe too many things are trying to use GPU memory (and a second monitor is part of it) and it's thrashing moving stuff into and out of VRAM as context switching happens.
The OS should be able to handle this. If there is a problem with the GPU driver maybe that would cause it but that's not something I know how to fix outside a system reinstall.
It's strange since it worked fine for months (I bought my second monitor last December). But it's kind of gotten slower over time.
So two choices: wipe drive, reinstall and move stuff over (don't do migration); or a new computer where I would do the same thing. The first is cheaper but so much trouble having two OSes only one of which you can boot at a time (though VMWare might or might not help). The second more convenient but I wanted to wait for Apple CPU Macs (though that might be introduced in low end models first come to think of it).
At first I thought it was heavy disk or network access doing it. But after a week I thought maybe it was the GPU since. Going down to one monitor helped a bit. Turning off Chrome and Firefox hardware acceleration helped more, though it means they both run slowly.
I have an old MBP with an AMD Radeon R9 M370X (2GB VRAM). So maybe too many things are trying to use GPU memory (and a second monitor is part of it) and it's thrashing moving stuff into and out of VRAM as context switching happens.
The OS should be able to handle this. If there is a problem with the GPU driver maybe that would cause it but that's not something I know how to fix outside a system reinstall.
It's strange since it worked fine for months (I bought my second monitor last December). But it's kind of gotten slower over time.
So two choices: wipe drive, reinstall and move stuff over (don't do migration); or a new computer where I would do the same thing. The first is cheaper but so much trouble having two OSes only one of which you can boot at a time (though VMWare might or might not help). The second more convenient but I wanted to wait for Apple CPU Macs (though that might be introduced in low end models first come to think of it).