CPU usage

[Steve Flynn]

On Dec 16, 2007 6:44 PM, Robert Fitzpatrick <lists at webtent.net> wrote:
>
> I have only been able to switch consoles without locking up once and
> that showed X at the top with about 16% CPU and 5% memory. What I do
> notice is my memory is almost always completely used. Like now with Evo,
> Firefox and a terminal open, mem usage is 362/503MB (71% programs/25%
> cache). Firefox is at top of the list with 2-5% CPU and ~11% memory, but
> all is well right now. This morning I had the same running with Amarok
> and tried to open a PDF and it locked at 100% CPU. You think I might
> have bad memory?

You memory usuage seems about right. Half a gig will be cramping your
machine a bit, but it should be sufficient to used it more than
comfortably.

If you suspect bad ram then run the memtest86 suite for a good number
of hours - any errors at all mean you probably have sickly ram and the
only real way of resolving this is to sling it and buy another stick.

If you had some duff memory, I would expect to see segfaults (and
lock-ups). First of all, take a look at the output for dmesg to check
that nothing is complaining bitterly when the machine is booted. Then,
take a trawl through your syslogs and look for "anything which looks
incorrect". A bit vague I know but unfortunately the number of
potential issues is huge and there's no "standard thing" to look for.
If you want to compress a syslog up and slap it onto a website
somewhere I'm sure many people on here will take a look for you. Ig
you could indicate where a system lock up took place that would be
good too.

The next time it happens you could try the following sequence of
keystrokes listed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key in
the section about Skinny Elephants to force the kernel (if it's still
responding) to shut things down as gracefully as possible. This might
also porvide you with info in the syslog about what happened
immediately before the machine locked.

-- 
Steve
When one person suffers from a delusion it is insanity. When many
people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion.

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