[rale09]

This problem has been happening to me since the first beta of Eden, or even earlier.

I use XBMC under Lion in its own space, so I could effortlessly switch between it and say,
a browser in a different space. But whenever XBMC is in the background, it starts
eating up all my CPU. I use the newest Mac Mini, and while normally there's little to
no noise coming out of it, in this case its cooling gets so noisy as if it was trying to fly
off my desk.

I found that simply switching back to the space XBMC is running in solves this problem.
The problem doesn't occur if I don't do anything at the space I switched to from XBMC.

Here's a log file of a session where I did nothing but open up XBMC and leave it in idle,
while switching back and forth spaces every one minute or so.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3325457/xbmc.old.log

[Ned Scott]

Try making an advancedsettings.xml file and place it in your userdata folder:

( cut and paste the following into a text document and title it as advancedsettings.xml )

Code:

<advancedsettings>
  <gui>    
    <algorithmdirtyregions>1</algorithmdirtyregions>
    <nofliptimeout>0</nofliptimeout>
  </gui>
</advancedsettings>

See if that helps.

[rale09]

Yep, looks like that solved it, thanks

[moom]

I got the same problem as described above. Im running eden beta 3 on mac os x lion.
Tried the hint with the xml, didnt work unfortunaly.
Any other suggestions?

[Martijn]

I got the same problem as described above. Im running eden beta 3 on mac os x lion.
Tried the hint with the xml, didnt work unfortunaly.
Any other suggestions?

You sure you did it right and the advancedsettings.xml got loaded?

[moom]

Yes, xml is sitting nicley in /Users/<your_user_name>/Library/Application Support/XBMC/userdata/. Pasted the text from this thread.

But Log reads:
09:13:00 T:2890674880 NOTICE: No settings file to load (special://xbmc/system/advancedsettings.xml)
09:13:00 T:2890674880 NOTICE: Loaded settings file from special://profile/advancedsettings.xml
09:13:00 T:2890674880 NOTICE: Contents of special://profile/advancedsettings.xml are...
<advancedsettings>
</advancedsettings>

Looks like it didnt load....

[Ned Scott]

Make sure it is plain text, not rich text.

[moom]

Sorry, my bad - xml gets loaded:
11:27:11 T:2890674880 NOTICE: Loaded settings file from special://profile/advancedsettings.xml
11:27:11 T:2890674880 NOTICE: Contents of special://profile/advancedsettings.xml are...
<advancedsettings>
<gui>
<algorithmdirtyregions>1</algorithmdirtyregions>
<nofliptimeout>0</nofliptimeout>
</gui>
</advancedsettings>

It got a little bit better,
CPU load while running on other space:
Around 70% (before it hitted almost 100%)
Load while on the running space:
Around 30%

[Impstoker]

Same thing here, tried the advanced settings xml:
Helps reduce the cpu load to around 70% same as 'moom' and make the fan go half force instead of full blown.
However still a weird thing... When watching a 1080p movie the cpu load is WAY less.

[Ned Scott]

It could also be something like an add-on trying to update in the background or something.

Although I personally do notice higher CPU usage when XBMC is hidden or off screen, rather than on screen.

[davilla]

When XBMC is hidden behind another window, OSX will skip the any vsync wait without telling us. So the renderer runs flat out. Unfortunately, there is no way we can detect this case and idle back. It's a quirk of OSX and Cocoa.

[activate]

Make sure it is plain text, not rich text.

Ned, this is really bizarre. I am unable to load the advancedsettings.xml. I have even tried typing it out myself. It is definitely in plain text. What else could be causing it.

Code:

22:56:05 T:140735202963840  NOTICE: No settings file to load (special://xbmc/system/advancedsettings.xml)
22:56:05 T:140735202963840  NOTICE: Loaded settings file from special://profile/advancedsettings.xml
22:56:05 T:140735202963840  NOTICE: Contents of special://profile/advancedsettings.xml are...
                                            <advancedsettings>
                                            </advancedsettings>

This is the full log.

[robegero]

I had the same issue. I did the suggested advancedsettings and it did nothing. I then turned off the RSS feeds and my CPU now sits at 0% when idle.

System > Appearance > Skin > Show RSS news feeds

[Ned Scott]

Ned, this is really bizarre. I am unable to load the advancedsettings.xml. I have even tried typing it out myself. It is definitely in plain text. What else could be causing it.

Code:

22:56:05 T:140735202963840  NOTICE: No settings file to load (special://xbmc/system/advancedsettings.xml)
22:56:05 T:140735202963840  NOTICE: Loaded settings file from special://profile/advancedsettings.xml
22:56:05 T:140735202963840  NOTICE: Contents of special://profile/advancedsettings.xml are...
                                            <advancedsettings>
                                            </advancedsettings>

This is the full log.

Realized I never responded to this. Is this still happening? Can you paste the contents of your advancedsetting.xml file to pastebin?

[activate]

Ned, this is really bizarre. I am unable to load the advancedsettings.xml. I have even tried typing it out myself. It is definitely in plain text. What else could be causing it.

Code:

22:56:05 T:140735202963840  NOTICE: No settings file to load (special://xbmc/system/advancedsettings.xml)
22:56:05 T:140735202963840  NOTICE: Loaded settings file from special://profile/advancedsettings.xml
22:56:05 T:140735202963840  NOTICE: Contents of special://profile/advancedsettings.xml are...
                                            <advancedsettings>
                                            </advancedsettings>

This is the full log.

Realized I never responded to this. Is this still happening? Can you paste the contents of your advancedsetting.xml file to pastebin?

Ned, dont worry about it..was a blonde moment