Thunderbird taking up 99% of CPU seemingly randomly

[mrsteveo]

Hi guys,

I have Windows XP SP 2 + all of the latest updates. It's running on a
1.2Ghz TBIRD w/ 1GB of RAM. My Thunderbird version is 2.0.0.6
(20070728) but this problem has been going on well into the 2.0
versions. If it matters, I do run the latest version of Firefox and
this 99% cpu usage happens whether I have Firefox open or not.

My problem is and I don't know when this started but it's been going
on for months and I cannot find a solution.

Seemingly at random, Thunderbird will take up 99% of the CPU, drop to
80%, drop to lower percentages, back up to 90% and then idle at about
0%. It doesn't matter if I am actively using Thunderbird or not. It
can stay minimized and still exhibit same behavior.

I have tried manually setting priority to 'Real time' and that didn't
solve anything either. I have tried uninstalling Thunderbird
including the chrome directory. I've removed all addons and
extensions, no luck. I've uninstalled and reinstalled, no luck. I
have compacted all my folders, no luck. I don't have a clue what else
to do.

For what it is worth, I actively check (POP) 7 accounts. I've
adjusted the times to 7-10 min for each of them as opposed to 3. That
didn't help either. One one of the accounts, I have probably 20+
folders. I also have a crapload of rules to sort my mail. I work at
an ISP... I have not tried changing rules or eliminating folders yet
but hoping to avoid that step.

I know last I checked my Moz profile directory was 2GB or so and so
maybe even with compacting, it's still large. I have also defragged
my HD numerous times. No luck there either.

I do have the bayseian junk filter setup on all accounts as well.

Any suggestions on how to fix this? I really don't want to remove/
delete any email or even archive. It's really handy having all my
mail available for searching but maybe that is the solution. Really
hope something else could be done to solve this though.

ANY insight is appreciated. I've attached a screenshot of procexp
showing some of the insane amount of WRITE IO's and READS. Also
appears that it shows very high CPU usage too which is obvious. I
really would love a solution!

Thank you,

Steve M. Ryan

[Moz Champion (Dan)]

Do you have any extensions working? Try running Thunderbird in safe mode
to see if it is an extension contributing to the situation.

If that doesnt provide any assistance try the following test.

Remove ONE of the accounts from the mail checks and then note if
Thunderbird does the up and down CPU usage. If it doesnt, then the
problem is with that account. If it still does, re-enable that account
and disable another.

Remeber to disable Newsgroup accounts as well (if you have them)

Note that Thunderbird will use all of the available CPU especially when
downloading mail, but this is quite normal. As soon as the mail is
downloaded, the cpu usage should return to normal.
If Thunderbird only used 50% of your CPU, it would take twice as long to
download your mail.

[Ron Hunter]

Your profile is rather large, which might be the problem. Check the
profile to see if it is one of those that has become corrupted with
excess entries. It is rather painful to do, but making a new profile
might be your best solution.

--
Ron Hunter rphu...@charter.net

[Ron Hunter]

It seems to me that a lot of users are downright anal retentive about
ram and cpu usage. Unless other applications are negatively impacted,
'micromanaging' the ram and cpu values is a major waste of time. It
might also be that the program monitoring usage is falsely reporting
usage (some are better than others).

--
Ron Hunter rphu...@charter.net

[mrsteveo]

> Ron Hunter rphun...@charter.net

When this happens to me, it does negatively affect what I am doing.
For instance, if I am in Thunderbird when it decides to take up 99%
CPU, I cannot type in the window. Usually, if it's whoring CPU I can
click to another window and do something else but since my job is
heavy on email, it's nice to be able to type a message from start to
finish without TBIRD freezing every 2 min for 30 secs at a time.

I've used numerous programs to report CPU usage, most recently Process
Explorer from Sys Internals.

I think the other poster is correct about a large profile. Not sure
exactly how to go about creating another one but that is something I
will look into.

I'm also in the process of upgrading the processor to a 2.0Ghz Athlon
XP, add another 1GB of RAM for 2GB total and replacing an 80GB drive
with a 250GB Seagate.

Thanks for the insight thus far!

[Ron Hunter]

I suspect that increasing the ram might help quite a bit, as might a
faster processor, but do check on that profile. It seems much to big to me.

--
Ron Hunter rphu...@charter.net

[mrsteveo]

> Ron Hunter rphun...@charter.net

Just so everyone knows...

I ended up killing that machine which then got replaced with a Dell
2.21GHZ Dual Core w/ 2GB of RAM. I installed fresh copy of
Thunderbird. I then just dropped the old 'Thunderbird' directory in
Application Data onto the new machine.

Results? It doesn't hog up CPU/memory. It does take a lot of RAM as
usual, but I don't see the CPU locking up at 99% anymore. I do get
occassional jerkiness but I think that's related to Thunderbird at
this point.

I think it's time to offload/archive my mail and start over honestly.
I've brought one machine to it's knees and this current one does fine
but it hiccups here and there but nothing like the old machine.

Thanks for all the insights.