Ubuntu – High CPU usage even when no application is running(Desktop)

cpu

I always have high CPU usage in Ubuntu in every version of it that I have used. I have been using Ubuntu from 10.04 version.

My CPU usage even at idle is more than 30% for each core(unlike Windows 7 uses only 5%) due to which i'm getting my processor under very high temperature. Even my friends too experienced the same problem. This is not solved even now in 13.04. I'm not telling this just by installing Ubuntu in only my system, but I have tested it with single core and multi core processors with and without graphics cards, everything type of configuration gave me the same results.

Someone please help me how to solve this problem, as i'm experiencing this for years.

Currently my system configuration is,

  • AMD Phenom x6 1100t processor
  • AMD Radeon HD 6770 GDDR5 graphics
  • 4GB ram
  • 1TB hdd

Best Answer

You first should figure out what process is eating away your CPU.

  • open a terminal with ctrl+alt+t
  • execute the command top
  • note the process using the most cpu

If the process isn't a system process, kill it with sudo pkill [processname] with [processname] the name of the process you want to kill. If it is a system process, don't kill it, but try to google the name of it and figure out what functionality it does in Ubuntu. Then you can proceed to turn it off (in e.g. you system settings).

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