cpu usage problem - possibly synthesiser related?
Hello,
I'm a new user of musescore and I'm having problems with high cpu usage on my laptop - my desktop is not having problems. They're similar power (old) processors on slightly different systems and versions, so wondering whether I should change the version on the laptop, or whether I need to take the slightly more drastic step of changing the system...
laptop: Intel Pentium M 2.26 GHz, 1GB RAM running Linux Mint 11 (based on Ubuntu 11.04), using Musescore 1.0
desktop: Intel Pentium 4 1.50 GHz, 1GB RAM running Linux Mint 10 (based on Ubuntu 10.10), using Musescore 0.9.6.3
On the laptop, top gives a CPU usage for musescore of at least 90%, usually over 98%, and the program is struggling to run with no other programs being used, but on the desktop top gives a CPU usage of about 2%. So I think there may be a problem... Tried un-installing and re-installing on the laptop with no change. RAM usage is only about 6%.
Looking at previous posts, I tried using the following command options: mscore -m -s and that worked with very low CPU usage, but unfortunately I'm using the laptop to help with choir rehearsals so really need the playback capability! I tried both these options on their own: -m makes no difference to CPU usage but -s is the one which makes a big difference (doesn't even appear on top when I'm not asking the program to do anything). I'm using the default soundfont.
I hope I've given enough information here to be helpful: if you need logfiles please can you give me detailed instructions as I'm not very good at them! I'm hoping I won't have to move to Linux Mint 10 on the laptop as this comes to the end of it's support next month, and I'm going to have to change the version on the desktop too.
Many thanks for your help,
Katie
Comments
You're running outdated MuseScore versions. Current is 1.1, but only for another couple of days, when 1.2 will hit the street.
Whether it helps in this particular case remains to be seen, but is at least worth a try.
As -s option makes the problem disappear, it is related to the sound system, so you should investigate into the differences of these on the 2 machines
In reply to You're running outdated by Jojo-Schmitz
Check and compare Edit -> Preferences -> I/O on both systems
One thing worth checking for is that hard disk access hasn't reverted to PIO
I know how to check for this on Windows but I'm afraid not on Ubuntu.
The symptoms you describe are typical of hard disk access using PIO rather than DMA, however, with consequent drastic effects on sound and video playback.
You may be able to check for this by booting to the BIOS on startup and see if there is a setting in there.
Otherwise I guess it would be one for the Mint or Ubuntu forums.
HTH
Michael
In reply to One thing worth checking for by ChurchOrganist
That would affect all applications, not just MuseScore. It's kind of unclear from the description if that's the case here. But man, I remember when this happened to me a few years back, and the days of pulling my hair out until I finally found what had happened and how to fix it. Not fun.
In reply to That would affect all by Marc Sabatella
thanks for everyone's replies - I'll try and work through all the suggestions: may take me a while as I'm not very good at understanding sound system setup...
The high CPU usage is only in Musescore - standard audio and video playback don't seem to be affected... CPU usage is quite high for video playback - about 70-80%, but it doesn't seem to cause any problems, and it is able to play an mp4 file without difficulty which the desktop really struggled with...
thanks again,
Katie
In reply to thanks for everyone's replies by campanula_
Managed to solve this, although using totally different settings for sound than on my desktop!
In case anyone else has similar problems, this is what worked for me:
I installed the JACK server and audio connection kit, then set the musescore I/O preferences to 'internal synthesiser' and 'Jack server'.
I then started the JACK server by typing the command: qjackctl -s
in a terminal window, then restarted musescore.
I don't know how to get the JACK server to start automatically, but this doesn't cause a problem. Musescore now uses only about 7% of CPU, can play back the scores without difficulty, and is able to open dialogues without problems.
Many thanks for everyone's help,
Katie