1425966 - Intense CPU usage (profile + video included)

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[sandro.x8664]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:57.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/57.0
Build ID: 20171207194519

Steps to reproduce:

Asus N56VM CPU: Intel i7-3610QM (8) @ 3.300GHz GPU: Intel HD4000 + NVIDIA GeForce GT 620M/630M/635M/640M LE RAM: 8GB OS: Windows 10

The CPU has some very high spikes of usage, even on the plainest web page its usage is usually at 70+% and above, even if I'm not scrolling or moving the mouse or loading a page.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKajzGkfqyk
Profile: https://perf-html.io/public/d7173e4d8c651398155997c25bffcf53202fd37b/calltree/?hiddenThreads=&thread=0&threadOrder=0-2-3-4-6-7-8-1-5&v=2

Comment 1

[Zibi Braniecki [:zbraniecki][:gandalf]]

Thank you!

This is a very good profile+video.

The first thing that stands out is that the profiler only reports 15-24sec of jank while the CPU usage is consistently at 80%+ on a static page, with one tab open with no high activity in the tab (reddit thread).

Not sure if the profile explains that, but it looks very concerning.

Comment 2

[Zibi Braniecki [:zbraniecki][:gandalf]]

I'm turning this bug to confidential to protect reporter's privacy.

Comment 3

[sandro.x8664]

Screenshot of the Task Manager as requested

https://i.imgur.com/BwS4lHB.jpg

Comment 4

[Markus Stange [:mstange]]

It looks like the CPU usage is happening on a background thread which is not captured by the profiler.
I have no suggestions on how to proceed from here. We really need some better infrastructure for these kinds of problems...

Comment 5

[Laurențiu Nicola]

I noticed I can now use perf on Linux to profile Nightly (my previous binaries were built without debug symbols).

Can you install Nightly and use a profiler such as http://www.codersnotes.com/sleepy/? Maybe it will show something useful.

Comment 6

[Zibi Braniecki [:zbraniecki][:gandalf]]

Here's an update based on something another member of the reddit community noticed: https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/7knnn4/firefox_quantum_is_eating_your_cpu_help_us_debug/drgrxua/

It seems that in this case, the "Comodo Internet Security Essentials" was the root cause.

Ideas for actionable items:
 - identify how Comodo is causing Firefox to use 100% CPU
 - reach out to Comodo about it
 - identify why Profiler doesn't show the information about the cause of the problem

I need help NI'ing the right people and identifying any other actionable items from this case.

Comment 7

[Andrew Overholt [:overholt]]

I think Kev is a good person to ask about Comodo.

Comment 8

[sandro.x8664]

You know, it just popped into my mind that on my desktop computer I have the exact same combo (Comodo + Avast + Firefox 57 64 bit), but Firefox doesn't use the CPU at the same way it did on my laptop before disabling Comodo Internet Security Essential. Maybe there is also something hardware/driver related? Just a theory.

Comment 9

[Zibi Braniecki [:zbraniecki][:gandalf]]

> Maybe there is also something hardware/driver related? Just a theory.

Definitely possible!

Can you share your desktop configuration information?

Comment 10

[sandro.x8664]

(In reply to Zibi Braniecki [:gandalf][:zibi] from comment #9)
> > Maybe there is also something hardware/driver related? Just a theory.
> 
> Definitely possible!
> 
> Can you share your desktop configuration information?

Sure

Motherboard: Asus M4N68T-M LE V2 CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 GPU: MSI R9 380 RAM: 8GB

Comment 11

[Adrian Florinescu [:aflorinescu]]

Sandro, could you perhaps do a little test and temporary disable Comodo and redo the processor usage steps? I'd like to be sure that Comodo is the root cause here before moving this bug to a more appropriate component.

Comment 12

[sandro.x8664]

(In reply to Adrian Florinescu [:AdrianSV] from comment #11)
> Sandro, could you perhaps do a little test and temporary disable Comodo and
> redo the processor usage steps? I'd like to be sure that Comodo is the root
> cause here before moving this bug to a more appropriate component.

Unfortunately I will be out of town (and without laptop) until friday, I can do a new test on friday night or saturday, if it's ok.

Comment 13

[Adrian Florinescu [:aflorinescu]]

Sandro, any updates for this issue?

Comment 14

[sandro.x8664]

I'm sorry, I completely forgot to answer this thread.

Well, at the moment I have Internet Essential (it should an antivirus) disabled and Internet Security (the firewall) enabled and I haven't any problem since then.

I'm going to re-enable everything just to see if that was the root cause.

Comment 15

[sandro.x8664]

Everything enabled, no CPU spikes. Firefox is using no more than 5% of the CPU while I'm writing this.

Comment 16

[Zibi Braniecki [:zbraniecki][:gandalf]]

Is that including Comodo?

Comment 17

[sandro.x8664]

(In reply to Zibi Braniecki [:gandalf][:zibi] from comment #16)
> Is that including Comodo?

Yes, it is. I upgraded Firefox to the last version, just for clarification.

Comment 18

[Zibi Braniecki [:zbraniecki][:gandalf]]

That's wonderful! I'm closing this bug then as WFM. Glad to hear that your particular bug has been fixed! :)