iMovie 6.0: Excessive processor usage, slowdown; potential fix
iMovie 6.0: Excessive processor usage, slowdown; potential fix
Excessive processor usage, potential fix Some readers are reporting significant system slowdown while iMovie 6.0 is running, due to spiking of processor usage from the mds process.
The mds process is actually spawned by Spotlight -- it's the indexing component of Apple's search tool, and generally works in the background to add new information to the index as necessary.
One MacFixIt reader describes the dramatic rise in processor usage from mds while iMovie 6.0 is active:
"I Installed the iLife '06 apps on my Dual 2.7 GHz PowerMac a few days ago. Everything went quite well expect for iMovie. Right after I launched iMovie there was excessive processor activity. I used Activity Monitor to see what was going on. A root process called 'mds' was showing ~100% activity."
"During this time iMovie would be very sluggish and would crash repeatedly. After force quitting mds iMovie would behave normally. After force quitting the mds process would self restart and would exhibit normal CPU activity. When I quit iMovie the mds problem came right back and would continue until I force quit it again."
Oddly, the reader found that disconnecting his iSight camera resolved the issue and brought mds processor usage back to reasonable levels.
He writes:
"After a bit of rooting around I determined that there was some type of conflict with iMovie and my FireWire based iSight camera. Unplugging the iSight camera solved my iMovie problems."
If you are experiencing a similar issue, please let us know.
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