Skype heat/fan/high cpu usage issues in Lion OSX

[iGuy]

I get lower temps when forcing intel graphics. If I select the nvidia card my computer becomes a toaster, fans start to spin at about 5000rpm. Thanks to skype and lion now it's possible to watch a movie in a shared screen with a friend abroad and you still can make popcorn in your keyboard. 

[nickdobson]

Fixed!

Quit Skype, then in your home directory, look for a folder called Library/Caches/com.skype.skype and delete or rename that folder then start Skype... cpu usage should be back to normal.

Hope this works for you all too!

[tbernstein]

Worked great! Thanks.

[nfamallninja]

I don't have the directory ~/Library/Caches/com.skype.skype. I've even tried to Spotlight it without success. I also tried to do it with Skype running, just to see if this was a temporary directory Skype.app creates while open then deletes after close, and nothing.

Skype's still causing over 80% CPU utilization sitting at idle.

I have noticed one thing:

Under Skype>Preferences>Audio/Video:

I get a black box for my camera preview window until I click the drop down menu allowing me to select my video source. Once I click that, the preview window shows my video feed from either my built in iSite (13" MacBookPro5,5), or my USB Logitech HD Webcam.

As long as I've got that drop down menu displayed/selected my CPU Utilization drops to between 12 and 15% (where it should normally be sitting idle). As soon as I click out of the drop down menu, my video preview either freezes completely, or displays like the computer's an old Pentium 90 (real choppy). AND the CPU utilization sky-rockets back to 89%+.

As I watch Activity Monitor, I see Skype jumping between 85% to as much as 101+% (didn't know it was possible to use over 100% CPU utilization).

If I let Skype sit idle, my laptop gets hot enough to burn you (it actually burned my legs the other day when I was wearing some gym shorts and picked the laptop off my desk and put it in my lap), and when I tried to do anything on the computer, it was running at a pace slower than a snail crawls. I believe it had gotten so hot, the CPU put itself into protection mode and had slowed itself down to that of an ol'school 486.

I had to turn the computer off by holding down the power button to get it to shut down. Once I let it cool off, it came back to life as normal.

(This was from the computer sitting idle for about 12 hours, doing nothing. No downloads, no ancillary apps running. Just Lion and Skype loaded).

I've also watched Activity Monitor for "All Processes" and have noticed the two Spotlight engines liking to **bleep** around with the CPU utilization as well at random times. I've cleaned out my spotlight cache manually (' Terminal>"sudo mdutil -avE" '), and let it rebuild it's index (clearing up that issue), but no matter what I do, Skype still jacks with the CPU.

I'm running the latest "Lion/HD Video" version of Skype on OS X 10.7.1. My computer is a 2009 - 13" MacBook Pro5,5 with 8GB Ram. OS & Applications load from a 120GB OWC Extreme Pro 6G SSD, and all the ~/Users/ contents have been moved to a 500GB Western Digital Blue HDD in place of my optical drive (using OWC's DataDoubler).

This is really hacking me off, as this application, if left unchecked, can eventually cause some pretty significant damage to a perfect condition, $2,000 computer that I've had for slightly over a year.

I'm in Iraq as a DoD contractor, and Skype is my ONLY means of talking to my family on a "as-needed" basis. Im downloading the (latest) previous version of Skype and will give that a shot to see if things go back to normal.

SKYPE!!! PLEASE FIX YOUR HD Camera engine!!! It's KILLING our computers (QUITE LITERALLY!).

- Doug

[nfamallninja]

Problem soved. It's exactly what I suspected it was.

OS X 10.7 (dont know about 10.6., doesn't like Skype's new HD Video engine/codec/whatever. 

I just downgraded to the last version of Skype, and it's working beautifully!  AND maintaining about a .21% load on my CPU at IDLE!!! Audio only calls are tasking about 22% average utilization, and video calls are engulfing another whopping 11% for a grand total of 33% (average) utilization (averaged over 3, 2 min audio calls and 3, 2 min video calls with a friend 8000 miles away from where I'm sitting).  BIG difference from the 85% (at idle average) I was seeing with the new-fangled version recently released. 

As I said before, all Skype functions with the last release of Skype are working perfectly on Lion. Audio is every bit a clear with this "old version" as it was on the "new". Video is as good as it can be, on either end (given my limited satellite bandwidth), even with the "HD" codec of the new version. 

The only drawback I can see, in-so-far, having lost the "latest and greatest", is I'll not be able to broadcast have "HD" quality video should I ever get back to a place with true broadband connectivity. A feature which I really can't use anyway.  Everything else is exactly the same .

If deleting the noted directory, doesn't work for you as it didn't for me, try downgrading back to Ver. 5.2.0.1523. Stats are currently (Skype sitting idle):

% CPU: 0.02 ~ 0.23

Ream Memory Size: 103.7MB

Virtual Memory Size: 904.3 MB

Shared Memory Size: 8.2 MB

Private Memory Size: 43.4 MB

Virtual Private Memory: 135.0 MB. 

Just a suggestion.

[luxferre]

clearing com.skype caches helps me for a while, at a macbook air 2011 with lion, skype version 5.3.59.1093

[colinworth1]

Nice sleuthing nfamallninja.  The good news is the problem is fixed in Skype 5.4 Beta, so now you can upgrade as well as downgrade to fix this problem. Camera display looks okay in the Preferences pane in 5.4 beta and my CPU usage went from 50% down to ~20%.

I hope I'm not speaking too soon, I'm noticing the CPU jump up to 50-60% but never for more than a few seconds and then it's back to 15-25%.

Not sure why nobody at Skype wants to talk to us  but hey it's free for me so I'm not going to complain too much..

[colinworth1]

And boom, there goes that answer cpu just went up to 110% and now it's jumping between 50 and 100%, going to try a downgrade .

[colinworth1]

- trying new and old versions (went back to 2.8 from last year) does not help.

- deleting the cache does not help

- switching to integrated graphics does not help CPU usage, but may reduce heat (or may not didn't test extensively)

The only thing that does help:

- Skype CPU usage remains low until you turn YOUR camera on.  If other person doesn't mind only hearing you, CPU usage will remain at normal levels.

Things to try, might help or might not but worth a shot.  If anyone does, please report back, would be interesting to know both of these results:

- Try using a USB webcam instead of built in Facetime camera. 

- Run Windows Skype in Windows virtual machine

Skype, is anyone out there in customer support land ?

[alin0s]

I WANT A FIX FOR THIS CRAP