Mr. Spinning Beachball and Skyrocketing CPU Cycles

[Sue Donum]

I still can't quite follow the instructions for creating a new Identity.

Nevertheless, I am wondering if my whole "Identity crisis" might in some way
be contributing to my visits from Mr. Spinning Beachball. After installing
iStat menus, I discovered that whenever my system began to become less
responsive as a prelude to the appearance of the SBBOD, the CPU number would
skyrocket from about 5-10% to 80-90%. When I then checked, I saw that
Entourage was consuming those CPU cycles.

 

[Diane Ross]

Start with this page for help troubleshooting performance issues.

Troubleshoot Performance Issues
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/performance.html>

Make sure you have only one Microsoft Database daemon in your Login Items
(System Preferences)

The next thing to look at is the space on your hd and how much RAM you have
installed.

Let me know if the above has helped track down your problems.

 

[Sue Donum]

Start with this page for help troubleshooting performance issues.

Troubleshoot Performance Issues
<http://www.entourage.mvps.org/troubleshoot/performance.html>

Make sure you have only one Microsoft Database daemon in your Login Items
(System Preferences)

The only MS items in the Login Items are MS Entourage, MS AU Daemon, and MS
Database.

(Sorry I haven't responded sooner...still (apparently) having Identity
problems.)

The next thing to look at is the space on your hd and how much RAM you have
installed.

As I mentioned previously, I've got 2 GB RAM; my 320 GB HD is only about
55% full.

 

[Diane Ross]

Open the Activity Monitor in Utilities. Select from the popup All Processes.
Select to sort on the CPU column with the highest on top. Now watch this
window when you are having problems. It will tell you what is draining CPUs.

 

[Sue Donum]

Open the Activity Monitor in Utilities. Select from the popup All Processes.
Select to sort on the CPU column with the highest on top. Now watch this
window when you are having problems. It will tell you what is draining CPUs.

Huh?

"..... After installingiStat menus, I discovered that whenever my system
began to become less responsive as a prelude to the appearance of the SBBOD,
the CPU number would skyrocket from about 5-10% to 80-90%. When I then
checked, I saw that Entourage was consuming those CPU cycles."

I checked via iStat menus's drop-down menu, as well as the Activity Monitor.

 

[Diane Ross]

"..... After installingiStat menus, I discovered that whenever my system
began to become less responsive as a prelude to the appearance of the SBBOD,
the CPU number would skyrocket from about 5-10% to 80-90%. When I then
checked, I saw that Entourage was consuming those CPU cycles."

Do you have Entourage excluded from Spotlight's Privacy tab?

 

[Sue Donum]

Do you have Entourage excluded from Spotlight's Privacy tab?

I have yet to play with Spotlight's preferences panel, so I have nothing at
all under the Privacy tab.

 

[Diane Ross]

I have yet to play with Spotlight's preferences panel, so I have nothing at
all under the Privacy tab.

This could be what is causing Entourage to grind your system to a halt.

 

[Sue Donum]

This could be what is causing Entourage to grind your system to a halt.

1. Why all of a sudden?

2. Could it in any way be contributing to all of the "Identity" problems
(you suggested I create a new one, due to constant problems with corruption,
rules, etc.)?

3. I just attempted to add Entourage under the Privacy tab, but can't (
Entourage is grayed out); the best I can do is add MS Office.

 

[Diane Ross]

2. Could it in any way be contributing to all of the "Identity" problems
(you suggested I create a new one, due to constant problems with corruption,
rules, etc.)?
No.

3. I just attempted to add Entourage under the Privacy tab, but can't (
Entourage is grayed out); the best I can do is add MS Office.

Add your Identity folder.

 

[Sue Donum]

Add your Identity folder.

<<embarrassed>> Thank you, Diane.

 

[Sue Donum]

You realize once you do this Entourage will no longer be backed up,
right?

If you find this doesn't solve your problem, be sure to remove the
Identity folder from the Privacy tab so that Entourage is once again
backed up!

I don't understand.

 

[Diane Ross]

You realize once you do this Entourage will no longer be backed up,
right?

This is totally wrong.

Spotlight: The actual indexing is done from the files in
~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Microsoft/Entourage, so the private/indexable
status of the MUD folder isn't relevant.

Time Machine: You also do not want your Identity included in Time Machine's
hourly backup. As a general rule you should shut down all Office programs
(including Office Notifications aka Microsoft Database daemon) before any
Entourage backups. However, users have reported that as long as the database
is not being used during backup there is no problem. Note; For this reason
Time Machine is not recommended to backup your database since it will most
likely be in use. If you want to use Time Machine see this alternative.

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/alternative_method_to_use_entourage_
and_time_machine.html>

In case the above link does not work:

<http://tinyurl.com/2r79ll>

 

[Sue Donum]

What don't you understand?

I currently make daily duplicates of my Identity folder and save them on my
internal hard drive. I ordered (but have yet to receive) an external drive
that I will use to back up my internal drive.

 

[Sue Donum]

This is totally wrong.

Spotlight: The actual indexing is done from the files in
~/Library/Caches/Metadata/Microsoft/Entourage, so the private/indexable
status of the MUD folder isn't relevant.

Time Machine: You also do not want your Identity included in Time Machine's
hourly backup. As a general rule you should shut down all Office programs
(including Office Notifications aka Microsoft Database daemon) before any
Entourage backups. However, users have reported that as long as the database
is not being used during backup there is no problem. Note; For this reason
Time Machine is not recommended to backup your database since it will most
likely be in use. If you want to use Time Machine see this alternative.

<http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/alternative_method_to_use_entourage_
and_time_machine.html>

In case the above link does not work:

<http://tinyurl.com/2r79ll>

This is good information. I'll have to study it so I can use it when I get
my backup drive.

 

[Diane Ross]

It's not totally wrong. Entourage will *not* be backed up if you
exclude it from Time Machine backups. That's a fact. My intention was to
ensure the OP knows this so they they can take appropriate action (make
sure they use some other method of backing it up)!

There was confusion here over what is being backed up. Spotlight cache data
or the Entourage data in Time Machine. I wanted to be clear to exclude
Entourage from Spotlight and warn about Time Machine backups.

I'm not sure if there is a way to automatically exclude Entourage from
Spotlight, but it's not an obvious conclusion that excluding it doesn't keep
Entourage from creating it's own Spotlight cache files.

 

[Diane Ross]

I think if you turn off the Entourage > Preferences > Spotlight setting,
those cache files won't be created. Then it's a matter of whether
Spotlight will index data in the identities folder, and I'm pretty sure
it won't. That should cover pretty much all of Entourage, no?

Correct. You must enable Spotlight to get the cache files. I need to ping
them to add "exclude from Spotlight's Privacy tab."

 

[Sue Donum]

Hmm... I guess I don't understand. It seemed like you were suggesting
the slowdown may have been caused by Spotlight indexing of Entourage
files. If you turn off Entourage > Preferences > Spotlight , there are
no Entourage cache files. Spotlight can't spend CPU cycles indexing
Entourage cache files that don't exist.

Now I am even more confused.

Am I supposed to change the Spotlight prefs AND the Entourage prefs?

 

[Sue Donum]

The thing is, AFAIK, Spotlight won't attempt to index your identity
folder; so I can't think of a reason why you would *need* to exclude the
identity folder from the System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy panel.
That said, it can't *hurt* anything to do it; so feel free to go ahead
and try it anyway. You can always remove the entry later.

When I do use Spotlight to *try to* locate items (I am very uncomfortable
with it compared to Sherlock, which I had 100% confidence in), it often
lists a lot of email messages. If Spotlight isn't indexing Entourage, how
does it find those messages?

On the other hand, disabling the Entourage > Preferences > Spotlight
setting absolutely *will* prevent Entourage from creating Spotlight
cache files, which, in turn, will prevent Spotlight from indexing those
files. Entourage does indeed utilize a lot of the CPU while creating
these Spotlight cache files initially, since there are so many of them;
so disabling this setting has a good chance of solving your problem.

Keep in mind, however, that should you allow Entourage to go ahead and
create that initial very large set of Spotlight cache files, future
cache file creation by Entourage will not utilize *nearly* as much of
your CPU, since it will happen for just a handful of messages at a time.
So once you get over the initial hump, it's smooth sailing, and you
shouldn't see Entourage use as much CPU again. Whether it's worth it to
you to go through that initial hump is something you'll have to decide.
If you use Spotlight to search for things in your Entourage messages,
you may decide it's worth it. I did.

I've been using this iMac since I got it in May, which was when I installed
Entourage and imported all of my email from Outlook Express. So, any
"initial" Spotlight indexing took place way back then. I didn't begin to
experience the Spinning Beachball until very recently. (The only thing that
I can imagine might somehow -- based on your description -- cause additional
"heavy" indexing would be if somehow rebuilding the database (which I find
myself having to do routinely) would cause Spotlight to have to "start all
over again" in order to "update" its index.)

Keep in mind, also, that there are other features of Entourage that can
cause similar symptoms. One such feature for which I've seen reports of
CPU hogging is SyncServices, for instance.

SyncServices? I haven't a clue about SyncServices.


(FWIW: I'v already changed both Spotlight's and Entourage's prefs, and the
Spinning Beachball still is causing my Mac to crawl...and now it looks like
it's not only Entourage, but also Finder that's eating CPU cycles.)

 

[Diane Ross]

Hmm... I guess I don't understand. It seemed like you were suggesting
the slowdown may have been caused by Spotlight indexing of Entourage
files. If you turn off Entourage > Preferences > Spotlight , there are
no Entourage cache files. Spotlight can't spend CPU cycles indexing
Entourage cache files that don't exist.

If you don't exclude Spotlight from indexing the database in Spotlight
Privacy tab, THAT will cause slowdowns.

You DO want to enable Sync Services in Entourage preferences. This does not
cause slowdowns.