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Runaway Chrome for Mac Helper

ianf [PersonRank 10]

Monday, May 24, 2010
14 years ago4,052 views

Judging by number of complaints alone, the Chrome Helper http://google.com/search?q=runaway+%22Google+Chrome+Helper%22 (app? extension? manager?) —an integral part of Chrome for Mac [5.0.375.55 beta] browser— is a CPU-hog of no mean proportions. On the process monitor it accounts at any one time, and with but two or three NO-FLASH tabs in a single open window, for ~400% threads than from all other processes combined.

The laptop gets hot even when idle; the fan which usually runs at a silent 2200 revs kicks in to 5500-6500 revs, etc. The time span for launch from sleep to fan noise gets shorter (I think) with accumulating uptime factor.

Possibly, a part of the problem is my launching pages in ever new tabs, which get dismissed after perusal, but that seemed to me the main advantage of Chrome's UI over unnavigable-tabs state of the Safari browser. It seems like the Helper is maintaining an ever-widdening memory_leak() or equivalent(malloc()) ported straight from, and originally meant for Windows or Linux, not Mac OSX. Sadly, I had to let Chrome go.

Does anyone know what Chrome Helper really does, and what can be done to alleviate/ lessen the problems with it on the Mac?

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