MacBook Pro gets hot

[Lobo]

Loaded iCam source on my wife's MacBook Pro and notice later (an hour or so) that the MacBooks fans go
to high speed and the laptop seems fairly hot. I looked at the processes and there is one that I can't remember
exactly the name, but it was something like VD***** and it was bouncing around 55 to 75% of CPU usage and
iCam source around 15%. I adjusted the motion detection to the mid range setting and it didn't seem to help.

Is this normal and any ideas?

Thanks..   Lobo

[Stefan]

Was it the VDCAssistant process? That is the application that is run by Mac OS X whenever an application accesses a USB (or Built-In) webcam. Does the VDCAssistant use that much CPU when the iCamSource is first started? When I start the iCamSource on my MacBook the VDCAssistant uses about 5%. Changing the motion detection settings will only effect the iCamSource process, not the VDCAssistant.

[Lobo]

Hi Stefan,

Yes it's the VDCAssistant program that had a 70% usage rate. This morning I did some testing. When I
started iCam, both VDCAssistant and iCamsource started out at 30% plus or minus 2%. After two hours,
VDCAssistant was at 72% and iCamsource was at 66% and the fans on the laptop were running at high
speed. The CPU temp was a 99C.

If VDCAssistant is a USB program would it help to rest the praim settings or something like that?


Larry

[Stefan]

Hi Stefan,

Yes it's the VDCAssistant program that had a 70% usage rate. This morning I did some testing. When I
started iCam, both VDCAssistant and iCamsource started out at 30% plus or minus 2%. After two hours,
VDCAssistant was at 72% and iCamsource was at 66% and the fans on the laptop were running at high
speed. The CPU temp was a 99C.

If VDCAssistant is a USB program would it help to rest the praim settings or something like that?


Larry

Is this an older MacBook Pro? Resetting the PRAM may help, as well as making sure all OS X updates are installed.

[Lobo]

Yes, it's about 2-3 years old... I will reset the PRAIM.. any other ideas?

Lobo

[Stefan]

You could try running Photo Booth (or some other webcam application) for a while to see if the same thing happens. If not, then we can try and replicate the problem and see if we can do something about it with the iCamSource.

[gesko]

Same here. 3 year old MBP. VDCAssist Uwes over 60% of CPU. Other Cam software like Photho Booth only uses 5-7% of CPU. So the Problem seems to be in iCamSource.

Any help appreciated.

Gesko

[Don of Nashville]

Turn off the audio feeds to the cameras. Use no audio. I noticed a 50%  decrease in CPU usage when I did this.