MASSIVE slowdowns using iCamSource on Mac Mini

[steveken]

My wife has a late-2009 Mac Mini running the latest macOS High Sierra. when running icamsource on it, we notice that LOADS of CPU time is taken up by the application. It makes her computer run super slow. Even web pages. She can sit there having to wait on Facebook to load up. Or it takes forever for our checkbook software to load up and Excel to launch. The only way to help the situation at all is to disable the motion detection portion of it. I have set up schedules on it for when to record/detect motion. While that is *a* solution, it isn't really the best one. What happens if something happens during the times it isn't detecting/recording? What happens if I forget to turn it back on if I kill it while she is using it and then we leave?

Basically, what I'm doing here is trying to see if there is a reason why it uses so much CPU time dragging the system down. Is there anything we can do to make it work any better? Is it just because of the processing that is required when doing the detection? Would reducing the detectable zones help? Is there ANYTHING we can do to make it more useful?

Thanks.

[Stefan]

You can slide the "Perform Motion Detection" slider from "More Often" to "Less Often" under the Motion Detection tab in the iCamSource to check for motion less frequently.

How many cameras do you have connected to the iCamSource? You should also see less CPU usage if you close the iCamSource preview window.

[steveken]

Without the preferences open, it fluctuates between like 13% and 25% or so. With it open, it goes between like 20% and 30%. I have 4 cameras connected. Of those 4, only 1 does any sort of motion detection/recording. The image quality was set to the best side, so I moved it to mid-range. The motion detection is already at the middle point. I am afraid to move it any lower out of fear that I might miss events.

[Stefan]

Is 30% as high as the CPU gets? That shouldn't cause the computer to slow down making it impossible to use.

Do you also have Record on Motion enabled? It may be that if you have a non-SSD drive in the Mac mini that it is the hard drive writes while motion is being detected and events are being recorded that is the issue?

[steveken]

I don't know if that is as high as it gets. It could get higher than that and it just is at that when I launch activity monitor and can finally see what is going on. What I do know is that, coupled with its activity, when my wife tries to use the machine for pretty much anything it makes the fan ramp up to make it sound like a jet engine taking off. She has to sit there waiting and waiting and waiting for the computer to finally load up what she is wanting.

Yes, we do have record on motion enabled for that one camera. It doesn't get triggered that often. Seriously, we live on a dead end street that gets maybe 6 or 7 cars over the course of 8 to 10 hours. It is a virtually brand new spinner that I just installed replacing the old, tiny hard drive, so it's speeds shouldn't be low enough writing the small amount of data that it would affect the performance in this way. Yes, laptop drives are still slower than full size drives, but still. And while replacing the hard drive I made sure everything was cleaned out with no obstructions, so it isn't dirt or dust making the fan ramp up. It is purely processor performance.

Maybe it is just the overall age of the machine and the power of the processor. I've got 8GB of RAM in it, so maybe that's it. Maybe it wants 16GB, but I can't see that being the reason. If it only had 4GB then that I could understand. LOL

[Stefan]

It may just be the age of the machine, yes, especially when running the more recent operating systems. (We have experienced similar issues in the past.)

Although, does the 2009 Mac mini support High Sierra? This Apple document claims that High Sierra requires a Mid-2010 Mac mini or later: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP765?locale=en_US

[steveken]

Well, I was wrong in what I put for the model of the mini. There wasn't even any made late-2009. Actually there was. They have a really poor track record of putting them out. Anyway, looking at the about for the machine, it says mid-2010.