High CPU and power use

Even when Pandora is inactive it is frequently occupying over 20% CPU. Task manager also shows high or very high power use.

It starts off under 1% when opened but within a minute or two Pandora CPU use goes up to around 15%, then progressively continues increasing. I can hear the disk whirring continuously, but the noise stops when I close Pandora. I'm afraid it will be knackering my SSD.

Pandora also freezes when doing searches in large or multiple mailboxes, but I am not sure what is the cause.

Windows 10 laptop 8Gb RAM.

Mailbox indexing service can be quite demanding, try turning it off:
1. Go to: Settings/Background Tasks
2. Click: Fast Indexing Service - Stop
3. OK

Trying it, no visible impact so far, does it need a restart?

Display Windows services (if unfamiliar with this, see https://duckduckgo.com/?q=how+display+WIndows+service&ia=web).

Is the Pandora mailbox indexer MailboxCat service running (status column)? It runs the mailboxcat.exe task which you would see in Task Manager showing how much CPU and disk resources it's consuming.

If this service is running, and assuming you have the necessary Windows privileges, you can use the Services panel to alter it to "Disabled" and that should fix you problem.

Done, ta , will see how it goes....

with mailcat disabled, still getting high or very high power use and around 20% CPU, even when idle, in task manager.

Kenny, try this:
1. Close Pandora.
2. Open your main data folder in File Explorer.
3. Make sure folder Spool is empty (if not, move the entire folder to another location).
4. If folder Import exists, move it to another location.

Both folders are at the root level of main data folder.

Hi, I guess you are referring to the Pandora data folder C:\Users\K\AppData\Roaming\Pandora\Mail, where subfolder Spool is indeed empty.

There is no folder called Import.

When you hit View/Tasks, from the main menu, are there any active tasks?

No. But I notice mailbox cat pandora mail service has reappeared in the windows task list, even though I disabled it. Is there some way to stop it reactivating?

Fast search indexing service still appear to be off in Pandora.

Alright, try this please:

1. Close Pandora.
2. Right-click on Pandora icon and choose Run as Administrator.
3. Go to Settings/Background Tasks and stop the service.

If you stop the service externally Pandora will restart it, on the next session. So always use Pandora interface (in Admin mode), to Start/Stop the service.

Next release will be out in a matter of days, and updated version of MailboxCat. If you lost faith in it just turn it off as described above.
Otherwise, I suggest you give it a try it has much lower footprint now.

That's interesting Brana, What will be different with the updated version of MailboxCat? Will the Pandora internal admin interface (start/stop button) act differently? Have you had to change MailboxCat service Windows parameters and/or the MailboxCat.exe task itself, or what?

Thanks, I already have the icon properties with Run as Administrator.

In background tasks I still have, as before: "Fast Search Indexing Service - Start" which I understand indicates mailbox cat is disabled anyway?

kenny wrote:Thanks, I already have the icon properties with Run as Administrator.

In background tasks I still have, as before: "Fast Search Indexing Service - Start" which I understand indicates mailbox cat is disabled anyway?

That's correct.

After the upgrade, if you feel like it - try it first AS IS, if you experience unpleasant spikes, you'll be able to do this:
1. Close Pandora, edit file Pandora.cfg with Notepad (note - it's located inside Pandora program folder, it's not inside data folder).
2. Add section [MailboxCat], hit Enter and add:
3. MaxUsageCPU=5
4. Save and close Pandora.cfg.

Tony - Yes, service button is disabled now, and without Start/Stop indicator, when Pandora is in non-admin mode.

Thanks, will do. I guess the high/very high power usage in Task Manager is related to the CPU use, although the latter is only around the 20% level usually.

I updated and made the adjustment to the cfg file. With Pandora inactive, windows task manager is now showing 20-25% CPU, but still very high to high power usage.

kenny, how many cores does your CPU have? I suspect 4 cores, which would mean that if one of the cores is flat out running the MailboxCat.exe indexer task then it would use up to 25 percent of your total processing power.

Anyway, I have an AMD Ryzen with 8 cores and 16 threads, and I have been using Process Lasso to restrict this MailboxCat.exe task to a single thread (configuring CPU Affinity to be just one out of 16 threads), which amounts to 5-7 percent of total CPU.

If your CPU has fewer cores/threads than that, let me tell you that apart from thread control I also configure Process Lasso to run this task at "Below Normal" CPU priority and "Low" or "Very Low" I/O priority. I use the purchased version Process Lasso Pro, but you can try the free Process Lasso version that I think does all the above things.

I know that the above is very esoteric, but it might be worth your trying if all else fails.

I haven't used the MaxUsageCPU option that Brana implemented in Pandora version 4.4.0.1 yet. Have you used it, and what was the outcome? It certainly is a less complicated mechanism than using a fairly complicated Windows utility like Process Lasso.

Yes don't lasso poor cat, it already comes with the leash.

Maximum CPU time consumption of 20-25% is exactly how I set it up. On older Intel processor i7-6700 @ 3.40GHz, working on 8GB of mailboxes, it's not noticeable (with 32GB RAM, so there is that).

If it's persistently at that level (20-25 range) and/or if that level is too much for the machine - just set the new value, see how that goes.

Fast indexing service came back again, stopped it again.

With the changes to the cfg file as specified above, I have now reached the nirvana of Low power usage by Pandora in Task Manager.  

However behaviour seems to vary somewhat, sometimes reaching high to very high power use, so will keep an eye on it for a while.

Thanks all for assistance.

Kenny, it's great to see that you've reached a state of nirvana with fast indexing. But if "sometimes reaching high to very high power use" ever becomes a big issue for you again then using a utility like Process Lasso will be the only solution -- but you probably won't have to use it I would guess.