8

I just started my computer. I opened Chrome but didn't go on any website yet. However, Chrome is continuously using 1.5 CPU cores, even after I waited >10 minutes after the Chrome launch. Why?

Demo:

enter image description here

The task manager of Chrome only shows "Browser" as using most of the CPU. Extensions use <5% of CPU.

Windows Task Manager details:

enter image description here

Chrome was continuously using 1.5 CPU cores even before I opened the Chrome Task Manager.

Google Chrome is up to date: Version 92.0.45 15.107 (Official Build) (64-bit). I use Windows 7 SP1 x64 Ultimate. Updating to Google Chrome Version 92.0.4515.131 (Official Build) (64-bit) didn't fix the issue.

2
  • 7
    According to the Chrome developer guide, that’s usage of a single core, as for the reason it’s so high is due to your extensive list of extensions. It’s also due to the fact Chrome is a resource hog.
    – Ramhound
    Aug 1, 2021 at 19:53
  • 1
    If 150 is of a single core, then what is it out of (if not a percent)?
    – Cole Tobin
    Aug 5, 2021 at 23:47

2 Answers 2

19

The task manager of Chrome tells you exactly why. Each extension you run is being run in a separate process too and given the large scroll bar, it shows you have a lot of extensions.

The browser in Google Chrome's taskmanager is the main process. In order for your browser to work, it has to communicate with the rest of the system. So at Chrome launch, all plugins are loaded, and thus the CPU power for the browser process is high.

0
4

The following comment gave the correct, albeit tedious answer:

 You will want to disable the extensions one by one until it drops to find out what extension is the cause here. For example, it could be that one extension was updated and now contains a crypto miner. – LPChip12 hours

This other comment gives a solution to make it less tedious to check:

Since you have a lot of extensions, you may want to not do them 1 by 1, but instead do a binary search, where you would turn off half. If the problem happens again, shut off half of what is left. If it's not, try the other half instead. Repeat until you're down to a manageable number of extensions. Also, as a sanity check, you may want to create a new profile, with no extensions, and have CHrome create an icon for it on your Desktop. Close Chrome, and open just that profile, and make sure the problem recurs. That way it's clear it's an extension causing the problem. – trlkly 11 hours ago

In my case, the CPU usage came from the Google Chrome extension https://www.grammarly.com/:

enter image description here

Note that to find which Google Chrome extension causing the issue, one has to restart Google Chrome after disabling the extension (because disabling the extension without restarting Google Chrome doesn't guarantee that the CPU usage will decrease: in my case it didn't, and I had to restart Google Chrome for CPU usage to decrease).

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .