Topic: Bitcoin Wallet all the time catching up and eating 100%CPU (FIXED !!) (Read 6758 times)

I am seeing this with Windows XP and Bitcoin Core 0.9.3.  I had received an I/O error causing the client to crash.  It is reindexing the block chain.  I can't leave computer running indefinitely so I shutdown and begin again each day, hoping that it continues where it left off.  This reindexing has been going on now for about a week working about 8 hours a day.  During that time the CPU is 80-100%.  Its difficult to do anything else on the laptop under these conditions.  Its still about 20 weeks of data from completion.  I will see how much progress it makes before I have to shutdown the laptop.  I may take a backup of the Bitcoin folder and try erasing all the blocks to download from the very beginning.  It would be worth it if I can use my laptop once again for other work, even if it takes longer to finish.  My worry is that whatever is causing the extreme CPU usage might not go away if I let the reindexing continue.  This 80-100% CPU usage is unacceptable even for the reindexing.  If it should persist once the block chain becomes current, I would have to restart anyway.

With the backup of the Bitcoin folder, I will be able to resume the reindexing if I have to.  

As a followup, I have been trying to get Bitcoin Core 0.9.3 to fully sync up for several weeks.  I let the process run for about an hour before attempting to terminate.

1.  It may be my imagination, but it seems to terminate more cleanly with File->Exit than if the Windows "X" option is invoked.

2.  If it is running away with the CPU, it is usually not responsive to mouse clicks and has to be forcefully terminated.

3.  Often something goes wrong as process tries to terminate from File->Exit request.  Sometimes it then begins running away with the CPU.  Sometimes, it issues the warning message not kill process or shutdown until the message disappears.  Other times that message never disappears.  I've made it a policy to wait not only for the message to disappear, but also to wait for the process to exit of its own accord.

If the process exit cleanly after a File->Exit request.  I take a check-point backup of the data folder.  If something has gone wrong, I take no chances and restore from the last check-point backup.

After several weeks, and almost 80 check-point backups taken, I'm about 6 months from being fully synced.  Its slow going, but at least its making progress without corrupting the data folder as it is prone to do.

Yep, I seen someone quote it will be 50GB in 10 years ...

There is the concept of thin clients for bitcoin, where this block chain would be hosted ... Actually, I believe that's how some of the android/ios software works.

Will the block chain continue to grow or will some of it get archived from time to time?

Glad to see you got it fixed!

The connection speed really does not matter because it is used very little. Just check windows task manager / networks and you will see a very low line graph.
And the connection I used to download it is really not shitty

I have actually fixed my original problem now. The files have been somehow corrupted, so I deleted it and let it download again (and yes it took like half a day at least!) and now it works and a Wallet runs without eating CPU power. But it is still "catching up" and the arrows are always rotating even when the number of downloaded blocks is bigger by one then bitcoincharts says So I hope now I can finally start with some mining...

It doesn't take a slow connection for Bitcoin to take many hours to download all blocks. The blockchain is bigger than an average Netflix movie, plus the CPU is used validating every block as you download them. Consider also that you are downloading from other Bitcoin users on the P2P network, their upload speed also matters, and upload is usually significantly less than download on consumer broadband.

If you aren't a computer noob, you can follow these instructions to directly download the blockchain from a high-speed Internet host (mine).

ugh, the blockchain is around 1.25 GB on my disk - this will take a considerable amount of time to download over a shitty connection.

I always forget, not everyone has highspeed internet ...

I just wanted to share with you all my first time bitcoin experience. After I installed the bitcoin software, it takes me about 13 hours to synchronise all the blocks! Really a long waiting though!

Ok, you're on a super slow connection, like a modem it seems. If you can download the software you should be able to figure out how to file a bug report. It's all on bitcoin.org. You may also see a solution for your problem.

The latest version of course. Are there any other available? I am now waiting for the third machine to complete first download and it seems it will take the whole night here in GMT +1 at least So in the morning I will see if its any different

What version of bitcoin-qt are you running? Can you post a screenshot of Help-> About

Also, are you using the same installer on each machine that you tried bitcoin-qt on?

I have never seen 100% bitcoin consume 100% cpu.   If you want to get started mining while someone figures this out you might want to check out strongcoin.  

It is an online wallet but the private keys are encrypted so there is nothing for them to lose or steal.  The wallet decrypts keys locally (in javascript) as needed.  The server never retains anything but encrypted keys.
https://strongcoin.com/

Maybe it will help with your frustration and get you up and running.

BTW: Lots of experienced users scan the newbie forums daily.

ccApp is the symantec antivirus.
Bug report? Are you kidding? :-) I don't have a clue what and where it is. I just registered to this forum hoping to get some help but it took me a long time until I found out that I can write only to newbies section because it is written nowhere...
I will try to run it on a third machine if it will do the same... Maybe there was some problem with the generated files because I have copied them on the second machine and then ran the Wallet, so on this third I will start from fresh.

What's ccapp.exe? Is that anti-virus stuff?  What version bitcoin? Have you filed a bug report yet?

Also the "minimize on close" option does not work and the program still just goes to tray instead of exiting when this option is unchecked.

as I already said I tested it on two different computers and different OSes and it does the same. Now I am connected to a different ISP and it does the same!
Downloads all the new blocks while using the CPU cores just around 50%. Then when thew downloaded blocks reaches the current number of blocks it starts using CPU by 100% and keeps rotating the arrow circle and saying "catching up".
And now what the heck: Downloaded blocks is bigger by one then the value on bitcoincharts! So it seems I have one bonus block just for me :-]

Anybody using Windows 7 or XP who could tell me how it behaves for him?

Looks like you may have either a network issue or a disk issue. Make sure that your blk.dat file isn't fragmented. How much space do you have on your HD? What's your net traffic look like?

aha I see this was moved into a new thread, but I doubt that those who can help me regularly check newbies section...:-] Please whitelist me and move it somewhere else. Thanks

Yea if you are caught up on the chain you wallet really should not us much CPU cycles. Ram yes not CPU though. I think you have some kind of config error or maybe Malware.

OK so do you think this is normal? This is already like 20minutes and still the same. Only the downloaded blocks number is changing but it is still the same as on bitcoincharts.
This is an XP machine but it does the same on my Win7 laptop.