Whenever I run OWB it eats up 100% of the CPU for a couple of (long) seconds, and the same happens when it loads heavy stuff as well. During this time it feels like the whole system freezes and any MP3 I have playing naturally halts.

So I was wondering if it's possible to force a program not to use more than a certain amount of CPU (like no more than 90%)? I think this would make my system feel a lot smoother to use.

> During this time it feels like the whole system freezes and any MP3 I have playing
> naturally halts. So I was wondering if it's possible to force a program not to use more
> than a certain amount of CPU (like no more than 90%)?

You may want to tinker with task priorities, which is a concept MorphOS inherited from AmigaOS.

Quote:

Is that really the same thing?

>> You may want to tinker with task priorities, which is a concept MorphOS inherited
>> from AmigaOS.

> Is that really the same thing?

Yes, task priorities on MorphOS work exactly the same way as they do on AmigaOS. Just try it.

@Andreas_Wolf

Good to know (even though I never tried it on AOS). Where do I change those settings?

> Where do I change those settings?

I know of 2 ways to do this on MorphOS without using 3rd party tools:
1st is TaskManager which allows to easily change priorities via GUI. 2nd is standard AmigaDOS command ChangeTaskPri. You can read up on how it's used there:

http://www.titan.co.nz/amigaak/AA020844e1D.htm
http://amiga.sourceforge.net/amigadevhelp/phpwebdev.php?keyword=ChangeTaskPri&funcgroup=AmigaDOS

There's also an m68k 3rd party tool (both GUI and command line) there:
http://www.onyxsoft.se/settaskpri.html
...and another m68k command line tool contained therein:
http://aminet.net/package/biz/patch/sq105107

OK, I will try this. But maybe some of the developers see this thread and think such an option I mentioned above would be a good idea.

> maybe some of the developers see this thread and think such an option I mentioned
> above would be a good idea.

Yes, changing task priorities won't remedy the 100% usage of the CPU, but it will most certainly cure the bad symptoms you told about ("it feels like the whole system freezes and any MP3 I have playing naturally halts").

Which mp3 player are you using?
Increasing the player buffer can help to avoid dropouts.
I have no problems surfing the internet and playing mp3s.

I use Aminet Radio on my Powermac G5 2.7 GHz. But basically, any program will "freeze" during 100% load which happens sometimes when I load HP's in OWB.

That's why I would like an upper stop in allowed CPU usage.

The mp3 player already has a higher priority than OWB.
It should not get interrupted.
Can you give an url of a web site causing the problems.

@Tom01

Well, first of just starting OWB makes a short interruption (every time, but duration can vary between 0,5 and 1,5 seconds). When I tried now most of the pages I have problems with worked nicely. Except logging into Gmail, which caused a half a second interruption. But when it's at it's worst, the song may stop for up to 2-3 seconds.

A bug in my G5 port maybe? Mine is 2,7 GHz with Radeon 9600 XT 128 meg VRAM.

No problems on Mac mini G4.

ANR has tooltypes to set the player & decoder priorities. Try setting the DECODERPRI (check the docs to verify the naming) to 5.