How to clear CPU congestion?

[Kurt Granroth]

Kenneth wrote:
>> My system cruises along fine for days without any CPU overload
>> ('top' normally shows CPU usage at about 2%) ... and then something 
>> happens (I don't know what) that causes the CPU% (as shown in the 
>> 'top' results below) to shoot up to 90+%. 
>>
>>   PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND
>>  3098 root      25   0 80492  62m 4460 S 98.9 12.5   5233:50 X
> 
> This shows X taking 98.9% of the CPU.  screensaver perhaps?

That would be my guess as well.  If you don't have a 3D capable video
card (and/or 3d drivers for X), then the OpenGL screen savers will peg
the CPU as long as they are running.