'CEF Helper' ate all my RAM and abused my GPU - what is it doing?

I was running a simple plotting program on my mac (see below), when suddenly my GPU went from working at 2% to 70%, and my RAM filled up to 90%. I checked my system and saw that 'CEF helper' was causing this, so I force quit it in activity manager to try to fix the issue. It's a 2020 iMac with an intel processor and AMD GPU.

Once it was quit, I found that this was caused by something in MATLAB (see system log), but I can't work out what it's there for or why it used so much of my RAM. I didn't get a chance to screenshot the RAM before it went back down, but CEF helper was using about 4GB (whereas MATLAB, a separate task, was only using 1GB). I've attached copies of the system log and diagnostic reports, but I don't really know what they mean. I've also included a screenshot of 'info.plist' which is in the 'cefhelper' folder in MATLAB. Now that MATLAB is running again, the cefhelper task is back, but using much less RAM.

I've reopened MATLAB and tried running the program again, in exactly the same way, but cannot repeat the issue. My computer is running fine now, but I don't understand what happened, or if it will happen again. A search of the internet and MATLAB forums didn't reveal anything about what CEFhelper does, or any issues with it, except that cefhelper.exe can be a virus on windows comptuers.

So my question is - what is cefhelper doing, and how can I prevent this from happening again?

I can't share all the code because its a coursework project, but the issue occurred at the section below. I had finished running the code, and was trying to zoom in on a graph in the live script editor when the issue occurred.

% f and g are symbolic functions defined elsewhere in the script
% x_0 = 0 with negative g(x)
A = fpm(f, -g, 0.0, 1*10^(-6));
disp(['x ~ ', num2str(A)])

% ------

% Fixed point method
function x2 = fpm(f, g, x1, tol)

    figure
    hold on
    fplot(g)
    fplot(@(x) x)
    a = animatedline(x1, 0);
    
    % Let x2 = f(x1)
    x2 = double(g(x1));
    
    % Update plot
    addpoints(a, x1, x2);
    addpoints(a, x2, x2);
    
    % Repeat until tolerance is reached
    while abs(x2-x1) > tol
        x1 = x2;
        x2 = double(g(x1));
        addpoints(a, x1, x2);
        addpoints(a, x2, x2);
    end
    set(gca, 'XAxisLocation', 'origin')
    hold off

end

[Walter Roberson]

I am not positive, but it looks like cef in this context might be for use with libcefqt which appears to have to do with interfacing the Qt library with Google's Chromium browser (which is used more for App Designer)

[Jean-Serge Cardinal]

I also have a problem with cef_helper on version 2021b. The computer hangs a few seconds once a while, and I can hear the fan spinning a lot more.

I don't have this problem with 2021a.

[André Jensen]

I have the same issue and haven't found a solution

[Kianoush Banaie Boroujeni]

I have the same issue on v 2022a and 2021b. It gets super slow, doesn’t show my scripts content and throws an error about java toolbox.

[Kenneth Byrne]

Issue on R2022a with CEF "helper" -Java Chromium, abolutely eats my RAM and multiple "service" versions started without even running a script. Completely eats RAM when live editor in operation, getting to the stage where Matlab about to be deleted from my system,along with Google chrome

[Tim]

I am having the same problem, long hang times while plotting simple figures and multiple instances of the Java Chromium Embeded Frameqork

[Simon]

I have a 'cefhelper (Renderer)' problem in a different situation. In 'Help Center' window, when I click 'Examples' button, an icon for 'cefhelper (Renderer)') unpredictably appears and bounces nonstopping in Mac's Dock area. It eats up lots of memory and CPU time, and I have to kill it with force quit.

[Tatiana Ivanova]

Did anyone found a solution to this problem? I am so frustrated, till yesterday everything was fine and now I can't even work, everything is slow

[Tianzong Wang]

Same for 2022a and 2022b. Please provide a solution to this issue, or parfor is not working at all.

[Simon]

The solution posted for a similar problem I have might work for this one.

"I would cross-check in System Preferences to be sure that MATLAB has been given full access to disks."

link

[John]

I have the same problem

[Justin]

Me too with R2024b

Answer 1

[Jean-Serge Cardinal]

I fix this problem by upgrading from Kubuntu from 18 to 21.

Answer 2

[Markus Lindblom]

Hi, I had the same problem in 2021b. I would have 6 or more instances of JCEF running and consuming both RAM and CPU.

Here is how I solved it (NOT RECOMMENDED!): I went to "C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2020b\bin\win64" and deleted the "cef_helper.exe" file (after creating a backup ofc!). The problem has now dissapeared, however I have lost some functionallity such as the "overhead menu" in Simulink. I can still find blocks etc by simply left-clicking and typing though. This is not how I would have liked to solve it, and as stated is not a recommended solution.... but it works. I can now actually use Matlab and Simulink without the program lagging and/or crashing all the time.

If you find a better solution please let me know!

Regards, Markus

Answer 3

[james]

try clearing

C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\MathWorks