VS Code randomly freezes entire PC for a few seconds multiple times a day

[goodspark]

Issue Type: Performance Issue

I'm not sure what the cause is yet or how to reliably recreate it.

Some info:

• I'm running VS Code locally on my Windows 10 machine ~~but connected to a remote workspace with the remote SSH extension~~ (had this happen for a local workspace so I don't think the remote extension is at fault here).
• I'm working in a large monorepo. I saw this also happen for a much smaller workspace, but currently I think a larger workspace is more likely to cause it.
• This isn't CPU use - it looks like it's GPU related. I leave the task manager open all the time to see historical system resource usage and there's always a huge spike in GPU to 100% and then back down to normal levels (~2%, depending on what I'm doing).
• I'm not doing anything workload intensive, as far as I know. Most of the time I notice this happening when I alt-tab back to VS Code and try to type in the built-in terminal. And the commands are simple, like 'git status' or 'll'. I've also had this happen by simply alt-tabbing back to VS Code and doing nothing else.
• When the freeze happens, all keyboard/mouse input is ignored. The screen doesn't update. This lasts for a few seconds before everything works again.
• I have a GeForce 1080 Ti graphics card on this machine and updated to the latest graphics drivers just in case.
• It feels like this is a recent regression. Can't give a date, but feels like it maybe started ~2 months ago.

Version: 1.69.2 (user setup) (also seen on 1.69.0) Commit: 3b889b090b5ad5793f524b5d1d39fda662b96a2a Date: 2022-07-18T16:12:52.460Z Electron: 18.3.5 Chromium: 100.0.4896.160 Node.js: 16.13.2 V8: 10.0.139.17-electron.0 OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.19044

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20GHz (8 x 4200)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled canvas_oop_rasterization: disabled_off direct_rendering_display_compositor: disabled_off_ok gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on opengl: enabled_on rasterization: enabled raw_draw: disabled_off_ok skia_renderer: enabled_on video_decode: enabled video_encode: enabled vulkan: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	31.94GB (15.35GB free)
Process Argv
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Item	Value
Remote	SSH: coder.asd
OS	Linux x64 5.4.0-1068-gke
CPUs	Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU @ 3.10GHz (60 x 3100)
Memory (System)	236.15GB (118.82GB free)
VM	0%

Process Info

CPU %	Mem MB	   PID	Process
    0	   111	 25100	code main
    0	    91	  5268	   extensionHost
    0	   220	 15872	   gpu-process
    0	    92	 16696	   issue-reporter
    0	   107	 20044	   shared-process
    0	    75	   364	     ptyHost
    0	     4	 19692	       C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe /c (type "C:\Users\sam\AppData\Local\Temp\vscode-linux-multi-line-command-coder.asd-819971363.sh" | ssh -T -D 55324 "coder.asd" bash) & exit /b 0
    0	     9	  5664	         ssh  -T -D 55324 "coder.asd" bash
    0	    46	 21108	           "C:\\Users\\myusername\\bin\\coder.exe" tunnel asd 12213 stdio
    0	     8	 20112	       console-window-host (Windows internal process)
    0	    69	 17100	     fileWatcher
    0	   307	 21932	   window (fish - myusername (Workspace) [SSH: coder.asd] - Visual Studio Code)
    0	    47	 25536	   utility-network-service

Remote: SSH: coder.asd
CPU %	Mem MB	   PID	Process
    0	     0	370447	remote agent
    0	     0	370485	   ptyHost
    0	     0	389928	     /usr/bin/fish
    0	     0	370511	   extensionHost
    0	     0	370547	     /home/myusername/.vscode-server/bin/92d25e35d9bf1a6b16f7d0758f25d48ace11e5b9/node /home/myusername/.vscode-server/extensions/heptio.jsonnet-0.1.0/node_modules/vscode-languageclient/lib/utils/electronForkStart /home/myusername/.vscode-server/extensions/heptio.jsonnet-0.1.0/out/server/server.js --node-ipc --clientProcessId=370511
    0	     0	373002	     /home/myusername/go/bin/gopls -mode=stdio
    0	     0	373102	     /home/myusername/.vscode-server/extensions/hashicorp.terraform-2.23.0-linux-x64/bin/terraform-ls serve
    0	     0	373140	     /home/myusername/.vscode-server/extensions/rust-lang.rust-analyzer-0.3.1123-linux-x64/server/rust-analyzer
    0	     0	373440	       /home/myusername/.vscode-server/extensions/rust-lang.rust-analyzer-0.3.1123-linux-x64/server/rust-analyzer proc-macro
    0	     0	373144	     /home/myusername/.vscode-server/bin/92d25e35d9bf1a6b16f7d0758f25d48ace11e5b9/node /home/myusername/.vscode-server/bin/92d25e35d9bf1a6b16f7d0758f25d48ace11e5b9/extensions/json-language-features/server/dist/node/jsonServerMain --node-ipc --clientProcessId=370511
    0	     0	373242	     /home/myusername/.vscode-server/bin/92d25e35d9bf1a6b16f7d0758f25d48ace11e5b9/node /home/myusername/.vscode-server/extensions/ms-python.vscode-pylance-2022.7.20/dist/server.bundle.js --cancellationReceive=file:8dde805317c22445708c9a7ad0b86f86579eb8ea7c --node-ipc --clientProcessId=370511
    0	     0	370522	   fileWatcher
    0	     0	391533	   /bin/sh -c /bin/ps -ax -o pid=,ppid=,pcpu=,pmem=,command=
    0	     0	391534	     /bin/ps -ax -o pid=,ppid=,pcpu=,pmem=,command=

Workspace Info

|  Remote: SSH: coder.asd;

Extensions (24)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
Nix	bbe	1.0.1
postcss	css	1.0.9
jupyter-keymap	ms-	1.0.0
remote-ssh	ms-	0.82.1
remote-ssh-edit	ms-	0.80.0
remote-wsl	ms-	0.66.3
vscode-bazel	Baz	0.5.0
vscode-css-modules	cli	0.4.2
vscode-eslint	dba	2.2.6
vscode-deno	den	3.13.0
gitlens	eam	12.1.1
EditorConfig	Edi	0.16.4
prettier-vscode	esb	9.5.0
go	gol	0.34.1
terraform	has	2.23.0
jsonnet	hep	0.1.0
elixir-ls	Jak	0.10.0
python	ms-	2022.10.0
vscode-pylance	ms-	2022.7.20
jupyter	ms-	2022.6.1001902341
jupyter-keymap	ms-	1.0.0
jupyter-renderers	ms-	1.0.8
rust-analyzer	rus	0.3.1123
language-stylus	sys	1.16.0

[goodspark]

Here's what system resources look like when this happens:

[irvnriir]

this is happening for a long time already, since ver ~1.48 or so . the freeze became longer some time ago .

i don't remember how, but i got a console/log report on this, as far i remember it said that OpenGL or something have hanged or crashed .

some Windows's UI also freeze while this is happening . that is a consequence of the VSC's issue, no other program causes that .

it seems related to large coverage of Open/Workspace Folders .

[alexdima]

might be related to https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/152300

[goodspark]

It sounds very similar, but in my case, I rarely have more than 2-3 integrated terminals open at once.

[goodspark]

Just had this happen when I alt-tabbed back to a VS Code window (no other instances running) for a local workspace with a lot fewer files than the large mono repo I usually work in.

[deepak1556]

@goodspark does the issue happen with latest stable 1.70.0 to rule out the terminal issue linked above. If the issue persists, can you check if starting the application with --disable-features=CalculateNativeWinOcclusion mitigates the hang. Thanks!

[irvnriir]

my issue does happen on 1.70.0 . though at the time it appeared, terminal was opened .

[goodspark]

Same, seeing it on 1.7.0. I'll try with the arg.

[irvnriir]

with the param it happened relatively soon, without terminal ever opened since the start (but 1 console process was run without gui, by extension) .

[goodspark]

Also same after adding the startup arguments. I had 1 terminal open FWIW. Same symptoms. Display frozen, but audio still works (ex. if music was playing from another app).

[irvnriir]

~~this often happens when i copy something to clipboard, but maybe that just makes me notice the freeze .~~

[goodspark]

Anything we can do to help debug this? Still an issue on 1.70.2.

[irvnriir]

also, my system which has the issue uses 2ndary Intel graphics processor which doesn't have drivers newer than from 2015 year . (in case you rely on some functionality which wasn't supported until some version)

[irvnriir]

@goodspark are you sure that your Nvid. GPU is used for processing VSC / do you have the latest drivers for all GPUs/"display adapters" which is involved in providing you the GUI ?

[goodspark]

I'm think so. My monitor is plugged into the graphics card output and nothing else is plugged into the motherboard video out. And I open the task manager in Windows, there's only one section for GPU and it lists the Nvidia card as the hardware.

[goodspark]

Hm. An interesting data point - it seems like this doesn't happen if I don't have Chromium running. Or at least, it doesn't happen as often. Left VSCode open over the weekend after closing Chromium and haven't seen this happen yet. Could it be an Electron thing? At the same time, I'm also using the Discord desktop client, which also uses Electron.

[irvnriir]

i also often have browser open .

after i work for some time, 2-5 second freezes start to happen about every 10 minutes or less, can anyone whos responsible for the relevant parts of VSC imagine having that every time ?

[irvnriir]

this issue still has "info-needed" tag, whyyyyy ??? we wasn't provided a single bit of info about what info to send .

[goodspark]

Do you use Chromium or Chrome? Also, yes, it'd be nice to know if there's any more diagnostic or debugging information we can provide to help figure out what's going on.

[irvnriir]

@goodspark i use Firefox, i assume its already far from Chromium .

also, there is no Extension which we both use .

[goodspark]

OK so I left the dev tools open for VSCode in the hopes of capturing a profile whenever I tabbed back into VSCode after a long break. I got lucky and finally captured a trace when the freeze happened (attached): Profile-20220919T212500 - Copy.zip

You can view this in Chromium/Chrome/VSCode dev tools by going to the performance tab and clicking the icon to load the profile. The pause happened at ~23s into the trace. There's a 9s red block that says 'dropped frame'. That roughly lines up with the timing of the delay I saw on my machine.

Notable data:

• There's a huge stack of animations occuring just before the red dropped frame block: https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/29210237/191169235-8ad04038-09c6-492a-98e4-e0be967e87d0.mp4
• Nothing sticks out as bad in the captured function calls.
• There are two long blocks of GPU activity during the dropped frame:

Hopefully this helps. I'm at a loss as to what other data we can provide the VSCode maintainers to help debug this issue. There's been a lot of silence.

[deepak1556]

Sorry for the delay here, please check if the issue still happens with latest insiders https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders and if it does capture the trace using the steps below,

1. Closing all running instances of VSCode Insiders
2. Start a new instance with the following arguments from the system terminal code-insiders --trace --trace-category-filter="base,benchmark,browser,latency,mojom,content,startup,toplevel,v8,navigation,disabled-by-default-lifecycles,blink,cc,gpu,viz"
3. Perform the steps to repro the gpu spike, open command palette and run Developer: Stop Tracing, this will generate a trace and provide you the path at which the trace was saved. Attach it to this issue thread.

[vscodenpa]

This issue has been closed automatically because it needs more information and has not had recent activity. See also our issue reporting guidelines.

Happy Coding!