Python, Selenium and Chromedriver - endless loop using find_element_by_id causes CPU problem

Question

Good day to all! I\'ve been experiencing this problem for a week now but I don\'t think I can solve it and I also do not see any solution based on articles online. Hopefully

Answer 1

It would be tough to guess the exact reason of 100% CPU Usage without any visibility to your code blocks specifically the WebDriver configuration. So the answer will be pretty much based on generic guidelines as follows:

• Never close the browser (by pressing the X button). Always invoke driver.quit() within tearDown(){} method to close & destroy the WebDriver and Web Client instances gracefully.
  • You can find a detailed discussion in PhantomJS web driver stays in memory
• Never terminate the script (by pressing Control+C). Incase there are presence of zombie WebDriver or Web Browser instances you can programatically remove them.
  • You can find a detailed discussion in Selenium : How to stop geckodriver process impacting PC memory, without calling driver.quit()?

• A couple of useful ChromeOptions() and their usage are as follows:

  options.addArguments("start-maximized"); // open Browser in maximized mode
  options.addArguments("disable-infobars"); // disabling infobars
  options.addArguments("--disable-extensions"); // disabling extensions
  options.addArguments("--disable-gpu"); // applicable to windows os only
  options.addArguments("--disable-dev-shm-usage"); // overcome limited resource problems
  options.addArguments("--no-sandbox"); // Bypass OS security model
  

• Using hardcoded sleeps in the form of time.sleep(1) is a big No.

  • You can find a detailed discussion in How to sleep webdriver in python for milliseconds
• Incase you are using Chrome in headless mode, there had been a lot of discussion going around about the unpredictable CPU and Memory Consumption by Chrome Headless sessions.
  • You can find a detailed discussion in Limit chrome headless CPU and memory usage
• Always keep your Test Environment updated with the latest released binaries as follows:
  • Upgrade ChromeDriver to current ChromeDriver v2.44 level.
  • Keep Chrome version between Chrome v69-71 levels. (as per ChromeDriver v2.44 release notes)
  • Clean your Project Workspace through your IDE and Rebuild your project with required dependencies only.
  • If your base Web Client version is too old, then uninstall it through Revo Uninstaller and install a recent GA and released version of Web Client.
  • Take a System Reboot.
  • Execute your @Test.
• From Space and Memory Management perspective:
  • (WindowsOS only) Use CCleaner tool to wipe off all the OS chores before and after the execution of your Test Suite.
  • (LinuxOS only) Free Up and Release the Unused/Cached Memory in Ubuntu/Linux Mint before and after the execution of your Test Suite.