EvilRaat

Q: kernel_task high memory usage

Hi, since I upgraded from Lion to Mavericks yesterday, the kernel_task process has been running consistently with 4.7GB of RAM.  The OS is now constantly running at full usage of physical RAM and swapping more than 10GB to disc.

 

I have a MBP Early 2011 with 8GB RAM.

 

What is the kernel_task process and is there anyway of limiting its drain on my system.  As it is, my MBP is pretty much useless as it takes forever to even load a webpage, let alone run servers and IDE's which I need to do.

 

Hopefully I don't have to revert to my Lion backup, but without a solution to this I'm going to have to.

 

Hope someone has a pointer for me.

 

Thanks,

Paul

 

Screen Shot 2013-10-27 at 12.36.42.png

Screen Shot 2013-10-27 at 12.37.00.png

MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 26, 2013 4:40 PM

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Q: kernel_task high memory usage

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  • by booker64,

    booker64 booker64 Apr 4, 2014 4:20 AM in response to Mp0lo17
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 4, 2014 4:20 AM in response to Mp0lo17

    interesting, I've tried Mp0lo17link and it worked for me on iMac12.1 (21.5'' mid 2011) got kernel_task down from ~5GB to 980MB for 2nd day now

     

    also Fiplab Memory Cleaner now properly shows I have 12GB RAM whereas before it though I have ~7GB of RAM

  • by Beatoven,

    Beatoven Beatoven Apr 18, 2014 8:02 PM in response to EvilRaat
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 18, 2014 8:02 PM in response to EvilRaat

    For me, the solution was also an incompatibility.

     

    I have an Apogee DUET firewire, on my Mac Pro workstation.

    I had to update the software for it after there was no sound after installing Mavericks

     

    On my Macbook Pro, I had the kernal_task overload.  And though I don't use the Apogee DUET on it, I did once hook it up for a remote recording session.

     

    I updated the Apogee DUET software for 10.9.2 and problem solved.

     

     

    Even though there is no DUET plugged into this Macbook Pro, the old software was causing the problem because it was installed once a long time ago.

     

     

    Wiping the hard drive would have solved this, too.

    And that is why.


     


  • by Felix Turner,

    Felix Turner Felix Turner Apr 29, 2014 6:21 PM in response to EvilRaat
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 29, 2014 6:21 PM in response to EvilRaat

    Same issue here. Since upgrading to Mavericks my machine is very unresponsive. Activity Monitor shows kernel_task at top of CPU and memory tabs.

     

    The suggested solution is to delete older .kext files in System/Library/Extensions and reboot. Keep trying until your system speeds up.

     

    Not a great solution really. I have 243 kext files in that folder. Do I delete them one at a time? If I break something by deleting a kext, is there anyway to revert?

     

    No input from Apple suport team?

  • by sevastyan,

    sevastyan sevastyan May 9, 2014 8:15 AM in response to Pastor Brew Master
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 9, 2014 8:15 AM in response to Pastor Brew Master

    Thank you, Pastor Brew Master!

    Uninstalling TeamViewer, LibreOffice and removing of kexts for HP printer helped me too. It seems that problem was in HP printer because reinstalling of TeamViewer and LibreOffice didn't affected memory usage. After all of it I decided to use printer with another computer (OS X, but not Mavericks).

  • by Bcsb299,

    Bcsb299 Bcsb299 May 14, 2014 6:22 PM in response to Mp0lo17
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 14, 2014 6:22 PM in response to Mp0lo17

    I watched that video earlier when i first figured out the problem with kernel_task atking up a lot of my ram, for my case my model is "MacBookPro10,2" and when you go through the tutorial, it isnt in the resource folder. Does anyone know why or a fix to that problem? If so please reply!

     

    Brandon

  • by 444zim444,

    444zim444 444zim444 Jun 26, 2014 4:38 PM in response to EvilRaat
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 26, 2014 4:38 PM in response to EvilRaat

    Hello,

    I just thought I'd let everyone know what I did to fix the problem. I just went to my User>Library folder. It is normally hidden, so if you go to the Finder "Go" menu and hold down the Option key it will show up in the menu, then select it. In your Library folder just drag out your Preferences folder to your Desktop. Then restart your Mac.

    A new Preferences folder will automatically be created by your system when you log in.

     

    You will have to configure your Apple settings. However, once logged in you can drag the files inside your old Preferences folder into your new one making sure NOT to replace the new Apple preference files. Basically, just replace the preferences for all the apps that have not yet had new preferences created by the system. The replace dialog box will give you the option to not replace the files already in the folder.

     

    After I did this I opened my Activity Monitor and the kernal_task was not even showing up in it anymore. Perhaps it will appear again over time? I don't know, but this fixed the issues (at least for now) for me.

  • by Adrianmcgrath,

    Adrianmcgrath Adrianmcgrath Jul 2, 2014 9:36 PM in response to 444zim444
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jul 2, 2014 9:36 PM in response to 444zim444

    i tried this, but all it does is drag a copy to the desktop - the original folder remains with all it's contents - tried to delete it but it says it cannot because it needs them - to be honest since mavericks came out using my macs has become an absolute misery, but if there is another solution i could try before throwing it out the window i might give it a go - at the moment these problems are costing me hours every day

  • by IP Freeley,

    IP Freeley IP Freeley Jul 7, 2014 11:18 AM in response to 444zim444
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 7, 2014 11:18 AM in response to 444zim444

    Yup, that solved the problem for me--but losing all my settings is a pretty harsh price to pay!  I've got my doc and X11 and such pretty well-tuned to my liking.

     

    So far I've narrowed it down that it's one of the com.apple files that's the problem, now I get to see if I can keep the preferences I want, but still remove the problem child.

  • by pkk13,

    pkk13 pkk13 Jul 10, 2014 4:25 AM in response to EvilRaat
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 10, 2014 4:25 AM in response to EvilRaat

    Same problem for me -- kernal_task memory usage consistently >4.7GB leading to maxed out memory and a virtually unusable system. 

     

    What I do notice is that this problem only seems to happen when I am running Safari. And I can make the problem go away immediately simply by closing Safari (without rebooting or anything additional). I prefer Safari, but when when I reopen, the problem reoccurs after a few hours.

  • by viffer,

    viffer viffer Jul 10, 2014 6:37 AM in response to cinephile17
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 10, 2014 6:37 AM in response to cinephile17

    Thanks. I did the same and went from 5.5Gb of real memory down to 1.15

  • by Henri de Marcellus,

    Henri de Marcellus Henri de Marcellus Jul 12, 2014 2:37 PM in response to bausi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 12, 2014 2:37 PM in response to bausi

    I've been struggling with what appears to be some sort of a memory leak after upgrading to Mavericks.  After restarting, the OS seemed fine, but it would quickly degrade after that, becoming so slow that I got used to pressing buttons in applications and then watching as the button when down a few seconds later and then up again a few seconds after that.  So slooooww!.  But, based on this post, I deactivated the auto-logout feature when I close my laptop, then restarted.  So far since then (which has only been a day, but still...), things have been fine.  Fingers crossed.  Thanks for the tip!

  • by cac613,

    cac613 cac613 Jul 17, 2014 3:33 PM in response to EvilRaat
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 17, 2014 3:33 PM in response to EvilRaat

    I had this same problem after upgrading to Mavericks, and I followed all of the advice here, and nothing helped. I did notice that a lot of the solutions seemed to center around migrated or old system components. I bought a new iMac recently, and migrated all of my information from one iMac to the other. I should have done a clean install of all of my software (I know -- I've been using Macs since the 80s, and I should know better), but I was in the middle of a work deadline when my old iMac was having some serious problems and was heading for the light, and I just needed to get up and running quickly. Then I upgraded to Mavericks, and that's when the problem started.

     

    The user account from my old iMac was still present on my new iMac, even though I wasn't using it. I deleted the account, and made certain to delete the user file in my system folder at the same time. I restarted, and the memory problem seems to have gone away. kern_task is still running high in my activity monitor, but my overall RAM usage is way down, and I'm not getting system error messages anymore that my Mac is running close to capacity. I did have some system files in my old user profile, and I think I may have had some dueling system extensions that were causing the kern-task memory issues.

     

    I had already ordered a 2 tb hard drive for my new Mac when this problem started (I've already maxed out the RAM), and I think it's a good idea to install a higher-capacity hard drive, but deleting the old user profile did solve the problem for me even with my old hard drive.

  • by cac613,

    cac613 cac613 Jul 22, 2014 1:44 PM in response to cac613
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 22, 2014 1:44 PM in response to cac613

    Please disregard my above solution. It did help, but it did not permanently solve the problem. I bought another 1 TB HD to use for Photoshop scratch. I discovered that my USB hub was causing a huge memory spike, so I disconnected it. I also reverted to my Apple mouse, and disconnected my wireless mouse. All of this helped, but I'm still running really hot and I don't know why. I reinstalled Mavericks, have run disk diagnostics, have trashed preferences, have started in safe mode, and I have removed all of my nonessential USB peripherals. I am now using an Apple keyboard and mouse. I cannot figure this out. I did purchase a 2 TB internal hard drive, but I'm in the middle of a work deadline, and I don't have time to install it. Considering it's a RAM issue more than a hard drive issue, I don't think that will solve the problem anyway (although I did need to upgrade my hard drive, anyway).

     

    I just bought a new iMac in March, and prior to that I was using a really older model (I was holding out for a Mac Pro desktop, but had to bite the bullet and upgrade before I had the money to buy a Mac Pro), and I running Snow Leopard with half as much RAM and half the hard disk capacity. I use Adobe CS, and even though it was it was somewhat slow, I could still have Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Firefox open simultaneously. I now have twice as much RAM, twice the hard disk capacity, and an external 1 TB drive that I'm using for Photoshop scratch, and I'm having kernel panics.

     

    Something is amiss. It's not a USB peripheral, and I don't think it's a system extension, but I could be wrong.

  • by cac613,

    cac613 cac613 Jul 22, 2014 5:40 PM in response to cac613
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 22, 2014 5:40 PM in response to cac613

    Update: It looks like removing the preferences folder and restarting was the answer. kernel_task isn't even showing up in my activity monitor anymore. This was a HUGE pain to deal with.

  • by Jim Muirhead,

    Jim Muirhead Jim Muirhead Jul 31, 2014 10:32 AM in response to 444zim444
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Jul 31, 2014 10:32 AM in response to 444zim444

    I rebuilt the Preferences folder as suggested and saw a brief improvement. Then I reset PRAM and also reset the System Management Controller. Now my machine is purring like a kitten again. Hope this helps someone else.

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