In Activity Monitor, the process called 'UserEventAgent' keeps showing up as 'Not Responding' I can force-quit it, and a new instance appears working correctly. However after a few minutes, it shows up as 'Not Responding' again.
There doesn't seem to be any significant performance problems; nevertheless it is a little concerning.
Any ideas what this process is, or what the problem might be?
Thanks.
Macbook Pro 15",
Mac OS X (10.5),
Just installed Leopard
I am getting this as well. Upgraded from 10.4.10 and I thought perhaps it was some incompatible third-party software causing it.. but people in this thread have done clean installs and still get it?
In my case the process is responding but constantly using 100% cpu, same problem as others have mentioned about not being able to reboot.. it just beachballs.
While UserEventAgent is at 100% cpu, Airport regularly drops out and reconnects (every 1-2 minutes), and if I'm typing at the same time, my key-repeat becomes hyper sensitive and I end up with lines and lines of the same character.
Since not everyone is experiencing these symptoms, I wonder if we all share a similar peripheral? It seems to happen shortly after I (un)plug USB mouse/keyboard/hub .. but it's possible that's just co-incidence.
I'm using some no-name hub, a Kinesis Freestyle USB keyboard and a Logitech LX7 cordless mouse. I also have a bus-powered external 2.5" USB2.0 disk. I'm going to try a fresh boot and introduce all of these one by one and I'll post if I find anything interesting.
I am also going to try switching to wired ethernet and turning off bluetooth.
If you have any more info on this problem, please share!
I have the oposite problem to you. Mine is 'Not responding' but is taking up no CPU usage or RAM and isn't affecting performance at all. I'm just going to leave it alone as it doesn't seem to be affecting anything . . . so far.
Yes it does, but so far everything seems to work fine for me.
I managed to install 10.5 onto my Ti-Powerbook (my god was that a chore), and on this system UserEventAgent runs without any problems. It hardly takes up any of the processor.
For those of you who are seeing 100% CPU usage and performance issues, here's an update:
In my case (see my previous post for background), I've narrowed it down to a conflict between one of the UserEventAgent plugins (AppleHIDMouseAgent.plugin) and my USB keyboard (Kinesis Freestyle).
I edited /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.UserEventAgent-Aqua.plist and changed the command-line arguments for UserEventAgent to include -v (verbose logging to stderr) and -d (runs each plugin in a separate thread).
The -v option did not produce anything interesting. The -d option helped though.
Following a fresh reboot with no peripherals plugged in and no applications loaded, the system idles as normal. The moment I plug in my USB keyboard (to either USB port), the UserEventAgent process running AppleHIDMouseAgent.plugin jumps straight to 100% CPU and stays there even after I unplug the keyboard. The only way out that I've found is power-cycling. I also tried booting up with the keyboard plugged in with the same results.
All my other USB devices work fine (Logitech LX7, Hub, HDD, Flash drive), although I do not have another USB keyboard to test with.
While stuck at 100% CPU, watching the inspect pane in Activity Monitor for the AppleHIDMouseAgent.plugin shows the number of faults growing at around 100K+ per second, context switches at 1 per second, while all other fields remain static.
The version of my AppleHIDMouseAgent.plugin (taken from version.plist):
I no longer use the Apple mouse so I've been able to fix the issue in my case by moving the plugin out of /System/Library/UserEventPlugins. After about an hour of testing, everything seems to be working fine.
I have this problem too. I've tracked it down the the Kinesis Freestyle keyboard. Basically, the UserEventAgent process pegs at 99% when I plug this device in either through my USB hub or directly to my macbook pro. I have an older iMac G5 with 10.5 and the same thing happens when I plug the Kinesis keyboard in.
Damon Uyeda wrote:
I have this problem too. I've tracked it down the the Kinesis Freestyle keyboard.
Interesting! Michael Wertz1 mentions he has the same problem too, although not with a Freestyle but another non-Apple keyboard.
I've filed a bug report with Apple on this, and referenced this thread in my report. If anyone else has the same problem, it might pay to add your 2 cents here, and/or file a bug report (bugreport.apple.com).
FWIW, the workaround I posted above has been working fine for me all day now.
Looks like you nailed it. On my testing partition I unplugged my keyboard and booted to it. Things were fine until I plugged the keyboard in, then UserEventAgent shot back to 100% and stayed there even after I unplugged it. Its definalty a problem with the keyboard.
I removed AppleHIDMouseAgent.plugin and turned UserEventAgent back on for my main partition, and so far things are fine. UserEventAgent is running with a very small footprint. That is clearly what is causing my issue. I dont use an Apple Mouse either, is that all that plugin is for?
I also have this problem. Whenever I connect my Kinesis Freestyle USB keyboard to my MacBook Pro, the CPU goes to 100% because UserEventAgent uses all the CPU (according to Activity Monitor). Even after removing the keyboard, the problem persists.
I'm not too happy with the workaround, because it seems that I must be losing some functionality---there must be some other option? I have also filed a bug report with Apple.
Well the 'UserEventAgent not responding' was just buggin me so I deleted the Aqua plist thingy. Been using 'puter for a day with zero problems. I'd still like to know what it's for...
