newsyslogd - logfile turned over - no longer logging to system.log

Launch the Console.app, select the system.log file, and report back. You might also check the system.log.0.bz2 file and see what was reported before it turned over.

Check the Activity Monitor or use ps from the command line to verify that syslogd is still running. Even if it is, it won't hurt to restart it.

To test whether syslogd is writing to your system.log, you can use the "logger" program from the command line. For example:

logger -p error "this is a test"

should print "this is s test" in system.log.

logger uses syslogd to write its message, so it's expected that it didn't work in your case. I'm not sure why it isn't starting, though. If you run this set of commands, does that help:

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.syslogd.plist

(wait a few seconds)

sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.syslogd.plist

(then check to see if it's running with ps or whatever).

That issue might be because of a corrupt ASL database. That db lives in /var/log and is called asl.db. If you stop syslogd, remove (or move to a temporary location, in case this tip doesn't work) the /var/log/asl.db file, then restart syslogd, the cpu usage should go back to normal. Use the launchctl commands I provided above to start and stop syslogd.

You will need to use sudo to move or remove the asl.db file as well...