SystemUIserver using 90+% of CPU

Farlander wrote:
Not true. There are as many bugs in OSX as there used to be in Windows. The problem is, bugs in Windows do get fixed, while in OSX they remain for years. Before I switched to Macs, I used Windows XP on a Dell laptop, and had close to 1 year long uptimes, without reboots. With Mac I can barely make it through a week without having to reboot (usually because all memory suddenly disappeared, while no particular process is using it - apparently there are memory leaks in Snow Leopard). So yeah, OSX looks pretty, but just as buggy as Windows was.

I don't know what you are doing with your Mac but I have never once had to restart my Mac Pro. Not one hangup yet in 8 months that has caused an all out failure, and that is with constant use of many big power hungry, and buggy third party Apps.

I was a Windows man for 20 years and bugs are something I know. So far I have seen very few compared to all my years with Windows. User exp may vary I guess.

You should look into your memory issue, it could be something easily solved.

i for one enjoyed the hour of warmth from my toasty macbook...say what you will about SL, I wouldn't have it any other way...

(Yes, it's quite nippy up here in Canada...I'm going to assume it was a gift for us 😉 )

I was having the exact same problem an hour ago. Cpu started going nuts around 1am, found this topic through Google and decided to try turning off my clock and sure enough that was the problem. I just turned it on a couple of minutes ago and everything seems to be back to normal now.

I've always used iStats to monitor Temp Mem and CPU, but im so glad this happened. Now I know that the iStat Menu Date & Time if you customize it beats the ** out of the standard.

Had the exact same issue with my macbook. At exactly 02:00 things went back to normal automatically. Amazing. I was trying like crazy by using my activity monitor to find what was using all that power.
I am glad my little mac is ok.

Farlander wrote:
Not true. There are as many bugs in OSX as there used to be in Windows. The problem is, bugs in Windows do get fixed, while in OSX they remain for years. Before I switched to Macs, I used Windows XP on a Dell laptop, and had close to 1 year long uptimes, without reboots. With Mac I can barely make it through a week without having to reboot (usually because all memory suddenly disappeared, while no particular process is using it - apparently there are memory leaks in Snow Leopard). So yeah, OSX looks pretty, but just as buggy as Windows was.

I would say that for the most part it depends on what you run. You can find buggy software on any OS that causes issues. I haven't actually got around to installing my copy of Snow Leopard on this machine, but my other machines run it just fine without requiring reboots.

I haven't got home yet from my party so I can't say if my other computers are having this bug yet.

Probably that's because you, apparently, are not using a laptop? Laptops have to change system state often (going to sleep, waking up, changing desktop resolution, switching from one network to another, connecting to and disconnecting from VPN et cetera). Plus a laptop does not have 16 gigabytes of RAM to waste - mine's only got 4. A single import of a 20-minute long HD video clip from a camcorder brings the system to its knees. Any disk activity, involving large (up to 10 or more gigabytes) files causes memory leakage, the swap file grows to 3-5 gigabytes, all the while there are only about 600 megabytes worth of applications running. On some occasions I couldn't even complete the video import, because the system becomes completely unresponsive.

I would imagine it takes a lot more to reproduce a similar issue on a system with 16 gigabytes of RAM.

None of that happens in Windows 7 on that same laptop, strangely enough. And that's Release Candidate version, not the retail one. The only issue running Windows 7 on a MacBook Pro is the fact that the battery life is not as good (about 3-4 hours on one charge, compared to about 5-6 hours under Snow Leopard, which used to be 8 hours under Leopard).

I have an idea, how about Farlander and friends go elsewhere to have their Internet Fight over operating systems.

Remember, this thread is about SystemUIserver using CPU, not you two.

Just want to stand up and be counted too. launchd and SystemUIServer were causing my Core Duo MacBook to run with 100% CPU utilization and the fan was full tilt. After a few minutes, only SystemUIServer was shown (in Activity Monitor) with high CPU utilization.

The problem began the moment my clock receded, at 2:00 AM (EDT), and the clock showed 1:00 AM (EST now). I too unchecked 'Show time and date in menu bar,' and the high CPU utilization immediately ceased; normal, idle utilization returned.

To test the behavior, I checked 'Show time and date...' again, and the high CPU utilization immediately returned! I unchecked and checked several times, each confirming the behavior.

When I finally reached 2:00 AM EST, I left 'Show time and date...' checked. No significant increase in CPU utilization was noticeable, and this has been the case for nearly twenty minutes.
______________________

No version of Mac OS is perfect or flawless. The Big Cats just seem to be less flawed than others, generally. 😉

This bug (let there be no doubts as to its ubiquity now!) does seem amateurish. But perhaps it lies within some very complex and low level layers of code. Who knows. The DST change did work, at least, and Snow Leopard-based Macs benefited from some kind of self-correction after an hour's time, thank goodness. So these are really mitigating details.

No one likes to catch their CPU going supernova for an hour--indeed, my lap was no longer a welcome environment! But I think that bugs related to, say, permanent data loss or features of the OS which just don't work outright, are WAY worse.

You need to get this squared away, Apple. Also, well done; what an incredible OS!

Farlander wrote:
Probably that's because you, apparently, are not using a laptop? Laptops have to change system state often (going to sleep, waking up, changing desktop resolution, switching from one network to another, connecting to and disconnecting from VPN et cetera). Plus a laptop does not have 16 gigabytes of RAM to waste - mine's only got 4. A single import of a 20-minute long HD video clip from a camcorder brings the system to its knees. Any disk activity, involving large (up to 10 or more gigabytes) files causes memory leakage, the swap file grows to 3-5 gigabytes, all the while there are only about 600 megabytes worth of applications running. On some occasions I couldn't even complete the video import, because the system becomes completely unresponsive.

I would imagine it takes a lot more to reproduce a similar issue on a system with 16 gigabytes of RAM.

None of that happens in Windows 7 on that same laptop, strangely enough. And that's Release Candidate version, not the retail one. The only issue running Windows 7 on a MacBook Pro is the fact that the battery life is not as good (about 3-4 hours on one charge, compared to about 5-6 hours under Snow Leopard, which used to be 8 hours under Leopard).

Ok calm down and breath a second. I am writing you on my MacBook Pro, which has similar specs to your system. I work with video for a living and I run Final Cut and AE, alongside a tons of other high end software and I have none of your issues. I have huge HD files from my Canon HD xh-a1s. I was just trying to tell you that your issue is most likely in some software and there might be a fix to it. I'm so happy for you that it works in windows 7.....yeah...but that doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things.

Not much to contribute to the problem, other then I have the same issue on my MacBook Pro. I'm still in the 1 to 2 hour, so I'm looking forward to the next 20 minutes so I can turn my clock back on. 🙂

Yep. The issue is definitely in the software, and the software is called "Mac OS X Snow Leopard". It was happening in Leopard, but not as bad as in Snow Leopard. And it was not happening in Tiger. So my point is, and was, that Snow Leopard is the worst version of OSX. I don't consider OSX in general bad, I only consider Snow Leopard a failure and a demonstration that Apple is losing its touch (further proven by the complete switch to glossy mirror-like screens across their entire lineup, and only recently caving in to demand for matte displays, and only for MacBook Pros). If it gets fixed - excellent, if not - like I said, Windows 7 is standing by.

Alien88 wrote:
I have an idea, how about Farlander and friends go elsewhere to have their Internet Fight over operating systems.

Remember, this thread is about SystemUIserver using CPU, not you two.

Sorry, my bad, its late and guys as dumb as Farlander tend to annoy me. I will ignore him from now on.

all you people with memory problems and shat uptimes, what are you doing? get your products looked at.


I can leave my mac on for months and months. Until the battery gets so low that I just shut it off from lazyness to get the charger with no issues.

I love OS X way more than I ever did Windows, It's given me way less problems

I had exactly the same problem at the changeover from DST. The MBP fan went crazy and CPU was 90% pegged with the SystemUIServer process going nuts.

What worried me more was my iPhone. It grew wings, flew around my apartment, and then attacked me. I managed to beat it back and confined it to my closet, but it is making shrill, satanic sounds as I write this and I am very afraid of going near it.

Clearly, Apple needs to fix this.