Kernal_task taking up over 250% of CPU usage, making my iMac incredibly slow - How do you fix this problem?

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Level 1

5 points

Kernal_task taking up over 250% of CPU usage, making my iMac incredibly slow - How do you fix this problem?

This problem has been plaguing me for months. I'll be using my iMac to do normal tasks on the web, when it will suddenly start moving SOOOOOO SLOOOOOOOOOOW, causing an incredible lag in typing, and most websites (ie youtube) will be so slow to the point that it's useless!

I go to the activity monitor to find that kernal_task is using over 250% of the CPU, but I've seen it hit as high as 2932% (honestly, that's not a typo! almost 3000%!) as I type this out.

I've used Clean My Mac to properly uninstall all unused apps, programs, artefacts, etc that I'm not using, but this doesn't work. The only solution is to shutdown my mac, but what's the point if I restart it only to have to do it again literally 10 mins after restart?

Here are my stats:

iMac (27 in, Late 2013)

OS - Catalina v 10.15.2

CPU 3.2 GHz Quad Core intel Core i5

RAM - 24 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 (according to CMM, there's usually at least 13 GB of RAM available)

HDD - 1 TB, with about 450 GB free atm.

Is there anyone out there who can offer a fix for this problem? I see people from many years ago having this problem, but there never seems to be any solution given by anyone (other than people replying "I've got that problem too", which doesn't help at all). I've got rid of all my junk files/apps/programs and RAM shouldn't be a problem, but still, such a slow machine.

Anyone?

iMac 27", macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 11, 2020 4:22 AM

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Answer 1

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,118 points

Apr 12, 2020 5:01 AM in response to DiverDoug70

OK, I succeeded in downloading your etrecheck report (impossible with Safari, but worked with an old version of Firefox)

I will give my opinion here, without seeing anything obviously terrible wrong, but that you have too many old things there.

a. you have 2 kernel extensions: uninstall that Audio software.

b. remove Qmaster from startup items: and try awhile without it.

c. uninstall (as said already) CMM !!

d. User LaunchAgents: remove the two old Keystone plists

e. remove the 2 items in the user login

f. remove all items in InternetPlugins, except the Java: all dfon't do anything and are from old times.

g. remove all 3rd party items from Preference Panes: are doing nothing anymore for many years already (DivX, Déjàvu, Perian)

h. Try another browser instead of Google Chrome, like Firefox, or Brave.

After all this: restart and see how it behaves.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

251,131 points

Apr 11, 2020 3:57 PM in response to DiverDoug70

Delete this file & restart...

~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.macpaw.CleanMyMac4.Updater.plist

~ tilde indicates hidden Home Library.

Apple hid the Users' Library folders...

Method 1:

From the Finder, select the Go menu at top of the screen, and choose Go to Folder.
In the window that opens, enter ~/Library, and click Go.

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Answer 3

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,118 points

Apr 11, 2020 4:41 AM in response to DiverDoug70

Uninstall CleanMyMac completely,

then restart.

I hope you did not clean too much.

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Answer 4

SeaPapp

Level 7

26,502 points

Apr 11, 2020 1:54 PM in response to DiverDoug70

Please post the Etrecheck report.

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

217,276 points

Apr 11, 2020 2:04 PM in response to DiverDoug70

You're running a very old version of Etrecheck. Download the current version and run. The copy the report

and paste in your reply using the Additional Text button:

Also uninstall CMM. Even though you had it before this started it's doing you no good to have it running and on your hard drive. It's been the bane of many users here before you.

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Answer 6

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,118 points

Apr 11, 2020 7:36 AM in response to DiverDoug70

It does not matter if the issue was there already: CMM is a real mac killer. Itself will run, but it can make havoc on your mac!

Now: the etrecheck list probably gives the information we need. You uninstall it: start CMM, choose the "uninstall" menu on its main page and then choose the app itself to uninstall; after that restart the mac.

Of course it may be a hardware failure, but it is not what I expect. It is a runaway software. After finding it we must try to determine what caused it.

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Answer 7

Old Toad

Level 10

217,276 points

Apr 11, 2020 2:14 PM in response to DiverDoug70

Yes, I saw it but the Etrecheck version you're using is 4.2.1 and it's currently at 6.2.5 with several additions and fixes. Also you used the Code insertion button instead of the Additional Text button which messes up the formatting of the report. Redo it so we can get a full report. Also go into Etrecheck's preferences and enable Full Disk access.

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Answer 8

den.thed

Level 10

94,830 points

Apr 11, 2020 4:51 AM in response to DiverDoug70

I have to concur with Lexiepex.

In addition, I also suggest that you run EtreCheck and post back here with the Report.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/etrecheck/id1423715984?mt=12

http://www.etrecheck.com/

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Answer 9

BDAqua

Level 10

251,131 points

Apr 11, 2020 4:29 PM in response to DiverDoug70

I don't know that it is this problem, but it is a problem because it's trying to do something it cannot or couldn't, but looks like you have CMM back!

Apple seems to have messed up ASC again, some browsers cant see the report done that way.

I suggest you uninstall CleanMyMac if only to help diagnose the problem.

Try this browser & quit Chrome...

https://brave.com

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Answer 10

Lexiepex

Level 6

14,118 points

Apr 12, 2020 4:03 AM in response to DiverDoug70

Again: uninstall CMM , as I said before, completely, then restart.

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Answer 11

DiverDoug70 Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 11, 2020 6:14 AM in response to DiverDoug70

The test came back that I have a critical shortage of HDD space, but out of 1TB of the internal drive, I still have more than 500GB of space left, yet the EtraReport says that the amount of free space is 0 (despite it saying the size is 1000Gb and Used is 470.87 GB...what the??) This is after I got rig of about 100 gb of unneeded files. I tried taking a screengrab showing this, but it won't do it. Arrrgh!

Here's the EtreCheck report:

Report from EtreCheck

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Answer 12

DiverDoug70 Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 11, 2020 1:35 PM in response to BDAqua

I had to add it as extra text because it exceeded 5000 characters:

As for.the photo, I tried screen grabbing the etrecheck window using ctrl-shift-4, but for some reason the etrecheck window just won't show in the screengrab, but everything behind it will show.

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Answer 13

DiverDoug70 Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 11, 2020 1:40 PM in response to Lexiepex

I know it's not a repair program in itself, but I posted test results here and nothing happened (ie no one could say what the problem was)

But the problem started before I installed CMM, which is why I installed it in the first place. When I look at the monitor, it shows that CMM only takes up less than 1% of CPU, whereas other programs take up more.

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Answer 14

stedman1

Level 10

265,930 points

Apr 11, 2020 2:53 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi BD, there is an ongoing issue with EtreCheck reports not showing up in certain browsers, as posted in the Community Operations forum. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251259334

I am not able to view the report in Safari, but it works as expected in FireFox.

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Answer 15

BDAqua

Level 10

251,131 points

Apr 11, 2020 3:55 PM in response to stedman1

Thanks, FF does show it Brave & Safari did not, ASC is the worst forum to try to help out on.

I'm going back to requestung they post a link from this...

Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report...

https://pastebin.com/

Besides, it's not like those purposely aggravating Terms of use dialogs nobody bothers to read.

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Kernal_task taking up over 250% of CPU usage, making my iMac incredibly slow - How do you fix this problem?

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