Activity Monitor "Disk" view does not update

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Level 1

19 points

Activity Monitor "Disk" view does not update

Just re-installed macOS Catalina 10.15.4 from the internet as a result of many system problems and applications not working. Among those was Activity Monitor. The "Disk" view was not updating.

Upon re-installation, it worked fine.... for about 5 days. Now, once again, the pane showing the processes does not update. The sliding graph at the bottom of the window updates but that's it.

The "Network" and "CPU" views update properly, both the list of processes as well as the sliding graph.

Any ideas....?

I run MalwareBytes and do not have any viruses -- at least none detected.

At this point I'm wondering if I have a hardware problem. Are there any technical folks from Apple on these forums anymore? There seems to be a dire paucity of participation, feedback, guidance or answers from Apple....

Posted on Apr 21, 2020 4:37 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

John Galt

Level 10

141,302 points

Apr 22, 2020 5:25 AM in response to vxiansheng

You already took most if not all the actions described in Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac, which concludes with "If you still need help, please contact Apple Support."

The results of your testing indicates a hardware fault that only Apple or an AASP can fix.

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

141,302 points

Apr 21, 2020 7:54 PM in response to vxiansheng

Just re-installed macOS Catalina 10.15.4 from the internet as a result of many system problems and applications not working.

and...

At this point I'm wondering if I have a hardware problem.

Most likely. In its entire storied history no macOS viruses have ever existed, nor is one ever likely to occur. After two decades isn't it about time we stopped suspecting every little anomaly is caused by one?

I suggest you forget about the mythical Mac "virus". Please determine if the same problems occur in "Safe Mode": Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac.

Are there any technical folks from Apple on these forums anymore?

There have never been any of them either.

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Answer 3

vxiansheng Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 21, 2020 10:22 PM in response to vxiansheng

Well, now worse. Safe Mode did exhibit the same problem.

Whenever I boot in Safe Mode, the system is always running more slowly. For example, scrolling in any application window is laboriously unresponsive. Not sure if that has something to do with something not running in Safe Mode.

Now none of the windows show anything in Activity Monitor... screen grab attached. The screen grab was taken in regular boot mode, but the problem was the same in Safe Mode just before rebooting to take screen grab.

I disconnected a passive USB extender (brand j5 Create). I also disconnected my USB Apple Super Drive. No external devices are connected, but the problem persists.

I tried to find the configuration directory for utilities such as Activity Monitor under my ~/Libraries directory. I am thinking perhaps I can delete something in there to make it function again.

I don't notice anything else not working as far as I can tell so far. WiFi works, I can access the internet, applications that were screwed up seem to be working nominally since I re-installed Catalina 10.15.4.

Any ideas...?

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Answer 4

vxiansheng Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 21, 2020 8:25 PM in response to John Galt

Following re-installation of macOS everything seems to be working better except for Activity Monitor, which started out fine for the first 5 days or so... as I said in my original post.

I did not mean that I thought I had a virus. I am wondering if the problem is software or hardware. Prior to re-installing macOS, pretty much nothing worked nominally... Mail, Photos, Time Machine, system sleep, volume management.

For the 4 days leading up to today, Safari was not "working" properly. That is, content was not displaying when visiting certain web sites such as LinkedIn, Yahoo Mail, and some others that are pretty much meat-and-potatoes internet sites. However, the exact same pages displayed and functioned as expected using Chrome and Firefox. I could not glean much more data than that, but I'm not convinced that kind of behavior suggests a hardware problem.

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Answer 5

vxiansheng Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 21, 2020 8:34 PM in response to John Galt

OK, I'll reboot in Safe Mode. If a hardware problem, I'm going to be very, very disappointed. My 2008 MacBook Pro lasted 10 years without any problems, and I bought it refurbished from Apple. This iMac is only 3 years old and I bought it new from Apple. Hmmm....

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