MacBook Pro Running Unknown Processes

My old Mid-2015 15 in. MacBook Pro is running something with heavy CPU usage. As soon as I spin up the machine the fan goes crazy and Activity Monitor shows ~70% CPU usage but does not list any actually intensive processes. I also don't see anything when I run top from terminal. I suspected it might be malware but I've done a fresh install of the OS (Catalina) and run malwarebytes which has not found anything. I also reset the NVRAM and SMC. Below I've attached an etrecheck report, I would appreciate any advice!



MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Dec 24, 2020 8:36 AM

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Posted on Dec 24, 2020 1:22 PM

I don't see any software that is a cause of concern. Does the same thing happen when booted into Safe Mode where most of the third party drives & startup/login items are disabled (even including some macOS items)?


Run Disk Utility First Aid on the SSD (better yet run it on the Container). Recent versions of Disk Utility hide the physical drive & Container from view so within Disk Utility you need to click on "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive and Container appears on the left pane. Even if First Aid reports everything as "Ok" click on "Show Details" and look for any unfixed errors. If there are unfixed errors listed, then you will need to erase the whole physical drive and restore from a backup or clone.


Run the Apple Diagnostics.


It also never hurts to perform an SMC Reset or PRAM Reset (hold the PRAM reset for at least three chimes).


Do you have any external devices connected that may be interfering?


Does the issue occur when using just the battery or when using the power adapter?


Have you tried reinstalling macOS over top of itself? Does the same thing happen with a clean install of macOS (by first erasing the physical drive)?


See if your laptop qualifies for this Battery Recall program:

https://support.apple.com/15-inch-macbook-pro-battery-recall


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 24, 2020 1:22 PM in response to rijndael9

I don't see any software that is a cause of concern. Does the same thing happen when booted into Safe Mode where most of the third party drives & startup/login items are disabled (even including some macOS items)?


Run Disk Utility First Aid on the SSD (better yet run it on the Container). Recent versions of Disk Utility hide the physical drive & Container from view so within Disk Utility you need to click on "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive and Container appears on the left pane. Even if First Aid reports everything as "Ok" click on "Show Details" and look for any unfixed errors. If there are unfixed errors listed, then you will need to erase the whole physical drive and restore from a backup or clone.


Run the Apple Diagnostics.


It also never hurts to perform an SMC Reset or PRAM Reset (hold the PRAM reset for at least three chimes).


Do you have any external devices connected that may be interfering?


Does the issue occur when using just the battery or when using the power adapter?


Have you tried reinstalling macOS over top of itself? Does the same thing happen with a clean install of macOS (by first erasing the physical drive)?


See if your laptop qualifies for this Battery Recall program:

https://support.apple.com/15-inch-macbook-pro-battery-recall


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MacBook Pro Running Unknown Processes

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