Runaway process in Activity Monitor?

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Level 1

22 points

Runaway process in Activity Monitor?

Every time my MacBook Pro runs hot, the fans whirr and the battery runs down at an alarming rate (frequently!) I run an EtreCheck report. And every time, recently, it tells me that Activity Monitor itself has a runaway process. Closing the app makes everything a little cooler - though the machine still feels hot on my knees (about 84° rather than 94°).

Is it normal for Activity Monitor to have a runaway process that causes excess heat? Not surprisingly, when I search for information about this, all I get is pages telling me to open Activity Monitor to find out what is causing the excessive heat!

Update: The temperature just went up to the nineties again so I ran another EtreCheck. Even though Activity Monitor has been shut down, I still have it at the top of the list:

What can I do to kill it when I have already shut it down?

Posted on Apr 27, 2021 9:22 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Luis Sequeira1

Level 9

68,002 points

Apr 28, 2021 11:49 AM in response to frannbug

NO!!!!

It is NOT telling you that Activity Monitor is using a lot of CPU.

It is offering you a button to start Activity Monitor, in order to er... monitor which processes may be using a lot of CPU, which is completely different

This is a BUTTON:

If you click it, Activity Monitor will start. This is a program that comes with every mac, but it won't even be running unless you start it. This button is just a quicker way to launch Activity Monitor, should you decide to.

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Answer 2

Ben_Z1

Community Specialist

Apr 28, 2021 11:34 AM in response to frannbug

Hi there frannbug,

We understand that your MacBook Pro is getting unexpectedly warm at various times. Let’s look into this together.

To start, how much available space is on your Mac? If you need to free up storage, follow this:

How to free up storage space on your Mac

Let’s also check for any available software updates.

How to update the software on your Mac

If you have plenty of available storage and your macOS is fully updated, then let’s see if this continues after starting your Mac in safe mode.

Start up your Mac in safe mode

Take care!

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Answer 3

frannbug Author

Level 1

22 points

Apr 28, 2021 12:05 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

How stupid am ?!

So it would seem that the new version of the Fing app is my runaway process app. A shame, as it is relative to our FingBox - but I can use the apps on my iOS devices so I'm not completely cut off from it.

It didn't appear on 'Force Quit' and didn't respond to my attempts to quit it from Activity Monitor. I finally killed it using Activity Monitor's 'Force Quit'. I hope that hasn't caused any corruption.

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