Does anyone know how to stop this process from draining my battery?

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JC1983 Author

Level 1

4 points

Does anyone know how to stop this process from draining my battery?

I am using a macbook that i bought in 2007. I have snow leopard installed. I recently restored my system using Time machine (probably did this about 2 weeks ago). Ever since this restore my computer has been draining the battery really fast. Looking at other discussions I discovered that a particular process is opened whenever the computer is being used. Many times the process when checked in system monitor has been opened multiple times. I thought perhaps the computer had some malware on it or a virus. When I scan for these things nothing unusual is found. The name of the process is gentatsdb- user_atsserver as the user. I can't figure out how to keep this process from popping up. It is draining my battery, and causing the fan in the laptop to overwork so that it is very audible. I am used to a quiet mac not a loud one. Does anyone know How I can fix this problem?. By the way I have tried running disk utility, verifying, and repairing any discrepancies. Help Thank You

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Jan 30, 2012 6:14 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

fane_j

Level 4

3,697 points

Jan 30, 2012 8:34 PM in response to JC1983

My guess would be that you have quite a few PDFs, which Spotlight is re-indexing, which calls up ATSServer.

I'd say, one night, before you go to sleep, re-index your entire drive and let it work until it's done.

<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2409>

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Answer 2

JC1983 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 31, 2012 6:07 AM in response to JC1983

I think you may be right...now that I think of it spotlight did try to index some files about 2 weeks ago but i never let it finish. I will try and see if that fixes my problem. Thank You

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Answer 3

JC1983 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 31, 2012 4:23 PM in response to fane_j

So i managed to index the whole drive. I thought that it worked but...I didn't restart the computer yet and it started going again on its own maybe i will do a restart to see if that helps.

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Answer 4

JC1983 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 31, 2012 6:14 PM in response to fane_j

Yea so that didn't work for me...Does anyone have any other suggestions about why this is happening?

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Answer 5

fane_j

Level 4

3,697 points

Jan 31, 2012 11:09 PM in response to JC1983

JC1983 wrote:

Yea so that didn't work for me

Sorry it didn't work. Let's try something else.

The runaway process has something to do with Apple Type Services. I assume that "genatsdb" means something along the lines of "generate ATS database". So perhaps the issue is not indexing PDFs (which would be Spotlight calling on ATS), but your font collections themselves.

So, first, I'd read Kurt Lang's paper on managing fonts

<http://www.jklstudios.com/misc/osxfonts.html>

Then I'd prune my font collection of all possibly dubious or defect fonts, after which I'd follow the instructions on completely removing all font caches. And then, test again…

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Answer 6

JC1983 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 1, 2012 6:04 PM in response to fane_j

yea i tried removing the font caches with the program font nuke and removed the suitcase caches. Restarted many times but still no cigar. I wonder if I will have to restore to an earlier time when this wasn't happening. Or does anyone else have suggestions??? I am still getting this process appearing multiple times in my system monitor and it is using 96% or more of my battery when activated. I can hear the fan running as well still

Thank you for your help thus far

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Answer 7

JC1983 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 3, 2012 3:23 AM in response to fane_j

So it appears after skimming the beginning of the font article/link that I am missing fonts from my library folder. Does anyone know how to recover these?

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Answer 8

fane_j

Level 4

3,697 points

Feb 3, 2012 8:27 PM in response to JC1983

I don't know what Font Nuke does; it may be an excellent programme, but I prefer to use Terminal commands, when I know exactly what is being done. Also, make sure to disable and remove any font managers (eg, Suitcase), and check your fonts for defects. If you're missing fonts, figure out why. Keep in mind that, deleting the font caches may clear corruption in the caches, but if you have a problematic font, the issue may re-occur.

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Answer 9

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Feb 3, 2012 9:15 PM in response to JC1983

JC1983--

A couple of questions, OK:

1. Do you have a font manager on there (like Suitcase)? Or are you just using Font Book application that came with your Mac?

2. Have you opened up Font Book to check for duplicates?

3. How do you know you are missing some fonts? And which Library are you missing fonts from? You have three: HD > Library > Fonts; HD > System > Library > Fonts (which you should NEVER touch); and HD > Users >YourName (Home Folder) > Library > Fonts.

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Answer 10

JC1983 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 4, 2012 2:50 PM in response to TildeBee

Looks like I have just font book. The reason I know I am missing fonts is because I looked in one of the folders at the time. I don't know which one but either way I put fonts in there via a document that was referred to me if you look up at the previous pots. Looks like when I opened font book that I do have some duplicate fonts to resolve. I will go ahead and do that. Thanks for your help

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Answer 11

JC1983 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 4, 2012 4:02 PM in response to JC1983

The duplicate fonts have been deleted, I also used font nuker to clear any font caches. What are the next steps that I should take? by the way fontworker is now the major process that is running at the high CPU %

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Answer 12

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Feb 4, 2012 4:31 PM in response to JC1983

JC --

Go to this file, and copy and paste the list of fonts that are in there, OK?

HD > SYSTEM > Library > Fonts. Don't change anything there, just copy & paste the list here.

:-)

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Answer 13

JC1983 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 4, 2012 5:05 PM in response to TildeBee

ok here you go....

Apple Braille Outline 6 Dot.ttf

Apple Braille Outline 8 Dot.ttf

Apple Braille Pinpoint 6 Dot.ttf

Apple Braille Pinpoint 8 Dot.ttf

Apple Braille.ttf

Apple Symbols.ttf

AppleGothic.ttf

AquaKana.ttc

Courier.dfont

encodings.dir

fonts.dir

fonts.list

fonts.scale

Geeza Pro Bold.ttf

Geeza Pro.ttf

Geneva.dfont

HelveLTMM

Helvetica LT MM

Helvetica.dfont

HelveticaLight.ttf

HelveticaLightItalic.ttf

HelveticaNeue.dfont

Keyboard.ttf

LastResort.ttf

LucidaGrande.ttc

Menlo.ttc

Monaco.dfont

STHeiti Light.ttc

Symbol.ttf

Thonburi.ttf

ThonburiBold.ttf

Times LT MM

Times.dfont

TimesLTMM

ZapfDingbats.ttf

ヒラギノ明朝 ProN W3.otf

ヒラギノ明朝 ProN W6.otf

ヒラギノ角ゴ ProN W3.otf

ヒラギノ角ゴ ProN W6.otf

儷黑 Pro.ttf

华文细黑.ttf

华文黑体.ttf

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Answer 14

JC1983 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 6, 2012 9:42 AM in response to JC1983

Well thanks for everyone's help so far. It appears that the problem has resolved itself sometimes after deleting the duplicated fonts. I noticed the operating system stopped running the process in the background at the full CPU %. My battery also lasts the appropriate amount of time. Thanks again. Let me know if there is anything else i should do.

Janelle

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Answer 15

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Feb 6, 2012 9:56 AM in response to JC1983

Janelle --

Thats great news. I didn't see a lot of obvious terrible errors in your SYSTEM > Library > Fonts folder . . .

You apparently did put some extras in, but I don't think they're really hurting anything. The most important things is that there are no crucial System fonts missing.

The extras are not fonts, just folders:

encodings.dir

fonts.dir

fonts.list

fonts.scale

So, if everything's running well, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

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