Kernel_task eating up my cpu

So what happens when you quit Google Chrome. I'm particularly curious whether that Google Chrome Renderer process continues after you quit Chrome. If so force quit it.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software – potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions – they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.

These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing.

Below are instructions to enter some UNIX shell commands. The commands are harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects.

Some of the commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then either copy or drag it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.

Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.

When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” (without the quotes) and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.

Step 1

Copy or drag – do not type – the line below into the Terminal window, then press return:

kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/{printf "%s %s\n", $6, $7}'

Post the lines of output (if any) that appear below what you just entered (the text, please, not a screenshot.)

Step 2

Repeat with this line:

sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix)|edu\.mit|org\.(amavis|apache|cups|isc|ntp|postfix|x)/{print $3}'

This time, you'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. You don't need to post the warning.

Step 3

launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|edu\.mit|org\.(x|openbsd)/{print $3}'

Step 4

ls -1A /e*/mach* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta}* L*/Fonts 2> /dev/null

Important: If you synchronize with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, anonymize it before posting.

Step 5

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get name of every login item' 2> /dev/null

Remember, steps 1-5 are all drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste, whichever you prefer – no typing, except your password. Also remember to post the output.

You can then quit Terminal.

Remove the MacKeeper trojan by following the instructions here:

how to uninstall MacKeeper

IMPORTANT: It’s been reported that MacKeeper has some kind of “encryption” feature. What that really means, I don’t know. If you have used MacKeeper to “encrypt” any of your files, “decrypt” them before you uninstall the software, or make sure that you can restore the files from backups that were made before they were “encrypted.”

What peripherals are connected?

Uninstall or disable "Jacksta," whatever that is, then reboot. See if there's an improvement.

If not, you have a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested. Back up all data before you go.

The jaksta startupitem isn't affecting anything. It's a startupitem essentially the same as wireshark's that does the following:

chgrp admin /dev/bpf*

chmod og+rw /dev/bpf*

It needs this for packet capture but no processes are being spawned.

Namir.Mouzannar wrote:

my kernel_task is eating up my cpu (over 80%) creating a very bad lag.

Kernel task is the process that (surprise, surprise) performs kernel operations, that is, the basic functions at the core of Mac OS X. (For details, you can look up XNU on Wikipedia; but the best reference, IMHO, is Amit Singh's "Mac OS X Internals".)

When kernel_task takes up too many processor cycles, clearly something is going wrong, but i'ts practically impossibly to tell what. All you can do is to follow troubleshooting procedure (such as suggested by Linc Davis) to try to isolate the problem, that is, try to identify the process or processes which cause kernel_task to go into overdrive.

when i run my MBP in safe mode kernel_task drops to less than 3% and my computer runs smoothly.

That's the first troubleshooting step. In Safe Mode, third-party extensions and additions are disabled. If kernel_task functions normally in Safe Mode, then, in all likelihood, the problem is some third-party software.

I did what you told me to do

MacKeeper is (as you can tell if you look it up in this forum) a prime cause of trouble. Removing it is the first thing to do; but removing it is not an easy task to accomplish. Are you positive you followed the instructions indicated by Linc Davis and you have completely removed MacKeeper?

A faulty temperature sensor can cause kernel_task to ramp up, but settle down in safe mode.