Kernel_task used up all cpu% when charging

I've experienced this problem with two mac minis and Mountain Lion. The cpu is heavily utilized by "kernel_task" and "Finder". It turns out the default Finder setting of "New Finder windows show: All My Files" causes the Finder to burn CPU. Set this option to something else like "Desktop", restart your machine and the CPU load will be nominal.

This is an Apple bug.

Strange. Often, a PRAM reset will correct this. Did you do the PRAM correctly?

1. Power down the machine.

2. Locate the following keys on your keyboard in preparation for Step 4:

‘command’ – ‘option’ – ‘P’ – ‘R’

3. Press the ‘power on’ button.

4. Immediately – and before the grey screen appears – hold down ‘command-option-P-R’ all together.

5. Keep them held down until you’ve heard the start-up chime twice. After you release them you should hear it again, and your Mac should boot up normally.

I would try it again just for good measure. If that still doesn't work, have you got any antivirus software or any other utility running in the background?

Same problem here. I think a heat problem also. I am on a 2011 15". I have modded the cd bay into my primary ssd drive bay - so i am running 2 ssd's which might have a heat impact. I also notice that when removing power cord cpu cycles drop but for me it is not imediate the cycles drop 30-60 seconds later. The process is using over 80% of all cpu's. I had no such problem in lion - only mountain lion. Solutions welcome!!

btw. maybe something to do with a vlc / safari interaction. in activ monitor PID is 0 kernel_task root and always 96 threads. When plugging power cord back in the cpu cycles do not jump up straight away. I am in hotter climates than normal at the moment but temps are still 20-30 degrees so well below operating temp for macs. Thanks

I have had the same problem repeating over from Lion to ML. Oddly enought, it manifests itself pretty regularly on my iMac, but not my MBP (both mid-2011). A restart is the only thing that fixes it.

I have snow leopard installed on 1 ssd and lion on the other. I cannot replicate the error in snow leopard so I have to concur that it cannot be a hardware issue (whew I am out of warranty!) but it still does not solve the problem - having a 2011 machine i want / should be able to take advantage of the latest operating system. I run snow leopard for professional audio projects because it is to this day more stable than Lion and the "latest" operating system for day to day. Also have a windows partition and a linux live cd in the sd card slot. I only have this problem on Mountain lion. My feeling is heat managment issue and as milk suggests possibly related to 2nd graphics card use. I did not have this problem running lion and started to have the problem immediately after upgrading. I have opened the machine and cleaned all dust from inside / the fans this has made no difference. Would really like a response from apple on this problem....

been reading posts about heating issues. There seems to be some relation to java and heat issues. I think if i remember correctly i was prompted to install java after updating to mountain lion meaning that java is not part of the default os installation. Anyone with better knowledge than me have any ideas on this??

Am now running temp guage - will see if i can learn anything from this and report back....

I have 100's of kernel extensions installed - most of which i use ... is there an easy way to test them without uninstalling. Also for my general knowledge can kernel extensions have other related files in any other location apart from the extensions folder. if not i can test simply by temporarily removing them from the extensions folder - or can doing this destabilise the system? obviously i assume there is a laborious command line way of testing extensions?

Just found out that my Air Display software causes the kernel panic. Identified the Kernel extension as:

92 1 0xffffff7f816aa000 0xa000 0xa000 com.avatron.AVExVideo (1.6.4) <74 5 4 3>

97 0 0xffffff7f816b4000 0x5000 0x5000 com.avatron.AVExFramebuffer (1.6.4) <92 74 5 4 3>

An update of Air Display software fixed it

Maclogically wrote:

I have 100's of kernel extensions installed - most of which i use ... is there an easy way to test them without uninstalling.

Hundreds? I wrote a little diagnostic program that will list any active, non-Apple kernel extensions, among other things. Download EtreCheck from http://www.etresoft.com/download/EtreCheck.zip.

Disclaimer: Although EtreCheck is free, there are other links on my site that could give me some form of compensation, financial or otherwise.

Also for my general knowledge can kernel extensions have other related files in any other location apart from the extensions folder. if not i can test simply by temporarily removing them from the extensions folder - or can doing this destabilise the system? obviously i assume there is a laborious command line way of testing extensions?

Kernel extensions almost always have non-kernel counterparts with which they communicate. You want to do as little as possible in the kernel because it is very risky and very difficult.

10.8.1 update did not solve this problem......

Any ideas?????

Also have a problem where if the battery is completely drained computer starts up but is very unresponsive then goes to a black screen - whilst on power supply - sleep and does not wake from the sleep unless restarted.

Maclogically wrote:

10.8.1 update did not solve this problem......

Any ideas?????

No one ever said it would.

Start you own thread to discuss your problem. If you expect to get any help, include details from either EtreCheck or Activity Monitor.

I think the issues are related hence same thread...

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,2

1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores

8 GB RAM

Startup Items:

PACESupport - Path: /Library/StartupItems/PACESupport

RT8187ClientUtility - Path: /Library/StartupItems/RT8187ClientUtility

System Software:

OS X 10.8.1 (12B19) - Uptime: 0 days 4:26

Disk Information:

TOSHIBA MK7559GSXF disk0 : (750.16 GB)

disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /Volumes/Macintosh HD: 577 GB (42.71 GB free)

BOOTCAMP (disk0s3) /Volumes/BOOTCAMP: 172.81 GB (154.62 GB free)

OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD disk1 : (115.03 GB)

disk1s1 (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh SSD (disk1s2) /: 114.17 GB (13.82 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk1s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

USB Information:

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. iPad

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

FireWire Information:

Kernel Extensions:

at.obdev.nke.LittleSnitch Version: 3854

com.DataRobotics.driver.iSCSIInitiator Version: 1.4.31

com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower Version: 1.5.2

com.waves.driver.soundgrid Version: 2.0.0

com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.snowleopard Version: 5.7.2

com.paragon-software.filesystems.ntfs Version: 82

Problem System Launch Daemons:

Problem System Launch Agents:

[failed] com.apple.afpstat.plist

[loaded] com.paragon.NTFS.trial.plist

[loaded] com.paragon.NTFS.upd.plist

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] at.obdev.littlesnitchd.plist

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist

[loaded] com.datarobotics.ddservice64d.plist

[loaded] com.datarobotics.ddserviced.plist

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist

[loaded] com.line6.l6ksettingmgr.plist

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

[loaded] com.stclairsoft.AppTamerAgent.plist

[loaded] com.waves.daemon.SoundGridProtocolService.plist

[loaded] PACESupport.plist

Launch Agents:

[loaded] at.obdev.LittleSnitchUIAgent.plist

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

[loaded] org.glimmerblocker.updater.plist

User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.divx.agent.postinstall.plist

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper

MagicMenu

CrossOver CD Helper

Drobo Dashboard

Google Drive

uTorrent

Activity Monitor

SplashtopRemoteStreamer

Dropbox

3rd Party Preference Panes:

DivX

Flash Player

Flip4Mac WMV

GlimmerBlocker

Growl

Line6AudioMIDI

MacFUSE

Native Instruments USB Audio

Paragon NTFS for Mac ® OS X

Perian

Internet Plug-ins:

DivXBrowserPlugin.plugin

Flash Player.plugin

FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin

googletalkbrowserplugin.plugin

JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

npgtpo3dautoplugin.plugin

OVSHelper.plugin

QuickTime Plugin.plugin

SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin

Silverlight.plugin

User Internet Plug-ins:

iGetterBundle.plugin

Bad Fonts:

None

Top Processes:

22.3 % WebProcess

13.4 % PluginProcess

11.1 % WindowServer

5.9 % Safari

3.4 % Skype

3.0 % EtreCheck

2.7 % SGProtocolService

2.2 % hidd

0.5 % fontd

0.4 % ps

For me it is simply going to Console.app and quit all the top sender processes.

I eventually found out it was configd flooding kernel_task with network requests and so fast that the kernel couldn't keep up therefore the high cpu usage and freezing other applications

http://www.openradar.me/7339693

Here is a link to the bug report by someone about 3 years ago with the similar problem.

I guess someone in Apple has been slacking in his/her job.