SystemUIServer problem?

Try this:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4176244?answerId=19221021022#19221021022

it leads to this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4148507?start=105&tstart=0

Seems to fix a few peoples problems.

Hmmm... Let's try something quick and easy.

Go to your Finder "Go" menu hold the option key to choose "Library". Then go to Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist and delete that. Then log out and back in or restart.

I realize it may be a while before you know if that worked.

If not, I'd look to your Login Items, in System Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Items for one that may not be compatible.

I have had the same problem. Also with the screen going blank for about 15 seconds, then returning. I have just deleted the plist file as suggested by macjack and rebooted. Will report if this has indeed solved my problem.

BTW, my installation was an UPGRADE from Lion. I have gone back to Lion on 2007 IMAC because of the screen going blank (black) and not responding. This problem now only seems to occur on my MBP Mid 2010. It works fine on my IMAC 2011...

macjack wrote:

Go to your Finder "Go" menu hold the option key to choose "Library". Then go to Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.plist and delete that. Then log out and back in or restart.

This doesn't fix the real problem, it is just the same advice seen elsewhere for this issue. Deleting the plist fixed the issue for about 1 week but it also deletes every one of your menu bar preferences. Just this morning the issue has come right back.

I checked the plist using plutil on the command line and the plutil command says that plist is OK.

$ plutil com.apple.systemuiserver.plist

com.apple.systemuiserver.plist: OK

I see that SystemUIServer is spiking the CPU % to 90% after the problem starts to occur. Every once in a while the spinning wheel shows up when hovering over Apple items in the menubar (wifi, time machine, bluetooth, etc...).

Exactly the same issue with me, SystemUIServer going to 100% and blank screen for about 15 seconds after you come back after leaving the laptop for a while. Upgraded from Lion too. Early 2011 17 inch MBP. I have an earlier laptop that shows no problems.

Tried removing all 3rd party apps that put icons in the menu bar, seems to work for a while, then comes back again.

I hope this isn't going to be like the iPhone 3GS crash during calls that I suffered as well...

I've actually have experienced the same issue as well in regards to "SystemUIServer" I'm on a Mid 2012 MacBook Air 11" with 4GB of ram and an i5 1.7GHz CPU. I've noticed that if I do anything for a long time, about 4 hours or continous use, my free ram will drop down to 25MB while my Inactive sits around 1.5GB and Active sits at 1.2GB and wired is somewhere around 1GB. When I go into Activity Monitor all I see is "SystemUIServer" using at least 2.5GB of ram even AFTER I've closed all my apps. The process also has a tendancy to use 50% of my CPU for no reason.

A very temporary solution that I've found is that when you force close "SystemUIServer" things tend to go back to normal, however, having to go through this process everytime is not normal. I've also tried the "purge" method from Terminal but it doesn't seem to work for me.

Does anybody have a solid resolution to this issue?

Regards

Tim

OK, fingers crossed I have fixed it.

I unchecked all the options to display in the menu bar (time machine, bluetooth, wifi etc.) and have nothing there now. My guess is that it was Time Machine, but can't be 100% sure. It would make sense because everytime I killed the SyetemUIServer process, the problem would start again and it appeared to coincide with backups starting (and hence changes to the icons with animation as well).

Bluetooth was off and my Wifi was constant, so I don't think it was those menu items.

Anyway, hopefully that helps anyone else trying to track down the issue.

I was having the same issue. I dont use time machine but decided i should clean up my menu bar. i removed the time machine icon and the air play icon and i haven't had any more issues for over a day.

(early 2011 15 inch MBP i7 8gig of ram)

Well, this was a very LOW TECH solution for me. But it seems to be related to TIME MACHINE. My Solution was to UNPLUG the external drives (from my FW800 port) and once the machine went to sleep the FANS stopped turning like crazy.

I too am also experiencing SystemUIServer going 100% CPU in all cores. I have only started having this problem with Moutain Lion upgrade. I've tried turning off menu items, deleting the SystemUIServer.plist but nothing is working.

I am also experiencing this problem - its got nothing to do with time machine. i think it has something to do with fact i upgraded from lion server to mount lion (non server). killing systemuiserver is a temp fix but it comes back.

OK, so I haven't had the problme now for weeks and can reproduce it as well. For me it was displaying certain icons in the menu bar, the WiFi and TimeMachine ones seem to be the major culprits.

Go to settings and turn off display of these and there is no more out of control SystemUIServer process. 100% fix for me and as soon as Iput them back, it starts again.

Other icons that change regularly, like the clock display, are no problem, so it's not obvious that it is rapidly changing icons that are the issue. Anyway, it's fixed for me although it is really annoying that I can't easily access WiFi settings as I do move from office to office a lot.

Just some other thoughts as I read through this...

System Server is a background process that specifically controls the right hand side of the menu bar where those menu extras are.

It also handles application launch after inserting CD or DVD and handles external devices. A bad external device will cause the system server to hang, often unplugging the device will unhang systemuiserver. So you may want to check that too.

To be more through if you want to try deleting the preference again, this time with the addition of the items in ByHost folder, it may work.

Go to your Finder "Go" menu hold the option key to choose "Library". Then go to the Preferences folder and find and delete com.apple.systemuiserver.plist. Then go to the By Host folder also inside your Preferences folder also and delete com.apple.systemuiserver.plist (also any with numbers). Then log out and back in, or restart.

The thing here is that so many of you are experriencing it on MBP and MBA (any desktops?) that I can see, that it does seem like a bug. After all, you certainly shouldn't need to take default Apple menu extras off the menubar for it to function properly. But the fact that it's happening on some MBPs and not others, is curious. My bet would be on a third party menu extra or Login Item being the culprit rather than a bug.

Hey guys -

So I just had my *** handed to me by this one.. A tech ran an unapproved update to 10.8.2 ....

Here's how I fixed it...

sudo rm -rf /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/TimeMachine.menu

TimeMachine.menu was killing systemUIServer - remove it.....

<Edited By Host>

I'm having the same problem on my MBP late 2009, Intel processor and 4GB memory -- reinitialized with Mountain Lion fresh installed from scratch. SystemUIServe consuming all %CPU and a lot of Real Memory, and the fans going crazy.

Now like macjack said, SystemUIServer also handles external drives, "a bad external device will cause the system server to hang and unplugging the device will unhang systemuiserver". That's exactly what happens to me. As soon as I unplug my external drive (a 1TB Western Digital connected through firewire) SystemUIServer immediately drops to the last positions in CPU and Memory usage, and the fans calm down.

Mine is definitely not a "bad" external drive though, because I've been using it with no problems for a couple of years on the same MBP with Snow Leopard (until I passed from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion on that MPB). So the problem is with Mountain Lion. For now I just unplug the external drive when I don't need it and I don't want the machine to go crazy.