SystemUIServer problem?

After a very long time (over a year) struggling with SystemUIServer often going up over 100% CPU (often while my 17" MBP was sealed in its air-tight case), I finally had the sense to check my system log in Console to see what it was exactly that was causing the problem. Turns out that nearly half of my 4000 system log queries for the day came from HippoVNC. Hippo Remote is an application that allows your iOS device to act as a remote for your computer. It requires a VNC server to work. I removed the software a couple years ago (with AppZapper), but apparently HippoVNC lived on in Hard Drive\Library\Application Support. Every 10 seconds it would load the main bundle plus bundles for Jaguar and Tiger, throw and error and then try again. I moved the files to the trash and haven't had a problem since!

I could not find HippoVNC or any associated files in my application support folder. But I was intrigued by your use of Console and system log to uncover the problem. I'm inexperienced at reading the log but found the following error, repeated every two seconds, for a number of hours on the given date.

I tracked this error down in another forum and found a user who had isolated his Garmin ANT stick and/or software as the culprit. I have this usb and software myself. Intuitivey, these time outs every two seconds would put a burden on CPU usage but I'm asking the question, anyway, if it makes sense this could be behind my version of the SystemUIServer problem.

Of course, I'll find out one way or another by ditching the USB and software when I get home this evening.

Good luck. I wish I knew a little more about it, but I'm with you, I kind of intuitively knew that having a vnc server for a program I deleted years ago trying to load files every ten seconds for a couple years was probably a bad thing. Google confirmed it.

you only know as much as you wish, another way you wouldn't have googled it, well i would be actually pretty optimistic about it as long as it is not dumb windows registry nobody could ever understand... bsd - power in simplicity

I followed your instructions - but now I can't ever get that Time Machine icon back on the menu-bar. It's actually helpful to know if Time Machine is running - was hoping I could restore that icon - what could I do to reverse the command "sudo rm -rf /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/TimeMachine.menu" ?

After reading over this post, seems like there are a couple different issues being discussed here - Stratight up blinking (crashing) or the right top menu after an upgrade form 10.8.1 to 10.8.2/3, then a CPU spiking systemUIserver process.... My issue was the former- I had to remove each menu extra until i found the one that was stopping systemUIserver......... Possibly not a move you should try unless you know what you're doing..... (my bad)

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Probably not a good idea to "rm -rf" that since it "deletes" that plugin for good. The issue was resolved for me due to the timemachine.menu having a permissions issue that would crash systemUIserver.

You can extract the Timemachine.menu item from the Mountain Lion InstallESD.dmg which you can re-download from the App store (easy to find instructions online to figure this out - mount the dmg and drag the timemachine.menu from the image to your system to return it).

If you wish to futher trouble-shoot your crashing systemUIserver and you think it's a Menu ectra item, try moving them out of that location one at a time to find the one thats broken.

\

better command:

sudo mv /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/TimeMachine.menu /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/bak.TimeMachine.menu

then

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

I was able to re-download Mountain Lion from the App store successfully, but could not find any instructions online to extract the Timemachine.menu item from the Mountain Lion InstallESD.dmg - any suggestions?

Since i got you into this mess- i'm getting you out 😉

Download an application (free) called Pacifist

Select "Open apple installers" then open "Install OS X Mountain Lion" this will be located on your Hard drive

Do a search for "timemachine.menu", highlight it in the right pop-out menu and click "Install" from the top left of the app window.

This will put back your timemachine.menu option. You will need to either restart or open kill the systemUIServer process to it to load the menu - can be done in activity monitor...

Hope that gets it back for ya.....

So when I came home today and noticed my Macbook Pro 2009 15" 2.5 GHz running very hot, I immediately went to my Activity Monitor to see what was going on and what was running while my computer was asleep. SystemUIServer was running like crazy, taking up 80-100% CPU. So I search and find this thread. Bottom of the first page is where I found my solution and was able to identify the problem.

I have Time Machine in my menu bar, and just prior to me coming home and opening my computer at ~11:50, my Mac had just performed a backup at 11:38. So, I killed the SystemUIServer process, and took Time Machine out of my menu bar. I realize I should have done them separately to see what the real solution was, but it solved the problem regardless. Now my Mac is running smoothly again. Thanks guys!