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Q: Kernel_task is using over 600% of my CPU and slowing things down to a crawl!!!

This is getting ridiculous.  My late 2011 Macbook Pro 8,2 Intel Core i7 2.2 with 256GB SSD and 16GB RAM used to be so fast and snappy.  But ever since a few months ago, it's been so slow.  Kernel_task is using upwards of 600% of my CPU, my macbook pro heats up like crazy, and my fan becomes super loud.  This is especially embarrassing in class or in the library, when it's completely silent (except for the lecturer in class), and my computer sounds like it's going to blast off into space.  People actually turn their heads and stare.  More seriously, it's almost impossible to use my computer because it is so slow.  My intel core duo 2.0GHz mac mini with 2GB ram is actually faster than my macbook when this happens.  I use very graphic heavy programs (this is why I have my computer), and I'm unable to use them smoothly anymore.  Just previewing an image file takes like 3 mins to load up sometimes.

 

I've tried resetting the SMC, PRAM.  I've ran the Apple Hardware Test.  I've ran the Disk Utility to repair disk permissions and to verify the disk.  Everything is fine.  Running Console shows that there is no problem with the SMC.  I've even downloaded Onyx and ran every maintenance thing on there.  I've installed another user account, and installed another OSX on a different partition, and this Kernel_task craziness is ALWAYS there.  It starts up randomly it seems, and it goes away after an hour or two.  Then it starts up again after a few hours.  It is maddening.  It doesn't seem to be associated with any program.  It happens when there are no programs running. 

 

My mac's HD isn't encrypted.  I do use Time Machine (but it's unencrypted) on a network drive.  I'm at a loss as to what this can be.  Please help me... This issue is driving me crazy.  From my searches, it seems there are many others with the same exact problem.  Yet no one seems to know of a solution. 

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Feb 17, 2013 6:02 PM

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Q: Kernel_task is using over 600% of my CPU and slowing things down to a crawl!!!

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  • by NelsonPM,

    NelsonPM NelsonPM Dec 15, 2013 4:54 AM in response to seabas917
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 15, 2013 4:54 AM in response to seabas917

    In case this helps anyone...

     

    My Late 2012 iMac 27", 3.4GHz i7, GTX 680MX, developed this issue.  No entry in plist for this machine either, and the 'remove all plist entries' fix had no effect on the problem for me.

     

    Luckily I had actually purchased the machine in May '13, so it was still under warranty.  Worked with Apple Support online, and when Hardware Test failed three times in a row (got to 16 seconds tested, hung for a few min than shut down each time) they agreed it was a hardware problem.

     

    5 days, a new fan and new logic board later (all covered, thank goodness), machine is back to normal.

     

    Moral of the story is that, at least for me, the root cause *is* a hardware issue.

  • by aaronwithtwoas,

    aaronwithtwoas aaronwithtwoas Jan 12, 2014 7:03 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jan 12, 2014 7:03 PM in response to Linc Davis

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

     

    Then removed the one program that prompted with that command, restarted and now my kernal_task real memory jumped down from 3 GB to 600 MBs.

     

    Thanks so much Linc Davis. Hopefully it will stick.

  • by SmOg3R,

    SmOg3R SmOg3R Mar 26, 2014 6:22 AM in response to seabas917
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 26, 2014 6:22 AM in response to seabas917

    My comment from original article of this tweak/hack about ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext :

     

    Actually another thing what deleting this plist results in, is it disables Turbo Boost 2011 and up machines. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, cause in my case, I have MBA 2011 mid 13inch i5 1.7ghz, it actually reduced the CPU temp under full 100% load from 99C to 84C, fan speed decreased as well from 6.5k to 4.7k. Now the reason for that, is that TDP actually decreased from 18W to 10W, while CPU frequency remains at stable 1.7Ghz at all times. I can’t quite explain the TDP and temp difference, as Turbo boost supposed to work only when one core is fully utilized and the other is pretty much idle. But one theory which comes to my mind is that 18W TDP is actually way more than needed for most chips to run at 1.7Ghz 100% load, meaning that whilst you get that short burst of perfomance (overclock) above the total of 1.7ghz on all cores till you hit 99-100C, this kind of temperature is certainly not doing any good for machine. IMHO TurboBoost is poorly implemented on those machines, but funny enoudh I doubt there is someone to point fingers at, according to specs, Intel’s chip supposed to use 17W running at 1.7Ghz, yet they managed to make one able to run at 1.7ghz with only 10W tdp. Now Apples turbo boost config works according to the Intel specs, it sets the maximum frequency possible to stay at 17W till it hits some 99C, but since it doesn’t take to the account that varying per chip TOTAL frequency (NOT per core/turbo boost) can become higher than stated in specs, it actually overclocks the chip. I believe Apple missed there a great opportunity to take advantage of intel chips and fix heat/noise issues and ironically, save battery power (what this plist file intended to do in the first place).The only “downside” would be that every chip is different, so the temperatures under load would vary abit from model to model, but then again, turbo boost freqs are varying as well, moreover, remember that big story about toshiba vs samsung SSDs in MBA 2011? haha.

  • by TeamDurga,

    TeamDurga TeamDurga Mar 27, 2014 4:17 AM in response to asdllkjasdf
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 27, 2014 4:17 AM in response to asdllkjasdf

    Here is a fix to kernel_task issue with high memory and CPU uses

    Fixing kernel_task Memory / CPU Problems in Mac OS X

    Hope this Helps.

    Thankyou.

  • by Keale,

    Keale Keale Sep 16, 2015 1:31 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 16, 2015 1:31 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Hi Linc,

     

    I know this forum might be long dead, but I'm having this issue and it's driving me crazy. Ran your terminal command to see what is overloading the kernal task, and it's:  com.ti.driver.TIVCPSerial (1.2.1)

     

    Thought it was CUDA for the longest time (it was the only other thing in the list).  I think I finally succeeded in removing that, and this is all that's left apparently.  Any idea what the **** it is?  Google doesn't give any good results.

  • by Keale,

    Keale Keale Sep 16, 2015 2:51 PM in response to Keale
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 16, 2015 2:51 PM in response to Keale

    Nevermind, I removed the TIVCPSerial.kext.. and confirmed it wasn't running in the kernal.. no 3rd party extensions are, and i'm still getting the kernal overload.  My top of the line macbook pro is unusable at this point.  And I have 2 videos that need to be edited in 2 days.  Fu.......

  • by BobHarris,

    BobHarris BobHarris Sep 16, 2015 4:24 PM in response to Keale
    Level 6 (19,609 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 16, 2015 4:24 PM in response to Keale

    Boot into Safe mode.  Does kernel task still consume 600%.  If not, then it is some 3rd party addition you have on your system.

    <http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564>

     

    Suggest you start a new thread.

    Post every bit of information Linc has asked for.

     

    Maybe even post the output from EtreCheck (Linc will not look at that, but others might).

    <https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174>

     

    Continuing to post in this thread is likely to be lost as it is a) long, b) chances are the original post is not the problem you are experiencing, so that just confuses things.  Start you own thread and provide as much information as possible.

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