kernel_task high memory usage

Same issue here, kernal_task han taken up 1GB of real RAM and over 10GB of virtual RAM, mine is mid 2012 15inch mbp with 16G RAM.

Yep same issue here after updating to Mavericks - has been causing headaches over the last few weeks. 10Gb RAM and running virtually nothing - but watch the memory pressure grow and then start moving to Swap.

I have a near new Macbook Air with 8G RAM and just upgraded to OS X 10.9.1 on the weekend - now i am running out of memory all the time. i reboot every half hour. its painful anf kernel_task is always at the top of the memory usage list (currently using 4.68G Ram)

has there been any 'fix' to the problem yet?

Hello Guys,

I've just restarted my MBP 2011, 13'' with 8GB Ram, updated from Mountain Lion to Mavericks, and "kernel_task" in few minutes is growing up to 1GB and has activated more then 100 Threads... I think there is something wrong with memory and CPU usage of this new implementation.

Is there any update about this issue or any fix?

Thanks

navis83 wrote:

Hello Guys,

I've just restarted my MBP 2011, 13'' with 8GB Ram, updated from Mountain Lion to Mavericks, and "kernel_task" in few minutes is growing up to 1GB and has activated more then 100 Threads

The instances in this thread are for much larger amounts of RAM being used, so if it remains stable, don't worry about it. Because I have similar RAM and thread count stats as you...but my Mac's been running for 10 days. I'd only panic if your 1GB RAM usage quickly rose to something like 4GB.

FIXED!

Okay - after months of struggling with this I think I may have fixed it on my iMac. I completely removed from /system/library/extensions all of the kernal extensions for ALL printers (suspecting it was my HP pritner that was causing the issue), all kernal extensions for VM-Ware and Parallels (which I no longer use), as well as uninstalled LogMeIn and Libre Office. Since I did all of this at one time, I'm not sure which one of these is the solution. However, it has now been three days and my iMac has run perfectly!!!

If I were to do it again, I go one at a time starting with VM-Ware and Parallels, then the extensions for printers.

Let me know if this works for any of you.

i was having the same issue and noticed i had the below kernel extension in common with one of the previous posters.

com.rim.driver.BlackBerryUSBDriverInt

suspected it might be the culprit. deleted it and it seems to have cleared up the problem!

If my experience is anything to go by, a good first troubleshooting step for this might be to go to your System/Library/Extensions folder and remove any .kext files created or modified before Mavericks was released, and certainly from 2012 backwards, then restart your Mac. This solved the problem for me.

After updating my iMac to Mavericks from Mountain Lion, kernel_task started hogging over 3 GB of RAM, though it had no noticeable effect on CPU usage. I did the above and found a set of extensions going back to 2012. They were all ATTO .kexts (ATTOCelerity, ATTOExpress), which I believe are to do with external hard disk drivers. After removing these and restarting, everything was smooth as silk, with kernel-task usage dropping to a little over 700 MB, which is a good bit less than it was using with Mountain Lion. Since then, it's crept up to about 1 GB, but this is still less than I saw in Mountain Lion.

The Mavericks installer found some others and put them in the Incompatible Software folder, but some may slip through, as in this case.

And I as well. After dealing with this since Autum, removed all of my printer .kext files and have been running great ever since.

Right. The general conclusion from this and other threads on the subject (there are several of them) seems to be that the culprits for this are usually .kexts installed by hardware devices which have outstayed their welcome, but which the Mavericks installer doesn't pick up as incompatible.

The good news is that the remedy is often straightforward once you've identified suspects. However, I guess some care needs to be exercised when removing .kexts, as if you find later that something doesn't work as a result, simply putting them back into the Extensions folder won't necessarily work, as they need to be properly installed. It's also better to uninstall with the proprietary uninstaller rather than simply removing them from the folder, if you can work out where the .kests came from. The problem is that this is often not obvious, as in my case, where finding out would presumably have required going through the tech specs of every hard drive I've ever used. So I just went for it, with no deleterious results so far. But I think I'm right in saying that often devices which need the extensions will reinstall them, and with luck update them in the process. To be on the safe side, checking with the device's website or support might be advisable, though this puts you at the mercy of their willingness to help...

I spotted logmein on pastor brew master's post... After experiencing kernel arks memory usage well over 1 GB. I uninstalled logmein, and the problem has gone away. Now the task runs at about 650MB. THANK YOU!

A reboot is not a good solution, though. kernel_task shouldn't grow that much nor that fast.

I have the same issue.

Hello guys,

I found this thread trying to solve quite a strange problem on my MBP,

which has become extremely slow after 4 months of non-use.

Meanwhile, I want to thank everyone for the information provided!

Reading your post, I was set on the path of the perfect solution to the problem.

Long story short, I bought a new external disk

where I installed my current system OS X 10.8.5 and then mount it comfortably within the MBP.

Now everything is working!

No slowing down!

Thank you all!

I'm having the same problem and would love to try this fix, but I can't for the life of me find the /system/library/extensions folder.

I found a hidden library folder, but there is not extensions folder in it. And using Go to folder returns no results. Searching for .kext returns no results.

Any help os very much appreciated!

You may be confusing Library folders. The one you found sounds like the User Library. This is the one the Go menu takes you to. The one you want is the System Library. You have to go to the root level, which you can get to by double-clicking the HD icon on your desktop, go to Macintosh HD (or whatever you've named the HD icon), then to the System folder (marked with the X icon). The Library folder you need is in there, and the Extensions folder is in that, with all the .kext files. Spotlight doesn't show these, which may be why you're not finding them.

Be very careful, though. You need to be hyper-cautious about touching anything in the System folder, as the running of your Mac depends on it. But the Extensions folder must be there, or your Mac wouldn't be working.