kernel_task high memory usage

Please disregard my above solution. It did help, but it did not permanently solve the problem. I bought another 1 TB HD to use for Photoshop scratch. I discovered that my USB hub was causing a huge memory spike, so I disconnected it. I also reverted to my Apple mouse, and disconnected my wireless mouse. All of this helped, but I'm still running really hot and I don't know why. I reinstalled Mavericks, have run disk diagnostics, have trashed preferences, have started in safe mode, and I have removed all of my nonessential USB peripherals. I am now using an Apple keyboard and mouse. I cannot figure this out. I did purchase a 2 TB internal hard drive, but I'm in the middle of a work deadline, and I don't have time to install it. Considering it's a RAM issue more than a hard drive issue, I don't think that will solve the problem anyway (although I did need to upgrade my hard drive, anyway).

I just bought a new iMac in March, and prior to that I was using a really older model (I was holding out for a Mac Pro desktop, but had to bite the bullet and upgrade before I had the money to buy a Mac Pro), and I running Snow Leopard with half as much RAM and half the hard disk capacity. I use Adobe CS, and even though it was it was somewhat slow, I could still have Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Firefox open simultaneously. I now have twice as much RAM, twice the hard disk capacity, and an external 1 TB drive that I'm using for Photoshop scratch, and I'm having kernel panics.

Something is amiss. It's not a USB peripheral, and I don't think it's a system extension, but I could be wrong.

Update: It looks like removing the preferences folder and restarting was the answer. kernel_task isn't even showing up in my activity monitor anymore. This was a HUGE pain to deal with.

I rebuilt the Preferences folder as suggested and saw a brief improvement. Then I reset PRAM and also reset the System Management Controller. Now my machine is purring like a kitten again. Hope this helps someone else.

try downloading batchmod and resetting all the permissions for the activity monitor then restart.... this just worked for me

Can you please post the settings you used? Just want to make sure I don't screw something up. 🙂

this is how mine was set

I've been have exactly the same problem with sluggish performance and crazy kernel_task behavior. Taking a clue from Beatoven about the Apogee issue, I removed my Apogee Maestro 2 and rebooted. My MacBook Pro is happy once again. Thanks Beatoven!

I have an 2011 iMac with 20gb of memory. Over the last several weeks, I was having my memory drop into the low single digits. I was using the FipLab Memory cleaner to keep it above 4 or 5 gb constantly. My kernel was about 1.25g, largest, but not too bad. I performed the PRAM reset and I am sitting at 12g now. We will see how this holds, and I will update.

I was noticing the same problem with my MacBook Pro with Retina display Mid 2012, the kernel_task running at in excess of 600 MB, with over 90 threads. The Mac was sluggish which should not happen as it has the 512 SSD, 8 Gb and was just sucking ram.

I had done a software update on my MBR previously and remembering back, it almost seemed like the problem occurred right after the update.

I did the same software update from the App Store today on my 27" iMac late 2013 (Safari v 7.0.6, iTunes v 11.3.1, Epson Printer Software Update v 2.18, Digital Camera RAW compatibility Update v 5.06, Mactracker v 7.3.3, Artboard v 1.9.4, Memory Diag v 1.0.2, Memory Clean V 4.6. Prior to the update, I had no problems at all with the kernel_task problem on the iMac. I have been using the iMac to compare and try to find the solution for the MBP. Guess what started happening after the update, yup kernel_task problem 686 MB of memory, 91 threads, port 0, PID 0, user root. Memory sucking as well.

No problem before, it was not even visible.

I took a look into System/Library/Extensions/IOPlatformPluginFamily/Contents/PlugIns/ACPI_SMC_Plat formPlugin/Contents as has been mentioned in my search for an answer. I do not find my MBP listed, nor my iMac in that plugin list.

I ran the Apple hardware profile. Initialing I had done it with my MBP unplugged from power and got this error 4SNS/1/40000001:IDOR-0.000, but as others had noted it was because it was only powered with the battery. When i re-ran it plugged in, no error was detected. I even tried the bachmod thing to reset Activity Monitor, nothing.

So is the update responsible for this problem?

Is there a fix yet? This really blows to have a top of the line iMac that's less than 6 months old running this sluggish. 😠

I rebuilt the Preferences folder as suggested in a previous post and saw a brief improvement. Then I reset PRAM and also reset the System Management Controller. Now my machine is purring like a kitten. And the infamous "kernel_task" has NEVER reappeared in Activity Monitor.

I've been reading every online forum about this for a couple months now, and I think the answer is that Mavericks is just very temperamental and I think that there's no one solution. I've been systematically and carefully clearing out old prefs and ext, and (I'm embarrassed to admit this) I have migrated from mac to mac from a G3 to a G4 to my last iMac to the current iMac that I bought in March. I am also embarrassed to admit this, but I found a SCSI driver in my system folder. Obviously, I removed it. And YES I should have done a clean install. I know. However, I always end up having to buy a new Mac under duress when I'm on a deadline, and I always TELL MYSELF I'll go back and wipe and do a complete clean install LATER and later never comes. That's how I ended up with a SCSI driver causing me kernel panics in 2014.

That said, my last iMac was a complete POS that I bought cheap from a friend when my G4 bit the dust and it was supposed to be a lot more temporary than it became. I made the choice to get a new macbook before a new desktop, and then I was holding out for a Mac Pro, but I couldn't stand it anymore. I was running Snow Leopard and it had no ram and a hard drive the size of a pea, and I was running Creative Suite on it. BUT I wasn't getting kernel panics, even with that same SCSI driving lurking around.

I think Mavericks is just very temperamental, and it needs a clean install of everything at the time of the OS upgrade. Everyone who solves this problem seems to have a solution specific to their own Mac that always seems to involve outdated prefs, ext, or drivers from outdated peripherals (Palm Pilots and SCSI devices) or software and former OS. I also pulled a bunch of CS3 and CS4 prefs, and I don't know why they were left behind each time I updated my CS package. When I have time after this current deadline, I'm just gonna back up all my files, wipe my hard drive, and do a clean install of everything. And this time, I'm REALLY going to do it.

Just to let you know cad613, for reasons of my own, I decided to clean and reinstall on my MBP. It didn't change anything. Initially there was no kernel_task, but as I worked with my Mac to download a few apps it popped up. What is interesting is that there appears to be a lag in resetting the memory. I was doing an online photography course that included using Lightroom 5. On several occasions the instructor noted that his computer was lagging just like mine started to do as of late. This was about 2 weeks ago around the time of the upgrade. I would suspect that we have pinned this as the problem, but it would appear it may not be. Lightroom can be a very intensive app, but my mac would reset itself as it got low in memory but now it doesn't. I need to have an app that will manually clear memory. Do I think that it is Mavericks, yes, but whatever it is seems to be a mystery.

I did the clean and reinstall for the same reason that you stated. When I got the MBP I just did a backup transferred from my last MacBook and there were definitely remnants of stuff that were annoying and did not run properly. Rather then try to find all the crap that comes alone with the apps. which would have consumed copious amounts of time, I just cleaned. But it comes along with other tasks like reinstalling important software.

Sometimes I feel like I am working with the 'other OS'. Just one good thing is that if there is a problem, I am sure it will be found.

I can pretty much guarantee that it's not due to moving from an old mac to a new one. I bought a brand new iMac in April and didn't bring anything over from an old machine. Right now it's running around 1.15GB after doing a fresh restart. Something isn't right...Apple needs to step in and address this.

Article on CNet explaining it a little better... http://www.cnet.com/news/kerneltask-taking-up-ram-in-os-x/