kernel_task high memory usage

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.

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!

Thanks malcoad and vol7ron - I was able to find and remove (after backup) all my .kext files 2012 or older. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be doing much for my speed. I guess I'm going to have to get more memory.

Thanks any way!

interesting, I've tried Mp0lo17link and it worked for me on iMac12.1 (21.5'' mid 2011) got kernel_task down from ~5GB to 980MB for 2nd day now

also Fiplab Memory Cleaner now properly shows I have 12GB RAM whereas before it though I have ~7GB of RAM

I watched that video earlier when i first figured out the problem with kernel_task atking up a lot of my ram, for my case my model is "MacBookPro10,2" and when you go through the tutorial, it isnt in the resource folder. Does anyone know why or a fix to that problem? If so please reply!

Brandon

i tried this, but all it does is drag a copy to the desktop - the original folder remains with all it's contents - tried to delete it but it says it cannot because it needs them - to be honest since mavericks came out using my macs has become an absolute misery, but if there is another solution i could try before throwing it out the window i might give it a go - at the moment these problems are costing me hours every day

Yup, that solved the problem for me--but losing all my settings is a pretty harsh price to pay! I've got my doc and X11 and such pretty well-tuned to my liking.

So far I've narrowed it down that it's one of the com.apple files that's the problem, now I get to see if I can keep the preferences I want, but still remove the problem child.

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.

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.

That actually makes me feel a little better, although I'm sorry the problem isn't solved. I was a little sheepish about admitting that I had carried a SCSI driver across two decades, but I thought for sure that the transfer of old stuff was the problem, but now at least I know I'm still screwed even if I do a complete wipe and reinstall of everything. 😐

Yes, Apple needs to figure this one out, because it is very annoying.

CWSites, thank you for the link.

USING BATCHMOD - I'm concerned about damaging permissions and clearing xattrs warning concerns me also... I've been having issues with a slow machine and tried removing HP printer .kext files and then removing any before 2013... No luck. My machines boots up slowly and applications hang up.

Any suggestions or comments about using BATCHMOD are welcome.

Whenever I run some 3D related Plug-Ins for FCPX, I found my computer quickly run-out memory and then freezed.
How come?

PS: I have checked the usage of my computer's memory, I found the kernel_task has taken almost all memory.

PS: I am using Yosemite now. I have no idea when this problem begins.

Hi everybody,

I have same problem on both imacs i use (iMac9,1 and iMac10,1). Both updated from Maveriks to Yosemite some months ago and since last 2 weeks kernel_task "eat" to much RAM.

I tried to solve with all kind of resets, move files from ACPI_SMC _PlatformPlugin.kext, hardware test, reinstall and restore from time machine and finaly also with a complete clean reinstall (without TM restore!). But kernel_task run with too much RAM usage.

I feel frustrated and I seem to be back like Windows users!

So, i think problem could be associated to some software upgrade (DropBox? Skype? Osx update? don't know). Anyone knows if there are usefull debugs system log for kernel_task usage?

Thank you!

Thank you very much for your response.

Do you know the Mountain Lion version for this trick? I cannot use Maveriks because it doesn't work with some essential software I use. I saw this method in another thread:

1. Go to About this mac under the apple in the upper left and click on More info

2. Click on system report

3. make a note of what it says after Model Identifier

4. go to your master drive – System -Library – Extensions – IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext -Contents – Plugins – ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext – Contents – Resources – find the name from step 3 and move it to a folder that you can find again if needed.

3. Restart and you’re done

But my MacBookPro 9,2 is not listed in the stated folder (System -Library – Extensions – IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext -Contents – Plugins – ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext – Contents – Resources )

Thank you very much!