Yet more fan activity since Mavericks 10.9

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Level 1

15 points

Yet more fan activity since Mavericks 10.9

Hi there,

Since updating to 10.9 i am increasingly hearing the fans wind up due to the increase in temperature of the machine, I have checked the activity monitor and can see the largest memory use as ‘kernel_task’ @ 644mb.

The issue seems to be instigated whilst using Safari, Parallels and general OS file tasks. I had something similar with 10.8 but far more severe now with 10.9. It would seem to suggest a thermal problem, something i have read about many times from other users online. Can you tell me if the thermal compound that makes contact with the intel chip degrades over time? Should it be replaced? could this be my issue?

I’d be very grateful indeed of your help as it is increasingly annoying. I have reset the machine several times as outlined in various Apple discussions and this does seem to resolve the issue until one of the applications is again opened.

I would very much appreciate any help or advice.

----------------------------------------------------------------

27-inch, Mid 2010

Processor 2.93 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3

Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MB

Serial Number C***************

Software OS X 10.9 (13A603)

Model Name: iMac

Model Identifier: iMac11,3

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 2.93 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 8 MB

Memory: 8 GB

Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s

Boot ROM Version: IM112.0057.B01

SMC Version (system): 1.59f2

Serial Number (system): C4******GRQ

Hardware UUID: E59E5D7C-DF33-518E-9E26-61146967EF35

iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 27, 2013 6:03 PM

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Answer 1

Dave Randall Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 28, 2013 5:12 AM in response to Dave Randall

Had another look at the activity monitor which repeatadly displayed 100.9% CPU usage with something named FileStatsAgent (441). After a closer look it would seem that the culprit was these two components that had been migrated by Mavericks in to System/Library/Components/

FLACAudioCodec.component

FLACAudioFileComponent.component

I killed the process and removed them from the system and so far, all is calm once again.

If anything changes, i'll post here. Hope this can help someone else.

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Answer 2

Oct 28, 2013 6:46 PM in response to Dave Randall

Hello,

A few of us in other threads have experienced the same issue - FileStatsAgent uses around 100% CPU nonstop. The two FLAC components you listed don't exist on my machine, so I was unable to test your solution. How did you determine that these files were the culprit? Thanks!

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Answer 3

Dave Randall Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 29, 2013 6:41 AM in response to macfanatic222

Hi,

Unfortunately deleting these two files did not resolve the issue. In my opionion it is an audio codec Migration issue that seems to be causing the problem. When i deleted these two files a whole list of other codecs appeared and then vanished again without a trace in Library/Components/ Since then everytime the 'FileStatsAgent' appears i open the task and find the following information all be it relating to yet another named audio file:

/

/usr/sbin/FileStatsAgent

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SystemMigration.framework/Versions/A/SystemMig ration

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SystemMigration.framework/Frameworks/AutoLoade r.framework/Versions/A/AutoLoader

/usr/share/icu/icudt51l.dat

/System/Library/Components/CoreAudio.component/Contents/MacOS/CoreAudio

/System/Library/Components/AudioCodecs.component/Contents/MacOS/AudioCodecs

/usr/lib/dyld

/private/var/db/dyld/dyld_shared_cache_x86_64

/dev/null

count=2, state=0x2

/Users/Dave/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Global Underground Afterhours Ibiza 2 - 01 - Various Artists - Ibiza 2 Mix Two.mp3

->0x58c3037218605029

It would seem that the system is trying to complete some kind of task with individual audio files in my itunes library. If i kill this task the fans wind down and all seems to be working normally. It will randomly select another specific audio file, all of which i have removed from the system but with some difficulty as the finder informs me that the file cannot be deleted as it is in use!

All of this happens without itunes open or any other audio related program running. Everytime the fans start to wind up it is the same issue, FileStatsAgent directing to yet another named audio file.

Hope this helps and someone may be able to provide information regarding the above.

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Answer 4

Oct 29, 2013 8:40 AM in response to Dave Randall

same here, everytime i kill the task it will be come back again a few minutes later. deletinng og flac or some other codecs wont work. never had this problem with any osx before.

since lion im very frustraded, cannot switch back to sl ( apature libaries )

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Answer 5

il_dogui

Level 1

0 points

Oct 29, 2013 11:08 AM in response to Dave Randall

Same here, I've just updated to Mavericks and the fan is running full throttle even if I only have Chrome and Mail opened.

My iMac is a 27" model, 2.66 Ghz i5 with 12 gb ram.

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Answer 6

Dave Randall Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 29, 2013 11:37 AM in response to il_dogui

Seems Apple may have missed an incompatibility with some kind of audio function when installing over 10.8.

I hope they can sort it out soon as i cannot continually force quit the task. I would be very interested to see if anyone did a fresh, disk formatted install of Mavericks. Do you have the same problem? At least that would rule out a migration issue alone, hopefully directing the support toward a flaw in Mavericks that needs to be resolved.

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Answer 7

Dave Randall Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 30, 2013 5:39 PM in response to Dave Randall

I seem to have discovered the issue for me.

I do not know why 'FileStatsAgent' does what it does (even when the iMac is in sleep mode!} but i found some corrupt audio files in the itunes music folder. Mavericks must be less tolerant of damaged files and refuses to skip them in this 'FileStatsAgent' process causing some kind of loop which in turn winds up the fans permanently.

I found the damaged files using this very handy tool:

MP3 Scan+Repair

Get it here:

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/40263/mp3-scan+repair

It surprisingly found quite a few files that needed repair and some that were beyond repair, all of which were highlighted in the activity monitor under 'FileStatsAgent' as the said culprits!

After ditching or replacing the files the iMac has not once began to overheat.

Check your music files and either re-rip them from your CD's or ditch them! Many, many thanks to the author of MP3 Scan+Repair, a really great utility! I will absolutely make a donation to this chap.

What a relief, i really was getting very fed up of it. Only question now is what caused the files to be damaged in the first place?

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Answer 8

Dave Randall Author

Level 1

15 points

Oct 30, 2013 5:58 PM in response to Dave Randall

I would very much like to know what 'FileStatsAgent' is and why it is scanning my itunes folder in the background. Especially as there is little if any information regarding this process.

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Answer 9

Oct 31, 2013 8:52 AM in response to Dave Randall

This solution solved the issue for me! The file it was scanning was corrupted, and FileStatsAgent process hasn't run at all since I deleted it from my drive! Thanks so much.

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Answer 10

Antoinou

Level 1

4 points

Nov 5, 2013 2:25 PM in response to Dave Randall

Hello,

I have approximately zero knowledge of the inner-workings of Mavericks and of OSX at large, but might it not be related to the Genius feature of iTunes scanning the library?

I was having this FilestatsAgent 100% CPU usage issue and at the same time "discovered" that iTunes was able to recommend to me some relevant buys in the iTunes Store, iTunes' Genius feature being supposedly deactivated on my computer and the recommendations being based on songs I did not purchase from the iTunes Store...

Coincidence? I think not! ;-)

Thanks again for this temporary solution!

Antoine

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Answer 11

Dave Randall Author

Level 1

15 points

Nov 7, 2013 7:41 AM in response to Antoinou

Thank you Antoinou,

You have a very good point. I was assuming that if i had decided not to use the 'Genius' feature of iTunes that de-selecting my interest in it would prevent it from happening. It wasnt the 'Genius' function at work but after looking again at the iTunes preferences i found the following under the store preferences:

Store Preferences/

Share details about your library with Apple/

(This allows iTunes to get artist images, album covers, and related information based on the items in your library)

Viola, that will be the 'FileStatsAgent' winding up the fan every time it came across a corrupt file it was trying to report to Apple.

I am now monitoring another culprit 'com.apple.IconServicesAgent' that regularly tops 500mb of memory in whatever it is doin. Again, winding up the fans due to over heating. Is this also trying to report my information to Apple?

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Answer 12

Dec 15, 2013 1:01 PM in response to Dave Randall

Hi,

I still haven't found a fix for full throttle fans at start up on my mid-2010 27" 2.8Ghz i5 Mac with Mavricks.

Initally, for about 3 weeks with Mavricks, no fan problems. Suddenly the fans have started running all the time.

Resetting PROM & SMC don't hold. (BTW resetting the PROM will hold for session but will revert upon restarting). Tried the MP3 and Audiocodecs methods mentioned above. No luck. Activity monitor indicates <2% usage with fans on.

If someone has a working solution, please let me know. Otherwise I will have to wait for Apple to release a fix. The fan noise is extremel annoying.

Thanks

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Answer 13

Dec 15, 2013 1:07 PM in response to bschmidt86

Sorry you're having that issue! If your CPU utilization is only at 2% and your fans are still running at full speed, I would check your CPU temperature. Download the iStat Pro widget to see this information. If your CPU temperature is high, there likely isn't very good ventilation or something may be blocking the air vents. I'd guess that dust is likely a culprit.

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Answer 14

Dec 15, 2013 6:43 PM in response to macfanatic222

User uploaded file CPU temp is 75 degrees F. Thanks for the response.

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Answer 15

Dec 15, 2013 6:52 PM in response to bschmidt86

Interesting... I would suggest an SMC reset, but you mentioned that you already tried this. Try running the AHT to see if that identifies a problem. Maybe your fans need to be replaced.

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