kernel_task is using 100% CPU when waking from sleep

Thats a useful post, thanks for sharing. Please update us after your trip to the buymoreanddon'texpectustocarewhenitgoeswrong store. 🙂

After days of googling, I finally found a working solution:

Mavericks CPU System Spikes When Unplugged

It worked for me. Hopefully it'll work for a few of you.

I'm pretty sure my problem is caused by apple new earphone (The one comes with Iphone 5S, which can control the volume of macbook). Other earphones do not have the same issue. Problem arises when I wake up macbook air with the apple earphone plugged during sleep (And it seems problem arise only after I used the earphone to control volume and then let macbook sleep). Simplying unplugging the earphone as someone suggests does not work for me.

How to solve:

1. Unplug apple earphone

2. Insert another earphone (whatever earphone, not the apple new one which can control the volume)

3. Closing the lids of macbook air for 5-10 sec

4. Open the lid--> problem solved.

I came across this thread searching for help on the kernel_panic issue:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5532410?answerId=24026834022#24026834022

Hutch51 wrote: I'm willing to bet it's not the battery monitor. I've been able to reproduce the issue and reproduce the fix. If I'm listening to music—iTunes, Spotify, Pandora—with or without headphones, and the computer sleeps, the kernal_task process goes to about 100% and stays there. That drops my battery from 10-12 hours on a full charge to somewhere near 4-5 hours. You can check that by pulling up the Activity Monitor and going to the CPU tab. You should see the kernal_task process running around 100%. To fix it, I close the laptop, wait five seconds, unplug my headphones (if I'm using them) or plug my headphones in (if I'm not using them), wait five seconds again, and then open the laptop. 100% of the time, this fixes the problem and I can watch the kernal_task CPU usage drop from 100% to <2%.

Also, you can download Coconut Batter to make sure that your battery isn't malfucntioning. It should be >6300 mAh for a 13" rMBP. If it's significantly below that, you might have gotten a bum battery.

Good luck.

I have exactly the same observations as Hutch and others with the kernel_panic CPU bug.

If Spotify is running and my late 2013 rMBP 13" goes to sleep, there is a 50/50 chance that, upon wake, kernel_task will go AWOL and use 100% of a core.

Closing the lid for 5s then opening solves the issue, or:

Closing spotify before sleep state seems to eliminate the issue.

Hope there is a fix soon. Crazy bug this.

Boom was also a culprit but I uninstalled that. Perhaps Boom altered the kext permanently in which case I'm considering a fresh install.

Like version 10.9, i have use the AppleHDA from 10.8.5 on my MacBookAir mid 2013 and the problem is now solve in 10.9.1.

I have create an archive with the driver and the tool to install it easily.

Hope this will help.

Hey John, very useful! It's a great solution, it worked for me.

Thank you by sharing this fix.

Confirmed - does not work for late 2013 rMBP with Haswell. You will lose internal speakers / sound output and only Airplay speakers will be visible.

Thanks for this though - rolling back makes sense as a temporary solution.

I just got a 13" rMBP late 2013 and am having the same issue. I am using an external monitor which has audio out via HDMI and a regular set of headphones (without audio controls or mic). I hope apple releases a fix very soon, it's annoying having to stand on one foot to get your CPU usage at a normal level.

I have just confirmed that this will not happen when using an non-Apple headset.

At least on my late-mid MBA 2013 13'.

PS: This is ridiculous, Apple is just going to leave this problem alone??

It seems to me that it's so easy to reproduce, and so many folks has officially reported the bug.

the only explanation is that they don't care.

Same problem here.

Whenever I wake my computer up from sleep, I get 100% CPU (Kernel_task). Only a reboot will clean things up.

No headset is plugged.

Same Problem here. Bought this book to get optimal battery life and now this ...

Battery life is down to 6 hours due to 100% 1-core usage by kernel_task.

Apple do something!

This happens no matter if power is connected or not as soon as the book wakes from sleep.

Reboot solves this in some cases.

I have been having this same problem also. No headphone but computer wakes up and kernal_task 98 to 100%. I seem to have found a pattern for me. If I close Google Chrome and put the laptop to sleep and then use Safari no issues. If I leave Chrome open and put the laptop to sleep after doing anything that uses sound (watch a yourtube or anything that has sound from a web page) the problem happens. I have gone 3 days now with just Safari and no issues. Others may want to try.

Thanks

I had the same problem (Macbook Pro 13" Retina late 2013). When waking from sleep with headphones connected, kernel_task used 100% CPU.

I've just been on the phone with Apple Support, and they had me reboot in recovery mode (Command-R during startup), repair the disk, and then start in Safe Boot mode (Shift during startup), then reboot normally.

I can't reproduce the problem anymore, waking from sleep with headphones plugged in seems to be fine now. Will post again if problem returns, but it seems to have been resolved.

Unfortunately, this did not resolve the issue on my same model (MBPro 13" Retina, late 2013 - 256GB model). I am using Bose QC15 headphones with the Apple remote cord.

I am still seeing a sudden kernel_task spike (100%+) when the computer is awakened from sleep. Unplugging my headphones makes the usage go back to normal (1-2%).

Yep, false alarm. The problem has returned now, kernel_task is now back to using just over 100% of the CPU after waking from sleep with headphones plugged in. When I unplug headphones, CPU usage back to around 1-2%.

I'll try to contact Apple Support again tomorrow.