Kernel Task is using CPU and slowing down MacBook massivly

Any help appreciated please. 8GB ram and even if I free up HDD space my RAM is constantly at 100-200MB free AT BEST. I only have 5 applications running at once at most and it seems like Google Chrome and my Kernel task hog up all my memory. Also, I only have two Chrome windows open with a max of 10-12 tabs but the fans are blowing hard and the memory slowly getting eaten away. Thanks in advance.

EtreCheck version: 1.9.12 (48)

Report generated August 5, 2014 at 1:59:26 AM PDT

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) (Verified)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,2

1 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores

8 GB RAM

Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 512 MB

AMD Radeon HD 6750M - VRAM: 1024 MB

Color LCD 1440 x 900

System Software:

OS X 10.9.4 (13E28) - Uptime: 14 days 20:16:22

Disk Information:

TOSHIBA MK7559GSXF disk0 : (750.16 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macbook Pro HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 649.3 GB (15.43 GB free) (Low!)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

BOOTCAMP (disk0s4) /Volumes/BOOTCAMP: 100 GB (32.41 GB free)

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-898

USB Information:

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Thunderbolt Information:

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper:

Anywhere

Kernel Extensions:

[not loaded] com.logitech.manager.kernel.driver (3.50.1 - SDK 10.8) Support

Problem System Launch Daemons:

[failed] com.apple.wdhelper.plist

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist Support

[running] com.bjango.istatmenusdaemon.plist Support

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist Support

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support

[loaded] net.sourceforge.MonolingualHelper.plist Support

Launch Agents:

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support

[running] com.bjango.istatmenusagent.plist Support

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support

[running] com.logitech.manager.daemon.plist Support

User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support

[loaded] com.valvesoftware.steamclean.plist Support

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper

Steam

Internet Plug-ins:

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

Flash Player: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support

Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 Support

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.3 - SDK 10.6 Support

googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 Support

Safari Extensions:

Adblock Plus: Version: 1.7.4.1173

Audio Plug-ins:

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9

AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9

AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9

iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9

iTunes Plug-ins:

Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player Support

Logitech Preference Manager Support

Time Machine:

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

18% AAM Updates Notifier

7% Google Chrome

7% WindowServer

2% coreaudiod

2% SystemUIServer

Top Processes by Memory:

270 MB Google Chrome

213 MB Mail

90 MB SystemUIServer

74 MB WindowServer

66 MB Finder

Virtual Memory Information:

88 MB Free RAM

1.87 GB Active RAM

1.87 GB Inactive RAM

1.49 GB Wired RAM

189.61 GB Page-ins

1.14 GB Page-outs

vickaturr wrote:

8GB ram and even if I free up HDD space my RAM is constantly at 100-200MB free AT BEST.

It is no longer a good idea to have a lot of free RAM when using Mavericks improved Memory Management system, so just ignore that.

Instead, open Activity Monitor to the Memory tab and watch the MEMORY PRESSURE graph at the bottom. If it stays green all the time then things are as they should be. Amber indicates compression in use and Red means it's must resort to paging out to your hard drive. More info at OS X Mavericks: About Activity Monitor.

The 1.14 GB Page-outs might be a bit high, but nothing compared to Page-ins so you're probably OK there.

I hope you haven't disabled anything using Monolingual. That often happens which will mean you will have to reinstall whatever application no longer works. You still don't have nearly enough free space on your HDD, so either replace it with a larger hard drive or off-load some media (music, photos, video, etc.) to an external drive.

I see you are not using Time Machine, so hope you have some other backup regimen established. Your hard drive will fail, usually around the three year point and often very quickly, so you are probably close to needing to think about that. Multiple backups stored in more than one location is best. Time Machine is great for that, but you should also have a bootable clones for fastest restoration.

Since the Kernel Task is your main system process, I can't really imagine why it would be using your CPU to any significant extent. Perhaps your Console logs can tell you specific process is causing that.

Thanks for the quick reply. Activity monitor shows Amber with compressed ram at 2.84gb. App memory 3gb, Wired memory 1.4gb, and File Cache at 400mb. Memory pressure is constant Amber as well. I just find that my activity monitor shows Kernel task at the top hogging loads of memory around 700mb - 1gb and about 20-25 separate google chrome helper items hogging anywhere from 250mb to 50mb.

Also, only used Monolingual initially to remove languages that I would never use. As far as HDD, I have two externals with back-ups and I plan to do a memory dump in the near future. I'll possibly swap out this HDD for a SSD once it fails but still going strong after 3 years.

Any further help would be appreciated. Thanks

I'd have to guess that something has gone wrong with your system installation. I suspect you will need to move some files before doing this, but the next step would be to install OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 Update (Combo). If that doesn't make any difference then a total Reinstall by booting to your Recovery Partition which should take care of it. Details are at OS X: About OS X Recovery. This will completely replace your system and all Apple apps without touching third party apps, user files or settings. Still, you need to have a complete backup handy in case something goes wrong.

Similar issues here - how does this look? Thanks in advance...

EtreCheck version: 1.9.12 (48)

Report generated 5 August 2014 21:54:48 BST

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010) (Verified)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro6,2

1 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores

4 GB RAM

Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics - VRAM: 288 MB

Color LCD 1440 x 900

NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M - VRAM: 256 MB

System Software:

OS X 10.9.4 (13E28) - Uptime: 0 days 0:32:35

Disk Information:

TOSHIBA MK5065GSXF disk0 : (500.11 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 499.25 GB (385.07 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-898

USB Information:

Apple Inc. iPhone

Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Gatekeeper:

Mac App Store and identified developers

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper

Dropbox

Preview

Internet Plug-ins:

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support

Flash Player: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

Safari Extensions:

Searchme: Version: 1.3

Amazon Shopping Assistant: Version: 1.1

Slick Savings: Version: 2.0

Ebay Shopping Assistant: Version: 1.1

Audio Plug-ins:

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9

AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9

AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9

iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9

iTunes Plug-ins:

Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player Support

Time Machine:

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

6% mds

3% WindowServer

1% fontd

0% Dropbox

0% SystemUIServer

Top Processes by Memory:

147 MB Safari

106 MB WindowServer

102 MB com.apple.IconServicesAgent

90 MB Mail

86 MB Finder

Virtual Memory Information:

1.04 GB Free RAM

1.27 GB Active RAM

830 MB Inactive RAM

700 MB Wired RAM

327 MB Page-ins

8 MB Page-outs

This is an older thread. Start a new discussion and completely describe your issue. I have no idea what I should be looking for and almost nobody is still following this thread.

That's just the way this forum works best.

I agree with Mad, and I would like to add that Monolingual is as bad as CleanMyMac: advised is to do a clean install on a formatted main disk, and not recover from backups but copying your user data back by hand and install all apps by hand and not by recovery from backups.

Just recently I dropped my hard drive while connected, so it was a bit screwed. so I formatted it and seemed to be running okay again. Nevertheless I got a second one so i have a backup now as I wanted to put the stuff from the first one onto the 2nd one just a couple of weeks later (first one got dropped again 😝 - not running) It seems to be super slow and some of the Data are broken. However as I couldn t be bothered I stopped all this copying. But ever since that my mac seems to be slower and i have this Kernel_task in my activity monitor and it s taking up 600MB

Any ideas? Below you ll find the report. Does it make sense to copy here what it says if I press "sample" KernelEventAgent?

EtreCheck version: 1.9.12 (48)

Report generated 6 Aug 2014 20:39:37 GMT+2

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012) (Verified)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro10,2

1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores

8 GB RAM

Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: (null)

Color LCD 2560 x 1600

System Software:

OS X 10.9.4 (13E28) - Uptime: 0 days 0:18:0

Disk Information:

APPLE SSD SM256E disk0 : (251 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209,7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 250,14 GB (84,88 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

USB Information:

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Thunderbolt Information:

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper:

Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions:

[not loaded] com.devguru.driver.SamsungACMControl (1.4.18 - SDK 10.6) Support

[not loaded] com.devguru.driver.SamsungACMData (1.4.18 - SDK 10.6) Support

[not loaded] com.devguru.driver.SamsungComposite (1.4.18 - SDK 10.6) Support

[not loaded] com.devguru.driver.SamsungMTP (1.4.18 - SDK 10.5) Support

[not loaded] com.devguru.driver.SamsungSerial (1.4.18 - SDK 10.6) Support

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

[running] com.dilaroga.itaf_d.plist Support

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support

User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper

Dropbox

Spectacle

Internet Plug-ins:

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.06 - SDK 10.6 Support

AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.06 - SDK 10.6 Support

Flash Player: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support

Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.0.0 Support

Audio Plug-ins:

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9

AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9

AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9

iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9

iTunes Plug-ins:

Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player Support

Time Machine:

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 232.96 GB Disk used: 153.91 GB

Destinations:

BACK UP [Local] (Last used)

Total size: 310.38 GB

Total number of backups: (null)

Size of backup disk: Too small

Backup size 310.38 GB < (Disk used 153.91 GB X 3)

Time Machine details may not be accurate.

All volumes being backed up may not be listed.

Top Processes by CPU:

3% WindowServer

1% fontd

0% hidd

0% com.apple.WebKit.Networking

0% coreservicesd

Top Processes by Memory:

508 MB Finder

336 MB Preview

205 MB mds_stores

205 MB Safari

147 MB Dock

Virtual Memory Information:

2.05 GB Free RAM

4.51 GB Active RAM

565 MB Inactive RAM

903 MB Wired RAM

457 MB Page-ins

0 B Page-outs

freelixAndHisMac:

three remarks for you

1. Start Activity Monitor and click the 'Process Name' column, then find itaf_d process

and click the 'forcequit icon' in the top menu bar (left, icon with x in it).

then in Finder go to the MacintoshHD-->Library->LaunchDaemons folder and in there delete

com.dilaroga.itaf_d.plist

that should be enough, but:

2. I am not very impressed with the Spectacle app , and see no reason to trust the developer site. I advice to uninstall it (SystemPreferences).

and then

3. The Samsung devguru puts a lot of kexts inside the system, I doubt that you need that at all to connect to the Samsung, so I advice you to uninstall that completely (it will not run later in Yosemite so better to get rid of it now already).

Restart you mac, empty the trash bin.

Lex

Thanks for your quick reply Lex.

I successfully managed the first step.

concerning 2.

I love the app. Do you know one with similar features (window organiser) that you ld trust?

3. How can I uninstall that Samsung dev guru? It does not exist as an Application bundle and is neither running in the activity monitor. Would it do searching these files mentioned in the report and deleting them?

best regards, Felix

1. this step was the most important

2.Why would you need it, get used to the mac a bit more: top sites, launchpad, mission control, stickies, and other things are never used by a lot of customers while they use third party tools instead.

Rethink your love for Spectacle: was there a specification? was there an uninstaller? was there a requirement specification?, is there help/support available?

Maybe Moom or BetterSnapTool is an alternative, check out the Appstore; I do not use them.

3. The Samsung tool/drivers probably came with your android phone: there should be an uninstaller. If not: restart the mac, in Finder go to

MacintossHD->Library->Extensions and delete the listed (in the etrecheck list).

Lex

Hi guys!

I'm having a similar problem with my kernel_task: it's not massive as some people are telling here, but it consumes A LOT of my CPU, and makes it really slow - i almost do not recognise my macbook. I really would appreciate some help. Here my MacBook details:

EtreCheck version: 1.9.12 (48)

Report generated August 9, 2014 at 12:14:16 PM GMT-3

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010) (Verified)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro7,1

1 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores

4 GB RAM

Video Information:

NVIDIA GeForce 320M - VRAM: 256 MB

Color LCD 1280 x 800

System Software:

OS X 10.9.4 (13E28) - Uptime: 3 days 13:35:6

Disk Information:

ST9250315ASG disk0 : (250.06 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 249.2 GB (46.4 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-898

USB Information:

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

Apple Inc. iPad

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Gatekeeper:

Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions:

[not loaded] com.wdc.driver.1394HP (1.0.11 - SDK 10.4) Support

[not loaded] com.wdc.driver.1394_64HP (1.0.1 - SDK 10.6) Support

[not loaded] com.wdc.driver.USBHP (1.0.11) Support

[not loaded] com.wdc.driver.USB_64HP (1.0.0 - SDK 10.6) Support

Startup Items:

HWNetMgr: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HWNetMgr

HWPortDetect: Path: /Library/StartupItems/HWPortDetect

StartOuc: Path: /Library/StartupItems/StartOuc

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

[failed] com.cleverfiles.cfbackd.plist Support

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist Support

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist Support

[loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist Support

[loaded] com.sharpcast.xfsmond.plist Support

[running] com.zeobit.MacKeeper.plugin.AntiTheft.daemon.plist Support

Launch Agents:

[not loaded] com.cooliris.SetLaunchArch.plist Support

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist Support

User Launch Agents:

[failed] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-[...]@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist

[loaded] com.embercode.TVShowsHelper.plist Support

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.diskSpaceWatcher.plist Support

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.scheduledScan.plist Support

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.trashWatcher.plist Support

[running] com.spotify.webhelper.plist Support

[failed] com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper.plist Support

[failed] net.sourceforge.tvshows.plist Support

User Login Items:

Twitter

TimehopSync

Internet Plug-ins:

Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 2.4.4.2 Support

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support

iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0

Flash Player: Version: 14.0.0.145 - SDK 10.6 Support

Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 7 Update 65 Check version

o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 Support

OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: Version: 12.3.6 Support

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.4.2.18903 Support

CoolirisWebKitPlugin: Version: (null) Support

Safari Extensions:

Gmail Menu: Version: 1.03

WOT: Version: 2.0.17

Facebook Photo Zoom: Version: 1.1208.11.3

AdBlock: Version: 2.7.10

Audio Plug-ins:

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9

AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9

AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9

iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9

iTunes Plug-ins:

Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9

User iTunes Plug-ins:

TuneUp Visualizer: Version: 2.2.0 Support

AudioScrobbler: Version: 6.0.5 - SDK 10.8 Support

User Internet Plug-ins:

Picasa: Version: 1.0 Support

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player Support

Java Support

TVShows Support

Time Machine:

Skip System Files: NO

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 232.09 GB Disk used: 188.87 GB

Destinations:

WD Passport 2 [Network] (Last used)

Total size: 371.84 GB

Total number of backups: (null)

Size of backup disk: Too small

Backup size 371.84 GB < (Disk used 188.87 GB X 3)

Time Machine details may not be accurate.

All volumes being backed up may not be listed.

Top Processes by CPU:

12% com.apple.MediaLibraryService

5% Safari

4% WindowServer

4% bluetoothaudiod

2% com.apple.WebKit.Networking

Top Processes by Memory:

373 MB iTunes

315 MB iPhoto

160 MB com.apple.MediaLibraryService

123 MB Safari

66 MB Twitter

Virtual Memory Information:

187 MB Free RAM

1.28 GB Active RAM

988 MB Inactive RAM

526 MB Wired RAM

1.56 GB Page-ins

374 MB Page-outs

mrmaciel,

you have enough disk space and enough ram.

Normally I would ask to make a new thread since this one is already getting old.

But now there is too much crap on your system:

WesternDigital software

Huawei software

MacKeeper

and the worst of all CleanMyMac

(and Java should not be there at all in Mavericks)

all Safari plugins (especially WOT, Adblock is not compatible-use AdblockPlus-, rest is adware).

All this (especially CMM) makes it necessary to format your disk and do a "clean" install of Mavericks, then install trusted apps by hand and copy your personal data by hand from the backups. You can read here (and in numerous other thtreads about this situation.

Lex

Tks, man!!

Don't thank me, I feel sad about this. You have been conned to use crapware and then even more crapware to fight the issues. Now you have to start all over again, this will take some time. But be brave and do it.

Lex