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Luis_Mercado Author

Level 1

46 points

Guide: How to solve Yosemite memory leaks and CPU usage

I post this hoping to help those users who, like me, are experiencing high CPU usage and massive memory leaking with OS X core services and apps, leading to slow performance and battery drain.

I've tried everything mentioned, but found the right combination of steps to follow. I've tried this with seven different Apple computers, including mine, and has worked well so far. I applied this method yesterday to give these process a 24 hour window to fail again, so far everything good.

First step: disconnect any external or secondary monitors, if any is present. The video memory allocation leak can also happen if you have a system with an integrated card, like Intel, with no external monitors attached.

Second step: Shut down your machine and enter Safe Mode (press shift once you turn on your computer again, more info below). Once you're there, fix your disk permissions.

Guide of how to access Safe Mode: OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?

Third step: From Safe Mode turn off your machine again and reset your System Management Controller (SMC). There are different methods, depending on machine, to do this. To know what method applies to yours read the following guide.

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

Fourth step: Once your machine completes a full boot after resetting the SMC turn it off again and reset your PRAM (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP, BUT THE PREVIOUS ONES ARE ESSENTIAL FOR THIS ONE TO WORK). The PRAM stores small bits of data that indicate our Apple computer how to interact with the devices connected to it, including monitors and video cards. It also affects software.

To reset it you should hold the OPTION, COMMAND, P and R keys in your keyboard immediately after turning on your machine again.You'll hear the start up chime, continue pressing the keys until the machine boots and the chime starts A SECOND TIME, then release. IF YOUR YOSEMITE INSTALLATION LOCKS UP AT A BLACK SCREEN AFTER THIS, DONT PANIC! It's normal, just turn off your computer and let it boot again.

More info about PRAM: OS X Mavericks: Reset your computer’s PRAM

Voila, reconnect your external displays and enjoy your system.

Message was edited by: Luis_Mercado

MacBook Air, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Oct 23, 2014 10:45 AM

557 replies

Oct 29, 2014 9:32 AM in response to tom davis3

Thats a real problem for us Mac Pro users then !

Oct 29, 2014 9:33 AM in response to Kevin Neal

Of course I might be wrong - people with iMacs appear to have their problem resolved...

W8clone

Level 1

4 points

Oct 29, 2014 10:14 AM in response to Luis_Mercado

Seemed to fix the problem with slow internet as I was able to go to multiple sites fairly fast, then I tried to come back here and spent 8 or more minutes before I could get back.

Oct 29, 2014 11:54 AM in response to W8clone

I had an eye on this. After a couple of hours WindowServer went up to about 20% while running my tiny icon updater. Then I rebooted and started once again. This time WindowServer did not go up markably. This definitely looks like a bug in Mac OSX's guts. Has anybody already reported this as a bug?

Oct 29, 2014 11:58 AM in response to ThomasKilian

I sent this thread's link to the feedback form but I think we all need to blast Apple's inboxes until it gets their attention. Tech blogs should be tipped off, too.

Oct 29, 2014 12:13 PM in response to gabrielblack

I guess that feedback will drop down somewhere in marketing 😝 Even the dreaded radar doesn't seem get much attention. Anyhow, I'll open a new bug then. See what happens. So long we live the Windoze dream: Reboot >:-(

-> PN: 18814322

Luis_Mercado Author

Level 1

46 points

Oct 29, 2014 12:26 PM in response to gabrielblack

I've tried to send this guide to a couple of tech sites myself. Great idea about sending this via Apple bug report. That's something we all should do.

Luis_Mercado Author

Level 1

46 points

Oct 29, 2014 12:29 PM in response to tom davis3

As far as I understand (The following will be in bold characters so many can read it):

This problem is mainly affecting users with integrated video cards. If you have an Nvidia or ATI card chances are, as far as I've been investigating, that you're mostly safe from this bug.

I've not experienced this bug in five days now, when I originally started this thread.

Oct 29, 2014 12:30 PM in response to Luis_Mercado

Yes, please. Nowadays radar has been refurbished and it's no longer that eye cancer ;-) I included a link to this thread in the notes.

Oct 29, 2014 12:31 PM in response to Luis_Mercado

Eventually it's a horde of different bugs which appear to behave similar.

Oct 29, 2014 12:40 PM in response to Luis_Mercado

Interesting - I have both (and am always using the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M rather than the integrated). Today it is being better behaved. I'll try and work out what steps I have to do to get it leakin'

Luis_Mercado Author

Level 1

46 points

Oct 29, 2014 12:46 PM in response to tom davis3

Just for the sake of experimentation, try to use for long periods only one of the cards, then the other. fortunately that's easy with Optimus.

joekki

Level 1

0 points

Oct 29, 2014 12:57 PM in response to Luis_Mercado

Before these steps, WindowServer was ~40% when moving Firefox window around. Now it has dropped to 20%. When used Mission Control - it went to 100% and was very laggy. Now = 30% and not laggy at all.

Thanks!

Macbook Pro 17" mid 2009

Oct 29, 2014 1:31 PM in response to joekki

Please have an eye on it these days and see whether it stays stable. In my case it was simply the reboot which fixed it (for a couple of hours)

Oct 29, 2014 2:21 PM in response to Luis_Mercado

Thanks for the guide Luis, but it doesn't seems to work on my laptop (the same Mac book air as yours). The fan is still working too much. I hope apple people release updates for Yosemite in order to solve all these problems... a lot of problems.

Guide: How to solve Yosemite memory leaks and CPU usage