Luis_Mercado
Level 1 (45 points)

Q: 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 10:59 AM

by Eric Root,Solvedanswer
Eric Root Eric Root
Level 9 (74,160 points)
iTunes
A:

If you mark it as solved, more people are apt to look at it. You won't get any points, but it will stand out more.

Posted on Oct 23, 2014 2:17 PM

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Luis_Mercado

Q: Guide: How to solve Yosemite memory leaks and CPU usage

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  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Dec 13, 2014 3:36 AM in response to frankydt
    Level 9 (51,432 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 13, 2014 3:36 AM in response to frankydt

    You're welcome to your opinion, but it is entirely wrong.

     

    Research Yosemite's Ram management system for yourself, you don't know how it works.

     

     

    SENSATIONS were a rock band, not evidence of anything.

  • by frankydt,

    frankydt frankydt Dec 13, 2014 3:38 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 13, 2014 3:38 AM in response to Csound1

    I'll reply when swapping starts and we can talk some more about memory not being used on anything.

     

    I'm currently developing a super smal rest api (4-5 small resources) in netbeans with jersey and a vagrant machine running on 512mb of "ram" with a mysql installed.

     

    Not a 2GB XCode iPhone development footprint, not an Android Studio with emulator running, but a super small development footprint on memory.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Dec 13, 2014 3:40 AM in response to frankydt
    Level 9 (51,432 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 13, 2014 3:40 AM in response to frankydt

    frankydt wrote:

     

    I'll reply when swapping starts and we can talk some more about memory not being used on anything.

     

    I'm currently developing a super smal rest api (4-5 small resources) in netbeans with jersey and a vagrant machine running on 512mb of "ram" with a mysql installed.

     

    Not a 2GB XCode iPhone development footprint, not an Android Studio with emulator running, but a super small development footprint on memory.

    Do you know when swapping starts?

     

    How is swapping indicated?

  • by frankydt,

    frankydt frankydt Dec 13, 2014 3:42 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 13, 2014 3:42 AM in response to Csound1

    Just to clarify I meant to say that it wasn't a feeling, I was seeing swapping, and I thought it was related to the heavy ram usage at starting point. But seeing how sarcasm started early. I thank you for the replies and the tip about Ram Management System. Cheers

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Dec 13, 2014 3:44 AM in response to frankydt
    Level 9 (51,432 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 13, 2014 3:44 AM in response to frankydt

    Where are you 'seeing' swapping. I do not believe that it is happening.

     

    Take a screenshot of the pressure graph, let's see if it is actually swapping or not.

  • by maccosmo,

    maccosmo maccosmo Dec 13, 2014 3:45 AM in response to Luis_Mercado
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 13, 2014 3:45 AM in response to Luis_Mercado

    Thank you very much!

  • by frankydt,

    frankydt frankydt Dec 13, 2014 3:49 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 13, 2014 3:49 AM in response to Csound1

    Swap used grows to 1.7 GB in activity monitor. I haven't notice when it exactly starts. One indication is netbeans or chrome lagging or delaying when I type or select a tab. that "slowness" or "temporarily blocking" is usually a good indicator that the memory for the tab or the action or one of its elements is being read from disk, usually. So when that happens, I look at Activity Monitor. This is every day a few times a day. I suspected a memory leak on java, no doubt my first choice, but it kept everything at ~200-~600mb or so that is what top (command) shows.

     

    Don't know what else to say, I'm a total mac fan, but my split screen, my missing usb-keyboard keys, and the XXXXX that I say is swapping and you say is just my imaginations, is really annoying.

     

    Best wishes for the holidays

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Dec 13, 2014 3:51 AM in response to frankydt
    Level 9 (51,432 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 13, 2014 3:51 AM in response to frankydt

    Show me

     

    Take a screenshot of the pressure graph and data side panels. Then I will know what it says.

  • by sertão,

    sertão sertão Dec 13, 2014 6:47 AM in response to Luis_Mercado
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 13, 2014 6:47 AM in response to Luis_Mercado

    I just tried this on my iMac 27, following all steps exactly and just got another crash after 5 minutes of use. So far it doesn't seem to have fixed the problem but I will try it again and report back. Anyone else tried this without success??

  • by CathyLapin,

    CathyLapin CathyLapin Dec 13, 2014 7:21 AM in response to Luis_Mercado
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 13, 2014 7:21 AM in response to Luis_Mercado

    I knew those tips but I'd like to ask you 2 more questions:

    Is there any differences when computer is in file vault?

     

    Does a single corrupted mail may cause this CPU problem and massive memory leaks?

    It is the first time I had a kernel panic ( memory allocation for mail going to more than 100%  with all the system blocked) I delete the mail but in Web mail I download the zipped files included. When I tried to open one of the unzipped PDF files the same problem occurred. So there I am not daring to try to open those files again (they are from my electricity provider!!)

     

    Thanks for your answers if any. I'd like to know if it is possible.

     

    Constance

  • by ThomasKilian,

    ThomasKilian ThomasKilian Dec 13, 2014 8:35 AM in response to CathyLapin
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 13, 2014 8:35 AM in response to CathyLapin

    The difference with file vault is that the HW support for encryption of disk operations is used. So regarding memory: no.

     

    The Mail issue is likely something else. There are other threads which talk about Mail eating up memory. This seems to be a bug with Mail itself (or it forces some other bug within Yosemite). Some people claimed the solution described here have helped. Others don't.

  • by sertão,

    sertão sertão Dec 13, 2014 1:11 PM in response to Luis_Mercado
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 13, 2014 1:11 PM in response to Luis_Mercado

    I've tried this twice and am still getting the same crashes. Latest one was caused by holding down on the dock to force quit an app. Before the menu came up it crashed to the log in screen. Should it be necessary to do this more than once?

     

    BTW, I'm using File Vault also.

  • by MacLion,

    MacLion MacLion Dec 16, 2014 1:07 AM in response to frankydt
    Level 2 (205 points)
    Dec 16, 2014 1:07 AM in response to frankydt

    I'm using Yosemite on an older iMac (w/ 4GB RAM and still well with in the system requirement range) and I initially had no issues with Yosemite after first installing, and never had any issues with Mavericks. Over time the UI seemed to bog down especially when waking after the machine had been in operation a while. Upon waking there seemed to be a lot of activity and I was getting more swap and compression (in addition to the Windowserver issues mentioned). I tried the process detailed at the beginning of this thread, but it didn't help me either. I shut off transparency (although nice, not essential) and that seemed to make things somewhat better, but over time there still seemed to be swap/compression issues just not as intense as previously. Version 10.10.1 really didn't help the situation any.

     

    What really seemed to make the difference to getting back to Mavericks performance for me was the Safari update 8.0.2. Now there is very little swapping and compression in normal operations, and I see very little of the UI lag I was experiencing with Yosemite. I usually have Mail, Safari, and many of the other standard apps open at the same time and for the past few days they've all been working like they used to under Mavericks.

     

    Not a solution, just an observation.

  • by ThomasKilian,

    ThomasKilian ThomasKilian Dec 16, 2014 3:31 AM in response to MacLion
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 16, 2014 3:31 AM in response to MacLion

    Things seem to have gotten a bit better. However, just now I had a SBBOD in Safari (not the first since Yosemite). This release is likely Apple's Vista.

  • by Tamaralas,

    Tamaralas Tamaralas Dec 16, 2014 11:33 AM in response to Luis_Mercado
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 16, 2014 11:33 AM in response to Luis_Mercado

    Resolved the issue.  My computer has returned from being virtually unusable to being quite useful.

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