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Compressed memory for kernel_task too high

Hey guys,
after installing Yosemite, I've noticed that the compressed memory for the task "kernel_task" in activity monitor is too dam high.
I've tried restarting my computer multiple time, but the problem persists.

User uploaded file

Is it normal? Is anyone else having that?

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Nov 2, 2014 11:03 AM

Reply
14 replies

Feb 3, 2015 8:56 AM in response to frankski1974

I have this issue too. Usually when I reboot, it fix itself but its coming back after some times. I'm trying to narrow down what app could be messing with the monitor. I think its purely a cosmetic issue because the computer is not slow. Its just annoying to see that in my usage. Did you found anything about this issue?

Please start a new post so you are thread-jacking Kevin Hanna discussion.


In your new post, please include the EtreCheck output

<https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174>


You may also want to look at your Applications -> Utilities -> Console log entries for any frequently repeating entries (like ones that happen ever few seconds), as they may indicate a problem with a filing background daemon.


Put all of this information and a description of your issues in a new post which you will then be able to control the discussion.


PS. 1.21GB is normal for a 16GB system. Most of this is virtual page tables the kernel is managing for all your other applications.

Mar 21, 2015 10:10 AM in response to Kevin Hanna

Same problem on my 3 month old Mac Mini. Some comments above seem to ignore the value of the kernel_task compressed memory value in the Activity Monitor display shown below (and above). Notice 20 digit long Compressed Memory size. Also see EtreCheck below, which seems to say nothing is wrong, however I do notice a slowdown in performance, like app startup time. Do I believe Activity Monitor or EtreCheck?




User uploaded file


Problem description:

Very large value (20 digits) showing in Activity Monitor for kernel_task Compressed Mem.


EtreCheck version: 2.1.8 (121)

Report generated March 21, 2015 at 10:08:50 AM PDT

Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck


Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.


Hardware Information: ℹ️

Mac mini (Late 2014) (Technical Specifications)

Mac mini - model: Macmini7,1

1 1.4 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac


Video Information: ℹ️

Intel HD Graphics 5000

SAMSUNG spdisplays_720p


System Software: ℹ️

OS X 10.10.2 (14C1514) - Time since boot: 1:21:51


Disk Information: ℹ️

APPLE HDD HTS545050A7E362 disk0 : (500.11 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

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

Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 498.89 GB (381.45 GB free)

Core Storage: disk0s2 499.25 GB Online


USB Information: ℹ️

Apple, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Logitech USB Receiver


Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus


Gatekeeper: ℹ️

Mac App Store and identified developers


Launch Agents: ℹ️

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Java-Updater.plist [Click for support]


Launch Daemons: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.Helper-Tool.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.oracle.java.JavaUpdateHelper.plist [Click for support]


User Login Items: ℹ️

iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Box Sync Application (/Applications/Box Sync.app)

Dropbox Application (/Applications/Dropbox.app)

SpeechSynthesisServer Application (/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks /SpeechSynthesis.framework/Versions/A/SpeechSynthesisServer.app)


Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 17.0.0.134 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

Flash Player: Version: 17.0.0.134 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.8 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30514.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

DirectorShockwave: Version: 12.1.6r156 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: Java 8 Update 31 Check version


Safari Extensions: ℹ️

Awesome Screenshot

Ghostery

ClickToFlash

clea.nr Videos

DuckDuckGo

Firebug Lite for Safari

AdBlock

Adblock Plus


3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

Flash Player [Click for support]

Java [Click for support]


Time Machine: ℹ️

Time Machine not configured!


Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

13% mds

4% WindowServer

1% Box Sync Monitor

1% firefox

0% Box Sync


Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

614 MB firefox

378 MB softwareupdated

168 MB CalendarAgent

150 MB Box Sync

120 MB spindump


Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

164 MB Free RAM

1.77 GB Active RAM

1.63 GB Inactive RAM

715 MB Wired RAM

1.84 GB Page-ins

42 MB Page-outs


Diagnostics Information: ℹ️

Mar 21, 2015, 08:45:51 AM Self test - passed

Mar 21, 2015 1:26 PM in response to Tom.Skillman

Some comments above seem to ignore the value of the kernel_task compressed memory value in the Activity Monitor display shown below (and above). Notice 20 digit long Compressed Memory size.

That is just a programming bug doing 64-bit math. The value is 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFE000 hex, which means someone did not check for a 64-bit subtraction going negative, and then displayed it as an unsigned positive value.


Your kernel_task memory usage is normal for a system with 4GB of RAM.

Also see EtreCheck below, which seems to say nothing is wrong, however I do notice a slowdown in performance, like app startup time. Do I believe Activity Monitor or EtreCheck?

4GB is not a lot of RAM for Yosemite. Your Activity Monitor memory presure says you are not compressing anything (not yellow).

Otherwise I do not see anything obvious.

Jun 13, 2015 3:05 AM in response to Kevin Hanna

Same problem including very slow performance of the mac.


Kernel_task compressed memory is ways too high so that my iMac late 2012 is sometimes not booting anymore. It also became very slow and apps like photoshop can't use OpenGL anymore. The preview mode doesn't work all the time (Mac seems to be too slow). The Etri report marked the: EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 999.35 GB (561.34 GB free) - 20 errors

What should I do?


User uploaded file


Here is the report. Please help.


Problem description:

kernel_task compressed memory is ways too high


EtreCheck version: 2.2 (132)

Report generated 6/13/15, 11:42 AM

Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck


Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.


Hardware Information: ℹ️

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012) (Technical Specifications)

iMac - model: iMac13,2

1 2.9 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 4-core

8 GB RAM Upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 0/DIMM1

Empty

BANK 1/DIMM1

Empty

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n


Video Information: ℹ️

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M - VRAM: 512 MB

iMac 2560 x 1440


System Software: ℹ️

OS X 10.10.3 (14D136) - Time since boot: 11:43:55


Disk Information: ℹ️

APPLE HDD WDC WD10EALX-408EA0 disk0 : (1 TB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 999.35 GB (561.34 GB free) - 20 errors


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


USB Information: ℹ️

BUFFALO HD-PZU3 1 TB

disk1s1 (disk1s1) <not mounted> : 32 KB

Grossmanns (disk1s3) /Volumes/Grossmanns : 1.00 TB (203.16 GB free)

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)


Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus


Configuration files: ℹ️

/etc/hosts - Count: 136


Gatekeeper: ℹ️

Anywhere


Kernel Extensions: ℹ️

/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] com.Avid.driver.AvidDX (5.9.1 - SDK 10.8) [Click for support]

[not loaded] de.rme-audio.driver.RMEFirefaceUSB (1.95 - SDK 10.8) [Click for support]


/System/Library/Extensions

[not loaded] at.obdev.nke.LittleSnitch (3916 - SDK 10.8) [Click for support]

[loaded] com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower (1.5.2) [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.caiaq.driver.NIUSBGuitarRigMobileDriver (2.4.23) [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.caiaq.driver.NIUSBHardwareDriver (2.4.23) [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.master (5.9.1 - SDK 10.6) [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.wacom.kext.wacomtablet (6.1.7) [Click for support]


/System/Library/Extensions/PACESupportFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns

[not loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.leopard (5.9.1 - SDK 10.4) [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.panther (5.9.1 - SDK 10.-1) [Click for support]

[loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.snowleopard (5.9.1 - SDK 10.6) [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.tiger (5.9.1 - SDK 10.4) [Click for support]


Problem System Launch Agents: ℹ️

[failed] com.apple.ReportCrash.plist [Click for details]


Launch Agents: ℹ️

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Click for support]

[running] com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist [Click for support]

[failed] com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a...plist [Click for support]

[failed] com.kodak.BonjourAgent.plist [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer.plist [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_desktop.plist [Click for support]

[running] com.wacom.wacomtablet.plist [Click for support]

[running] de.rme-audio.RMEfirefaceUSBAgent.plist [Click for support]


Launch Daemons: ℹ️

[running] com.adobe.adobeupdatedaemon.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.avid.AMCUninstaller.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.avid.AvidUninstaller.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.novation.automap.pluginhelper.plist [Click for support]

[running] com.paceap.eden.licensed.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.teamviewer.Helper.plist [Click for support]

[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_service.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] PACESupport.plist [Click for support]


User Launch Agents: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.kodak.KODAK AiO Annual Opt.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.kodak.KODAK AiO Firmware Updater.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.kodak.KODAK AiO Software Updater.plist [Click for support]

[failed] com.kodak.StatisticCollection.plist [Click for support]

[loaded] com.redgiantsoftware.updater.plist [Click for support]


User Login Items: ℹ️

iTunesHelper Programm (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Cursorcerer UNKNOWN (missing value)

NIHardwareAgent Programm Hidden (/Library/Application Support/Native Instruments/Hardware/NIHardwareAgent.app)

AdobeResourceSynchronizer Programm Hidden (/Applications/Adobe Acrobat DC/Adobe Acrobat.app/Contents/Helpers/AdobeResourceSynchronizer.app)

Dropbox Programm (/Applications/Dropbox.app)


Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

AdobeAAMDetect: Version: 3.0.0.0 - SDK 10.9 [Click for support]

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 17.0.0.188 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 15.007.20033 - SDK 10.8 [Click for support]

AdobePDFViewer: Version: 15.007.20033 - SDK 10.8 [Click for support]

Flash Player: Version: 17.0.0.188 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.0.0 [Click for support]

WacomNetscape: Version: 1.1.1-1 [Click for support]

Silverlight: Version: 5.1.40416.0 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 15.0.0 - SDK 10.10 Check version


Safari Extensions: ℹ️

Adblock Plus

AdBlock


3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

Flash Player [Click for support]

Native Instruments USB Audio [Click for support]

WacomTablet [Click for support]


Time Machine: ℹ️

Time Machine not configured!


Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

5% opendirectoryd

4% launchd

4% WindowServer

2% automountd

1% Adobe InDesign CC 2014


Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

836 MB Adobe Photoshop CC 2014

835 MB kernel_task

557 MB Adobe InDesign CC 2014

500 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(5)

360 MB Safari


Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

279 MB Free RAM

7.72 GB Used RAM

2 MB Swap Used


Diagnostics Information: ℹ️

Jun 13, 2015, 12:09:17 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Adobe Desktop Service_2015-06-13-000917_[redacted].crash

Jun 13, 2015, 12:09:09 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Core Sync_2015-06-13-000909_[redacted].crash

Jun 13, 2015, 12:08:22 AM /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ReportCrash_2015-06-13-000822_ [redacted].crash

Jun 12, 2015, 11:02:29 PM /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/com.apple.WebKit.Plugin.64_201 5-06-12-230229_[redacted].crash

Jun 12, 2015, 11:00:19 PM /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Live_2015-06-12-230019_[redact ed].crash

Jun 12, 2015, 04:34:49 PM /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/dynamiclinkmanager_2015-06-12- 163449_[redacted].crash

Jun 12, 2015, 01:42:33 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Adobe Illustrator_2015-06-12-134233_[redacted].hang

Jun 11, 2015, 12:44:30 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Adobe InDesign CC 2014_2015-06-11-124430_[redacted].cpu_resource.diag [Click for details]

Jun 11, 2015, 10:04:26 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Disk Utility_2015-06-11-100426_[redacted].hang

Jun 10, 2015, 05:21:14 PM /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/garcon_2015-06-10-172114_[reda cted].crash

Jun 12, 2015, 11:55:45 PM Self test - passed

Jun 12, 2015, 10:59:29 PM /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Ableton Index_2015-06-12-225929_[redacted].crash

Jun 12, 2015, 10:58:49 PM /Users/[redacted]/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Live_2015-06-12-225849_[redact ed].crash

Jun 12, 2015, 01:42:33 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Adobe Photoshop CC 2014_2015-06-12-134233_[redacted].hang

Jun 13, 2015 12:18 PM in response to Reiner G

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / : 999.35 GB (561.34 GB free) - 20 errors

A) Chances are your disk drive is failing and that is the root cause of your performance issues (unreported retries are most likely happening which cause the disk to wait one revolution for each retry, and chances are it is doing lots and lots of retries before it gets around to being bad enough to report any errors into the logs).


B) You have a 3rd party security program (PACE) which is not needed by Mac OS X. See:


How does Mac OS X protect me?


<http://www.thesafemac.com/mmg-builtin/>


C) Your Activity Monitor does not show any memory compression, as the graph is Green. It would be yellow or red if there was memory compression.


D) your kernel_task memory usage is within normal range for the 8GB of RAM in your Mac. And ignore the impossibly large number, as that is just a math subtraction error involving 64-bit variables (subtracting a larger unsigned 64-bit value from a smaller unsigned 64-bit value results in an a very large unsigned 64-bit value instead of a negative number).


F) your problems do not really have any relation to the original post, and to get the best attention from forum members, it would be better to have your own new post, and not thread-jack Kevin Hanna's post.

Sep 6, 2015 10:31 AM in response to BobHarris

B) You have a 3rd party security program (PACE) which is not needed by Mac OS X

Please refrain from giving "advice" about things you can't even be bothered to google. PACE is copy protection software, just nuking it from your computer is guaranteed to make very expensive plugins stop working and cause major headaches. Your "help" could lead to someone losing clients, please edit your post. Your other point about memory compression is also incorrect. You can have major compression and still a green graph, depends on the contents of your virtual memory and how it's being accessed - lots of compressed memory barely in use will cause lower memory pressure than a lower amount constantly cycling in and out of compression and swap. The graph generally turns yellow when RAM is getting close to full _despite_ compression. Case in point, my daw is using 10GB, compressed 6GB, graph is green. Get off your high horse.

Compressed memory for kernel_task too high

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