Kernel Task with Mavericks Upgrade

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Kernel Task with Mavericks Upgrade

We have an older iMac 27-inch, Mid 2010 Processor2.8 GHz Intel Core i5 (4GB ram) used in our home office that was running slow, and therefore we bumped it up to Yosemite (from Snow Leopard) to try and resolve. The results were less than speedy, so we reverted to Mavericks instead. Its better than Yosemite, but still clunky.

The high level issues:

- Very slow finder and web browser response

- Frequent Hard Drive activity noise, even when no tasks (such as backup or network tasks) are active

- A larger kernel task function than before (perhaps this is normal for Mavericks?)

The questions:

- Is there an issue with the imac's memory use, perhaps phantom tasks with incompatible extensions, etc?

- In relation to above - is this kernel task normal?

- Or is the 4GB of RAM just not cutting it anymore?

Thanks in advance friends!

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), 27-inch, Mid 2010 Processor 2.8 GHz

Posted on Nov 10, 2014 1:34 PM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Nov 10, 2014 1:41 PM in response to Eric Strohl

Not a thing wrong with your kernel_task. Install more RAM. You don't have enough.

About OS X Memory Management and Usage

Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory & determine how much RAM is used

OS X Mavericks- About Activity Monitor

Understanding top output in the Terminal

The amount of available RAM for applications is the sum of Free RAM and Inactive RAM. This will change as applications are opened and closed or change from active to inactive status. The Swap figure represents an estimate of the total amount of swap space required for VM if used, but does not necessarily indicate the actual size of the existing swap file. If you are really in need of more RAM that would be indicated by how frequently the system uses VM. If you open the Terminal and run the top command at the prompt you will find information reported on Pageins () and Pageouts (). Pageouts () is the important figure. If the value in the parentheses is 0 (zero) then OS X is not making instantaneous use of VM which means you have adequate physical RAM for the system with the applications you have loaded. If the figure in parentheses is running positive and your hard drive is constantly being used (thrashing) then you need more physical RAM.

Adding RAM only makes it possible to run more programs concurrently. It doesn't speed up the computer nor make games run faster. What it can do is prevent the system from having to use disk-based VM when it runs out of RAM because you are trying to run too many applications concurrently or using applications that are extremely RAM dependent. It will improve the performance of applications that run mostly in RAM or when loading programs.

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