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vEiSaLgIa Author

Level 1

15 points

Kernel Task, 100%CPU, Fans high, machine hot, software issue. How do I track down cause?

Hi,

I have a 17 inch i7 MBP. About two months ago I installed a new hybrid drive and restored from original (sick) drive. Soon afterward my CPU usage started spiking because of a kernel task. It slows my machine to a crawl, overheats and the fans go out of control. It is pretty much unusable. It is a software issue because I made a new user and none of the problems could be duplicated on it. How can I figure out what software on my main user is responsible for the task and what kext or other files are responsible for it? How can I get more info on this kernel task being run? It's got to be in my user folder...

PS: I had Webroot security on the machine and the unusual uninstall process may have had errors. It can't be run again. I attempted to uninstall it around the same time I changed the drive.

OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on May 2, 2015 1:18 PM

Top-ranking reply

cdhw

Level 4

3,588 points

Posted on May 3, 2015 10:55 AM

Start by running EtreCheck and posting the results here:

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

View in context

33 replies

Eric Root

Level 10

684,585 points

Jul 11, 2016 9:23 AM in response to davidas3

You might want to consider starting a new discussion. Since this one is a couple of years old, less people are likely to look at it. You can link to this one.

You have adware installed. Run the report again and where you see the red Adware, click Remove. Once complete, run the report again and post a copy into a new reply.

Try a SMC reset. The article covers when this is required, but doing this will not affect anything.

Reset SMC

Try uninstalling the TuneUp Helper and Drive Genius using the Developer's uninstall instructions.

davidas3

Level 1

13 points

Jul 11, 2016 9:41 AM in response to Eric Root

Thanks very much, Eric. 'Course you're right. I only checked the item date as I was submitting the reply (doh.) Subsequent to posting my addition, I read what literature I could find and came up with the SMC reset docs, which I'll try presently. If that doesn't solve the issue, then I'll post separately and take the jalopy into the shop for testing.

I've run EtreCheck 3 times and am unable to locate and/or remove manually or via EtreCheck these files: the Adobes show up nowhere in Preferences where you'd expect to find them with other com.plists.

[failed] com.jdibackup.ZipCloud.autostart

[failed] com.jdibackup.ZipCloud.notify

[failed] com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a...plist (2016-05-11)

[failed] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist (2015-10-26)

If the issue persists I'll also include this data in a new discussion. Again, thanks for your pronto reply!

All best,

David

Aug 21, 2016 4:01 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks for this, read all the posts about resets and moving files around, but then saw yours and cleaned my fans out on my MBP and all the throttling is gone.

Kernel Task, 100%CPU, Fans high, machine hot, software issue. How do I track down cause?