High CPU after 10.11.3 to 10.11.4 upgrade

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Level 1

42 points

High CPU after 10.11.3 to 10.11.4 upgrade

Have been using El Capitan successfully for several months, migrating from 10.11.1 to 10.11.3. However, upgrading to 10.11.4 has resulted in fairly steady high CPU.

In particular, I see processes launchd (about 75%), UserEventAgent (70%) and mds_stores (30%) consuming CPU at that rate essentially all the time, so the overall idle % when doing nothig is of the order of 45% - this is on a late-2014 27 inch Retina iMac with Fusion Drive. Despite this, everything still works with reasonable performance, presumably because there is still spare CPU capacity.

Looking at the Console log, I see plenty of

29/03/2016 18:17:01.002 com.apple.CDScheduler[49]: *** LOG MESSAGE QUOTA EXCEEDED - SOME MESSAGES FROM THIS PROCESS HAVE BEEN DISCARDED ***

29/03/2016 18:18:02.001 com.apple.CDScheduler[49]: *** LOG MESSAGE QUOTA EXCEEDED - SOME MESSAGES FROM THIS PROCESS HAVE BEEN DISCARDED ***

29/03/2016 18:19:03.002 com.apple.CDScheduler[49]: *** LOG MESSAGE QUOTA EXCEEDED - SOME MESSAGES FROM THIS PROCESS HAVE BEEN DISCARDED ***

29/03/2016 18:20:04.002 com.apple.CDScheduler[49]: *** LOG MESSAGE QUOTA EXCEEDED - SOME MESSAGES FROM THIS PROCESS HAVE BEEN DISCARDED ***

This is being logged at roughly one minute intervals, though I see none of the messages referenced.

Have removed some of the started programs and eliminated some of the launched agents (I think) and also re-installed from the Recovery partition, but the problem is still there.

Has anyone observed issues along these lines?

Would appreciate any suggestions.

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), Time Capsule (2013), G-Tech G-Drive

Posted on Mar 29, 2016 10:34 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

theratter

Level 4

3,955 points

Mar 29, 2016 10:50 AM in response to JPinCheshire

Try each of these in order. Test to see if the computer is working properly:

Reset the PRAM
Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)
Start the computer in Safe Mode, then restart normally. This is slower than a standard startup.
Repair the disk by booting the from the Recovery HD. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Utility Menu appears. Choose Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the indented (usually, Macintosh HD) volumeentry from the the side list. Click on the First Aid button in the toolbar. Wait for the Done button to appear. Quit Disk Utility and returnto the Utility Menu. Restart the computer from the Apple Menu.
Reinstall OS X by booting from the Recovery HD using the Command and R keys. When the Utility Menu appears select Reinstall OS X then click on the Continue button.
Download and Install the OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 Combo Update.

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Answer 2

JPinCheshire Author

Level 1

42 points

Mar 30, 2016 12:24 AM in response to theratter

Thanks for the suggestions. I had already done items 3, 4, and 5. 5 removed some debris that appeared in the log, but the problem was still there.

In parallel, I asked someone expert in these matters to look at my full Console log and they spotted that the problem seemed to be connected with my use of a USB connected UPS. I disconnected this, rebooted, and the problem disappeared. At that, I went to bed after a long day of struggle.

I will continue my investigations today, but this looks like a variation of the problem with 10.11.1 where Time Machine backups wouldn't run properly if a UPS was connected at boot time. The solution then was to unplug the UPS and then plug it in again after reboot. That was "fixed" in 10.11.2, though I still had at least one TM hang when battery backup washed been invoked one time.

I will update further after further investigation.

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Answer 3

JPinCheshire Author

Level 1

42 points

Mar 30, 2016 7:45 AM in response to JPinCheshire

Well, things have moved on and the problem seems to have gone away. I ran for 15 hours with the UPS disconnected and all was well. So, without a restart, I reconnected the UPS and everything continued with no adverse effects. And the system recognised that it had a connected UPS as it was possible to tweak the UPS parameters via System Preferences and iStat Menus could display the UPS battery status.

So, expecting a repeat of the problems, I restarted the system and all was OK. Then powered off and restarted from there, and still OK. So must have been some funny associated in some way with my UPS or the USB interfaces on my iMac.

Just in case someone else stumbles into this sort of issue, the things to look for are very high CPU for 3 processes - launchd, UserEventAgent, and mds_store, the latter running at a little under half the CPU of the other processes. To complete the picture as viewed from the Console log, a more compete set of messages are as follows -

ASL Module "com.apple.cdscheduler" claims selected messages.

28/03/2016 10:05:58.752 com.apple.CDScheduler[47] Initial power state set to UPS Power

28/03/2016 10:06:20.601 com.apple.CDScheduler[360] Initial power state set to AC Power

28/03/2016 10:07:06.888 com.apple.CDScheduler[47] *** LOG MESSAGE QUOTA EXCEEDED - SOME MESSAGES FROM THIS PROCESS HAVE BEEN DISCARDED ***

28/03/2016 10:08:07.002 com.apple.CDScheduler[47] *** LOG MESSAGE QUOTA EXCEEDED - SOME MESSAGES FROM THIS PROCESS HAVE BEEN DISCARDED ***

28/03/2016 10:09:08.001 com.apple.CDScheduler[47] *** LOG MESSAGE QUOTA EXCEEDED - SOME MESSAGES FROM THIS PROCESS HAVE BEEN DISCARDED ***

28/03/2016 10:10:09.001 com.apple.CDScheduler[47] *** LOG MESSAGE QUOTA EXCEEDED - SOME MESSAGES FROM THIS PROCESS HAVE BEEN DISCARDED ***

This strongly suggests that the cause was a flood of indications that the UPS had got into some loop saying it was running on its battery. Other than unplugging the USB cable at the iMac end, I haven't touched the UPS and it has been powered on throughout my tribulations.

Oh well.

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Answer 4

Apr 4, 2016 7:32 AM in response to JPinCheshire

Confirming that it is indeed the USB connection to a UPS that caused this problem, with identical symptoms, on my iMac as well.

This particular UPS has been connected to at least three generations of iMacs and Minis and Mac OS X versions over the past decade, but only started to exhibit the problem when the 10.11.3 Update came out.

Thank you, JPinCheshire.

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Answer 5

JPinCheshire Author

Level 1

42 points

Apr 4, 2016 7:43 AM in response to derek smith1

It is good to see that I am not alone.

I've been monitoring the log since my original append and although I have not since suffered the problem for periods of hours, I have had 2 re-occurrences over the last 4 days of repeated issuances of the same message -

03/04/2016 15:28:27.930 com.apple.CDScheduler[47]: *** LOG MESSAGE QUOTA EXCEEDED - SOME MESSAGES FROM THIS PROCESS HAVE BEEN DISCARDED ***

In one case they were repeated for 4 minutes and in the other for 11 minutes. In each case the "problem" had ended without me being away of it or being aware of doing anything to end it.

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Answer 6

Apr 13, 2016 10:17 AM in response to JPinCheshire

Thank you, thank you, thank you JPinCheshire! I've had the identical symptoms as you've experienced for quite awhile and tried all of the PRAM and SMC reset options that Apple recommends, to no avail. As soon as I unplugged the USB cable from my iMac to the UPS and rebooted, the problem disappeared and so far has not returned. I haven't yet tried plugging the UPS USB cable back in, so that'll be the next step after an observation period.

I wonder if this issue is tied to a particular UPS. The one I'm using is a CyberPower BRG1000AVRLCD.

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Answer 7

JPinCheshire Author

Level 1

42 points

Apr 13, 2016 1:46 PM in response to fft1024guy

I'm using an APC UPS, so it would not appear to be specific to a particular UPS.

SInce reconnecting my UPS, I haven't had the problem again. Well, to be accurate, I have only had the problem, or at least the particular repeating messages on the Console log, for a period of about 4-5 minutes. I have not observed the high CPU, though it may have re-occurred at that time, but do have a specific console log query setup to display the relevant messages, and they have only appeared just the once for a short period since I originally reported and then recovered from the problem.

Note that I do have a late-2014 27 inch retina iMac, so maybe that is a factor.

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Answer 8

Apr 13, 2016 1:53 PM in response to JPinCheshire

I have a mid 2011 27" iMac so my guess is the issue is tied to the latest version of El Cap rather than UPS or Mac model.

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Answer 9

Apr 29, 2016 8:20 AM in response to JPinCheshire

Thanks for this post!! I have been having this same issue with exact same symptoms. iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015) running 10.11.4. I have unplugged the USB cable from my APC UPS, rebooted, and the issue is gone. I have been trouble shooting this for weeks!! Thanks again for the very comprehensive post and moving your own answers up into the original post. Very considerate and helpful. I will report back here if it happens again. I have installed iStat menus to keep watch on the CPU and am leaving the UPS USB port unplugged. If you do not see an update to this post, you can assume the issue never returned for me. An issue I was seeing daily, only fixed temporarily by rebooting.

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Answer 10

Jun 18, 2016 10:40 AM in response to JPinCheshire

Had the same high CPU usage and the problem was also related to the USB connection to UPS. Would never thought about that.

Thank you, JPinCheshire

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Answer 11

Jul 5, 2016 11:37 PM in response to JPinCheshire

I have had roughly the same problem and tried a lot of things, but this seems to have made the trick. No crashes for +6 days. Thanks a lot, JPinCheshire!

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Answer 12

Nov 19, 2016 3:12 PM in response to JPinCheshire

Wow, who’da thunk it?! Thanks! My symptom was not crashes on my Mac mini, but overtemp (>60°C; 32°C is normal) on the SSD portion of my Fusion disk as reported every hour by DiskWarrior.

I’d like to have my battery backup software shut down the computer in an orderly fashion in case of extended power failure, but not at this cost. Is there a real fix for this problem? Is it resolved in Sierra?

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Answer 13

JPinCheshire Author

Level 1

42 points

Nov 19, 2016 3:37 PM in response to Gib Henry

IN my experience this problem was fixed in El Capitan as discussed earlier. I've only upgraded to Sierra a couple of weeks ago, but I am not aware of this problem re-occurring. However given the changes to logging and Console in Sierra, I'm not sure whether it would be possible to diagnose the problem in the same way.

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