dhtml
Level 1 (8 points)
Notebooks

Q: 222 Processes Running

There are currently 222 running processes gobbling up memory and CPUs on my Macbook pro, causing it to heat up and turn its fan on. That seems too much. I am running iMovie, Firefox (just one tab), Dictionary, and Activity Monitor

 

I noticed this problem worsen after:

1) El Capitan install (at behest of Apple support)

2) Turning on iCloud.

 

I have Airplay and a bunch of other crap that I neither want nor need.

 

In addition to being slow and running a bunch of unknown **** that I  don't want and most likely don't need, my Mac's 500 GB internal hard drive is mostly full of "other". I couldn't figure out what "other" was after searching. What is it and how can I free up memory (I already turned on iCloud and deleted a bunch of stuff)? Why is my mac so busy? How do I identify other undesirable processes like AirPlay, et al and then uninstall them?

 

Thank you.

 

About This Mac

  Model Name:    MacBook Pro

  Model Identifier:    MacBookPro8,2

  Processor Name:    Intel Core i7

  Processor Speed:    2.2 GHz

  Number of Processors:    1

  Total Number of Cores:    4

  L2 Cache (per Core):    256 KB

  L3 Cache:    6 MB

  Memory:    8 GB

  Boot ROM Version:    MBP81.0047.B2C

  SMC Version (system):    1.69f4

  Serial Number (system):    -

  Hardware UUID:    -

  Sudden Motion Sensor:

  State:    Enabled

MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on May 2, 2016 10:03 PM

by Network 23,Apple recommended
Network 23 Network 23
Level 6 (12,043 points)
Mac OS X
A:

dhtml wrote:

 

Carolyn Samit wrote:

 

There's no reason to have the Activity Monitor app open all the time.

So you don't know  why anyone who is experiencing overheating, slowness, and memory limitations while doing so little is also running activity monitor... You must be all-knowing then, to declare it a bad idea. And I won't bother telling  why I did that.

 

You also indicated that running up CPUs and running out of memory while doing very little at all on the mac is something to be enjoyed.

I agree with you. While it isn't necessary to run Activity Monitor ALL the time, it's perfectly OK and a good idea to keep Activity Monitor running in a case like yours where you need to find out what is straining the machine. That's why I mentioned it too.

 

But now that you've been running it, you still haven't mentioned what is at the top of the %CPU list and how much it is using. A Mac isn't going to heat up and spin fans without something using a lot of CPU. And we know that not all of the processes would be "gobbling up" CPU and RAM. So it must just be a few of them... What does Activity Monitor say?

Posted on May 4, 2016 12:12 AM

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dhtml

Q: 222 Processes Running

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Carolyn Samit,Apple recommended

    Carolyn Samit Carolyn Samit May 2, 2016 10:14 PM in response to dhtml
    Level 10 (122,048 points)
    Apple Music
    May 2, 2016 10:14 PM in response to dhtml

    Explains, "Other" >  OS X: What is "other" space in About This Mac? - Apple Support

     

    AirPlay works over your wireless, so all of your devices cam be connected via the same wireless network. AirPlay is part of OS X.


    "I am running iMovie, Firefox (just one tab), Dictionary, and Activity Monitor"


    There's no reason to have the Activity Monitor app open all the time. That's just one more app using more system resources. iMovie is RAM intensive which can cause your Mac to heat up. Firefox shouldn't cause any problems unless you installed multiple add-ons.


    If you aren't syncing any data between your Mac and other devices, there's no need to have iCloud enabled. Open System Preferences > iCloud then click: Sign Out


    Don't forget. The OS X operating system is running in the background whenever your Mac is on. Your Mac has 8GB's of RAM installed, so you really have nothing to worry about.


    Just enjoy using your Mac!

  • by Network 23,Apple recommended

    Network 23 Network 23 May 2, 2016 10:43 PM in response to dhtml
    Level 6 (12,043 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 2, 2016 10:43 PM in response to dhtml

    You're not diagnosing this correctly.

     

    The number of running processes mostly doesn't matter. My MacBook Pro 8,2 (same model as yours) has 268 processes running, but the CPU is 91% idle and it's running just great. If your Mac is like mine, maybe 10 processes are using more than 1% and the other 250 are using less than 1%, or 0.0%. No problem there.

     

    What matters is whether one or two processes are using a very high CPU percentage. You do not solve this my removing things from your disk, because most things on your disk aren't running. You solve it by opening Activity Monitor, clicking the CPU tab, sorting the list by %CPU, and seeing which processes are using up the most. You then determine why those processes are using so much CPU, and you take it from there.

    dhtml wrote:

     

    I have Airplay and a bunch of other crap that I neither want nor need.

     

    In addition to being slow and running a bunch of unknown **** that I  don't want and most likely don't need

    All the "stuff you don't need" probably isn't the cause. Because, every Mac goes out the factory with all those things included and enabled, and most Macs run great for most users - from pros to very non-technical users - with all that stuff turned on. You need to find out what the real problem is, otherwise you're just removing things that probably don't need to be removed because the typical Mac installation has absolutely no problem with them. The problem is specific to your Mac, just need to narrow it down.

     

    The other reason you don't need or want to disable standard OS X software is because OS X is probably going to put it all back in anyway the next time you do a system update.

     

    Now, if your 500GB disk is close to full, you do want to clear off some space. It would be good to have 25GB-100GB free if possible. We can keep talking about that. But let's say you remove Airplay because you "don't need it." I'll bet the files involved with Airplay aren't that big, like many of the other "stuff you don't need" that you're probably thinking about removing. It probably won't make that much difference. What makes more difference is removing very large files (multiple GB) worth of movies, music, or raw photo files. There is a possibility that some caches (hidden in the Library folder) may be too large, we could look into that. Try using a tool like DiskInventoryX (http://www.derlien.com/) to see which files are the biggest ones. Removing those would make the most difference the fastest.

  • by dhtml,

    dhtml dhtml May 3, 2016 8:49 PM in response to Carolyn Samit
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    May 3, 2016 8:49 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

    Carolyn Samit wrote:

     

    There's no reason to have the Activity Monitor app open all the time.

    So you don't know  why anyone who is experiencing overheating, slowness, and memory limitations while doing so little is also running activity monitor... You must be all-knowing then, to declare it a bad idea. And I won't bother telling  why I did that.

     

    You also indicated that running up CPUs and running out of memory while doing very little at all on the mac is something to be enjoyed.

  • by Network 23,Apple recommended

    Network 23 Network 23 May 4, 2016 12:12 AM in response to dhtml
    Level 6 (12,043 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 4, 2016 12:12 AM in response to dhtml

    dhtml wrote:

     

    Carolyn Samit wrote:

     

    There's no reason to have the Activity Monitor app open all the time.

    So you don't know  why anyone who is experiencing overheating, slowness, and memory limitations while doing so little is also running activity monitor... You must be all-knowing then, to declare it a bad idea. And I won't bother telling  why I did that.

     

    You also indicated that running up CPUs and running out of memory while doing very little at all on the mac is something to be enjoyed.

    I agree with you. While it isn't necessary to run Activity Monitor ALL the time, it's perfectly OK and a good idea to keep Activity Monitor running in a case like yours where you need to find out what is straining the machine. That's why I mentioned it too.

     

    But now that you've been running it, you still haven't mentioned what is at the top of the %CPU list and how much it is using. A Mac isn't going to heat up and spin fans without something using a lot of CPU. And we know that not all of the processes would be "gobbling up" CPU and RAM. So it must just be a few of them... What does Activity Monitor say?

  • by chroot,

    chroot chroot May 4, 2016 1:03 AM in response to dhtml
    Level 4 (1,099 points)
    May 4, 2016 1:03 AM in response to dhtml

    Screen Shot 2016-05-04 at 4.01.36 AM.png

     

    222 process running is fine--OS X has a lot of background processes that are needed for the operating system.  Sort processes by CPU usage, what is using the most CPU?

     

    Screen Shot 2016-05-04 at 4.02.55 AM.png

  • by dhtml,

    dhtml dhtml May 4, 2016 3:59 PM in response to Network 23
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    May 4, 2016 3:59 PM in response to Network 23

    Network 23 wrote:

     

    dhtml wrote:

     

    Carolyn Samit wrote:

     

    There's no reason to have the Activity Monitor app open all the time.

    So you don't know  why anyone who is experiencing overheating, slowness, and memory limitations while doing so little is also running activity monitor... You must be all-knowing then, to declare it a bad idea. And I won't bother telling  why I did that.

     

    You also indicated that running up CPUs and running out of memory while doing very little at all on the mac is something to be enjoyed.

    I agree with you. While it isn't necessary to run Activity Monitor ALL the time, it's perfectly OK and a good idea to keep Activity Monitor running in a case like yours where you need to find out what is straining the machine. That's why I mentioned it too.

     

    But now that you've been running it, you still haven't mentioned what is at the top of the %CPU list and how much it is using. A Mac isn't going to heat up and spin fans without something using a lot of CPU. And we know that not all of the processes would be "gobbling up" CPU and RAM. So it must just be a few of them... What does Activity Monitor say?

    There are three main problems.  The second two seem like they might be related:

     

    1) Running of space on my 500GB internal HD, and it's mostly "other".

     

    When doing what seems like not too much:

    2) CPU spiking when doing

    3) Running out of memory (RAM)

     

    When I use Quicktime, I often get one of the following types of failure:

    1) Cannot start a new movie recording (recording failed, please try recording again)

    2) QT becomes unresponsive to any clicks, will not quit, and must be force quit. But the force quit option isn't available when I click QT icon in the dock; it's only available through Activity monitor. And that's reason enough to keep Activity monitor going most of the time, as I have to force quit QT pretty often.

     

    Thank you,

       

  • by dhtml,

    dhtml dhtml May 4, 2016 4:21 PM in response to dhtml
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    May 4, 2016 4:21 PM in response to dhtml

    I'm running into permissions errors now. Has my machine been compromised?

     

    $ git commit -m "speed slider commit #1."

     

     

    Agreeing to the Xcode/iOS license requires admin privileges, please re-run as root via sudo.

     

     

    $ sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --repair --standard-pkgs --volume /

    Password:

     

        Permissions differ on "usr/libexec/cups", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are dr-xr-xr-x .

        Repaired "usr/libexec/cups".

        Permissions differ on "usr/libexec/cups/apple", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are dr-xr-xr-x .

        Repaired "usr/libexec/cups/apple".

     

    ...

     

    Group differs on "private/var/db/displaypolicyd", should be 0, group is 244.

        Repaired "private/var/db/displaypolicyd".

        Permissions differ on "usr/libexec/cups/driver", should be drwxr-xr-x , they are dr-xr-xr-x .

        Repaired "usr/libexec/cups/driver".

     

    $ git commit -m "speed slider commit #1."

     

    Agreeing to the Xcode/iOS license requires admin privileges, please re-run as root via sudo.

     

    Garretts-MBP:guitar-lesson garrettsmith$

  • by chroot,

    chroot chroot May 5, 2016 12:47 AM in response to dhtml
    Level 4 (1,099 points)
    May 5, 2016 12:47 AM in response to dhtml

    dhtml wrote:

     

    I'm running into permissions errors now. Has my machine been compromised?

     

     

    Most likely, no.

     

    Boot to safe mode then check the CPU usage.

  • by dhtml,

    dhtml dhtml May 5, 2016 12:07 PM in response to chroot
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    May 5, 2016 12:07 PM in response to chroot

    I will try in safe mode to check CPUs.

     

    This morning, a network error occured while using GMail. There were five other tabs loaded, but I wasn't downloading files or playing media (though there were certainly ads in them). Firefox CPU showed 45% in Activity Monitor — I've seen much stranger things in Firefox, such as hidden tabs that will play back media and, upon restarting Firefox, display as normal tabs that can switched to.

     

    The network connection failure is possibly related to the same cause if there are processes that are both CPU intensive and making network requests. A similar network error message occurred yesterday using App Store to check for updates. 12MB  / sec connection speed plan.

     

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 May 5, 2016 12:14 PM in response to dhtml
    Level 9 (50,424 points)
    Desktops
    May 5, 2016 12:14 PM in response to dhtml

    I have 260 processes running, using 3.1% of the CPU.

     

    Screen Shot 2016-05-05 at 14.12.34.png

  • by dhtml,

    dhtml dhtml May 5, 2016 1:16 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    May 5, 2016 1:16 PM in response to Csound1

    Fan just kicked on. Open apps included

    Terminal,

    Quicktime (with one movie I recorded two days ago, stopped),

    Firefox (12 tabs)

    System Preferences

    App Store

    AxeEdit (audio interface software)


    Process Name                                                % CPU       

    VTDecoderXPCService………………………… 623.7

    com.apple.photos.VideoConversionService  … 57.6

    Firefox  …………………………………………… 34.1

    WindowServer ……………………………………15.9

    kernel_task  ……………………………………… 8.8

     

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 May 5, 2016 1:24 PM in response to dhtml
    Level 9 (50,424 points)
    Desktops
    May 5, 2016 1:24 PM in response to dhtml

    With 623% of your processing power being used by VTDecoderXPCService I am not surprised that your Mac is not running very well.

     

    Reboot and check again.

  • by dhtml,

    dhtml dhtml May 6, 2016 6:54 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    May 6, 2016 6:54 PM in response to Csound1

    Fan just kicked on. Open apps included

    Terminal,

    Quicktime (with one movie I recorded two days ago, stopped),

    Firefox (12 tabs)

    System Preferences

    App Store

    AxeEdit (audio interface software)


    Process Name                                                % CPU      

    VTDecoderXPCService………………………… 623.7

    com.apple.photos.VideoConversionService  … 57.6

    Firefox  …………………………………………… 34.1

    WindowServer ……………………………………15.9

    kernel_task  ……………………………………… 8.8

     

  • by dhtml,

    dhtml dhtml May 6, 2016 7:17 PM in response to dhtml
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Notebooks
    May 6, 2016 7:17 PM in response to dhtml

    Rebooted into Safe mode. The Google Chrome window is flickering with every keypress, every cursor blink. Overall responsiveness is slower than normal.

    processes 2.pngprocesses 3.png

     

    This computer not practically usable in safe mode because the flickering and because of the slowness. WindowServer 119% CPU now.

     

    Using my iPad, I made a video recording of my prior boot into Safe Mode, when then launching Firefox caused a Freeze. Please have a look:— https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbPlWETGjRQ

     

    What is going on here? Thanks.