WindowServer HIGH CPU usage why?

Question

Level 1

9 points

WindowServer HIGH CPU usage why?

Good Afternoon,

Ran a Etrecheck on my IMac late 2015 with a 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 32 GB 1867 MHz DDR3 Memory, and Graphics AMD Radeon R9 M380 2 GB. Although overall performance was excellent it indicated the following :

Date/Time: 2018-02-06 17:02:17.278143 -0500

OS Version: Mac OS X 10.13.3 (Build 17D47)

Architecture: x86_64

Report Version: 19

Command: WindowServer

Path: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Windo wServer

Version: ??? (???)

Parent: launchd [1]

PID: 180

Event: cpu usage

CPU: 90s cpu time over 144 seconds (62% cpu average), exceeding limit of 50% cpu over 180 seconds

Action taken: none

Duration: 144.01s

Steps: 15

Hardware model: iMac17,1

Active cpus: 4

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.3)

Posted on Feb 7, 2018 11:43 AM

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Answer 1

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,031 points

Feb 14, 2018 1:02 PM in response to Eric Root

Eric Root wrote:

You have parts of MacKeeper still installed. Go to the hard drive level Library and look in the 2 folders below.

/Library/Application Support/Malwarebytes/MBAM/Quarantine/MacKeeper_2_/AntiVirus.

That's actually not still installed, it's been quarantined by Malwarebytes. I'm kind of surprised that EtreCheck finds stuff like that, but it's definitely worth clearing the Malwarebytes quarantine to delete that file.

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Answer 2

christoph81 Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 7, 2018 8:55 PM in response to Eric Root

Thank you -

Having grown suspicious of what the people at Mackeeper were telling me and what I understood at only be most basic level about Mac - I disconnected from them called apple care and togther uninstalled mackeeper. Then I began to read what I could find on the subject of Malware - Apple and ran into an amazing article here - see attached. But I still had great fear of seeing Kernel anywhere on the activity monitor ( spawned from my earliest Mac lap top in 1994 and Kernel errors shutting me down, having just upgraded my RAM to 32 only to find that more then half was being used as a cache, that there were some 330 processes open but only 4 running the rest sleeping... so I began reaching out to you all - all other more tech savvy people then I. I will add the report and additional detail - I apologize for taking up all this space as I read it is a no no to do just that - ( Back up id normally to a external harddrive - dedicated and 3 TB but did not have it connected when terst was run.)

Report generated 2018-02-07 12:16:36
Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.comRuntime: 2:17
Performance: Excellent

Click the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities.
Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.
Click the [Remove/Report] links to remove adware or update the whitelist of legitimate software. Click the [Clean up] link to delete unused files.

Problem: Computer is too slow Description: Seems I have an issue with Kernal_task % CPU use but just read that this is in fact an amalgam of al operations running so perhaps thats not it, out of 332 processes only 4 are active the rest sleeping, a up on my iMac ( late 2015 with upgrade to 32RAM) seems to be slow

Hardware Information: i 27" iMac (Late 2015) [Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service] iMac - model: iMac17,1
1 3.2 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-6500) CPU: 4-core
32 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions]

BANK 0/DIMM0
8 GB DDR3 1867 MHz ok

BANK 0/DIMM1
8 GB DDR3 1867 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0
8 GB DDR3 1867 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM1
8 GB DDR3 1867 MHz ok

Handoff/Airdrop2: supported Wireless: en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac iCloud Status: 2 pending files

Video Information: i AMD Radeon R9 M380 - VRAM: 2 GB

iMac 5120 x 2880

Disk Information: i APPLE HDD ST1000DM003 disk0: (1 TB) (Rotational) [Show SMART report]

n

EFI (disk0s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB
(disk0s2) <not mounted> [CoreStorage Container]: 999.35 GB
Recovery HD (disk0s3 - Journaled HFS+) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

USB Information: i USB30Bus

Apple Inc. iPhone
Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth USB Host Controller Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Thunderbolt Information: i Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Virtual disks: i Macintosh HD (disk1 - Journaled HFS+) / [Startup]: 998.98 GB (457.41 GB free)

Encrypted AES-XTS (Unlocked) Physical disk: disk0s2 999.35 GB Online

System Software: i macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 (17D47) - Time since boot: about 3 hours

Configuration files: i /etc/hosts - Count: 3

Gatekeeper: i Mac App Store and identified developers

Possible adware: i Unknown file: /Library/LaunchDaemons/homebrew.mxcl.stunnel.plist

/usr/local/bin/stunnel
One possible adware file found. [Remove/Report]

Clean up: i ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist

/Applications/Skype.app/Contents/Library/LaunchServices/com.skype.skype.shareage nt.bundle/ Contents/MacOS/com.skype.skype.shareagent

Executable not found!
One orphan file found. [Clean up]

Kernel Extensions: i /Library/Application Support/Malwarebytes/MBAM/Quarantine/MacKeeper_2_/AntiVirus.

a

[not loaded] [not loaded] [not loaded] [not loaded]

com.mackeeper.kext.AVKauth (2.15 - SDK 10.10) [Lookup] com.mackeeper.kext.AVKauth.Legacy (2.15 - SDK 10.10) [Lookup] com.mackeeper.kext.Firewall (2.15 - SDK 10.10) [Lookup] com.mackeeper.kext.Firewall.Legacy (2.15 - SDK 10.10) [Lookup]

/Library/Extensions

[loaded] com.malwarebytes.mbam.rtprotection (3.1 - SDK 10.12) [Lookup] [loaded] com.paragon-software.filesystems.ntfs (15.0.23 - SDK 10.10) [Lookup] [not loaded] com.seagate.driver.PowSecDriverCore (5.2.7 (26995) - SDK 10.4) [Lookup]

/Library/Extensions/Seagate Storage Driver.kext/Contents/PlugIns

[not loaded] [not loaded] [not loaded]

com.seagate.driver.PowSecLeafDriver_10_4 (5.2.7 (26995) - SDK 10.4) [Lookup] com.seagate.driver.PowSecLeafDriver_10_5 (5.2.7 (26995) - SDK 10.5) [Lookup] com.seagate.driver.SeagateDriveIcons (5.2.7 (26995) - SDK 10.4) [Lookup]

System Launch Agents: i [not loaded] 8 Apple tasks [loaded] 162 Apple tasks [running] 120 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons: i [not loaded] 33 Apple tasks [loaded] 182 Apple tasks [running] 116 Apple tasks

Launch Agents: i [running] com.malwarebytes.mbam.frontend.agent.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed

2018-02-06) [Lookup]
[loaded] com.microsoft.update.agent.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2018-01-24) [Looku [running] com.paragon-software.ntfs.notification-agent.plist (Paragon Software GmbH - installed

2017-12-23) [Lookup]

Launch Daemons: i [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-01) [Lookup] [loaded] com.mackeeper.MacKeeper.MacKeeperPrivilegedHelper.plist (KROMTECH ALLIANCE

- installed 2018-01-17) [Lookup] [running] com.malwarebytes.mbam.rtprotection.daemon.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - instal

2018-02-06) [Lookup] [running] com.malwarebytes.mbam.settings.daemon.plist (Malwarebytes Corporation - installed

p

2018-02-06) [Lookup]

[loaded]

[loaded] [Lookup]

[loaded]

[running] [running] [loaded] [loaded]

[Lookup] [loaded]

com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2018-01-24) [L com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (? 6d8cb30e afb3bef0 - installed 2010-08-25)

com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2017-09-

com.paragon-software.installer.plist (Paragon Software GmbH - installed 2017-10-01)

com.paragon-software.ntfs.loader.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2018-01-19) com.paragon-software.ntfsd.plist (Paragon Software GmbH - installed 2017-09-15) [L com.seagate.TBDecorator.plist (? 595582c 212092b1 - installed 2015-11-02) [Lookup

com.sparklabs.ViscosityHelper.plist (SparkLabs Pty Ltd - installed 2016-10-31) [Looku com.zoomsupport.ZoomDiagnosticsHelper.plist (ZoomSupport Limited - installed 2018-

homebrew.mxcl.stunnel.plist (? 13d2ef10 b0345961 - installed 2016-10-31) [Lookup]

User Launch Agents: i [loaded] com.dropbox.DropboxMacUpdate.agent.plist (Dropbox, Inc. - installed 2017-11-27) [Lo [loaded] com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist (? 9e64636f 0 - installed 2017-11-02) [Lookup] - /

Applications/Skype.app/Contents/Library/LaunchServices/com.skype.skype.shareagen t.bund Contents/MacOS/com.skype.skype.shareagent: Executable not found!

User Login Items: i FSMenuAppLoginItemHelper SMLoginItem - Hidden (Paragon Software GmbH - installed 2018-

(/Applications/Paragon NTFS for Mac 15.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/ FSMenuAppLoginItemHelper.app)

Internet Plug-ins: i FlashPlayer-10.6: 28.0.0.161 (installed 2018-02-06) [Lookup]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2018-01-24)
Flash Player: 28.0.0.161 (installed 2018-02-06) Cannot contact Adobe PepperFlashPlayer: 28.0.0.161 (installed 2018-02-06) [Lookup] SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.7.7 (installed 2017-09-20) [Lookup]

Safari Extensions: i [enabled] IncognIt VPN Switcher - IncogniTeam Ltd. - http://www.incogniteam.com(installed

2018-02-07) [enabled] Translate - SideTree.com - Apps for Mac - http://SideTree.com/extensions.html#Tr

(installed 2018-02-07) [enabled] TrafficLight - Bitdefender SRL - http://trafficlight.bitdefender.com/ (installed 2018-0

o

0

o p

o

0

a

2

[enabled] Grammarly for Safari - Grammarly - https://www.grammarly.com(installed 2018-02

3rd Party Preference Panes: i Flash Player (installed 2018-02-01) [Lookup] NTFS (installed 2017-09-15) [Lookup] Seagate Dashboard for Mac OSX (installed 2017-09-18) [Lookup]

Time Machine: i Skip System Files: NO Auto backup: YES Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 998.98 GB Disk used: 541.58 GB Destinations:

Seagate Backup Plus Drive [Local] Total size: 999.86 GB
Total number of backups: 27 Oldest backup: 1/22/18, 1:41 PM Last backup: 1/24/18, 8:43 PM Size of backup disk: Too small

Backup size 999.86 GB < (Disk used 541.58 GB X 3)

Top Processes by CPU: i 7% mdworker 6% mdworker

4% WindowServer 2% kernel_task 2% Activity Monitor

Top Processes by Memory: i

1.84 GB 891 MB 608 MB 434 MB 390 MB

kernel_task
iTunes com.apple.WebKit.WebContent com.apple.MediaLibraryService Safari

Top Processes by Network Use: i

Input

Output

Process name

570 KB
20 KB
0 B
0B 0B racoon

64 B

181 KB 0 B

mDNSResponder

launchd SystemUIServer

-

Top Processes by Energy Use: i 5.66 WindowServer
0.48 opendirectoryd
0.24 RTProtectionDaemon 0.12 cloudd

Virtual Memory Information: i

22.28 GB
34 MB
9.72 GB
22.24 GB
0 B Swap Used

Available RAM Free RAM Used RAM Cached files

Software installs (last 30 days): i Microsoft AutoUpdate: (installed 2018-01-08)
Adobe Flash Player: (installed 2018-01-09)
Adobe Pepper Flash Player: (installed 2018-01-09) Wix Photo Albums: 1.04 (installed 2018-01-10) WeChat: 2.3.7 (installed 2018-01-10)
Microsoft Outlook for Mac: (installed 2018-01-10) Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac: (installed 2018-01-10) Microsoft OneNote for Mac: (installed 2018-01-10) Microsoft Excel for Mac: (installed 2018-01-10) Microsoft Word for Mac: (installed 2018-01-10) Microsoft Outlook for Mac: (installed 2018-01-17) Microsoft Excel for Mac: (installed 2018-01-17) Microsoft OneNote for Mac: (installed 2018-01-17) Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac: (installed 2018-01-18) Microsoft Word for Mac: (installed 2018-01-18) WeChat: 2.3.8 (installed 2018-01-20)
WhatsApp: 0.2.8000 (installed 2018-01-20)
Microsoft Outlook for Mac: (installed 2018-01-23) Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac: (installed 2018-01-23) Microsoft OneNote for Mac: (installed 2018-01-23) Microsoft Excel for Mac: (installed 2018-01-23) Microsoft OneNote for Mac: (installed 2018-01-23) WeChat: 2.3.9 (installed 2018-01-24)
Microsoft Word for Mac: (installed 2018-01-24) Microsoft AutoUpdate: (installed 2018-01-24) Microsoft Outlook for Mac: (installed 2018-01-25) Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac: (installed 2018-01-25) Microsoft OneNote for Mac: (installed 2018-01-25) Microsoft Excel for Mac: (installed 2018-01-25)

Microsoft Word for Mac: (installed 2018-01-25)
Send Anywhere: 7.12.22 (installed 2018-01-28) Microsoft Outlook for Mac: (installed 2018-01-31) Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac: (installed 2018-01-31) Microsoft OneNote for Mac: (installed 2018-01-31) Microsoft Word for Mac: (installed 2018-01-31) Microsoft OneNote for Mac: (installed 2018-01-31) Dr. Unarchiver: 1.3.1 (installed 2018-01-31) WhatsApp: 0.2.8082 (installed 2018-02-02)

Open Any Files: 1.4.1 (installed 2018-02-02) Microsoft Excel for Mac: (installed 2018-02-03)
Send Anywhere: 8.1.31 (installed 2018-02-04) Microsoft Outlook for Mac: (installed 2018-02-06) Microsoft PowerPoint for Mac: (installed 2018-02-06) Microsoft OneNote for Mac: (installed 2018-02-06) Microsoft Excel for Mac: (installed 2018-02-06) Microsoft Word for Mac: (installed 2018-02-06) Adobe Flash Player: (installed 2018-02-06)

Adobe Pepper Flash Player: (installed 2018-02-06) Zoom Diagnostics: (installed 2018-02-06)
Elmedia Player: 6.9.1 (installed 2018-02-06) WeChat: 2.3.10 (installed 2018-02-06) Malwarebytes for Mac: (installed 2018-02-06) 1Blocker: 1.4.1 (installed 2018-02-07)

Install information may not be complete.

Diagnostics Events (last 3 days for minor events): i 2018-02-06 17:04:43 WindowServer High CPU use [Open] [Details] 2018-02-06 16:35:36 cloudd Crash [Open]

Cause: *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInternalInconsistencyException', 'Path /Users/USER/Library/Caches/*/Assets deleted/renamed, crashing.'

terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException abort() called

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-8841

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Answer 3

Tesserax

Level 10

157,830 points

Feb 7, 2018 1:21 PM in response to christoph81

WindowServer is a core part of macOS and acts as a liaison between your applications and your iMac's display. See the article below for more details about this process:

Ref: What Is the Process WindowServer, and Why Is It Running on My Mac? - How-To Geek

Reply

Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

685,215 points

Feb 13, 2018 9:47 PM in response to christoph81

Clean up: i ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist

/Applications/Skype.app/Contents/Library/LaunchServices/com.skype.skype.shareage nt.bundle/ Contents/MacOS/com.skype.skype.shareagent

Executable not found!
One orphan file found. [Clean up]

Run the report again and click [Clean up].

You have parts of MacKeeper still installed. Go to the hard drive level Library and look in the 2 folders below.

/Library/Application Support/Malwarebytes/MBAM/Quarantine/MacKeeper_2_/AntiVirus.

Launch Daemons:

Also remove/disable the BitDefender Safari extension by going to Safari/Preferences/Extensions.

Reply

Answer 5

christoph81 Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 13, 2018 9:53 PM in response to Eric Root

Thank you for your assistance and step by step advice. Would not have been able to manage without it. May you have a joy fill and auspicious New Year of the Dog!

1 thing - on my first Etre report my system performance was rated Excellent however in the subsequent times i ran the program after each of the suggested fixes it has only achieved Performance rating of GOOD?? did I do something wrong?

Reply

Answer 6

Eric Root

Level 10

685,215 points

Feb 14, 2018 3:59 PM in response to christoph81

You are welcome. The gentleman that wrote the program once posted the rating reflected how long it took the report to run, so the change may not indicate anything is wrong. If you have any concerns, run and post a new report. Someone else may have a suggestion.

Reply

Answer 7

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,031 points

Feb 15, 2018 9:39 AM in response to Eric Root

Eric Root wrote:

Thank you for the explanation thomas. Good to see you posting again.

Thanks! I still post here and there, mostly on Malwarebytes-related topics, but my schedule these days precludes the same level of participation here that I used to have.

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