Everything I do is causing high CPU usage on my mac?

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Level 1

12 points

Everything I do is causing high CPU usage on my mac?

4 days ago, I noticed everything i would do on my macbook air was causing the fan to go off. I went into activity monitor and whatever app I had open would be using 90-300% CPU.

For example, If i opened safari- it would instantly shoot up to 100% on the activity monitor or if i opened microsoft word the same thing would happen

Ive tried uninstalling and reinstalling all of my programs but the problem keeps persisting.

I have a paid subscription of bitdefender anti virus but that doesnt seem to be the culprit as it doesnt seem to be hogging up any resources.

Im also careful to not go on sketchy sites and my macbook is still running fast and normal so i dont think its malware.

Currently it says im using 2.11 gb of my 4gb of ram so i also dont think ram would be a problem either. The 2 things using up most ram is Kernel task at 526 mb and BDLDaemon (bitdefender)

specs of my macbook:

MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014)

Processor: 1.4 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory: 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5000 1536 MB

Running High Sierra V. 10.13.4 (latest one)

Id greatly appreciate any help and thank you in advance!

MacBook Air

Posted on Apr 3, 2018 8:00 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 3, 2018 8:11 AM in response to doglover4727

Hi,

"have a paid subscription of bitdefender anti virus but that doesnt seem to be the culprit as it doesnt seem to be hogging up any resources."

That's your culprit. No Mac needs anti virus software, period. Visit the vendor website for uninstall instructions.

For security make sure macOS is up to date at all times. You can do that by opening System Preferences > App Store > Check Now.

And make sure Gatekeeper is enabled > OS X: About Gatekeeper - Apple Support

Using third party anti virus software on a Mac is overkill.

Check out the results of an Apple Support Community search of Mac users who have had problems with third party anti virus software installed here.

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Answer 2

doglover4727 Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 3, 2018 9:16 AM in response to Carolyn Samit

Hi there,

That did not work 😟 I uninstalled bitdefender as per their website instructions and restarted my macbook and the problem is still there even without bitdefender, my macbook has actually gotten a bit slower without the bitdefender. I dont have java but i do have adobe and flash player as 3rd party applications. Could it possibly be one of those?

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Answer 3

etresoft

Level 9

51,038 points

Apr 3, 2018 9:26 AM in response to doglover4727

Hello doglover4727,

I wrote a little diagnostic program to help show what might be causing these problems. Download EtreCheck from https://www.etrecheck.com, run it, and paste the results here. EtreCheck is perfectly safe to run, does not ask for your password to install, and is signed with my Apple Developer ID.

Disclaimer: Although EtreCheck is free to download and use at first, it will eventually ask you to buy a license. There are also other links on my site that could give me some form of compensation, financial or otherwise.

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Answer 4

doglover4727 Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 3, 2018 12:21 PM in response to etresoft

EtreCheck version: 4.1.4 (4A203)

Report generated: 2018-04-03 15:11:58

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 3:50

Performance: Good

Problem: Other problem

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found.

Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems.

Unsigned files - There is unsigned software installed. They appear to be legitimate but should be reviewed.

32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps that may have problems in the future.

Hardware Information:

MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014)

MacBook Air Model: MacBookAir6,2

1 1.4 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-4260U) CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

2 GB DDR3 1600 ok

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 686

Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 5000 - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD 1440 x 900

Drives:

disk0 - APPLE SSD SD0128F 121.33 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

Internal PCI 5.0 GT/s x2 Serial ATA

disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk0s2 121.12 GB

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) 121.12 GB 48.70 GB

disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] 121.12 GB 20 MB

disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] 121.12 GB 518 MB

disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] 121.12 GB 2.15 GB

Mounted Volumes:

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD 121.12 GB (69.61 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /

disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM] 121.12 GB (69.61 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /private/var/vm

Network:

Interface Bluetooth-Modem: Bluetooth DUN

Interface en3: iPhone

Interface en0: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

One IPv4 address

2 IPv6 addresses

Interface en2: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

System Software:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 (17E199)

Time since boot: Less than an hour

System Load: 2.94 (1 min ago) 2.59 (5 min ago) 2.69 (15 min ago)

Security:

System	Status
Gatekeeper	Mac App Store and identified developers
System Integrity Protection	Enabled

Unsigned Files:

Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

Executable: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

Launchd: /Library/LaunchAgents/com.brother.LOGINserver.plist

Executable: /Library/Printers/Brother/Utilities/Server/LOGINserver.app/Contents/MacOS/LOGIN server

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

Executable: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Flash Player Install Manager/fpsaud

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

32-bit Applications:

45 32-bit apps

Kernel Extensions:

/Applications/zoom.us.app

[Not Loaded] ZoomAudioDevice.kext (1.1 - SDK 10.8)

/Library/Extensions

[Loaded] FileProtect.kext (Bitdefender SRL, 1.1 - SDK 10.11)

[Loaded] SelfProtect.kext (Bitdefender SRL, 1.2.10 - SDK 10.8)

[Loaded] TMProtection.kext (Bitdefender SRL, 5.0.0 - SDK 10.11)

System Launch Agents:

[Not Loaded]	9 Apple tasks
[Loaded]	187 Apple tasks
[Running]	96 Apple tasks
[Other]	One Apple task

System Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded]	38 Apple tasks
[Loaded]	177 Apple tasks
[Running]	120 Apple tasks

Launch Agents:

[Loaded]	com.trusteer.rapport.rapportd.plist (Trusteer LTD - installed 2018-02-21)
[Loaded]	org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist (? d225a7da - installed 2014-08-11)
[Other]	com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a2 3d420d.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-14)
[Running]	com.brother.LOGINserver.plist (? a1772de2 - installed 2015-11-09)
[Running]	com.bitdefender.antivirusformac.plist (Bitdefender SRL - installed 2017-09-20)

Launch Daemons:

[Loaded]	com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-14)
[Running]	com.trusteer.rooks.rooksd.plist (Trusteer LTD - installed 2018-02-21)
[Loaded]	com.apple.installer.osmessagetracing.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2018-03-27)
[Loaded]	com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (? 2afb3af7 - installed 2016-04-15)
[Loaded]	com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist (? 6d8cb30e - installed 2012-11-05)
[Loaded]	com.bitdefender.upgrade.plist (Bitdefender SRL - installed 2017-09-20)
[Loaded]	org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist (? 65395f14 - installed 2014-08-11)
[Loaded]	com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-14)
[Running]	com.bitdefender.agent.plist (Bitdefender SRL - installed 2018-04-03)
[Loaded]	com.bitdefender.AuthHelperTool.plist (Bitdefender SRL - installed 2017-09-20)

User Launch Agents:

[Loaded]

com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2018-02-03)

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper Application (Apple, Inc. - installed 2018-04-02)

(/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Stickies Application (Apple, Inc.

(/Applications/Stickies.app)

Internet Plug-ins:

FlashPlayer-10.6: 21.0.0.226 (installed 2016-04-21)

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2018-03-27)

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 17.012.20098 (installed 2018-02-25)

AdobePDFViewer: 18.011.20038 (installed 2018-02-25)

Flash Player: 21.0.0.226 (installed 2016-04-21)

SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.3.0 (installed 2014-08-26)

Unity Web Player: UnityPlayer version 4.5.4f1 (installed 2014-09-21)

Silverlight: 5.1.40728.0 (installed 2015-08-18)

MeetingJoinPlugin: Unknown (installed 2014-08-26)

User Internet Plug-ins:

CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: 1.0.105 (installed 2013-04-25)

thinkorswim plugin_x86_64: Unknown

tossc plugin_x86_64: Unknown

ZoomUsPlugIn: 3.5.57166.0713 (installed 2016-08-03)

Safari Extensions:

AdBlock.safariextz - BetaFish, Inc. - https://getadblock.com (installed 2018-04-02)

TrafficLight.safariextz - Bitdefender SRL - http://trafficlight.bitdefender.com/ (installed 2018-03-25)

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player (installed 2016-04-15)

Trusteer Endpoint Protection (installed 2018-03-16)

Time Machine:

Time Machine Not Configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

Process (count)	Source	% of CPU
sandboxd	Apple	10
WindowServer	Apple	9
kernel_task	Apple	3
coresymbolicationd	Apple	1
Activity Monitor	Apple	1

Top Processes by Memory:

Process (count)	Source	RAM usage
kernel_task	Apple	622 MB
Google Chrome Helper (6)	Google, Inc.	505 MB
mdworker (28)	Apple	365 MB
Google Chrome	Google, Inc.	152 MB
mds_stores	Apple	118 MB

Top Processes by Network Use:

Process	Source	Input	Output
mDNSResponder	Apple	52 KB	38 KB
bdagentd	Bitdefender SRL	12 KB	4 KB
apsd	Apple	8 KB	4 KB
BDCoreIssues	Bitdefender SRL	6 KB	2 KB
netbiosd	Apple	5 KB	3 KB

Top Processes by Energy Use:

Process (count)	Source	Energy usage (0-100)
WindowServer	Apple	4
Google Chrome	Google, Inc.	2
Activity Monitor	Apple	1
Google Chrome Helper (6)	Google, Inc.	1
sysmond	Apple	0

Virtual Memory Information:

Available RAM	1.06 GB
Free RAM	21 MB
Used RAM	2.94 GB
Cached files	1.03 GB
Swap Used	48 MB

Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

2018-04-03 14:50:39 imagent.app Crash (once)

2018-03-29 08:45:51 CalendarAgent Crash (once)

End of report

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Answer 5

etresoft

Level 9

51,038 points

Apr 3, 2018 1:02 PM in response to doglover4727

Hello again doglover4727,

You definitely still have BitDefender installed. Did you use the uninstallation instructions available here: https://www.bitdefender.com/support/how-to-uninstall-the-new-bitdefender-antivir us-for-mac-1687.html

In addition to that, you also have Trusteer installed. You never want to have multiple antivirus apps installed. They can interfere with each other. Plus, the way antivirus works, it is most likely going to show up as other apps that are misbehaving.

I suggest you remove both Trusteer and Bitdefender. The goal is to see how your machine runs without either of these installed. Does it run better, worse, or no change? Your EtreCheck report isn't too bad for a MacBook Air, so this is going to be something you have to decide by using the machine. Then, if you still want to run 3rd party security software, you will be better able to judge what kind of performance hit that it costs you. You should know that macOS High Sierra includes multiple layers of protection against malicious software. You don't need anything else. If you do want to install something else, only install one 3rd party security product, not any more than that.

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Answer 6

doglover4727 Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 4, 2018 7:08 AM in response to etresoft

I uninstalled both bitdefender and trusteer and the problem didnt go away. I spent 3 hours on live chat with an apple rep who made me try everything including re installing the OS and nothing worked. I think it may be a hardware issue or something on my mac is corrupted. Safari was the latest thing that was updated automatically so i think it might be safari causing my high jumps in CPU. Im not really a tech person so i think my next bet would be to visit an apple store and hope they can resolve my problem 😟

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Answer 7

doglover4727 Author

Level 1

12 points

Apr 3, 2018 12:22 PM in response to etresoft

I pasted the results, I hope you find something im not seeing 😟

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