kernel_task is using 85% of my CPU - recommended fixes?

I ran an EtreCheck diagnostic, and I will post the results at the end of this post.

Here in summary are my issues and what I have troubleshot so far.

I got my Mac Book Pro in 2013 and it is currently running:

I have had a kernel panic crash twice. Once sometime during 2017 (I think). And once within the last month.

My laptop has been slow, but I have been tolerating it. Then this week I had a coffee spill and had the keyboard replaced. There was some corrosion on some parts, even though I acted fast. That is definitely an aggravating factor, and I am limping along now.

In the process of sorting through possible causes, I did an SMC reset that resulted in the CPU drain ending according to the Activity Monitor, but the fan started blowing like it was going to take off. When in Firefox, pages were loading much faster. However, when I did a second SMC reset, the fan was quiet again, and kernel_task was draining CPU again. I was not able to replicate the first result after that. I also attempted a PRAM reset with no change.

I did a safe mode start and all the kernel_task CPU drain issues were there too.

I ran the kextstat command in Terminal and there were no third party processes found.

At this point I poked around on the communities and found that people who had similar issues ended up running EntreCheck. So here I am hoping someone can identify the issues I can fix and the issues I can't.

EtreCheck version:4.2.1 (4C020)

Report generated:2018-05-04 20:42:31

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime:73:28

Performance:Poor

Problem:Computer is too slow

Description:

kernel_task is taking up 85% of CPU

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

No Time Machine backup- Time Machine backup not found.

Poor performance- EtreCheck report took over 10 minutes to run. This is very unusual.

Heavy CPU usage- Some processes are using an unusually high amount of CPU.

Minor Issues:

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

Upgradeable hard drive- This machine’s hard drive could be replaced with an SSD. This would dramatically improve your machine’s performance.

Apps hanging- There have been numerous app hangs.

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

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)

MacBook Pro Model: MacBookPro9,2

1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-3210M) CPU: 2-core

4 GB RAMUpgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 2 GB DDR3 1600 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 2 GB DDR3 1600 ok

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 85

Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD 1280 x 800

Drives:

disk0 - APPLE HDD HTS545050A7E362 500.11 GB (Mechanical)

Internal SATA 3 Gigabit Serial ATA

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

disk0s2 () [Core Storage Container] 499.25 GB

disk1 - Macintosh HD (Journaled HFS+) 498.88 GB

disk0s3 - Recovery HD (Journaled HFS+) [Recovery] 650 MB

Mounted Volumes:

disk1 - Macintosh HD 498.88 GB (181.26 GB free)

Journaled HFS+

Mount point: /

Encrypted

Network:

Interface en1: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n

One IPv4 address

2 IPv6 addresses

Interface Bluetooth-Modem: Bluetooth DUN

Interface en0: Ethernet

Interface en4: iPhone

Interface fw0: FireWire

Interface en3: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

System Software:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 (17E199)

Time since boot: About an hour

System Load: 18.25 (1 min ago) 23.23 (5 min ago) 21.28 (15 min ago)

Security:

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

System Launch Agents:

System Launch Daemons:

Launch Agents:

Launch Daemons:

User Launch Agents:

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper Application (? - installed 2018-03-30)

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

HP Device Monitor SMLoginItem (HP Inc. - installed 2017-10-24)

(/Library/Printers/hp/Frameworks/HPDeviceMonitoring.framework/Versions/1.0/Helpe rs/HP Device Monitor Manager.app/Contents/Library/LoginItems/HP Device Monitor.app)

Internet Plug-ins:

SharePointBrowserPlugin: 14.7.7 (installed 2017-09-28)

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2018-04-18)

Time Machine:

Time Machine Not Configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

Top Processes by Memory:

Top Processes by Network Use:

Top Processes by Energy Use:

Virtual Memory Information:

Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

2018-05-04 18:36:12 quicklookd.app Crash (2 times)

2018-05-02 18:58:56 Firefox.app Hang (13 times)

End of report