High kernel task CPU usage - EtreCheck results

Question

Level 1

12 points

High kernel task CPU usage - EtreCheck results

Hi all,

My mid-2014 MacBook Pro has recently started playing up. The issue first occurred during a FaceTime call when it stated that the temperature was too high and would resume once it cooled down. The fans started to whir and I noticed on my activity monitor that kernel_task was running >100% CPU, despite me closing all programs.

I have followed generic advice for this such as resetting the SMC/NVRAM and removing 3rd party anti-malware software that I had recently installed. This worked for a period but today the problem has resurfaced.

I should mention that following liquid damage I had a similar issue with kernel_task. The logic board was replaced following that incident and seemed to work fine until now (this was ~1 month ago).

My EtreCheck report is below - I followed the immediate advice given but it didn't appear to solve the problem. If anyone has any further advice it would be very much appreciated.

EtreCheck version: 4.3.6 (4D041)

Report generated: 2018-09-09 19:34:42

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 21:12

Performance: Poor

Problem: Computer is too slow

Description:

High CPU usage - kernal_task

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

No Time Machine backup- Time Machine backup not found.

Adware- Adware detected.

Unsigned files- There are unsigned software installed that could be adware and should be reviewed.

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

Minor Issues:

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

Clean up- There are orphan files that could be removed.

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

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014)

MacBook Pro Model: MacBookPro11,1

1 2.6 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-4278U) CPU: 2-core

8 GB RAM - Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR3 1600 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR3 1600 ok

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 146

Video Information:

Intel Iris - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD

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 (99.90 GB used)

disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] 121.12 GB (22 MB used)

disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] 121.12 GB (519 MB used)

disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] 121.12 GB (1.07 GB used)

Mounted Volumes:

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD 121.12 GB (19.48 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /

Encrypted

disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM] 121.12 GB (19.48 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /private/var/vm

Network:

Interface en3: USB Ethernet

Interface en6: Thunderbolt Ethernet

Interface en0: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

One IPv4 address

Interface en5: iPhone

Interface en4: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

iCloud Quota: 1.63 GB available

System Software:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G65)

Time since boot: Less than an hour

System Load: 11.11 (1 min ago) 37.50 (5 min ago) 28.35 (15 min ago)

Security:

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

Adware:

Launchd: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.applicationstats.AppStats.plist

Reason: Adware name match

Executable: ~/Library/Application Support/Spigot/AppStats --protect

Launchd: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.appart.AppArt.plist

Reason: Adware pattern match

Executable: ~/Library/Application Support/AppPolicy/AppArt -i -c 808263 -isn 35CA4D59-DC5A-4CFA-A3E2-327FAC5523F5

Unsigned Files:

Launchd: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.cisco.videoguard10.uninstall.plist

Executable: /bin/sh ~/.cisco/VideoGuard/uninstall/cisco_videoguard10/condUninstall.sh

Launchd: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.cisco.videoguard10.plist

Executable: /bin/sh -c $HOME/Library/Cisco/VideoGuardPlayer/VideoGuard10/VideoGuard10.bundle/Contents/ Resources/setupServer.sh

Launchd: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist

Executable: /Applications/Skype.app/Contents/Library/LaunchServices/com.skype.skype.shareag ent.bundle/Contents/MacOS/com.skype.skype.shareagent

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

Launchd: /Library/LaunchAgents/com.cisco.anyconnect.gui.plist

Executable: '/Applications/Cisco/Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client.app' --wait-apps '/Applications/Cisco/Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client.app'

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

Launchd: ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.cisco.videoguardmonitor.plist

Executable: /bin/sh -c $HOME/Library/Cisco/VideoGuardPlayer/VideoGuardMonitor/VideoGuardMonitor.bundle /Contents/Resources/launch.sh

Details: Exact match found in the whitelist - probably OK

32-bit Applications:

14 32-bit apps

System Launch Agents:

[Not Loaded]	8 Apple tasks
[Loaded]	191 Apple tasks
[Running]	94 Apple tasks
[Other]	One Apple task

System Launch Daemons:

[Not Loaded]	37 Apple tasks
[Loaded]	192 Apple tasks
[Running]	107 Apple tasks

Launch Agents:

[Running]	com.rosettastone.rosettastonedaemon.plist (? fb2f5604 - installed 2015-01-06)
[Loaded]	com.cisco.anyconnect.gui.plist (? 40bd3462 - installed 2015-07-22)
[Other]	com.adobe.ARMDCHelper.cc24aef4a1b90ed56a725c38014c95072f92651fb65e1bf9c8e43c37a2 3d420d.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-27)

Launch Daemons:

[Loaded]	com.adobe.ARMDC.SMJobBlessHelper.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-27)
[Other]	com.cisco.anyconnect.vpnagentd.plist (? a7cbca7 - installed 2015-07-22)
[Loaded]	com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-07-27)
[Loaded]	com.adobe.ARMDC.Communicator.plist (Adobe Systems, Inc. - installed 2018-02-27)
[Other]	com.cisco.anyconnect.ciscod.plist (? d78c2ec9 - installed 2015-07-22)
[Loaded]	com.microsoft.office.licensingV2.helper.plist (Microsoft Corporation - installed 2015-11-05)

User Launch Agents:

[Other]	com.applicationstats.AppStats.plist (Adware - installed 2016-03-09)
[Running]	com.cisco.videoguardmonitor.plist (? 0 - installed 2018-09-08)
[Loaded]	com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2018-07-28)
[Loaded]	com.skype.skype.shareagent.plist (? 0 - installed 2018-01-03)
[Running]	com.appart.AppArt.plist (Adware - installed 2016-09-02)
[Loaded]	com.cisco.videoguard10.plist (? 0 - installed 2018-09-08)
[Loaded]	com.cisco.videoguard10.uninstall.plist (? 0 - installed 2018-09-08)
[Loaded]	com.bittorrent.uTorrent.plist (BitTorrent, Inc - installed 2016-03-17)

Internet Plug-ins:

Silverlight: (installed 2016-01-25)

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: (installed 2018-08-14)

QuickTime Plugin: (installed 2018-07-30)

AdobePDFViewer: (installed 2018-08-14)

Flash Player: (installed 2018-08-14)

FlashPlayer-10.6: (installed 2018-08-14)

Safari Extensions:

Adblock Plus.safariextz - Eyeo GmbH - https://adblockplus.org/(installed 2018-09-09)

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player (installed 2018-07-27)

Time Machine:

Time Machine Not Configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

Process (count)	Source	% of CPU	Location
WindowServer	Apple	28
AddressBookSourceSync	Apple	2
sandboxd	Apple	1
SystemUIServer	Apple	1
coresymbolicationd	Apple	0

Top Processes by Memory:

Process (count)	Source	RAM usage	Location
Safari	Apple	406 MB
mdworker (12)	Apple	281 MB
com.apple.WebKit.WebContent	Apple	169 MB
Finder	Apple	126 MB
Dock	Apple	100 MB

Top Processes by Network Use:

Process	Source	Input	Output	Location
mDNSResponder	Apple	122 KB	23 KB
apsd	Apple	14 KB	21 KB
netbiosd	Apple	3 KB	938 B
SystemUIServer	Apple	0 B	64 B
amfid	Apple	0 B	0 B

Top Processes by Energy Use:

Process (count)	Source	Energy (0-100)	Location
WindowServer	Apple	11
launchd	Apple	0
logd	Apple	0
opendirectoryd	Apple	0
mds_stores	Apple	0

Virtual Memory Information:

Available RAM	4.43 GB
Free RAM	1.95 GB
Used RAM	3.57 GB
Cached files	2.48 GB
Swap Used	0 B

Software Installs (past 30 days):

Name	Version	Install Date
Adobe Flash Player	30.0.0.154	2018-08-14
Adobe Acrobat Reader DC (18.011.20058)	18.011.20058	2018-08-14
Dr. Cleaner	3.3.6	2018-08-14
Dr. Antivirus	2.3.0	2018-08-23
Gatekeeper Configuration Data	154	2018-09-05

Clean up:

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.cisco.anyconnect.vpnagentd.plist

/opt/cisco/anyconnect/bin/vpnagentd

Executable not found

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.cisco.anyconnect.ciscod.plist

/opt/cisco/hostscan/bin/ciscod

Executable not found

Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

2018-09-09 12:15:20 CiscoVideoGuard Crash (2 times)

/Users/***/Library/Cisco/*/VideoGuard10.bundle/Contents/MacOS/CiscoVideoGuard

BUG IN CLIENT OF LIBPLATFORM: Trying to recursively lock an os_unfair_lock

End of report

Many thanks,

C

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014), macOS High Sierra (10.13.6)

Posted on Sep 9, 2018 1:09 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,209 points

Sep 9, 2018 1:39 PM in response to calmac13

A Troubleshooting Procedure that may Fix Problems with macOS El Capitan or Later

You should try each, one at a time, then test to see if the problem is fixed before going on to the next.

Be sure to back up your files before proceeding if possible.

Shutdown the computer, wait 30 seconds, restart the computer.
Disconnect all third-party peripherals.
Resetting your Mac’s PRAM and NVRAM
Reset the System Management Controller (SMC)
Reset your Startup Disk and Sound preferences.
Start the computer in Safe Mode. Test in safe mode to see if the problem persists, then restart normally. Also, see Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac - Apple Support and Playing Safe- what does Safe mode do?.
Use Apple Hardware Test to see if there is any hardware malfunction. How to invoke and interpret the Apple hardware tests - CNET.
Repair the disk by booting 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) volume entry from the side list. Click on the First Aid button in the toolbar. Wait for the Done button to appear. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu. Restart the computer from the Apple Menu.
Repair permissions on the Home folder: Resolve issues caused by changing the permissions of items in your home folder.
Create a New User Account Open Users & Groups preferences. Click on the lock icon and enter your Admin password when prompted. On the left under Current User click on the Add [+] button under Login Options. Setup a new Admin user account. Upon completion log out of your current account then log into the new account. If your problems cease, then consider switching to the new account and transferring your files to it - Transferring files from one User Account to another.
Download and install the OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 Combo Update or 10.12.6 Combo Update or Download macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Combo Update as needed.
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.
Erase and Install OS X Restart the computer. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Apple logo appears. When the Utility Menu appears:

Select Disk Utility from the Utility Menu and click on Continue button.

When Disk Utility loads select the drive (out-dented entry) from the Device list.

Click on the Erase icon in Disk Utility's toolbar. A panel will drop down.

Set the Format type to APFS (for SSDs only) or Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)

Click on the Apply button, then wait for the Done button to activate and click on it.

Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.

Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.

14. If none of the above helps then see How to Downgrade macOS High Sierra and macOS Reversion- How to Downgrade from High Sierra.

15. If you get here without success then make an appointment at the Apple Genius Bar for service. If you need to find an Apple Store - Find a Store - Apple.

Reply

Answer 2

calmac13 Author

Level 1

12 points

Sep 10, 2018 3:41 PM in response to etresoft

Unfortunately it does appear to be a hardware issue, I was hoping for a different outcome but alas.

As an aside, I just wanted to make a quick note to say thank you for making your diagnostic tool available to download. I’m sure over the years it will undoubtedly help many grateful Mac users, myself included.

Reply

Answer 3

calmac13 Author

Level 1

12 points

Sep 10, 2018 3:46 PM in response to Kappy

Thank you for the detailed response. Unfortunately, I am now at Step 15 with no end in site! As stated below, it seems likely to be a hardware issue. Many thanks again for the reply, I will update if the problem is determined following the Genius Bar appointment.

Reply

Answer 4

etresoft

Level 9

58,084 points

Sep 9, 2018 5:25 PM in response to calmac13

Hello,

You have adware installed. And you appear to have worse installed too. See https://blog.malwarebytes.com/threat-analysis/2018/09/mac-app-store-apps-are-ste aling-user-data/

However, I don't think those issues would explain your poor performance. I think it must be a hardware problem. Your kernel task wasn't even listed on your EtreCheck report and it still took 21 minutes to run.

Reply

Answer 5

Kappy

Level 10

362,209 points

Sep 10, 2018 6:07 PM in response to calmac13

If that be the case, then try using an external bootable drive or replacing the hard drive unless the problem also incurred when booting from the Recovery HD. In this case, you may have some other hardware fault.

Reply

High kernel task CPU usage - EtreCheck results

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