Runaway Kernel Task on M1 MacBook Pro

[robfoll]

Anyone else getting this? I am running Big Sur 11.3 Beta (20E5210c) although the problem predates the beta

My MBP runs smoothly after a restart, then I get beachballs in Safari, then the whole machine slows down and I find Kernel Task running at 1500% to 5000% !@@!!@ CPU usage.

Sometimes the Mac crashes sometimes it staggers on slowly until I reboot

Have reported to Apple Dev about no feedback so far

 

[5piN]

Same issue here and can't figure out what's causing it. Its getting annoying now!

Found any solutions?

 

[robfoll]

Same issue here and can't figure out what's causing it. Its getting annoying now!

Found any solutions?

None at all appears to be partly linked to Safari but not 100% - Reported to Apple Dev but an inconclusive response and less than 10 reports noted. Plan to try a clean install on an external drive, boot from that and see what happens? Happening on all betas so for and only on my M1

 

[5piN]

None at all appears to be partly linked to Safari but not 100% - Reported to Apple Dev but an inconclusive response and less than 10 reports noted. Plan to try a clean install on an external drive, boot from that and see what happens? Happening on all betas so for and only on my M1

Okay update I'm hoping 11.4 fixes this as it seems to have fixed the crazy read/writes with Big Sur! Also I switched over from Safari & Edge to Brave & Firefox.

I've not had any issues since 11.4 but its only been a few days and I haven't had a long sessions yet!

 

[Significant1]

Anyone else getting this? I am running Big Sur 11.3 Beta (20E5210c) although the problem predates the beta

My MBP runs smoothly after a restart, then I get beachballs in Safari, then the whole machine slows down and I find Kernel Task running at 1500% to 5000% !@@!!@ CPU usage.

Sometimes the Mac crashes sometimes it staggers on slowly until I reboot

Have reported to Apple Dev about no feedback so far

What activity app is that. Anything above 800% on M1 doesn't make sense to me.

 

[5piN]

Okay I upgraded to a 14 MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and was still getting the issue much to my annoyance. This would only happen when extracting multiple files to a SMB share. After some testing and switching over to AFP the issue has stopped and I have had no crashing.

Obviously this must be a bug with SMB implementation in Mac OS and Apple Silicon. My intel MacBook 12 never had any issues with same workload and SMB.

 

[wilberforce]

Extremely high kernel_task CPU usage is a classic symptom of the computer thinking the CPU is overheating, and is used as a dummy process to deny CPU usage to real processes. (This may, however, not be the only reason.)
Suggest check using an app like Macs Fan Control or TG Pro or iStat to see if any temperatures are reported haywire.

If kernel_task is using a large percentage of your Mac CPU - Apple Support

One of the functions of the kernel task process is to help manage the temperature of your CPU.

support.apple.com

 

[robfoll]

FYI a total clean wipe and reinstall of Monterey by Apple sorted the Kernel Task problem, may have been a hangover from a beta install BUT SSD life is down to 24% left and falling.

 

[cheezypuffs]

I'm still dealing with this issue and it's getting really annoying. Last couple days it wrote 7.2TB to disk (kernel_task)
It'll happen every few weeks at total random. Apple is "trying" to figure it out but not making progress. I wish they'd just replace the damn thing since it's clearly been faulty since day 1.