If the fan is indeed not working then you must fix that immediately. Then see if the other issues are still present.
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What is kernel_task and why is it taking up so much memory?
- Thread starter troye
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If the fan is indeed not working then you must fix that immediately. Then see if the other issues are still present.
Help? Very easy. Just relax. Don't worry.
You don't have a clue what kernel_task is there for and what it is doing. Most likely it is doing exactly what it is meant to do.
You are correct. 167% CPU usage on an idle system is not normal. Something is chewing up CPU cycles.
I am assuming from looking at your Dock you have nothing else running and Spotlight is not reindexing.
Have you installed something recently like maybe a driver that could have caused this?
Try a safe mode boot while holding down the shift key. This will prevent any startup items from running. While in safe mode look at Activity Monitor again. If the problem is gone, that tells you it is related to a startup item.
Also, try checking in Console log while this is happening for any error reports that may help you pinpoint the problem.
For some reason I have a long wait for the computer to boot (over 2 min.) and I can't get it to boot in safe mode. In addition, the fans run at 6000rpm's.
Hmm... dunno why safe mode would not work. Shut off the machine then hold the shift key down when you hear the chime.
Do you see anything odd in Console log when this is going on?
Well...been getting a frustrated!
I thought it was the logic board so I removed it and installed into another 2010 Macbook pro of mine and it works perfect (quick start up and fans running @ 2000 rpm with no kernel problems. Put it back into the other 2010 Macbook Pro and the same thing happens as before, long start up and fans running at 6000 rpms and kernal_task cpu at almost 200%.
I cloned the hard drive (CCC) so they are using the same software.
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Well...been getting a frustrated!
I thought it was the logic board so I removed it and installed into another 2010 Macbook pro of mine and it works perfect (quick start up and fans running @ 2000 rpm with no kernel problems. Put it back into the other 2010 Macbook Pro and the same thing happens as before, long start up and fans running at 6000 rpms and kernal_task cpu at almost 200%.
I cloned the hard drive (CCC) so they are using the same software.
Not good. That points away from a software problem and looks like some kind of hardware issue. I mean if you cloned to the other system and the problem goes away, it can't be any driver or anything you have.
Only other thing I can think of is to try running the built in Apple Hardware Test. Instructions here.
I'm afraid you are going to need to take this in to Apple or an Apple repair center for some troubleshooting.
Kernal_task chewing up 200% CPU at idle is definitely not normal.
No One is really addressing the issue
I've been going through a bunch of these threads and no one seems to be really addressing the real issue... Or finding a solution for it is what I mean... This kernel_task is driving me crazy - yesterday I was working in Photoshop CS6 with Bridge CS6 open too and Google Chrome... kernel_task was steady at about 900-ish MB - I have 8Gigs of RAM - (sorry, no screenshot, you'll just have to take my word for it) - In Activity monitor my 350 MB multiple layer Photoshop File would eat about 4.2 Gigs of RAM and the system memory would drop my "Free Memory" (green) sometimes to 22MB when it was churning away.
I mean, with Snow Leopard I have run FCP7, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Illustrator CS4 and Word and Bridge all at the same time without even a hickup or slow down on a 4GB machine! really... Now I have this "amazing" machine and Google Chrome sometimes can't even load a page when I have the above (Adobe Ph CS6 and Bridge CS6 and Chrome) running at the same time....
I used to Love Mac and I switched to Mac from Windows because Windows would do exactly what kernel_task seems to be doing right now: HOG MEMORY IT "THINKS" it may need? Really?
Can I even go back to Snow Leopard? My Mac is a September 2012 MacBook Pro with 8 gigs of RAM (and yes, I'll upgrade to 16 GB this week!..) but what can be done do make this better? All I'm reading is:
"This is Normal"...
((((
I've been going through a bunch of these threads and no one seems to be really addressing the real issue... Or finding a solution for it is what I mean... This kernel_task is driving me crazy - yesterday I was working in Photoshop CS6 with Bridge CS6 open too and Google Chrome... kernel_task was steady at about 900-ish MB - I have 8Gigs of RAM - (sorry, no screenshot, you'll just have to take my word for it) - In Activity monitor my 350 MB multiple layer Photoshop File would eat about 4.2 Gigs of RAM and the system memory would drop my "Free Memory" (green) sometimes to 22MB when it was churning away.
I mean, with Snow Leopard I have run FCP7, Adobe Photoshop CS4, Illustrator CS4 and Word and Bridge all at the same time without even a hickup or slow down on a 4GB machine! really... Now I have this "amazing" machine and Google Chrome sometimes can't even load a page when I have the above (Adobe Ph CS6 and Bridge CS6 and Chrome) running at the same time....
I used to Love Mac and I switched to Mac from Windows because Windows would do exactly what kernel_task seems to be doing right now: HOG MEMORY IT "THINKS" it may need? Really?
Can I even go back to Snow Leopard? My Mac is a September 2012 MacBook Pro with 8 gigs of RAM (and yes, I'll upgrade to 16 GB this week!..) but what can be done do make this better? All I'm reading is:
"This is Normal"...
((((
Did you read the WHOLE thread ?? I think back in post #9 is what you are looking for.
Can you go back to SL, in short NO. You can not go back to a older OS than what the Machine Shipped with. It would of shipped with Lion 10.7 so you won't be able to put SL 10.6 on it what so ever.
As long as the %CPU is not high i really wouldn't worry about it to much. My Kernal_Task is running @1.37GB ATM with %CPU @1.2-3.8% and i have 8gb RAM on a Mid 2012 13"MBP. No problems with slow down here.
If your OCD use something like Oynx (Get the .V for your OS) or MainMenu MainMenu 1.7.4 Free Copy ~ DONT UPDATE and run all the tasks, except the Spotlight Reindexing and .DS_Stores then restart and see if that makes a difference. (It Should) then go back to enjoying the Mac OS X
Cheers
I've also having some issues with kernel_task pumping out too much memory. First, I'll give some background. I had my MacBook Pro running pretty much 24/7 for about a month. By that, I mean I had torrents, web browsers constantly open (one of which was set to auto-refresh on several pages), a java program that turned my computer into a server, and several Finder windows. So...probably WAY too much activity, but my computer is new and seemed to handle it fairly well. By the way, OS that came packaged with it was 10.8, but I upgraded to 10.9 (hasn't been too buggy...). That upgrade was before this month marathon of activity. Anyways, I go back to college (hence the one-month break) and the laptop goes back to having several long periods of rest. Monday was the first day of classes...and it was Tuesday that I noticed that machine was lagging for EVERYTHING. Open a Finder window, I get the pinwheel (or as you guys call it, the Beach Ball). Navigate within that Finder window that managed to load after waiting about a minute or two, Beach Ball. The computer can repeat the lagged task again, but if I try anything else, I get a noticeable data lag. I cannot use my laptop for anything remotely productive. Fortunately, I did say it was new, so it ought to be under Apple Care. I have an appointment scheduled for this Monday, but I thought I'd post on here and see if anyone can respond before thing (or after, should the problem not be solved that day). Anyways, back to the story...I rebooted my laptop numerous times, and the system was lagging more than I have ever experienced, and this is coming from someone that used Print Explosion (for those of you that know what I mean by that) on a machine that started out as a 10.4. Usually, when there's a data lag, I can at least switch gears, and if the entire machine locks up, a simple restart fixes the problem. Nothing is working. So, I bring up Activity Monitor, and I soon realize that there is a good 700+ MBs being taken up by a process known as kernel_task. Not knowing what this was and being unable to quit the process (with good reason as I now know) I consult one my friends whom has a pretty good knowledge of computers. He basically gives the explanation you guys gave, that it is essentially the OS. He was completely baffled as to why it would take up so much memory. He recommended draining the battery, among doing other things to short out the battery...didn't try those, but I did drain it completely to no avail. Next, I tried to use the Recovery HD. I ran Disk Utility to ensure it was not a problem with the hard drive...thankfully, it wasn't. Out of pretty much all options, I turn to calling Apple for support. That does very little either, as the guy seemed skeptical that this was an issue at all. Not only did he not seem concerned about the massive memory usage, but he also that Activity Monitor is not good at diagnosing things...not sure how that logic works, but whatever...he probably doesn't know a whole lot about how computers operate behind the screen and therefore didn't even consider it. Anyways, he has me empty the cache (a whooping 6000+ items in the User Library Cache alone) along with doing a hard reset. That helped...but the problem still remains. Actually, I'm skeptical if it helped at all as the system always seems to run rather quickly at first, but then slows down exponentially after startup. That...or I'm just getting more patient. Anyways, I was looking on here, and I saw Safe Mode. I tried that, and it seemed to work! All forms of lag were gone...I was able to navigate Finer just as quickly as before (with a slight degrade in the graphics, but that's to be expected I'd imagine). However, it doesn't seem that Safe Mode is a stable mode as I got kicked out to the login screen when I tried using Mission Control to flip between browsing Chrome to another app. I believe someone placed some code that will tell me what other background tasks are running, and perhaps I can further narrow down the issue from there. I'll post again in a second with screenshots and more info.
Mavericks manages memory differently that previous OS versions. It tends to make use of all available memory.
It is perfectly normal for kernel task to use 700MB of memory. My system is using 704MB for it right now and everything is fine. Kernel task is not your issue.
Skimming that list in Activity Monitor I don't see anything using an unusually large amount of memory and the total memory in use looks fine.
If your system was fast before and is now slow, you need to focus on the CPU usage tab of activity monitor. The next time the system starts running really slow open activity monitor and look at the top CPU % consumers and see if you have something that is eating up CPU cycles.
The fact that this gets better (faster) in safe mode is an important clue. One of the things safe mode does is bypass any login/startup items. So the fact your system is faster in safe mode tells us you likely have a startup item slowing down the system. Go to System Prefs and Users & Groups then look at login items to see what you have there. Remove half at a time and reboot to see if things improve.
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Just a suggestion...paragraphing would make this post much easier to read. A wall of words can be daunting and reduce the probability that the post will be read.
Again, just a suggestion, no offense meant.
Just a suggestion...paragraphing would make this post much easier to read. A wall of words can be daunting and reduce the probability that the post will be read.
Again, just a suggestion, no offense meant.
How's this?
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And to update with some more info...Finder (I think) crashed when I tried to move those screenshots to another computer so I can post them on here (because forget web browsing on my laptop).
I'll check System Preferences for login items...I am pretty sure I have a lot. For instance, I have two cloud services on my computer along with a couple of other things, but like I said before, nothing has been an issue until now.
Get rid of the three with the yellow triangles because the app is not present. Then start removing half of the others at a time and restart to see if that helps.
Make sure you have updated that WD Quckview. I know some of the WD software was causing troubles for Mavericks
I might get rid of the WD altogether too...it's a sucky software. WD makes great drives, terrible backup software...
Yep... you would be better ditching it if you can and just use OS X Time Machine. It is better anyway and can do a full restore if you ever need it.
Actually, I can rule out Vuze...that I just turned back on as Open at Login. I figured if I can run torrents, no matter how lagged the system is, I figure it's better than nothing.
Anyways, point being, the system was lagged without it.
This is affecting a lot of people, so far no word from Apple.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5497235?start=0&tstart=0 (just one of the hundreds of threads on the internet). There are people claiming to have it who have installed nothing third party, its affecting MacBooks and iMacs (and probably Mac Pro's) of various generations.
The only constant factor is a Mac + Mavericks.
- From an angry user who has tried everything but Kernel_Task keeps going back up to 500%.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5497235?start=0&tstart=0 (just one of the hundreds of threads on the internet). There are people claiming to have it who have installed nothing third party, its affecting MacBooks and iMacs (and probably Mac Pro's) of various generations.
The only constant factor is a Mac + Mavericks.
- From an angry user who has tried everything but Kernel_Task keeps going back up to 500%.
When I searched for this issue, I found similar threads, all seeming to point to Mavericks...that seems to be pretty buggy lately.