New MacBook air running kernel_task at 300%

Well I pulled the trigger and bought a new base 13" Air from the online store and the first time I turn it on the fans went to max 6000 rpms and never shut off unless the machine sleeps or shutdown.

Talk about bad luck eh.... I haven't even gotten to do anything with it yet and it's only days out of the box now. The CPU for kernel_task is so high all 4 CPU boxes are almost full red and this task stays at 300+% straight nonstop. The machine is so laggy it's unusable.

Reset smc
Reset pram
Repaired permissions
Verified ssd (Samsung)
Ran hardware test mode extended and it passed
Reinstalled lion 10.7.3 clean not recovery


No change after all that

I suspect a bad thermal sensor or logic board.

The interesting thing is the machine is cold to touch no heat whatsoever.

I'm sending it to the store.....shouldn't this warrant me a new replacement since its new but I already threw out the box. Lol my bad thinking it was just doing some maintenance tasks for the first time from initial boot.

Hate to loose that Samsung ssd but I rather have a stable new machine. Sometimes I think buying a refurb is better at least you know they fixed any issues it had after leaving the factory.

Well got a call from the apple store that they replaced the logic board and memory.....disappointed with this service since the machine was in my hands on feb 20th and the problem was noticed from startup right out of the box during setup process.

After trying some steps to see if it was software or firmware related to no avail I called it in on the 26th and sent in to the store....

I think I deserve a new replacement for this $1435.00 machine that is now coming back to me as refurb. piss poor customer service.

I don't have my hands on it yet but I will reply with how it works when I pick it up.

Got my Macbook Air back from the apple store. instead of replacing it which is less than 30 days old they went and replaced the logic board and ssd (now Toshiba)

The total cost of repairs which was under warranty was 1226.00 and my new laptop which I ordered online on the 14th Feb and delivered on 20th and reported the problem on 26th after trying a couple of things to remedy it myself still exhibited the same symptoms...so I sent it in to the store...just the laptop without cables etc.

I think i deserve a new one for a machine less than a month old...and the cost of repairs was nearly the cost of what I paid for it new 1465.00

Should i call Apple and complain about this? what would you do?

PS. the 13" Air is working fine now after the repairs..

Hi Guys,

It was brand spanking new AIR ordered from the online store.

I had in it my possession for about 6 days before calling apple to setup a repair/return repair case with apple online support and they asked me to take it into a store for repairs and no offer of a replacement.

during those 6 days i tried to fix it myself as listed in the first post to no avail.

When it arrived new I just powered it on and started the usual apple setup process for new laptop with apple id and account info in which during the process the fans were already screaming steady 6000 rpms before the desktop even showed up. When the desktop finally showed up which was very laggy with the mouse I managed to open the activity manager and see the "kernel_task" maxing the CPU out. I thought it was spotlight but after that finished it still continued and never stopped.

My Question now to you Apple users is:

Would you call Apple customer service and raise hell for at least some sort of gift certificate for not replacing a brand spanking new laptop that wasn't even used yet?


That is my last question.


Thanks to those who chose the time to read and reply.


I own several Apple devices which are registered to my Apple ID, so obviously I'm a reoccurring customer.

1 24" LED Display (mid 2009) + apple keyboard & bluetooth touch mouse
1 13" macbook pro 8 gb DDR3 ram, 256 SSD (mid 2009)
1 Ipod 5th gen video
2 ipod nano's 4th and 5th gen
1 ipod nano 6th gen
1 Airport Extreme
1 13" Macbook Air 2011 (bought in Feb 2012)
1 iPhone 4s 32gb unlocked (bought Feb 2012)