Hidden CPU usage

[Alexius]

Hi there,

Sometimes I have a problem with MBA 2011: it produces a lot of heat (CPU temp around 65-70C) but activity monitor shows 90-95% idle (same with top command). Checked and cleaned fan - it's works fine. Battery drains faster too when it happen. There is no disk or network activity. Tried to close almost every app - didn't helped but restart usually helps.

Does anybody had same problem? Heat issue and fan noise are very annoying.

 

[GGJstudios]

Hi there,

Sometimes I have a problem with MBA 2011: it produces a lot of heat (CPU temp around 65-70C) but activity monitor shows 90-95% idle (same with top command). Checked and cleaned fan - it's works fine. Battery drains faster too when it happen. There is no disk or network activity. Tried to close almost every app - didn't helped but restart usually helps.

Does anybody had same problem? Heat issue and fan noise are very annoying.

At a time when you're experiencing those symptoms, follow every step of the following instructions precisely. Do not skip any steps.

1. Launch Activity Monitor
2. Change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes"
3. Click on the "% CPU" column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top).
   (If that column isn't visible, right-click on the column headings and check it, NOT "CPU Time")
4. Click on the System Memory tab at the bottom.
5. Take a screen shot of the entire Activity Monitor window, then scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot
6. Post your screenshots.

 

[Alexius]

Here it is. But everything looks ok. Tried to sort by CPU time, memory - looks normal too. It's too many processes to show all of them on 2 screenshots so I made only one as other processes shows 0% cpu usage at the moment.

 

[Alexius]

Attached screenshot:

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Looks normal, you could use 1 GB more RAM though, but since it is an MBA, that is not an option.

65° to 70° C are quite okay though.

Those Macs in their heat - a sine of over-heating? - a short story by Mister GGJstudios

 

[GGJstudios]

Here it is. But everything looks ok. Tried to sort by CPU time, memory - looks normal too. It's too many processes to show all of them on 2 screenshots so I made only one as other processes shows 0% cpu usage at the moment.

I don't see anything there that jumps out as a possible culprit and your temps aren't out of line. Use iStat Pro (free) or iStat Menus ($16) to get accurate readings of your battery, temps, fan speeds and much more.

A forum member has posted a copy of iStat Pro that has been "tweaked" to enhance compatibility with Mountain Lion. You can download it here.

You have a small amount of page outs. How long has it been since you last restarted your Mac? As they're cumulative since the last restart, a restart will reset page outs to zero, so you can track them under normal workloads.

If you're having performance issues, this may help:

Performance Tips For Mac OS X​

 

[Alexius]

Thanks for replies,

65-70C on idle definitely doesn't looks ok for me. Normal temperatures at such cases usually around 45-50C.

I'm using iStat nano widget for reading temps, fan speed, etc. OS X was restarted 6 hours ago.