KernalTask

[spamurai]

Hi there.

I'm new here. I was hoping someone could help me.

I have a Macbook Pro, details are:
Lion 10.7.2, 2 Ghz Intel Core i7, 4 Gb 1333 Mhz DDR3 etc.
I'm also using boot camp to run 64bit windows 7 on a partitioned 500GB (250/250) Hard drive.

I have next to no documents or files on my mac, but while i'm typing i get little freezes or pauses and the "rainbow pinwheel thing" appears for 2-3 seconds and anything i've typed doesn't appear, but then when the pinwheel goes back to being a mouse pointer, the text i've typed catches up with itself.
Its just plain annoying and seems to happen all too often. Even whilst writing this.
Another thing is while it freezes/pauses for those few seconds, my music on iTunes stops while its in that state, then starts playing again when it catches up with itself...

I'm a bit rubbish at explaining it, i hope you get a rough idea.

Any tips would be great, i'm stumped.... Normally i would of thought it was a lack or memory/slow disk or something, but i can't see any reasoning for it.

I look forwards to your replies.

 

[spacesamurai]

Looks like some program is consuming all of your resources. Given your MBP specs, you should not be running into any trouble for your MAC applications.

To see what is going on, I would recommend opening up a terminal and running the "top" command. This should show you what processes are running and what is taking up your CPU. Please tell us if you can see any problems on it.

 

[spamurai]

Looks like some program is consuming all of your resources. Given your MBP specs, you should not be running into any trouble for your MAC applications.

To see what is going on, I would recommend opening up a terminal and running the "top" command. This should show you what processes are running and what is taking up your CPU. Please tell us if you can see any problems on it.

Thanks for your response.

I don't see anything unusual. This is whats it displayed:

Obviously, they change every second or so, (including the processes stats) but this gives an idea....

Does anything look out of the ordinary to you?
Thanks.

Processes: 81 total, 3 running, 1 stuck, 77 sleeping, 427 threads                                            18:33:33
Load Avg: 1.39, 2.13, 1.59  CPU usage: 0.48% user, 1.20% sys, 98.31% idle
SharedLibs: 147M resident, 0B data, 32M linkedit. MemRegions: 16761 total, 1092M resident, 44M private, 500M shared.
PhysMem: 925M wired, 1841M active, 296M inactive, 3062M used, 1028M free.
VM: 190G vsize, 1285M framework vsize, 149536(0) pageins, 0(0) pageouts.
Networks: packets: 388587/59M in, 379152/33M out. Disks: 66762/6103M read, 139415/1637M written.

PID   COMMAND      %CPU TIME     #TH   #WQ  #POR #MREG RPRVT  RSHRD  RSIZE  VPRVT  VSIZE  PGRP PPID STATE    UID
1147  top          3.7  00:01.79 1/1   0    28   29    1504K  216K   2208K  17M    2378M  1147 1144 running  0
1144  bash         0.0  00:00.00 1     0    20   24    348K   216K   1136K  9648K  2378M  1144 1142 sleeping 501
1143  CVMCompiler  0.0  00:00.10 1     0    30   70    7764K  232K   16M    17M    2398M  1143 126  sleeping 501
1142  login        0.0  00:00.01 2     1    33   68    972K   216K   2264K  69M    2430M  1142 1140 sleeping 0
1140  Terminal     0.9  00:04.59 7     3    131  185   11M+   44M    33M+   98M+   2550M+ 1140 126  sleeping 501
1138  quicklookd   0.0  00:00.13 4     1    71   100   33M    12M    7388K  594M   2981M  1138 126  sleeping 501
1129  ocspd        0.0  00:00.04 4     1    45   59    2000K  9472K  3956K  61M    2438M  1129 1    sleeping 0
1105  distnoted    0.0  00:00.00 2     1    39   57    632K   240K   1308K  61M    2422M  1105 1102 sleeping 89
1104  mdworker     0.0  00:00.10 3     1    53   83    2360K  14M    6360K  63M    2452M  1104 1102 sleeping 89
1102  launchd      0.0  00:00.00 2     0    53   52    512K   416K   932K   73M    2434M  1102 1    sleeping 89
1086  mdworker     0.0  00:00.36 3     1    53   105   7072K  14M    18M    90M    2479M  1086 126  sleeping 501
1076- PluginProces 0.0  00:11.75 7     1    255  329   8788K  41M    36M    89M    778M   1015 1015 sleeping 501
1017  WebProcess   0.1  02:17.92 8     2    138  3519  222M   53M    308M   391M   3851M  1015 1015 sleeping 501
1015  Safari       0.0  01:37.58 10    2    359  758   59M    78M    160M   298M   3713M  1015 126  sleeping 501
998   Image Captur 0.0  00:00.13 3     2    91   85    3224K  28M    8548K  89M    2485M  998  126  sleeping 501
812   Preview      0.0  00:00.78 2     1    135  236   19M    53M    42M    109M   2550M  812  126  sleeping 501
718   rcd          0.0  00:00.23 2     1    72   98    3120K  29M    7748K  87M    2484M  718  126  sleeping 501
378   lsboxd       0.0  00:00.31 2     2    49   105   1308K  11M    4072K  51M    2469M  378  126  sleeping 501
372   cookied      0.0  00:00.71 2     1    47   72    1936K  228K   2924K  74M    2451M  372  126  sleeping 501
366   filecoordina 0.0  00:00.36 2     2    45   65    940K   2300K  2392K  90M    2452M  366  1    sleeping 0
308   applepushser 0.0  00:00.17 2     1    48-  62-   2304K- 9472K  6292K- 89M-   2466M- 308  1    sleeping 0
307   iTunesHelper 0.0  00:00.07 3     1    57   83    1508K  11M    4112K  86M    2464M  307  126  sleeping 501
304   iTunes       0.8  04:37.29 18    2    464  1087  198M   52M    285M   434M   3935M  304  126  sleeping 501
301   AppleSpell   0.0  00:01.43 2     1    61   97    10M    13M    15M    90M    2489M  301  126  sleeping 501
289-  dbfseventsd  0.0  00:00.69 1     0    9    24    20K    340K   180K   20K    583M   192  288  sleeping 501
288-  dbfseventsd  0.0  00:00.97 1     0    9    24    3692K  340K   3888K  12M    591M   192  287  sleeping 0
287-  dbfseventsd  0.0  00:00.18 1     0    16   23    20K    324K   384K   5188K  583M   192  192  sleeping 0
209-  AAM Updates  0.0  00:00.77 3     1    92   199   3308K  34M    8736K  86M    732M   209  126  sleeping 501
192-  Dropbox      0.0  00:29.30 17    1    116  431   34M    38M    44M    118M   755M   192  126  sleeping 501
191   Splashtop St 1.1  01:07.01 24    1    279  229   6812K  35M    17M    103M   2526M  191  126  sleeping 501
190-  SizzlingKeys 0.0  00:02.36 3     1    110  168   17M    37M    23M    102M   732M   190  126  sleeping 501
189   com.apple.do 0.0  00:00.20 2     1    95   120   3376K  30M    12M    91M    2496M  189  1    sleeping 501
186   TISwitcher   0.0  00:00.20 2     1    79   88    1848K  28M    6240K  90M    2486M  186  126  sleeping 501
184-  HP Product R 0.0  00:00.57 4     1    91   205   3384K  33M    8116K  88M    698M   184  126  sleeping 501
176   HP Device Mo 0.0  00:00.39 4     1    126  200   5104K  33M    11M    93M    2496M  176  126  sleeping 501
174   AirPort Base 0.0  00:00.01 3     1    37   58    704K   220K   2052K  51M    2420M  174  126  sleeping 501
169   imagent      0.0  00:00.17 2     1    63   87    1548K  9512K  3844K  83M    2467M  169  126  sleeping 501
164   ubd          0.0  00:00.65 7     1    65   104   2808K  676K   11M    86M    2456M  164  126  sleeping 501
163   warmd_agent  0.0  00:00.01 2     2    34   60    676K   220K   1924K  61M    2429M  163  126  sleeping 501
160   fontd        0.0  00:00.80 3     2    80   163   4372K  10M    6608K  83M    2499M  160  126  sleeping 501
158   pboard       0.0  00:00.00 1     0    27   43    416K   220K   992K   20M    2380M  158  126  sleeping 501
155   Finder       0.0  05:42.48 8     1    330  1128  56M    88M

 

[spamurai]

KernalTask

Hi people

What are the normal stats of the Kernal Task in the Activity Monitor?
Mine seem abnormally high, but this might be normal.

Thanks.

 

[GGJstudios]

Hi people

What are the normal stats of the Kernal Task in the Activity Monitor?
Mine seem abnormally high, but this might be normal.

It depends on what you have running. Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", then click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top). Also, click on the System Memory tab at the bottom. Then take a screen shot, scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot and post them.

 

[spamurai]

post them.

I just did a software update, and now the stats have dropped significantly.
It was using around 7-8% CPU / 144 threads and 600mb real memory...

I would still appreciate your thoughts. Thanks for commenting.

----------

Also, maybe its contributing to my other problem here

 

[GGJstudios]

I just did a software update, and now the stats have dropped significantly.
It was using around 7-8% CPU / 144 threads and 600mb real memory...

I would still appreciate your thoughts. Thanks for commenting.

I don't see anything out of the ordinary in what you posted. Just keep an eye on things for a while. If you see performance slipping again, launch Activity Monitor and always make sure it shows All Processes. If you have an app that's causing problems, you should be able to catch it.

 

[spamurai]

I don't see anything out of the ordinary in what you posted. Just keep an eye on things for a while. If you see performance slipping again, launch Activity Monitor and always make sure it shows All Processes. If you have an app that's causing problems, you should be able to catch it.

Ok, many thanks, i appreciate it

 

[spacesamurai]

This all looks very normal, not big issues. Just out of curiosity, are you running boot camp when you took this data?

 

[squeakr]

If you just did a software update it may be indexing spotlight and that would cause a performance hit.

 

[GGJstudios]

If you just did a software update it may be indexing spotlight and that would cause a performance hit.

It's not indexing, as evidenced by the Spotlight Menu Bar icon not having the pulsing dot in the center, as well as the fact that the mds and mdworker processes are using very little CPU and RAM. That's one of the first things I usually look for. Also, Software Updates don't usually trigger reindexing.