Kernel_Task going crazy?

[divinemercy]

Hello!

All of a sudden (today) my macbook has started running super slow (taking like 30 seconds to switch applications, etc. I looked in activity monitor, and it shows kernal_task at almost 400 mb! Is that normal, cause i dont think so...

The only thing i've changed since yesterday when it was running fine was installing the Veoh play for mac.....

Thanks for the help everyone,

Ryan

P.S. I restarted an kernel_task is only at around 56 mb, with all the same applications, etc running...... What would make it spike that that up to 400 !?!?

Also: I noticed that the other programs (adium, firefox, etc) that were running before restart were at around 100mb. After restart, they are half that even though i am using them the same way. Why??

 

[drawstring]

interesting that you post this today, since I noticed my MBP's kernel_task not using up a lot of memory, but using up 55% of my processors (e.g. 1 full processor is dedicated to running this task at a given moment)! it's way slowing down my machine, and since i'm on CS3 all day, has been a really pain. reboots do not help - they used to take about a minute, and now, literally, i timed it, it takes 10 minutes.

i hope someone has insight. going to apple store in a bit, so if i come with answers I will post here.

 

[drawstring]

they are taking it for diagnostics

 

[drawstring]

so apple didn't have an answer. one person said they thought my optical drive was broke, since it won't read any media which would allow me/us to run some diagnostics. it's possible, but i just got a new optical drive a couple of weeks ago, and it seemed to work ok (until i noticed this problem). anyway, instead of describing my problem - here is my activity monitor.

any thoughts? i can't do much on this machine right now, and being without a computer for 5 days because apple takes that long to swap an optical drive is too much. would really appreciate the help. thanks!!!

 

[Cave Man]

I would install the OS on an external drive and boot from that. If the problem persists, then it's likely hardware. If not, then you have a software issue of some kind.

 

[drawstring]

thanks for the advice! much appreciated.

i had a bootable backup and i tried booting off of this. though if it's a software issue this would be replicated in the backup, no?

and so a boot of a different copy of the OS would let me know if it's hardware or software, right?

 

[DoFoT9]

i wouldnt worry about it. just let it do its thing and i will fix itself.