Kernel_Task going crazy?

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.

 

they are taking it for diagnostics

 

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!!!

 

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.

 

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?

 

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