Lion: Unidentified background task using 100% CPU

[Spectrum]

i7 Mac mini running 10.7.2. 8GB RAM

I have a unidentified prices running that is sucking up all of a single CPU core.

Why is this, and how do I stop it?

Activity monitor registers the system using 25% of available resources, but with no specific culprit listed.

In general I see the system using way more resources in Lion than in Snow leopard. But never this bad.

 

[parapup]

Have you tried selecting All Processes in Activity Monitor instead of just "My Processes"?

 

[Spectrum]

Have you tried selecting All Processes in Activity Monitor instead of just "My Processes"?

Excellent answer. It is a vmware-vmx. I keep having VMWare fusion freezing and forcing me to quit it. So it seems the process then gets left running. It is now chewing up 195% CPU across four cores. Core 1 is maxed out.

Any advice here? The only way I can get it back is to log out.

 

[parapup]

It is a vmware-vmx. I keep having VMWare fusion freezing and forcing me to quit it. So it seems the process then gets left running. It is now chewing up 195% CPU across four cores. Core 1 is maxed out.

Right - if the Fusion User Interface crashes it still leaves the VM running in the background. Even so the background vmware-vmx process should only consume CPU if your VM OS/apps are doing something that uses CPU. What OS are you running in the VM?

Or it just might be that your fusion install is somehow botched. In that case try restarting the machine, then uninstall Fusion and install the latest version again after a restart.

 

[Spectrum]

I'm running 10.6.3 from the client retail DVD using the version of Fusion that permited this.

Over time I've had a number of snapshots that initially work flawlessly, but over time (upon boot and relaunch) they become nonfunctional, causing the VM to freeze up at launch. I then attempt to shut down the VM, to try and open an older snapshot, but shutting down normally seems to freeze causing the CPU to peak, and I have to force quit Fusion. It is terribly unstable.

I guess I can reinstall Fusion from the dmg, recreate a new SL VM from scratch and see if it helps.

Thanks for your help.