Non stop kernal_task issues

[HappySnail]

for the last few weeks when using my macbook pro i've had kernal_task suddenly takeover and use about 600% CPU according to activity monitor. When I unplug the laptop from the power this block usage drops, however kernel_task still mirrors whatever I do, the system CPU usage sticks at about 3-4x the user usage - the more CPU I use the more the system usage rises too.

I've tried running the laptop in safe mode and it didn't seem to have this problem at all, also windows still works fine via bootcamp. I reset the PRAM and SMC too but the issue still continues.

Is there any way to tell what kernel_task is doing? or what might be causing it?

Thanks for any help.

 

[flattyre]

lsof | grep kernel_task

 

[HappySnail]

Hi,
Thanks for the reply, I tried this in terminal and get nothing back. Anything else I need to do first?

Thanks

 

[HappySnail]

The whole thing keeps freezing up completely and whenever I try to startup, it now makes the boot noise twice. Anyway - I'm not sure if that helps but I really need to work out what kernel_task is doing or find a way of fixing diagnosing this problem as my macbook is fairly useless like this.

 

[me43]

How much ram is it using and what operating system are you on? Mine seems to be taking up a lot more memory(at times more than 2GB) than it used to but I'm running Mavericks so I think it could be just a bug.

 

[Count Blah]

How much ram is it using and what operating system are you on? Mine seems to be taking up a lot more memory(at times more than 2GB) than it used to but I'm running Mavericks so I think it could be just a bug.

With the way kernal_task has been increasing over the years, that seems more like a linear progression than a bug. Yet people are still telling others that 8 Gigs of RAM soldered on is A-OK.

 

[HappySnail]

It uses just under 1GB of RAM pretty much always (I have 16GB), this never changes much though and doesn't go up at all even when the CPU usage goes crazy.