syslogd using 100% cpu Troubleshoot

[mancduff]

For the last few days my macbook fans would go into overdrive for long sustained periods, after looking at Activity Monitor it showed the culprit was a process named syslogd, i opened up console and there was countless logs saying [0x0-0xf00f].com.carvware.gpcdaemonlauncher Could not get HID event via getNextEvent. #-536870183 (0xe00002d9) over and over, to cut a long story short i tracked it down to Gamepad Companion 2.4. I've since uninstalled it restarted them repaired permissions (going overboard) and it's done the trick now my Leopard is Purrrrrring, just letting you know so as to help anyone else who is having this problem.

 

[orbitalpunk]

i had the same problem but i've never used gamepad before. i wonder what else it could be. the only 3rd party appls ive installed are vlc and divx.

 

[lperso]

I've had the same syslogd problem in here, on a iMac with Leopard fresh install. Only applications added were iLife, Firefox and Skype.
It's a big mystery for me as it stopped right now. I've been going through /var/log/ files, process lists and all trying to track the issue down and it just stopped.
Anyone had noticed this strange behavior as well?

 

[blackmondo]

Firewall might be the culprit

I just started having this problem myself today. There is a thread about it on Apple's discussions here:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1203511

I tried disabling the firewall logging in the Security pref pane, as suggested by
the user "kikuchiyo", and that worked for me.

For clarity, it's a weird one to turn off, seems you have to click either "Block All...", or "Set Access..." radio button first, then click advanced, and turn it off there.

Hopefully Apple are looking into it because it was nasty having my CPU maxing out on me.

Edit: Hmmm, it seems it's not entirely fixed. I have to keep quitting the syslogd process when it starts eating up CPU (seems to happen every 1.5h or so)

 

[lord patton]

happening here, too. The terminal command:

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.syslogd.plist

worked for me

 

[zankty]

happening here, too. The terminal command:

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.syslogd.plist

worked for me

Worked for me as well. Thanks for the tip.

 

[VoidBoi]

Unloading syslogd isn't a good idea. Instead look in console for what the problem is and fix it.

In my case I had a leftover launchd that was trying to load but kept failing (a remnant from an archive and install) and it was continually logging errors.

 

[Malcster]

Damn ive got this now too, just getting hidd process messages all the time, using over 100% cpu.. Grr i was hoping apple had fixed this with 10.5.2

Feb 17 11:18:31: --- last message repeated 3557 times ---
Feb 17 11:18:31 Oddjob /usr/libexec/hidd[25]: IOHIDEventQueueEnqueue: Error enqueuing memory. (0xe00002e8)
Feb 17 11:19:01: --- last message repeated 2522 times ---
Feb 17 11:19:01 Oddjob /usr/libexec/hidd[25]: IOHIDEventQueueEnqueue: Error enqueuing memory. (0xe00002e8)
Feb 17 11:19:31: --- last message repeated 4814 times ---
Feb 17 11:19:31 Oddjob /usr/libexec/hidd[25]: IOHIDEventQueueEnqueue: Error enqueuing memory. (0xe00002e8)
Feb 17 11:20:01: --- last message repeated 5942 times ---
Feb 17 11:20:01 Oddjob /usr/libexec/hidd[25]: IOHIDEventQueueEnqueue: Error enqueuing memory. (0xe00002e8)

tried stopping and starting syslogd but no effect, not really running anything much either, relunctant to stop syslog logging but might have too, any thoughts?

 

[dandelorey]

Maybe this will shed a little light. I have the same behavior, but different culprit, Firefox. Happens quite regularly, though. The messages Firefox is writing seem to belie a similar cause, though. Here they are:

2/21/08 1:46:33 PM [0x0-0xae0ae].org.mozilla.firefox[1727] firefox-bin(1727,0xa0379f60) malloc: *** mmap(size=4132864) failed (error code=12)
2/21/08 1:46:33 PM [0x0-0xae0ae].org.mozilla.firefox[1727] *** error: can't allocate region
2/21/08 1:46:33 PM [0x0-0xae0ae].org.mozilla.firefox[1727] *** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug

I'm on a MacBook Pro, running Leopard, 3 GB of Ram. If anyone else is seeing similar problems, could you post the console messages syslogd is writing? If they are all regarding failed memory allocation, that might suggest a common cause.

 

[Headblade]

Worked for me as well. Thanks for the tip.

Me too. Don't care if it in't a "good idea" as I just need my cpu free to do everything else ;-)

 

[MacsRgr8]

I agree with VoidBoi

By unloading syslog demon you are removing the symptoms, but not the cause of the problem. Syslog is trying to warn you about something.

It's like shutting down your nerve system if you have a pain somewhere...

 

[NewtotheMac]

Just out of curiosity mancduff how did you track the problem down to gamepad? I think that might be my solution too, but did you reinstall gamepad or just go with out it?
thanks

 

[jakdominance]

Answer, Sort of...

The syslog daemon logs messages from other apps, third party or not. When an app is acting up, syslog daemon adds thousands of lines of messages, which in turn racks up the CPU. To see which app is sending all the messages, open /private/var/system.log in Console(you can find in the Utilities folder from Applications). If yours is acting up, then it's likely gonna be a few mgs or so, mine was 20mgs, I've heard some were hundreds. After killing the culprit app, eventually the syslogd will stop. However, a better way to do it (while saving a few megs too) is to empty the file itself:
(from <http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=7586288#7586288>)

1. stop syslogd
sudo launchctl stop com.apple.syslogd
2. delete it's log while it's down.
sudo rm -f /var/log/asl.* /var/log/system.log*
3. start syslogd
sudo launchctl start com.apple.syslogd

The true problem here is the system, and a bug that Apple ought to fix soon. You can see from the site above that this is no isolated problem.