syslogd using 100% cpu

[portugirl]

Hi,
Looking in the Activity monitor it seems syslogd is using 100% cpu and my macbook is about to take off!

I've looked at other threads but can't seem to find an answer - hope someone can help!

I've attached a screenshot of the Activity monitor - hope it has attached.

I've also looked at the error log and there are HUGE amounts of messages mainly about 3 things:


26/11/2014 10:40:15 ACTIVhardware[170] *** __NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object 0x413770 of class NSCFArray autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking


There is also this:

26/11/2014 11:16:17 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.SystemStarter) Failed to count the number of files in "/System/Library/StartupItems": No such file or directory

And this:

26/11/2014 11:17:55 com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.aslmanager) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds

Can anyone help?

MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009)
OSX 10.6.8
2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

 

[satcomer]

First check you Startup items and disable any uninstalled programs. Plus in Activity Monitor try shutting the runaway process. Then Dowload the free program EtreCheck and tun it. What ever shows up in Red is incompatible and the program will show you where it is to delete it or update the service. Then reboot.

 

[portugirl]

Thank you so much for your reply.

I've taken the steps in the startup and disactivated what was not necessary.

I've downloaded the etrechck and have attached (I hope) the results.

Although I can usually get myself round a computer, I'm stuck about what to do now...

Would it just be I need more RAM?
Is it something to do with genio (in launch agents)?
Or something with Adobe Flash player version?
I've turned off Time Machine

What do I do now?

Thanks in advance for any further help you can offer

 

[satcomer]

Did you read my suggestion. What is in Red needs to be deleted or updated!

 

[portugirl]

Yes, I read your reply. Thank you.

I'd done everything that I am able to - what I'm stuck on is the two bits that are still in red after I've rerun EtreCheck.

1. 2 GB RAM
2. Time machine information requires OS X 10.7 "Lion" or later.

Both of which I realise I need to sort out somehow...

However, I've just turned on the macbook now and so far the Activity Monitor shows syslogd as 0.9%

If this stays like this for the rest of the day and the problem has been resolved through your suggestion, you are a complete star! Will let you know, but many, many thanks for your help.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thank you so much for your reply.

I've taken the steps in the startup and disactivated what was not necessary.

I've downloaded the etrechck and have attached (I hope) the results.

Although I can usually get myself round a computer, I'm stuck about what to do now...

Would it just be I need more RAM?
Is it something to do with genio (in launch agents)?
Or something with Adobe Flash player version?
I've turned off Time Machine

What do I do now?

Thanks in advance for any further help you can offer

You have the Genieo malware running on your machine and you need to get rid of it. Run this adware removal tool to delete the malware.

 

[portugirl]

Thanks.

The AdwareMedic requires a Mac running Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or later. I'm on 10.6.8 so have to manually remove it, which looks pretty tricky for me. I'll see how easy it is to get my head around it.

Thanks for the advice, though.

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks.

The AdwareMedic requires a Mac running Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or later. I'm on 10.6.8 so have to manually remove it, which looks pretty tricky for me. I'll see how easy it is to get my head around it.

Thanks for the advice, though.

http://www.thesafemac.com/arg-genieo/

If it will help you can use Terminal to delete those files. Just enter "sudo rm -rf" (without the quotes) followed by the full path to the file.

For example, the first one on the list would be like this:

sudo rm -rf /Applications/Genieo

You will be asked for your admin password the first time. Then just keep on with copy/paste for the rest of the list.

If you get stuck post back here and we can help you out.

 

[portugirl]

OK - I've gone for it and fallen at the first hurdle!

I've been on http://www.thesafemac.com/arg-genieo/ and got as far as finding how to locate the files from paths, but with step 2

/private/etc/launchd.conf I got the message 'The folder can't be found'

So I tried:

sudo rm -rf /Applications/Genieo

And have the same message.

As the mac seems to be running fine now, I'm hesitant to try anything too drastic until I have my head around it! Thanks for the offer of help - I'll be back when I've learnt how to get inside my computer.

 

[Weaselboy]

OK - I've gone for it and fallen at the first hurdle!

I've been on http://www.thesafemac.com/arg-genieo/ and got as far as finding how to locate the files from paths, but with step 2

/private/etc/launchd.conf I got the message 'The folder can't be found'

So I tried:

sudo rm -rf /Applications/Genieo

And have the same message.

As the mac seems to be running fine now, I'm hesitant to try anything too drastic until I have my head around it! Thanks for the offer of help - I'll be back when I've learnt how to get inside my computer.

Just keep going through the whole list using the sudo command like I described. You may not have all the Genieo files on there, but I can see at least one you have in the Etrecheck output (below)... so that tells us at some point you had the Genieo adware on there. Running all those commands like I described will not hurt anything.

This one should kill that Genieo plist launch agent.

sudo rm -rf /Library/LaunchAgents/com.genieo.engine.plist

At least run this one then restart and run Etrecheck again to make sure there is no Genieo stuff left.