what is eating up my cpu?

[jkaye213]

my cpu is being pushed to the extreme... based on the activity monitor i can't figure out whats going on...

any ideas/suggestions short of doing a full clean reinstall of the os?

 

[celticpride678]

When was the last time you restarted? No need for OS reinstall for sure. At least I don't think so...

 

[killerrobot]

How much RAM do you have installed?

Something is probably leaking memory - so all that is needed is a system restart to clear out cache.

 

[jkaye213]

i've restarted several times, that screen shot was taken right after restarting... i also reset the temperature censors because the CPU is showing between 85-90C right after turning the computer on.

i have 2 gb of ram and have had the macbook pro for about 2 years with no problems... this is recent getting increasingly worse over the past week or so.

could i have spyware or a virus going on? seems strange.

 

[Cave Man]

You need to show all processes, not just yours. It's probably Spotlight.

 

[maflynn]

You cannot figure it out because you are only displaying your processes.

Use the drop down box on the upper right of the window to select all processes and you'll see the offending process.

Alternatively you can type ps in the terminal (applications->utilities->terminal)

type man ps in the terminal to get the exact syntax

 

[Cave Man]

Alternatively you can type ps in the terminal (applications->utilities->terminal)

I prefer top -o cpu.

 

[Frosties]

Where's the rest of your threads and processes? Typical is a print job that got stuck, look for that.

 

[Cave Man]

Typical is a print job that got stuck, look for that.

My money's on Spotlight (mdworker/mds).