Why is My MacBook Pro Tricking Itself?

[bli625]

My MacBook Pro 2.66GHz has been running at 40% of the CPU ever since this afternoon. It usually idles around 10% or so. Funny thing is... when I go into Activity Monitor, and show all processes, it only adds up to about 10%, but there is an extra 30% being generated somewhere and it's heating up the computer from the normal 59C to 71C and the fans from the usual 2000rpm to almost 4000rpm now. I have tried resetting the SMC three times, resetting the PRAM three times, and I have repaired permissions and rebooted a few times. It starts off fine when I log in, but then it goes up to about 40% CPU usage after a few minutes of doing nothing.

I even tried making a new account.. it's the same when I login to the new account. The fans spin up and CPU usage is around 40%

There's a picture. The processes do not add up to 40%.
Anyone know what's wrong with this??

Btw, this is the second time it happened.. the first time it happened, I did an archive and install and it was still there. Then I rebooted, and it was gone. It reappeared again today.

 

[ayeying]

You're only showing "My Processes". Change to "All Processes".

 

[Consultant]

Sort by ALL PROCESSES

 

[bli625]

Oops. Sorry, I posted the wrong image. Here's the right one.
As you can see, the processes still don't add up to approximately 40%.

 

[mac2x]

Still can't see all the processes; remember that this list is longer than the My Processes list.

 

[bli625]

All the other processes alternate between .1% and 0%. They are almost negligible in regard to the 40%+ I'm current experiencing. Are there hidden things that don't show up in the Activity Monitor? I really don't want to go through another reinstall.

 

[melman101]

Sort by the % CPU column by clicking on it. And see what the top one is.

 

[bli625]

The top one is 6%, iTunes.

 

[m85476585]

Do you have any programs running? Do you have admin privileges (I don't know if it matters)? Are there other users logged in? Have you tried rebooting?

Try running top in the terminal. Open Terminal and type "top -o cpu" (without the quotes). That will give you a total CPU number and show you all processes sorted by CPU. Hit q to quit. If that doesn't add up, try "sudo top -o cpu" to run as admin (you will need to type your password).

 

[bli625]

Yes, aI just tried the terminal thing. Top process is using 5%. Adding all the active processes up amounts to about 16%... This is really weird.... My computer has its fans at 4000rpm now with a temperature of 72C.

 

[m85476585]

You could also try the following terminal commands (don't type the $):
$ ps aux
$ sudo ps aux

They should give you the same result as top, but they will show everything not just the first few.

The only thing I can imagine is a process trying to hide itself, but I don't know if that is possible since top and ps aux should show you everything. Of course, hackers can do a lot of tricky things, and maybe someone found a way to hide processes from you. When I say hackers, that could mean a malicious program you ran or installed that has taken control of your system, or a hacker that gained control by SSH or a vulnerability in something. SSH is enabled if you have Remote Login Sharing on, and I recommend disabling it unless you know how to secure it (key-based authentication/login and put it on a non-standard port). Make sure your firewall is on too. Of course, if someone already has control of your computer, disabling SSH and turning on the firewall won't do anything, and they won't stop your mystery CPU use.

Have you tried the guest user? (I don't know if guestuser shown in your first pic is just a user you made up or the actual guest user).

 

[bli625]

I tried those terminal commands. THe top one is "root" with 5% usage so still no luck.. I have remote login disabled too.