High CPU usage

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Hi
I am a new Mac user. My MacBook pro is running with mac os 10.6.8, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3.
From a few weeks ago its fan started to run very fast and mac slow down. First I thought its because of running software such as final cut pro... Although Mac was not in a high tempreture, I shut down and leave it for a while and boot it again and it worked. But recently even when there is no program running, the same problem appears. It may happen even at start up . I checked in activity monitor and I saw CPU usage is more than %85 even no soft running! While in a normal situation running final Cut or Adobe CS5 needs something around %15.
I don't know how can I solve this problem? My battery is not working and I am running always on power.
 

chscag

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Welcome to the Mac Forums.

Keep your Activity Monitor app open and watch to see what is consuming all the CPU power. 85% usage is not normal unless you're doing some intensive work. Look for any unusual activity going on and try to identify it. With that much CPU usage, the fan is going to ramp up to keep the CPU cool.
 
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Welcome to the Mac Forums.

Keep your Activity Monitor app open and watch to see what is consuming all the CPU power. 85% usage is not normal unless you're doing some intensive work. Look for any unusual activity going on and try to identify it. With that much CPU usage, the fan is going to ramp up to keep the CPU cool.

Thanks for your reply. in fact as you said I was monitoring MAC all the time but regarding to my poor knowledge about Mac I couldn’t figure out the problem.

I have installed iAntivirus and scan. no problem found.
I ran disk permission and disk repair. 2 problems were found in HD. it was fixed but problem not solved.
I ran mackeeper.
Hardware extended test was done at startup and no problem found.
iStat was installed and i monitor the activities.
Other primitive work such as removing heavy file from desktop was done.
In fact with no obvious reason even when no program is running, suddenly Mac CPU usage jumps over %85.
i checked kernel_task in this situation is around 175 for CPU with 250mb, while in a normal situation is 1.7 for CPU and 229mb.

With hardware test, I am almost sure there is not a hardware problem, even though my battry is not working.
So I started to work on applications. I have removed all unnecessary applications such as different version of adobe CS and kept only CS5 and cleaned applications folder.
Now it is under check and I will see what will be next.
 

BrianLachoreVPI


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Well - Mackeeper doesn't get good ratings here - so that may just compound things.

As chscag asked - what process is using the CPU at a high % when you see this abnormal activity?
 
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chas_m

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Remove iAntiVirus (there's no such thing as a Mac virus, so what exactly would an anti-virus do other than use up resources?) and MacKeeper (junk) using the uninstall instructions provided by the developers. Don't just drag them to the trash, uninstall them FULLY following instructions.

THEN come back and let us know if you're still having the problem. My guess would be "no."
 
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Hi
My Mac is under test export long clip and later I will uninstall iAntivirus and Mackeeper, but so far it seems the problem is solved. I think the lat step such as removing different version of CS was effective and it is almost 20 hours of working with no problem. formerly not more than 2 hours problem would repeat. Just as a tipp for me can you tell me, how is that possible when no program is running, this might happend?
Thanks to all
 
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Hi
I uninstalled Mackeeper as well as iantivirus, and after exporting a long clip for about 20 houers in final Cut, it seems working properly. I keep testing.
thanks to all
 

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