CPU is overloaded

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I have found the following repair method, but I don’t understand the third item – should the file be deleted? I fail to do that



1) Open System Information (under Apple icon in upper-left, click About This Mac, click More Info)

2) Click System Report button, under Hardware, find your "Model Identifier" -remember this for later use

3) Navigate to /System/Library/Extensions an right-click, Show Package Contents of IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext

4) Open Contents/PlugIns and Show Package Contents of ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin.kext

5) Open Contents/Resources

6) Find your MacBookAir?_?.plist (? = your model identifier from step 2) and delete the file

7) Reboot! Remember, anytime you do a System Update, you may need to repeat this process
 

bobtomay

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Don't believe anyone here is going to recommend delving inside a kext (driver) file to do anything without more info of what is meant by "CPU is overloaded".

What Mac do you have?
What version of OS X are you using?
What process is using the CPU and what percent?
Have you re-started the machine?
Where did you get those steps?
 

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Those are terrible instructions - please don't follow them. Anytime something recommends deleting content in /System, ignore it.

Does kernel_task always use 100% CPU?

Just a note - if you're using an i7, I imagine that you've got a quad core machine which means that, since you have four processing cores, you have 400% processing capacity (each core gets represented as 100%). So, if something is using 100% of your CPU in Activity Monitor, it's only using about 1/4 of your processors capacity.
 

bobtomay

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Also, check to see what you have loading at start-up?
System Preferences - Users & Groups - Login Items

What anti-virus software or cleaning software do you have installed?
Uninstall it - then see if problem goes away.
 
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Such happens when I do not come up to the computer. When the processor is overloaded again I will make a screenshot and will show that

No new software has appeared, everything is as it has been before. Here’s what is in the autoload now
http://take.ms/rAmmo
 
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Let's go back to basics.
Open Activity Monitor.app from Applications/utilities and see what is eating your CPU cycles.
Make sure you select to view " All processes " , then click on the CPU column to sort processes in descending order of CPU usage ( highest CPU at the top of the screen )
Take a screen shot and post back.
That way we can see what is happening.

Cheers ... McBie
 
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VGX3Ipf8CLMNFiXQR15RTC5roYUUDI.png
 
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It is not just kernel task that is eating your CPU, there are numerous other apps that take a lot of CPU.
To start the process of elimination, I would stop 2 of the 3 browsers you are running and see if that makes a difference.
Then stop apps one by one and see if that makes a difference.
There is a lot going on on your machine and one of the processes may be running wild, eating all your CPU cycles.

Cheers ... McBie
 

bobtomay

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^^^^ Sound advice there.

Only based on the few apps we can see in that screen shot - after quitting a couple of the browsers you have open - the next app I'd quit would be the JivoSite app.
 

bobtomay

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That was only a starting point. You're going to have to go through and quit apps one at a time until you find the one causing it.

Because it's a kernel task, the next things I'd be looking at would be any anti-virus or other utilities that could be running in the background.

You can also try booting into Safe Mode or create a new user account to log into to see if it does it there.
All that really does is narrow it down to a software issue though.
 

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if it is done by instruction, what should be done with those files?

That cannot be answered accurately without some knowledge of what "those files" are...

If it is a 3rd party application, then contacting the developer, checking for an update or uninstalling that application are all options.
 
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chas_m

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Given that the OP is running at least two browsers (??), my money's on a problem with Flash or Java.
 

vansmith

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Let's face the facts here - your kernel is using an excessive amount of CPU power right now. It should be using nowhere near what it's using here. Not that my machine is the perfect specimen but you're using nearly 32x as many CPU resources as I am for the kernel process and my machine is probably fairly "average" in terms of what I do with it.

Unfortunately, determining what is affecting this isn't easy since a lot interfaces with the kernel (think of it as the brain of OS X). It's not like a simple app that can simple be closed. However, you can start to figure out what might be interfering with it if you start thinking about what might be messing with it. More often than not, it's something hardware related and by that, I mean some piece of hardware and its software interface are acting weird. Have you plugged any new hardware into your Mac as of late?
 
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If you do not have that file, than it can not cause this slowness :)
Have you started the process of elimination as suggested in an earlier post ?

Cheers ... McBie
 
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:)
The one you will find when you look for it !
:)
 

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