System UI Server eats all my memory when USB plugged in?

I’m running a 2.5 GHz Intel i5 with 8Gb ram, using OSX 10.7.5. I’ve noticed that when I plug certain items into the rear USB ports - my Kindle, Fuji camera or iPod, the entire Mac slows down and becomes really jerky. Activity Monitor, when it eventually starts, shows System UI Server using over 6Gb of ram. If I force this to quit all returns to normal, around 17 - 20 Mb usage. I’ve read about the problem on other forums or through a Google search but there seem many wild and wonderful theories and solutions - many users don’t even seem to have identified the memory leak from this application. Is there a simple fix for this other than force-quit or typing long lines of code in Terminal, which is one solution that’s on the Net? I can’t believe Apple would just ignore the problem…. but there’s no answer via their discussion boards so far.

Which application is causing the memory leak? Just attaching a USB device whether it be a Kindle, iPod, camera, or otherwise, should not increase memory usage.

It would be helpful if you include a screen shot of your Activity Monitor that shows what is using the memory while one of your USB devices is attached. Also, as an aside, you realize that you can upgrade your iMac to Mavericks for free? Mavericks uses advanced methods for handling system memory.

Two screenshots attached - the first shows Activity Monitor before the camera is plugged in, with SystemU|IServer using 26.6 Mb, the second once the camera is plugged in to the rear USB port when the usage has increased to a massive 6.50 Gb. The only program now running, that wasn’t before, is Imagecapture.


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OK, thanks for the screen shots. Yes, the Image Capture application will use a considerable amount of memory. Is it running automatically when you plug in the Kindle, camera, or iPod? And does the memory usage return to normal when you quit Image Capture? Also, I didn't ask before... but how much hard drive space do you have remaining (unused space)?

Funny... I thought I had replied to this a few days ago!
However: this occurs when almost any USB device is plugged in - Kindle, iPod iPad or camera. Imagecapture SHOULD run automatically but the Mac slows down so much I usually have to start it myself, then wait… and wait… it doesn’t return to normal when I quit, but if I force SystemUIServer to quit it restarts at about 20mb and remains there for the duration, running as normal.
Disk space is 342 Gb free out of a total of 500.

Ulsterapple said:

Funny... I thought I had replied to this a few days ago!
However: this occurs when almost any USB device is plugged in - Kindle, iPod iPad or camera. Imagecapture SHOULD run automatically but the Mac slows down so much I usually have to start it myself, then wait… and wait… it doesn’t return to normal when I quit, but if I force SystemUIServer to quit it restarts at about 20mb and remains there for the duration, running as normal.
Disk space is 342 Gb free out of a total of 500.

Click to expand...

We had a DATABASE failure on the forums yesterday and it was restored from a Backup. Some more recent posts were lost. Sorry.

I'm beginning to suspect a USB hardware failure.

Have you tried booting into another user account and does it happen there? (Sorry, didn't go back and read all the posts.)

If you don't have a 2nd user account, it's time to create one for testing purposes.
Still occurs in a new user account - am more inclined to believe a hardware issue.
Does not occur in a new user account - it would likely be much faster to move everything to the new account than to continue troubleshooting the issue.

Good advice from bobtomay. Let us know.....

bobtomay said:

I'm beginning to suspect a USB hardware failure.

Click to expand...

Thanks - that’s one for me to ponder, but I’m not 100% sure it’s a hardware issue - the USB flash drive, for example, works perfectly and today when the camera was connected and 14 2.5 mb images were uploaded there were no problems - this may point to an intermittent problem?
I’ll try a second account and post results. Thanks for your very welcome advice.