All Questions
Tagged with hang or performance
182 questions
16
votes
3
answers
9k
views
kernel_task hundreds of % CPU yet cpu frequency is being lowered
I'm trying to solve the mystery of a crazy high cpu usage on kernel_task.
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7, Yosemite 10.10.2
I saw some advice to download the Intel Power Gadget....
- 943
13
votes
5
answers
8k
views
How to keep an SSD in shape on Yosemite?
As of OS X 10.10, Apple uses kext signing. Ever since it has become difficult and dangerous to manually activate TRIM for third-party SSDs on OS X. That means users with non-Apple SSDs will sooner or ...
- 7,854
41
votes
13
answers
48k
views
Why is kernel_task using so much CPU?
I have a Macbook Pro Retina with the following hardware:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro11,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
...
- 668
169
votes
10
answers
174k
views
How to simulate slow internet connections on the mac
What's a good software solution to slow down internet connections on the mac for testing and simulations?
My primary need is when testing code in the iPhone / iOS simulator, so slowing down the ...
- 5,461
147
votes
2
answers
232k
views
How to investigate high kernel task memory usage?
I was using my MacBook Pro (with 16GB of RAM) as usual and out of blue I've this popup that:
Your system has run out of application memory.
To avoid problems with your computer, quit any applications ...
- 12.9k
85
votes
16
answers
82k
views
Can I manually limit the %CPU used by a process?
I would like to limit the amount of CPU time dedicated to certain processes (e.g. Firefox, Safari, ...).
I can't understand why such programs, even when not used (nothing loading, no animations, ...
- 1,169
56
votes
15
answers
75k
views
Why would I disable swap file in Mac OS X?
I came across a thread about installing an SSD drive in MacBook Pro.
Someone in the comments also recommended to disable the swap file but didn't say why:
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/...
- 5,067
13
votes
5
answers
35k
views
What's the fastest connection speed / shortest elapsed time using Migration Assistant?
When using Migration Assistant to move users, files, and folders from an old Mac to a new one, you have a few different choices, depending on the Macs involved. Presuming that both Macs have ...
- 2,621
11
votes
2
answers
55k
views
Using memory with a higher MHz rating? [duplicate]
Can MacBook Pro's successfully support and fully exploit RAM of a higher MHz rating than that which they ship with?
For example, take my 15" MacBook Pro (Late 2011) that ships with 4GB of 1333MHz ...
- 2,816
170
votes
11
answers
188k
views
WindowServer high CPU on Yosemite
This is a follow up to So my Yosemite install is slow - what to do?
Since installing Yosemite a week or so ago my machine is very sluggish. I am a web developer so I change windows/apps a lot. ...
- 2,298
32
votes
1
answer
38k
views
What does it mean when a %CPU exceeds (# of cores) x 100%?
Several responses to a question I asked earlier suggested I try Opera kiosk mode, so I decided to download it and give it a try. Once the download had completed and the disk image was being verified, ...
- 23.4k
20
votes
5
answers
86k
views
Boot hangs on grey screen (even when booting from USB drive with fresh OS X install)
My MacBook Pro 15" Late 2011 (MacBookPro8,2) with AMD Radeon 6770M exhibited display corruption and associated system crashes/resets over a period of two weeks before it entirely failed to boot. The ...
- 201
11
votes
2
answers
16k
views
MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion freezes frequently (full screen Flash in Chrome, Messages, HTC on USB)
Problems following an upgrade to Mountain Lion on a 13-inch, Early 2011 MacBook Pro (MacBookPro8,1 with Intel HD Graphics 3000).
With Google Chrome, I was watching YouTube video fullscreen – Flash ...
- 499
10
votes
2
answers
10k
views
Is it possible to disable CPU throttling on a MacBook Pro with a completely dead (not recognized) battery?
I have a MBP late 2011 running El Capitan, recently my battery died (x over the icon and "no battery available" in the dropdown.) I've noticed since then that CPU intensive tasks are very slow, and I ...
- 221
10
votes
9
answers
62k
views
Checking for bad blocks without formatting
My Mac tends to pause every now then when preforming simple tasks such as right clicking, opening menus and typing (It actually just froze when I started typing this question.).
I've read in a few ...
- 243
10
votes
3
answers
37k
views
How can I disable CPU throttling and CPU disabling?
On a 2011 17" MacBook Pro (i7, 10.6, 16GB ram) I do not have any options in the energy saver preference panel to control CPU throttling. I need to be able to disable CPU throttling for short periods ...
- 8,973
4
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How can I disable CPU throttling on Late 2006 MacBook with no battery? [duplicate]
The problem I am experiencing is that if the battery is not present, the CPU is automatically throttled. I have done some searching and have found that this is apparently by design, "in case the ...
- 1,343
76
votes
5
answers
77k
views
How to monitor and control thermal CPU throttling in OS X?
I recently came across the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility for Windows. I tried it under Bootcamp Windows and it was very interesting to learn in what situations my MacBook Pro's (mid2012) CPU is doing ...
- 7,854
22
votes
2
answers
37k
views
How does 'stuck' (in results of 'top') relate to 'not responding' (in Activity Monitor), 'spin' or 'hang'?
In results of top commands, I sometimes see stuck.
Apple's top(1) OS X Manual Page does not explain this use of the word.
How, if it all, does stuck relate to the following?
not responding – may ...
- 7,769
16
votes
2
answers
10k
views
How to stress a MacBook Pro Retina?
I need to stress my rMBP components (e.g. CPU/GPU/RAM) without loading any additional software tools.
Background - My rMBP has a hardware fault (similar to this issue) which causes system freezes ...
- 288
3
votes
2
answers
6k
views
How would I identify what's causing my Mac to permanently hang on shutdown?
Whenever I try to shutdown or reboot my Mac (Macbook Pro 15" Retina late 2013, OS X 10.11.3) it closes all programs like normal and then it goes into that black screen with the progress bar. When it ...
- 133
57
votes
9
answers
62k
views
Time Machine ridiculously slow after El Capitan upgrade
I recently updated to El Capitan, and told Time Machine to backup. It got stuck on Preparing Backup for hours, so I stopped it, deleted the InProgress file, rebooted and tried again. After ~30 mins, ...
- 1,520
13
votes
2
answers
3k
views
vm_compressor=VM_PAGER_DEFAULT in Yosemite caused freeze when physical memory was full
The memory compression caused frequently lag so I tried turning it off by using the command
sudo nvram boot-args="vm_compressor=1"
The lag was gone but I got crashing freeze when I opened ...
- 249
10
votes
1
answer
15k
views
Where are crash logs after a system freeze?
When your entire macOS freezes up and restarts, are there crash logs or core dumps to diagnose the problem? I would in particular like to know which kernel module was active at the time of the crash.
...
- 330
7
votes
1
answer
34k
views
Ridiculously slow MacBook Pro
I have a MacBook Pro (I think mid 2012). About three months ago it started running really slow, so I renstalled the OS with a recovery partition. For a few weeks it ran very well with an overall very ...
- 191
6
votes
1
answer
8k
views
How can I control (start/stop) applications and services that start up after reboot?
I have a Mac that is slow when using the internet, but other PCs on the same connection aren't as slow.
I suspect there are too many AV scanners running concurrently, or there is some process that ...
- 4,593
5
votes
1
answer
222
views
Is it good to keep apps closed on iOS devices?
Is it better to keep apps closed (double tap home button, hold the icon, and exit the app), as much as possible on iOS devices? I know the more apps one has open, the more RAM, for example is used, ...
- 14.1k
4
votes
3
answers
3k
views
With Firefox Aurora, Mountain Lion hung - but the mouse still worked
I've just had my first Mountain Lion lockup. The screen was entirely frozen in place (I have seconds displayed on my clock in iStat Menu and even that wasn't moving) BUT the mouse still worked. I ...
- 897
4
votes
2
answers
3k
views
What dowload speeds is the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter capable of?
I have a 2014 MBP running 10.13.6.
The first two pics show my baseline ethernet performance, with the Speedtest desktop app, and with Fast.com, respectively. I get this same performance with wireless,...
- 815
3
votes
1
answer
732
views
iPhone 7 is frozen and I can't turn it off
I went onto my iPhone 7 and tried to get into an app but couldn't I then tried swiping sideways along the screen but it wouldn't move. I tried turning it off but it got stuck on the sliding part and ...
2
votes
1
answer
803
views
WiFi Performance via Terminal
Is it possible to test the performance of a WiFi via the terminal?
Basically, I want to check how good WiFi is in some spaces of my home to figure out where to place a access points.
Can the ...
- 259
1
vote
1
answer
404
views
How to trigger spinning wheel diagnostics report
I'm working on application that consume significant CPU time and memory under heavy load.
my setup configuration is fusion VM that runs macOS Sierra 10.12.6.
At some stage I get spinning wheel and ...
- 631
1
vote
2
answers
2k
views
Broken battery - downgraded performance
I have old MacBook Pro that has a dead battery. It is not charging, and displays always 0% battery charge.
OS X is downgrading performance when battery level is close to something about 5% or 10%.
Is ...
- 123
44
votes
3
answers
40k
views
What are the differences between journaling HFS+ and non-journaling HFS+?
I'm about to format an external hard disk drive (HDD).
What are the key differences between journaling HFS+ and non-journaling HFS+? Apart from the fact that one has journaling and the other does not,...
- 8,320
42
votes
9
answers
28k
views
WindowServer is eating lots of CPU, can't work out why
2019 16" MBP running 10.15.4. WindowServer is eating a lot of CPU, idling at 10-20%-ish even with nothing much running. Fans are constantly going because of it.
I've disabled transparency and stopped ...
- 601
38
votes
4
answers
15k
views
How can I figure out which tab in Safari is using CPU?
I usually have several tabs open in Safari in the background, and sometimes I see it taking up an unusual amount of CPU (PluginProcess or WebProcess).
How can I figure out which tab (or tabs) is ...
- 11.1k
22
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Multi threaded CPU intensive task throttles CPU way before temperatures limits
I have written a very CPU intensive threaded task that works as expected on my 2012 MacBook Pro quad core. I turn it loose with 20 threads and the temperatures get up to about 100 °C as measured with ...
- 221
19
votes
2
answers
28k
views
Computer slows when battery is low
My Macbook Pro running Mountain Lion slows down dramatically when the battery is below 4-5%. All the applications running are very slow to respond, and several have the "Application not responding" ...
- 2,316
17
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Does the use of SSD give one a dramatic performance boost?
I use Mac book pro 15", and it's time to buy a new one.
For HDD, now I see a new option of SSD, which is pretty expensive.
I can expect shorter boot-up time and faster access of files, but I'm not ...
- 5,714
16
votes
7
answers
17k
views
Alternative activity monitors for OS X?
I’m a bit intrigued by the new detailed activity monitors and progress indicators in Windows 8 (copying files, the task monitor, network activity, etc.) It got me thinking: surely there must be some ...
- 3,958
15
votes
4
answers
13k
views
Why is sudo taking way too long?
I recently updated to macOS Sierra 10.12.4 Beta (16E144f) and it might be what is causing sudo to delay up to 10 minutes as it's the most recent change I recall since this problem occurred. I have ...
- 262
14
votes
2
answers
12k
views
com.apple.hiservices-xpcservice results in frequent hangs and freezes in my mac
Update (2019): The issue still persits even in macOS Mojave, tried everything I could find, nothing seems to solve the issue as of yet!
Problem:
com.apple.hiservices-xpcservice hangs repeatedly ever ...
- 2,289
14
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How can I verify if Apple is slowing down my phone because of an old battery?
Apple has recently confirmed they're slowing down phones which have a battery that's too old. How can I verify if that's the case for my particular model? Is there an app that can tell me the current "...
- 2,319
13
votes
5
answers
1k
views
What scenarios benefit from Mac OS X allowing apps to run when no document windows remain?
As a rule of thumb programs on Mac OS X stay running when you close all their document windows.
This is the behavior I noticed in MacVim, VmWare Fusion, Chrome and host of other applications.
I ...
- 1,022
11
votes
2
answers
8k
views
Tool for determining performance bottleneck
I am using my early 2011 MacBook Pro for iOS development, Photoshop work, and the like, and it is at times quite sluggish. Is there a tool that I can just run for a day, and then look at the ...
- 9,202
11
votes
4
answers
44k
views
Finder slow/freeze under Mavericks
<rant>I wish I never upgraded to OS X 10.9, it is so buggy!! But the alternative to stick with the unpatched earlier version of OS X was not a solution!
Anyway, so I am on this crappy Mavericks ...
- 1,573
10
votes
2
answers
5k
views
How to force a Terminal Command to run with the Performance Cores on Apple Silicon?
I recently had to reinstall the developer tools using xcode-select —install, but noticed that the install was completed with my efficiency cores rather than my performance cores. I know this because ...
- 554
10
votes
3
answers
19k
views
MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) thermal issues
A few months ago I got a 16-inch MacBook Pro (A2141) with 32GB ram and Core i9 (I9-9980HK) 2.4 GHz processor.
My problem is that that it overheats very quickly and drop the performance of the CPU to ...
- 225
10
votes
2
answers
29k
views
How to monitor CPU core usage?
I have a Macbook Pro 15" with the quad core i7. I am looking to see what if any performance decrease I could expect moving to a 13" Macbook Pro with a dual core i7. To that end I thought Activity ...
- 650
9
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Does force closing apps have any benefit on iOS devices?
I've gotten mixed answers from various websites and people concerning this question, and I wanted to put it out there for all of you to answer once and for all.
The question is, does force closing ...
- 2,133