MacBook Pro Early 2011: How do I stop kernel_task from over consumption of memory?

Sounds like a memory hole

I think it maybe Mavericks 10.9 update issue.

I was reading about this the other day. Are you using headphones on your MBP? Kernel_task uses a massive amount of memory on my Mac. But barely any CPU.

I don’t experience any slowdowns due to this so I never really paid any attention to it.

Have you restarted it?

Can also try Memory Clean which just frees up what’s already not in use but might still be marked as reserved. It’s free and really simply to use.

Hey all thanks for the responses.

As soon as I started up my laptop the fans were on full blast. And then when I’d hover over the search tool it would say at the bottom, “indexing “my name” macbook”

I said screw it I had to have it on to watch the NFL games regardless of the lag, and I could hear the fan pretty loud. I took a quick nap and awoke to it and the fans were back to normal levels and couldn’t hear them and overall everything stabilized to normal!

I just let it sit there I guess.

That is probably mdworker (spotlight). It thrashes the CPU and disk. It calms down after a bit.

It is different from kernel_task.

I am at a bit of a loss here. Unfortunately I think there isn’t a easy fix until Apple fixes it.

After the upgrade, the OS indexes the entire HD for Spotlight. Best to let it run its’ course overnight.

also this…

My kernel_task is now at 3.5% compared to 347.0% @Bagardbilla I don’t understand I didn’t update recently or anything like that.

I’m guessing it’s a 10.9 thing seeing as a lot of the support forums think so.

@pleiades Is it still doing it?