Issues with MBA & Mac Mini

[ferret1979_1]

I've already mentioned this on twitter and I think Ben and Hands0n will be aware.

My Mac Mini started to run slow, and I did wonder if it was because I was running 2 displays, but Ben mentioned looking in Activity Monitor, which I did, and installd, and another was taking a lot of resources.

I googled this, and it appears its to do with the Mac App Store, and Software Update.

I went into Software update preferences and turned the options off, but the MBA is suffering the same (MBA running Mountain Lion & Mac Mini running Lion).

Even with these options turned off the MBA seems to have the problems (not sure on the Mini, haven't used it much lately).

I also noted on the MBA, that calendaragent was also taking a lot of resources, and this seems to be something to do with google calendar, and iCal.

But whilst all this is going on the MBA is getting very hot, and the fans spinning fast. The CPU went upto 93 degrees!!!

This happening more, when the MBA is being charged and used.

Now the strange bit, if I close the lid, and wait for the fans to stop, and then open the lid, waking the MBA again, everything seems to reset, and works fine again.

Is this a hardware issue? Seems unlikely to me, as happening on 2 machines, seems more like a config/software issue.

Does anyone have an idea on how to solve this?

Thanks for reading.

[Ben]

It's very likely to be something you'll be able to see in Activity Monitor. Certain processes will spike up every now and then, Software Update, for example, runs so infrequently that disabling it should not be necessary, you must've just happened to look at Activity Monitor 'at the wrong time'.

You've mentioned before that you have AV installed. If you can do without it, or just use it for manual scans rather than always-on protection (probably sufficient if you need AV), then I'd imagine that'll help a lot.

Let us know if you see any more processes taking up a lot of CPU/real memory.

[ferret1979_1]

I've uninstalled the Anti Virus software.

Strange, how it stops, as soon as I close the lid & re open.

[ferret1979_1]

The MBA seems a bit more stable now, but its not plugged into the mains.

Kernel_task appears to spike a little, as does safari web content, windowserver, iTunes, activitymonitord, calenderagent, but they are not spiking high, well below 10%

Is it related to being charged?

[Ben]

The laptop will act more greedily when it's on the mains, generating additional heat (plus extra heat if it's charging), but if anything performance should be smoother/better when you're on the mains compared to battery.