Re: SymUIAgent.app hogging 55% of CPU

robcoyle · ‎09-30-2009

SymUIAgent.app is holding 55% of my CPU for the last two days. The process is not crashing as it's ID has remeinaed the same over the time I have been momitoring it. I am runing 10.5.8 on a 2.33Ghz MacBook Pro with 2GB of Ram.

I have tried to find a solution to this on these boards but cannot. So I attach a sample of SymUIAgent.app to analyse

Sampling process 160 for 3 seconds with 1 millisecond of run time between samples
Sampling completed, processing symbols...
Analysis of sampling SymUIAgent (pid 160) every 1 millisecond
Call graph:
    1845 Thread_2507
      1845 start
        1845 _start
          1845 NSApplicationMain
            1845 -[NSApplication run]
              1845 -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:]
                1845 _DPSNextEvent
                  1845 BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode
                    1845 ReceiveNextEventCommon
                      1845 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode
                        1845 CFRunLoopRunInMode
                          1845 CFRunLoopRunSpecific
                            1556 __NSFireTimer
                              1555 -[NSProgressIndicator _animationIdler:]
                                1555 -[NSNotificationCenter addObserver:selector:name:object:]
                                  1555 _CFXNotificationRegister
                                    1555 _CFXNotificationRegister
                              1 __NSFireTimer
                            283 mach_msg
                              283 mach_msg_trap
                                283 mach_msg_trap
                            2 __CFRunLoopDoObservers
                              1 CFRelease
                                1 CFRelease
                              1 OSAtomicCompareAndSwapLongBarrier
                                1 OSAtomicCompareAndSwapLongBarrier
                            1 CFDictionaryGetValue
                              1 CFDictionaryGetValue
                            1 __CFRunLoopModeFindSourceForMachPort
                              1 CFSetApplyFunction
                                1 __CFRunLoopFindSource
                                  1 __CFRunLoopFindSource
                            1 __CFRunLoopTimerRescheduleWithAllModes
                              1 mk_timer_arm
                                1 mk_timer_arm
                            1 __bzero
                              1 __bzero
    1845 Thread_2603
      1845 thread_start
        1845 _pthread_start
          1845 ZssStString::operator=(ZssSymbol*)
            1845 mach_msg_server
              1845 mach_msg
                1845 mach_msg_trap
                  1845 mach_msg_trap
    1845 Thread_2703
      1845 thread_start
        1845 _pthread_start
          1845 select$DARWIN_EXTSN
            1845 select$DARWIN_EXTSN
    1845 Thread_2803
      1845 thread_start
        1845 _pthread_start
          1845 __NSThread__main__
            1845 -[NSThread main]
              1845 -[NSUIHeartBeat _heartBeatThread:]
                1845 -[NSConditionLock lockWhenCondition:]
                  1845 -[NSConditionLock lockWhenCondition:beforeDate:]
                    1845 -[NSCondition waitUntilDate:]
                      1845 pthread_cond_timedwait_relative_np
                        1845 _pthread_cond_wait
                          1845 semaphore_timedwait_signal_trap
                            1845 semaphore_timedwait_signal_trap
    1845 Thread_2903
      1845 thread_start
        1845 _pthread_start
          1845 __NSThread__main__
            1845 -[NSThread main]
              1845 0x4d9e76
                1845 kevent
                  1845 kevent

Total number in stack (recursive counted multiple, when >=5):

Sort by top of stack, same collapsed (when >= 5):
        mach_msg_trap        2128
        kevent        1845
        select$DARWIN_EXTSN        1845
        semaphore_timedwait_signal_trap        1845
        _CFXNotificationRegister        1555
Sample analysis of process 160 written to file /dev/stdout

Thanking you in advance.

rgds,

Robert.

ryan_mcgann · ‎01-10-2009

It looks like, from this sample, UIAgent is trying to displaying progress for something. If you have not restarted, please try restarting and seeing if that helps. If the symptoms come back after restarting, then this is a recurring problem that we'll need more information to investigate.

Which product do you have installed? Right now, only Norton AntiVirus and Norton Online Family will display progress. It's impossible to tell from the backtrace what product is displaying the progress, nor why it is stuck. Do you see a "SymAVScanServer" process also taking up lots of CPU? SymAVScanServer is the process that peforms virus scans, and SymUIAgent will display the progress of the virus scan. If you have Norton Online Family installed, is the SymDaemon process taking up CPU? SymDaemon is used by all our products, but Online Family uses it to check for & download policy updates in the background.

Ryan

Ryan McGann
Principal Software Engineer
Macintosh Products & Solutions
Symantec

robcoyle · ‎09-30-2009

Ryan,

Thanks for your reply. I am using Norton AV 11.0.3 for OSX. Since emaqiling you the machine crashed so on reboot this has not reoccurred. I will keep an eye ont eh machine over the next few days and report whether it reoccurs or not.

ryan_mcgann · ‎01-10-2009

If you just have Norton AntiVirus installed, this problem is most likely related to the Auto Disk Scan feature. I recommend turning this feature off if you experience problems with it, as it is not needed to keep your computer secure--it is more of a convience feature. If the problem re-occurs, please let us know and if you took any steps necessary to reproduce the issue.

Thanks,

Ryan

Ryan McGann
Principal Software Engineer
Macintosh Products & Solutions
Symantec