# Another MAC with 100% CPU usage



## sportsmedguy (Sep 3, 2007)

Help, I have a Powerbook G4 with 1bg ram and a 1.25ghz cpu.

I am new to MAC so I did not really think about it that it was always running hot when I was using it.

I checked out why it was so slow(before upgrade to 1gb RAM), and I saw the CPU at 100% at start-up and without any programs running, aside from Activity monitor that was only at 2-3%

I saw a program running that was sucking up 35-38% of my cpu (''Kass'')

The hierarchy show it is part of the windowserver and when I shut it down 'kass'', it shows up again

Could you any of you help me?


----------



## scathe30 (Jan 10, 2007)

Using Parallels?


----------



## sportsmedguy (Sep 3, 2007)

Yes...I have word, excel, entourage, and powerpoint on my dock

i rarely use them at this time though.


----------



## scathe30 (Jan 10, 2007)

You mean that everything works fast and fine until you run Windows via Parallels?
Parallels really drains a lot of system resources, but I think it is not Parallels to blame. Unfortunately I have never heard anything about this evil "Kass"... Maybe reinstall?:wink:


----------



## sportsmedguy (Sep 3, 2007)

Ok....I did some digging and found a Windowserver program running 10% of my CPU under ''other users'' in my Activity monitor. I quit the program, and that was followed by my screen going blue and everything was running fine after that. The evil 'kass' stopped and the Mac was running at lightning speed again.

I rebooted the comp and it came back on, but when I quit the windowserver program again, everything was fine.

Somehow or another, the windowserver program is causing kass to suck up the cpu, so when windowserver was quit, kass also stopped?

Any thoughts?


----------



## scathe30 (Jan 10, 2007)

sportsmedguy said:


> Any thoughts?


Sorry, from me - no...:normal:
I wonder, Is the same thing happening in Windows when you run it via Boot Camp?
Windows is big evil. Great that I have Parallels and my favourite Mac OS!


----------



## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

well, windowserver is a core part of the mac os, and needs to be running as its a main part of what you see on the screen. as for kass, i don't have it on my list. a google search brought up one tiny entry on another forum that stated this:


> It is part of the "KeyAccess" software which is used to monitor network licenses.


i can't confirm this as the location that the post stated isn't on my mac, so it must of been installed by something. of course, i'm using a ppc mac and not an intel mac. but judging by what has been stated already, and that parallels has been known to have networking issues, i'd say its part of that program, and to make it stop, don't run parallels, and post about it on their forums so that they can either tell you how to fix it, or that they are looking into fixing it.


----------

