Activity Monitor does not update process pane

[rhimbo]

For several months now Activity Monitor Disk View, Network View and Memory View do not update the process list pane. CPU View updates as expected.

I logged in as "guest" and noticed that Activity Monitor works as expected in all views.

I'm wondering if I need to reset my SMC or nvram. I tried resetting the SMC by shutting down, unplugging, waiting one minute, rebooting, re-logging in. That's the procedure for desktop iMacs without a T2 chip.

I assume I have a battery in my iMac according to what information I found searching around. Thus I'm wondering if I should follow the procedure to reset the SMC that is recommended for notebooks. I presume I cannot remove the small backup battery myself. Instructions on Apple's site say to take it in to an Apple store. There must be a way to reset the SMC myself.

One challenge I've had is that I haven't figured out how to find which process is accessing the hard disk or any file system thereon when I see that the disk is spun up. I am using top and iostat and ps but I cannot figure out which process is the one accessing the file system. If I could perhaps I could figure out why that process is accessing the volume. I mean, perhaps something is not working correctly.

In System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Privacy I specified the three volumes on the hard disk in question (so Spotlight should not run on these). I've logged out. I've rebooted. But I cannot verify whether Spotlight is still accessing these volumes. I see mdworker and mdworker_shared processes, but I cannot correlate those processes to iostat data.

Any suggestions appreciated.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I'm wondering if I need to reset my SMC or nvram. I tried resetting the SMC by shutting down, unplugging, waiting one minute, rebooting, re-logging in. That's the procedure for desktop iMacs without a T2 chip.

I assume I have a battery in my iMac according to what information I found searching around. Thus I'm wondering if I should follow the procedure to reset the SMC that is recommended for notebooks. I presume I cannot remove the small backup battery myself. Instructions on Apple's site say to take it in to an Apple store. There must be a way to reset the SMC myself.

Your iMac is a Desktop computer, use the SMC instructions for a Desktop computer:

Desktop computers

1. Shut down your Mac, then unplug the power cord.
2. Wait 15 seconds, then plug the power cord back in.
3. Wait 5 seconds, then press the power button to turn on your Mac.

One challenge I've had is that I haven't figured out how to find which process is accessing the hard disk or any file system thereon when I see that the disk is spun up. I am using top and iostat and ps but I cannot figure out which process is the one accessing the file system. If I could perhaps I could figure out why that process is accessing the volume. I mean, perhaps something is not working correctly.

In System Preferences -> Spotlight -> Privacy I specified the three volumes on the hard disk in question (so Spotlight should not run on these). I've logged out. I've rebooted. But I cannot verify whether Spotlight is still accessing these volumes. I see mdworker and mdworker_shared processes, but I cannot correlate those processes to iostat data.

Any suggestions appreciated.

You could try using the fs_usage from the command line. Running the Terminal app, on the command line you would enter su fs_usage [<params>] which will ask you for your admin user password. Hope this helps.

Mac OS X: Using fs_usage as a Troubleshooting Tool – The Mac Observer

One of the more advanced tools that’s nice to have in your arsenal of “what to do if things go wrong” is a Terminal command called fs_usage. This will show you what your file system is doing at any particular time, and it’s pretty helpful if you’re trying to do some fanc

www.macobserver.com

EDIT: Not sure why you are creating multiple threads on this same subject. I saw that you already was using fs_usage in the other thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...expected.2242805/?post=28615833#post-28615833. This is exactly the reason why you keep to one thread on a subject because it is too hard to keep track of what is going in.

 

[rhimbo]

Yes, I did that. I followed exactly the SMC reset instructions for a desktop computer on the page you referenced. I did it twice.

Just as a subordinate question, from the Apple documentation I believe my iMac has a small backup battery. I'm wondering if that affects the SMC reset procedure. For the notebooks, the instructions talk about removing batteries.

I forgot to mention that I did try fs_usage. Honestly, I must have been overly tired when I was doing this late at night. I just went back to the man page right now and realized that I must have omitted the -w option previously. I just did it now, and I can see the file name being accessed in the rightmost column. Sooo, I will run sudo fs_usage -e -w next time I notice my external drive spinning up when I think it should not be.


Thanks, @Taz Mangus -- and thanks for being patient and polite. I was criticized for another post I made, basically telling me to get lost, that this site is not appropriate for my technical questions....

 

[Taz Mangus]

Yes there is a very small battery in your iMac but that is inconsequential to the Desktop SMC reset instructions. The Desktop SMC instructions is the correct one to use. I would respectfully suggest that you ask the moderates to merge your 2 threads together. It will be easier for posters to follow what is going on and what has been tried. By the way, you should be able to remove the Resolved status on the other thread.

 

[rhimbo]

Yes there is a very small battery in your iMac but that is inconsequential to the Desktop SMC reset instructions. The Desktop SMC instructions is the correct one to use. I would respectfully suggest that you ask the moderates to merge your 2 threads together. It will be easier for posters to follow what is going on and what has been tried. By the way, you should be able to remove the Resolved status on the other thread.

Sounds good. I'll ask the moderators to merge. I tried to remove the "Resolved" but the page never "submitted". It might have been a problem with Safari. I've noticed that sometimes Safari does not load certain content (particularly images or tables) in a web page when I bring my computer out of sleep. I have to quit and restart Safari to clear it. That might have been the problem. I'll do it now.... Thanks...