Catalina on Mac Mini 4,1 (2010) shows kernel_task consuming one core

[jimis]

Hi, I installed Catalina on a Mac Mini 4,1 (2010 model) using dosdude's patches. It shows I have version 10.15.7 installed and appears to work fine.

Unfortunately kernel_task is consuming one of the two cores, the machine feels warm and the CPU runs always at 100% frequency (2.4GHz).

I am reading that kernel_task is not the cause of my problem, but the result of the machine running hot. It's a kernel task that takes execution time so that the CPU doesn't overheat. Could it be that Catalina can't put the CPU to sleep since MacMini4,1 is unsupported? Or maybe that it can't measure the temperatures?

BTW I tried myself to read the temperatures, but the commands I tried report "unsupported". It seems temperature readings are not supported. I tried the following system commands but none work:

• powermetrics --samplers smc ("This system doesn't support display of c-state info. unable to get smc values")
• thermal levels ("Thermal levels are unsupported on this machine")

I also re-applied the dosdude patches from a boot drive (with "force cache rebuild" enabled). Didn't help unfortunately.

Any ideas? Anybody else with a Mac Mini 4,1 running Catalina? Can you tell me if "kernel_task" shows up when running top? What program are you using to see the temperatures?

 

[chrfr]

Hi, I installed Catalina on a Mac Mini 4,1 (2010 model) using dosdude's patches. It shows I have version 10.15.7 installed and appears to work fine.

Unfortunately kernel_task is consuming one of the two cores, the machine feels warm and the CPU runs always at 100% frequency (2.4GHz).

I am reading that kernel_task is not the cause of my problem, but the result of the machine running hot. It's a kernel task that takes execution time so that the CPU doesn't overheat. Could it be that Catalina can't put the CPU to sleep since MacMini4,1 is unsupported? Or maybe that it can't measure the temperatures?

BTW I tried myself to read the temperatures, but the commands I tried report "unsupported". It seems temperature readings are not supported. I tried the following system commands but none work:

• powermetrics --samplers smc ("This system doesn't support display of c-state info. unable to get smc values")
• thermal levels ("Thermal levels are unsupported on this machine")

I also re-applied the dosdude patches from a boot drive (with "force cache rebuild" enabled). Didn't help unfortunately.

Any ideas? Anybody else with a Mac Mini 4,1 running Catalina? Can you tell me if "kernel_task" shows up when running top?

Perhaps an obvious question: is the fan connected and working?

 

[jimis]

Perhaps an obvious question: is the fan connected and working?

Yes, I can feel the light but warm flow of air on the back.