Configd is crushing my MacBook Pro only when using battery as a power source. - Lemmy.world
Hi all, I am currently using a MacBook Pro 15" mid-2014 with the following
specs: - RAM 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3. - Processor 2.5 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7. -
Graphic cards Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB/NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB. It is running
with Big Sur 11.7.9. Recently, I had its battery replaced because my old one was
in bad shape, and it had even swollen a bit. The new battery is from the
manufacturer Simplo, according to coconutBattery app. I’ve been experiencing
some issues, particularly when using macOS on battery power only, something I
hadn’t done in a long time due to the poor state of my previous battery. The
problems I’m encountering are as follows: 1. Overall slowdowns, laggy cursor,
and beachball, especially when the battery percentage drops below 80%, most
noticeable when it goes from 60% to lower. 2. Freezing my Mac, causing macOS to
crash and returning to the login page. 3. In the worst-case scenario, a kernel
panic, followed by a reboot. Through my investigation, I have identified two
processes, configd, and powerd, as the main culprits. Configd always uses 100%
of the processor when the battery is the power source and I’m engaging in
moderate to heavy usage with my Mac. By this, I mean using applications like
Spark mail, Safari, Activity Monitor (to track down issues), Telegram, Evernote,
Todoist, Discord, and occasionally Notion and Element app without any image or
video processing apps (which I would refer as heavier usage). Reproducing these
issues is quite simple – just let the battery drop below 80% and start using the
aforementioned apps while unplugged. If issues arise, quickly plug it in, and
you might regain control (though sometimes this approach doesn’t work, depending
on how long it remains stuck). While I’ve found some information about configd
and its behavior, the available advice mainly consists of workarounds, like
manually killing the process (which doesn’t work in my case because it auto
restarts quickly). The closest source I’ve found addressing this is a macrumors
forum
[https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macbookpro-mid-2015-mds_stores-or-configd-cpu-high-load.2380126/],
which also happens to be from this year. I also found a comment
[https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=364963#c31] that
describes my experience accurately. I’m wondering if this might be a hardware
failure or perhaps some kind of battery-related issue (battery gate, maybe???).
I also use BootCamp with Windows 10, and I haven’t noticed any slowdowns or
crashes when running on low battery. It seems to be isolated to macOS albeit my
usage on Win10 is minimal compared with macOS. Here is a list of workarounds and
fixes I’ve attempted so far, without success (in what I believe is chronological
order): 1. SMC and PRAM reset immediately after battery replacement, but it
didn’t help. 2. Testing on Safe Mode with Safari and some other tabs opened plus
YT playback, almost instant macOS crash. 3. Reinstalled macOS without using Time
Machine backups to get rid of any lingering issues from previous setups. 4.
Removed my ethernet driver (using the Asix USB Ethernet app). 5. Minimized usage
of the aforementioned apps, which seemed to help a bit, but I still experienced
crashes when using Evernote with a background YouTube video in Safari. 6. Tried
turning off Wifi and BT (one at a time and both together) using the ethernet
adapter to maintain Internet connection, but it didn’t resolve the issue. 7.
Another user on a macrumors forum suggested that having another administrative
account active somewhat might help, but it didn’t make a difference for me. 8.
Attempted to kill the configd process, but it immediately auto restarts, causing
further issues with macOS. 9. Reduced peripherals such as my MX Keys keyboard
and mouse (since my trackpad is faulty, likely due to the previous battery, and
the stock Apple keyboard works fine for about 8 seconds then it stops
registering any inputs for 1 second and repeats this behavior). 10. Removed my
Ugreen dongle to rule out hardware issues, but it didn’t fix the problem. 11.
Someone else in the macrumors forum mentioned that disabling IPv6 support could
help, but I couldn’t do it with my Ethernet adapter, then I disabled it for
Wifi, it didn’t resolve the problem. I may be forgetting some workarounds or
best practices, but these are the most prominent ones that come to mind. Here is
some information about my new battery: >Model Information:
>
>Manufacturer: SMP
>
>Device Name: bq20z451
>
>Pack Lot Code: 3230
>
>PCB Lot Code: 3230
>
>Firmware Version: 2d31
>
>Hardware Revision: 322d
>
>Cell Revision: 3036
>
>Charge Information:
>
>Fully Charged: Yes
>
>Charging: No
>
>Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 8500
>
>State of Charge (%): 100
>
>Health Information:
>
>Cycle Count: 18
>
>Condition: Normal I’ve also included my last kernel panic report
[https://pastebin.com/raw/wRQX0cR2] for reference. What are your thoughts? Could
this issue be related to old software and hardware, or could it be linked to my
hardware or the new battery itself? This is the most bizarre issue I’ve faced
with my Mac so far, and as I mentioned earlier, it’s possible that this problem
has been present for a while because I used it plugged in for so long, both for
me and others.
Blaze (he/him)
kratoz29