Mac WindowServer randomly starts hogging CPU

I have a 2017 Macbook running Monterrey 12.5 (cant update because it's a company laptop) connected to 4 external monitors.


Usually it runs well but randomly it will suddenly slow down to a crawl and my cursor becomes beachballs as if a background process kicked off and took all the CPU. Running "top" shows WindowServer shot up to 50% or more CPU.


WindowServer usually consumes low CPU so I can't figure out why the WindowServer process decides to suddenly up the CPU usage when no new tabs/processes have started. How can I find what triggers WindowServer to spike cpu usage randomly? I've run "log stream --predicate '(process == "WindowServer")' --debug" but what I see ("surface is not detached, CoreDisplay is detached") shows up regardless of whether the CPU is being hogged or not.


How can I troubleshoot further why WindowServer randomly kicks in and hogs the CPU?

MacBook (2017)

Posted on Jul 4, 2023 10:43 AM

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Jul 4, 2023 05:56 PM in response to reddsgenesco

Try running the third party app EtreCheck which will provide us with some of your laptop's details and configuration as well as performance metrics and summaries of system logs which may contain some clues. This app can be run from the Downloads folder and will not install anything as long as you do not allow it to check for updates.


If this laptop is being managed by your employer, then there probably is very little you can do so your best option will likely be contacting your employer's tech department for assistance. The usual culprits are anti-virus apps, cleaning/optimizer apps, and third party security software. If a computer is being managed, then many times it will be running some of these apps.


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Mac WindowServer randomly starts hogging CPU

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