MacFixIt reader "Martin V." writes in to alert us about an ongoing issue with his MacBook Air. The process 'kernel_task' uses an inordinate amount of system resources causing his system to run ...

According to an old thread (10 months at the time of writing) over on Stack Exchange, charging a MacBook Pro using the ports on the left side can cause high kernel_task CPU usage and overheating.

I've recently noticed that kernel_task is constantly using 11% of CPU on my 2.53 GHz MacBook Pro with OS X 10.6.6. Try disconnecting from your network. You may have some device that is actually ...

I've noticed that as I leave the system on longer, kernel_task uses more and more memory, CPU Usage doesn't really go up but right now its consuming about 86 megs of real memory on a 1gig of ram ...