MacOS – launchd hogging the CPU

consolelogsmacos

About three months ago, my MacBook Pro retina 2014's fan started spinning continuously because launchd is hogging the CPU up to 70%. When I checked the system.log, it shows this code over and over again: 

Jun 18 21:59:54 MacBook-Pro-2 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (/var/root/Library/alumni/alumni[41060]): Could not find and/or execute program specified by service: 13: Permission denied: /var/root/Library/alumni/alumni
Jun 18 21:59:54 MacBook-Pro-2 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (/var/root/Library/alumni/alumni[41060]): Service setup event to handle failure and will not launch until it fires.
Jun 18 21:59:54 MacBook-Pro-2 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (/var/root/Library/alumni/alumni[41061]): Could not find and/or execute program specified by service: 13: Permission denied: /var/root/Library/alumni/alumni
Jun 18 21:59:54 MacBook-Pro-2 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (/var/root/Library/alumni/alumni[41061]): Service setup event to handle failure and will not launch until it fires.
Jun 18 21:59:54 MacBook-Pro-2 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (/var/root/Library/alumni/alumni[41062]): Could not find and/or execute program specified by service: 13: Permission denied: /var/root/Library/alumni/alumni
Jun 18 21:59:54 MacBook-Pro-2 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (/var/root/Library/alumni/alumni[41062]): Service setup event to handle failure and will not launch until it fires.

Anyone knows how to solve this? I've tried upgrading the OS X to Sierra (previously I'm still in Yosemite) but it didn't solve the problem at all. I can't access /var/root/Library/alumni either.

Best Answer

I would start by checking the folders /Library/LaunchAgents and /Library/LaunchDaemons. In these folders you will find a bunch of "plist" scripts that tell the system how and when to launch certain pieces of software.

I think you'll find one there that tells the system to launch this "alumni" software. Given that the software doesn't appear to exist on your system as reported by the errors in your logs, you are safe to delete the relevant plist file. Then reboot for the change to take effect.

Please be careful though not to delete any of the other plist files unless you are certain what they are.

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