Very slow computer; strange console messages

Question

I have an iMac running OS X and since yesterday my processor has been working hard for no particular reason. The computer hangs for a few minutes, then I can work again, then it hangs, etc.

Here are my console messages from the last 'hang' event:

5/23/12 3:40:37 PM  Firewall[69]    mysqld is listening from 0.0.0.0:3306 proto=6
5/23/12 3:45:06 PM  Firewall[69]    ruby is listening from 0.0.0.0:3000 proto=6
5/23/12 3:45:36 PM  com.apple.usbmuxd[35]   _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x1005f5cc0): sending attach for device 7c:c5:37:12:93:e9@fe80::7ec5:37ff:fe12:93e9._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
5/23/12 3:45:56 PM  com.apple.usbmuxd[35]   SCEDeviceSocketCallback 0x104c00970-usbmuxd/NULL remote peer closed connection for sce 0x104c00970.
5/23/12 3:46:01 PM  usbmuxd[35] _send_message (thread 0x102481000): Could not send message size 483: Broken pipe.
5/23/12 3:46:01 PM  usbmuxd[35] AMDeviceStartSession (thread 0x102481000): Could not start session: kAMDInvalidPairRecordError
5/23/12 3:46:01 PM  usbmuxd[35] _AMDevicePreflightWorker (thread 0x102481000): Pair worker could not pair with device 7: 0xe8000082
5/23/12 3:46:01 PM  com.apple.usbmuxd[35]   HandleDeviceAttachHelperCallback preflighting failed for WiFi device 0x7-192.168.1.101:0: 0xe8000082. Ignoring device.
5/23/12 3:46:03 PM  com.apple.usbmuxd[35]   _SendDetachNotification (thread 0x1005f5cc0): sending detach for device 7c:c5:37:12:93:e9@fe80::7ec5:37ff:fe12:93e9._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _BrowseReplyReceivedCallback got bonjour removal.
5/23/12 3:48:17 PM  com.apple.usbmuxd[35]   _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x1005f5cc0): sending attach for device 7c:c5:37:12:93:e9@fe80::7ec5:37ff:fe12:93e9._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
5/23/12 3:48:18 PM  usbmuxd[35] _AMDeviceConnectByAddressAndPort (thread 0x102481000): IPv4
5/23/12 3:50:23 PM  ntpd[31]    time reset -0.679154 s

I get these three lines often and they completely freeze my computer for a couple of minutes while they're happening:

5/23/12 7:34:14 PM  com.apple.usbmuxd[35]   _SendAttachNotification (thread 0x1005f5cc0): sending attach for device 7c:c5:37:12:93:e9@fe80::7ec5:37ff:fe12:93e9._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _GetAddrInfoReplyReceivedCallback matched.
5/23/12 7:34:14 PM  usbmuxd[35] _AMDeviceConnectByAddressAndPort (thread 0x102481000): IPv4
5/23/12 7:34:34 PM  com.apple.usbmuxd[35]   _SendDetachNotification (thread 0x1005f5cc0): sending detach for device 7c:c5:37:12:93:e9@fe80::7ec5:37ff:fe12:93e9._apple-mobdev._tcp.local.: _BrowseReplyReceivedCallback got bonjour removal.

It seems to gets worse when I open up a browser, especially Chrome, but it happens otherwise as well. Do you know what might be going on here?

Answer 1

After two days of problem solving, it turned out that the intermittent hanging and loud sounds from the computer were due to hard drive failure.

I still do not know whether the console messages were a direct result of the hard drive's failure or not, but since replacing the hard drive (today) everything seems to work fine.

Answer 2

This makes it sound like iTunes is having issues with an attached iPod/iPhone/iPad https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/22414/how-to-fix-usbmuxd-spam-in-console-when-iphone-is-connected

Repeated "Attach" then "Detach" messages make it sound like a flaky USB connection. Do you get any different result without any USB devices or hubs attached?

+Edit:

Snippets from ends of those log lines (GetAddrInfo, Browse, bonjour) make me think that it's more likely seeing the repeated appearance + disappearance of some Bonjour / ZeroConf network device.

Can you try unplugging or turning wifi off and see if you still see the issue?

Some places that Bonjour things might be appearing & disappearing include:

• iTunes shared
• iChat
• Finder: Shared or Network
• etc.

...closing as many of your Bonjour-enabled things as possible might help.

Also "Activity Monitor".app might show more detail (make sure you show "All Processes" and sort by CPU usage), or red-highlight the occasionally unresponsive app.