Since 10.5.2 update, many diskimages-helpe processes with no initiation.

Question

I just did a recent round of updates including the 10.5.2 update and now my MBP is not running as well as it used to. I guess the most obvious "symptom" is in mail when I'm typing a reply the whole machine will periodically freeze up for 5 - 10 seconds and then the typing will catch up.
What I've found from running top (or process monitor) is I'm getting many instances of diskimages-helpe with nothing apparently starting them up. Since I restarted after the 10.5.2 update (first time in months) I had over 30 instances of diskimages-helpe all taking .1% cpu all the time and a reported 618.35MB of virtual memory. None of these were there before the restart. Yesterday I went through and force quit every one of these processes, each of which prompted me with a "Device Removal" error when no drives (.dmg, USB HDs, thumb drives, etc.) were ever mounted. From yesterday to today I have 8 of these processes. I just killed another and two more came back. This reminds me of some malware type activity I used to have to deal with when I was a Windows systems administrator. What are these processes and why do I have so many of them since the update? Nothing has changed, I'm not even running many programs while I test this out. I can see no correlation to any activity and the starting of these processes.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've seen others with similar issues, but there are no actual answers I could find.

Answer 1

Actually you can have numerous instances of launchd. I was more interested in whether the diskimages-helpe process had launchd as its parent. If so, then you might look in /Library/ or /Home/Library/ for a LaunchDaemons folder, then look inside for any file with that name in it. Also, you can check in the /Library/ and /Home/Library/ for the StartupItems folders to see what third-party startup items may be installed. Also open Accounts preferences and check Login Items for something that could be related. I would also open the Console app in the Utilities folder and review the console log to see if there are any relevant entries that may provide a clue.
Otherwise, chalk it up to a defective installation and reinstall OS X. Since the drive is OK by Disk Utility you should be able to do an Archive and Install and not have to erase the hard drive:
How to Perform an Archive and Install
1. Be sure to use Disk Utility first to repair the disk before performing the Archive and Install.
Repairing the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
2. Do not proceed with an Archive and Install if DU reports errors it cannot fix. In that case use Disk Warrior and/or TechTool Pro to repair the hard drive. If neither can repair the drive, then you will have to erase the drive and reinstall from scratch.
3. Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When you reach the screen to select a destination drive click once on the destination drive then click on the Option button. Select the Archive and Install option. You have an option to preserve users and network preferences. Only select this option if you are sure you have no corrupted files in your user accounts. Otherwise leave this option unchecked. Click on the OK button and continue with the OS X Installation.
4. Upon completion of the Archive and Install you will have a Previous System Folder in the root directory. You should retain the PSF until you are sure you do not need to manually transfer any items from the PSF to your newly installed system.
5. After moving any items you want to keep from the PSF you should delete it. You can back it up if you prefer, but you must delete it from the hard drive.
6. You can now download a Combo Updater directly from Apple's download site to update your new system to the desired version as well as install any security or other updates. You can also do this using Software Update.