Multiple issues on 2020 Intel Macbook Pro 13", it's becoming unusable.

Hello,


so my 2020 Macbook Pro has become pretty unusable lately, with multiple issues:


  1. The OS feels pretty laggy (like 1s delay on clicks) even there is not much happening. I have a few messaging apps open, safari with youtube and few other non intesive apps, like a tex editor. Activity monitor was not showing any load on either CPU or RAM. It happens occasionally so I sadly cant really replicate it on demand. I am attaching the screenshots of activity monitor at that time. The delay was especially apparent when controlling the youtube video (pausing, playing, fullscreening, etc). This is pretty new issue, I would say monterey onwards.
  2. The Macbook makes the the "fully charged" sound indefinitely when lid is closed. If the OS sound is no muted, the lid is closed and the macbook is on charger, it does the chime when fully charged and then never stops doing the chime repeatedly (without pauses in between) until I plug it off. I can pretty easilly reproduce it, I think it was happening on big sur as well.
  3. When playing online video (youtube or twitch) the whole OS freezes and reboots after while. The video sound is still playing during the freeze, I can sometimes pause/fastforward/rewind the using the keyboard video although the screen is still freezed. This is a very old issue, I have a video of this from 2021, sadly I caught it just before the reboot so the sound just stopped playing. But this is still happening pretty frequently, happened to me just few days ago. It does not happen when I play videos offline using VLC or something like that. Last week it happend even when no online video was not playing, the OS just freezed and rebooted unexpectedly, but it was first time this way, so idk if it is really related. Once again I cant really replicate this on demand, but it happens pretty frequently. https://share.icloud.com/photos/02ed9y_P2CT4k1ZxLS3QoXbcQ
  4. When XCode is running, the sound has an interference. I am pretty sure this is happening only when XCode app is running (maybe to simulator?), also when the app running in simulator crashes in debug mode (for example on "force unwrapping nil") the interference becomes noticeably worse until I quit XCode app. In the attached recording, youtube video is running in the background. It is once again super old issue, definitely was a thing on big sur, maybe even before that. https://share.icloud.com/photos/089lxSCkRZ7r8u-H7j6_KISqg


What I tried:

  1. SMC reset
  2. OS reinstall
  3. Cleaned up the fans and usb-c ports with compressed air
  4. Diagnostic Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support


Nothing helped, after cleaning up the fans and reinstalling OS it took less than 1 month for the issues to develop again. Most of the issues have been on the mac for really long time, but not that much frequent. Now i feel it has worsened overall.


I can't really stop using XCode. Also it definitely was not like this when I bought the PC and I would really expect more from the 1800$ machine 3 years in, than to lag when playing youtube video while having few other apps running.


So what should I do? Is there any way to at least narrow down the cause of the issues? Should I bring it in for diagnostics? I would love to at least figure out if it is hw or sw issue, because it feels like sw issue but reinstall did not help. Or is anyone having similar issues on intel macs?


I am on MacOS Ventura 13.3.1, but the most of the issues were present even before MacOS Ventura so idk if it does really matter.



MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 13.3

Posted on Apr 26, 2023 05:19 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 24, 2023 08:52 PM

I genuinely thought I was losing it become I have the same model and it has been lagging like crazy and just crashing. I am most likely going to see if they will let me trade it in or take it to an Apple Store. Kind of frustrating after spending so much on a laptop for it to last not only 3 years.

Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 24, 2023 08:52 PM in response to MrKew

I genuinely thought I was losing it become I have the same model and it has been lagging like crazy and just crashing. I am most likely going to see if they will let me trade it in or take it to an Apple Store. Kind of frustrating after spending so much on a laptop for it to last not only 3 years.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Multiple issues on 2020 Intel Macbook Pro 13", it's becoming unusable.

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.