My Mac Studio system is sluggish and completely crashes

System: M1 Max Mac Studio

RAM: 64 GB

OS: macOS 15.5

Browser: Safari 18.5


I've had this Mac since they released.


Back in the days of the iMac G4, I could leave the computer on for over a month, without issues. When I got this Mac Studio, I continued to do the same. Seemed fine for a while. Last few months though, after only roughly 7 days or so, the entire system gets sluggish. My typical activities involve a lot of Twitch stream watching. Can normally watch 3-4 streams fine at 1080p60 stream quality, without any issues. After a few days of the Studio being on though, it can't do that many streams or even do 1080p60 anymore. I have to drop all the way down to 160p for all streams and even then, they all stutter. When this begins to happen, I usually restart the computer and then everything is smooth for a few days again. If I don't restart once streams start to stutter, the entire Studio crashes and reboots itself.


I have already tried doing a Disk Utility -> first aid, but that went quick and didn't report any issues.


Do silicon Macs have to be rebooted frequently to stay usable? I know they reboot fast, so not an issue, but it seems like it needs to be every other day or so.


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: System sluggish and completely crashes

Mac Studio, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jun 5, 2025 3:16 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 6, 2025 10:24 PM

from EtreCheck report:

panic(cpu 9 caller 0xfffffe002ec1b598): DCP PANIC - IOMFB int_handler_gated: failure: axi_rd_err

DCP is the Display Co-Processor.


IOMFB is the I/O Mobile Frame Buffer


int_handler_gated ...... Interrupt Handler


Unfortunately this Kernel Panic could be caused by just about anything that is using the DCP....could be hardware or software. You are using multiple video related apps such as OBS, Twitch, PrimeVideo, etc.


There are multiple forum threads from 2021 for users of macOS Monterey reported a very similar KernelPanic when watching HDR videos. Supposedly macOS 12.1 resolved the issue with 2021 M-series Macs where they would panic when watching HDR YouTube videos. However, I have seen other threads from as late as 2023 reporting what appears to be the same DCP Kernel Panic as shown here. Unfortunately I have not found any threads where anyone followed up with a final resolution. I guess people never contact Apple about the issue & escalate to the system engineers to get a final resolution to determine if it is a hardware, software, or firmware issue. Or they just never post any updates after getting it resolved.


I would recommend contacting Apple support directly for assistance. You will likely need to have them escalate it so an engineer will actually examine & interpret the Kernel Panic. You can really help by performing a clean install of macOS & testing the laptop thoroughly before installing any third party software & before restoring from a backup. This is the only way to confirm whether it is a hardware or software issue. In fact, if you have access to another Mac running macOS 15.x Sequoia, then it would be best to perform a DFU Firmware Restore since it resets the security enclave chip, system firmware, internal SSD and pushes a clean copy of macOS onto the internal SSD (the current data will be lost, so make sure to have a good backup first). However, if you cannot perform the DFU Firmware Restore, then a clean install of macOS through traditional means is close enough for now.


If you can reproduce the issue with just a clean install of macOS (no third party apps or restore from a backup), then that will make it easiest to get Apple's attention for a hardware or firmware issue that needs to be repaired or addressed respectively.


If you can identify exactly what triggers the Kernel Panic, then that can be useful information for Apple especially if it occurs using Apple's own apps. If it only occurs with a specific third party app, then contact that app's developer to report the issue.


If a clean install with no third party apps works fine, then try installing your third party apps one at a time makeing sure to test them thoroughly before installing the next one. Since this is a video/GPU related issue, I would suggest testing each third party video app first after you test watching videos using Apple's built-in apps first.


Of course you can try uninstalling various apps from your current installation to see if you can locate the troublesome app (assuming it is a software related issue) although this can be a bit tricky since some apps may not uninstall completely.


And as others have already noted, CMM definitely needs to go since it is notorious on this forum for causing all sorts of problems.

20 replies

Jun 6, 2025 10:47 PM in response to HWTech

You mentioned OBS, which I deleted back in early 2024. Was that still listed in the report?


I deleted the application CMM from my applications folder. Anything else need to be done with that? I've read it is difficult to remove, but the 3 library folders I've seen people mention to check in, I saw nothing.


Ouch. I was afraid of doing anything to wipe my system.

Jun 9, 2025 2:15 PM in response to HWTech

HWTech wrote: See if you can delete the following file from "/Library/SystemExtensions" folder:
com.obsproject.obs-studio.mac-camera-extension


Not seeing that folder. Only folders I see in "/Library/SystemExtensions" are 3 folders all named with a bunch of seemingly random letters and numbers, each of which contain files for Logitech stuff.


FYI, the EtreCheck report doesn't list any more recent Kernel Panics since the first one on 2025-06-04, but sometimes the system isn't able to save the Kernel Panic log....assuming it was a Kernel Panic this time.


I just assumed it was a kernel panic crash, since I know power didn't go out while I wasn't home. Came home to the computer had restarted. I know nobody touched my computer to restart it while I was not around.

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My Mac Studio system is sluggish and completely crashes

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