Macbook Pro crashing with Catalina, Big Sur and Ventura

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4 points

Macbook Pro crashing with Catalina, Big Sur and Ventura

Hi, my Macbook Pro 2017 started crashing when I exported MOVs from Adobe Premiere Pro (2022) a couple of months ago. I decided to upgrade the OS to see if that helped, so upgraded to Ventura. The problem got worse so I took my machine to a servicer who wiped and cleaned it (fans etc, apparently there was quite a bit of dust inside the hardware), then installed Big Sur (11.7.2) instead, hoping this would be more stable than either Catalina (too old) or Ventura (too new).

But the problem persists even when I'm just watching movs through Quicktime Player or Finder, or streaming video on YouTube (Chrome/Firefox).

Reading this thread I'm wondering if, over the years, I've accidentally installed virus protection or something along those lines that is now "helpfully" crashing my machine by mistake. Will the crash report show this?

The only apps running when the machine crashed today were Google Drive, Adobe Premiere Pro and Malwarebytes - which I installed yesterday after reading another forum to see if there was any sneaky malware that got through Mac's internal protections. (Malwarebytes revealed no such malware - the sweep report showed all clear.) The crashes were happening prior to installing Malwarebytes so I'm confident that's not a culprit.

Please let me know if you need any other information to help me figure this out? I'm a video editor by trade and really need to be able to work with video files.

Best

Kerrin

Crash report 7 Jan 2023

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.7

Posted on Jan 7, 2023 08:15 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 16, 2023 08:20 AM in response to kerrin274

More data is needed. One way to get that data is with a 'discovery' utility. it fixes nothing, just provide far more visibility into what is going on inside your Mac.

Using EtreCheck to Troubleshoot Potential… - Apple Community

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Answer 2

kerrin274 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 25, 2023 03:28 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi Grant, sorry for the delayed response!

Problem is still happening - in fact my computer just restarted 3 x times during a Zoom meeting in which I was sharing my screen with colleagues. The restarts always seem related to video - when exporting audio from an editing programme, no crash. When exporting video - guaranteed crash. When screen recording - crash. When sharing my screen (a kind of video function?) - crash.

This time I didn't have any harddrives plugged in.

I downloaded at ran EtreCheck. I'll attach the report to this post. There seem to be three major problems:

Battery failure - am aware of this; I've kept power plugged in throughout. My battery is being replaced tomorrow.

Unsigned files - apparently these could be malicious. How do I find them and remove them?

Kernel panics - these is worrying as it implies potential hardware failure. The machine isn't that old, it's never been dropped etc, and when I had it checked (fans cleaned etc) a few weeks ago the technician reported it looked good. This wasn't an authorised Apple technician (I've fallen out of the warranty period and needed someone to look at it same-day). Might I have to send it in for a longer period after all?

Hope you can help!

Thanks,

Kerrin

EtreCheck report 25 Jan 2023

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Answer 3

Jan 7, 2023 09:50 AM in response to kerrin274

MacBook Pro 15-in 2017 running Big Sur

panic due to page fault with USB drivers present at the scene of the crime and exFAT file system as the last-loaded kext..

I dunno what you have on that exFAT USB drive, but it appears to be poisonous.

Is that file too big for an exFAT format drive?

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Answer 4

kerrin274 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 16, 2023 12:07 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks for the quick reply Grant. That exFAT drive is new - I had it plugged in randomly that day during the test. But I don't think it's the issue because this has been happening repeatedly for a few months, long before I bought this external harddrive.

The only pattern I've noticed is that the crashes always happen when dealing with Quicktime video. In Adobe Premiere Pro, for example, I can export H.264 MP4 no problem. But when I try to export a ProRes MOV - crash. Similarly, I can use Finder to find Quicktime screen record videos and rename them, move them, etc, but as soon as I try to watch them - crash.

This happens when I export / watch files on the desktop/Mac OS formatted drives/exFAT formatted drives, etc.

Could it be an update issue? Do I need to delete old preference files from outdated quicktime folders somewhere?

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Answer 5

Jan 25, 2023 07:27 AM in response to kerrin274

Your Mac is a train wreck inside.

You have a lot of deferred fixing up to do, and there is no software that can automatically do it for you.

The first item is to remove any third-party software that claims to improve your security. They are ALL snake-oil, and they do nothing to improve the very good security built into your Mac, while making your Mac unstable.

MacOS 11 Big Sur and later run from a LOCKED System Volume, that is also checksummed and signed. Any "sneaky" attempts to install malware onto that Volume will halt your Mac.

Antivirus software: Apple and SafeNet

get Rid of SafeNet.

Etrecheck has a "clean up" pane for orphan files that may be causing you trouble. In some versions, it will provide a working button for each orphaned item and can delete the item listed. The free version of Etrecheck at least shows you where each problem item is so you can chase it down and kill it.

You have about eleven items on that list. Each and every one should be removed.

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Answer 6

Jan 25, 2023 07:34 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

you have a HUGE number of items of unsigned software. Almost all legitimate, up-to-date software for the Mac is signed, and recent stuff is also notarized, an additional checking step.

The items on this list are all suspect, mostly because they may not be up-to-date for the version of MacOS you are running. That could cause your Mac to crash.

Java is known to be sloppy about this. the best you can do is make sure you are running the latest version.

Microsoft auto-updater is known to be sloppy about this.

You have multiple AVID items on the list, and they are all suspected of being too old for your MacOS version.

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Answer 7

Jan 25, 2023 07:37 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

¿Have you connected your backup drives and allowed Time machine to run recently?

You should consider running the hardware diagnostic as a check for GROSS hardware issues.

Consider running Disk Utility 'Repair Disk' for each of your drives.

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Macbook Pro crashing with Catalina, Big Sur and Ventura

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