Screen Freezing and Performance Issues on MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 2023, 32GB RAM)

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Level 1

4 points

Screen Freezing and Performance Issues on MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 2023, 32GB RAM)

I am experiencing recurring performance issues on my MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2023, M2 Pro, 32GB RAM, macOS Sequoia 15.0 Beta). Despite the high performance capabilities of this laptop, I frequently encounter momentary system freezes, especially when performing tasks like screen sharing and using multiple Chrome tabs.

Issue Details:

Symptoms: The screen briefly freezes for a fraction of a second (0.2-0.5 seconds), the brightness flickers, and if music or audio is playing, it also stops for a brief moment. The issue occurs sporadically but has been frustrating during regular usage.
Conditions: These lags happen during seemingly light tasks, such as having multiple Chrome tabs open and screen sharing. When I check the Activity Monitor, no process exceeds 50% CPU or GPU usage, so system resources do not appear to be fully utilized at the time of the freeze.
Previous Mac: I previously had a MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro chip and experienced similar issues. I assumed the performance drop was due to the laptop aging, but I now suspect the issue might not be hardware-related.
Data Migration: I used Apple’s "Migration Assistant" to transfer my data from the M1 Pro to my current M2 Pro MacBook, and the same freezing issue persists.

Steps Taken to Troubleshoot:

Disabled Auto-Brightness and True Tone: I’ve tried disabling both, but the problem persists.
Checked Activity Monitor: No individual process exceeds 50% CPU or GPU usage when the freeze occurs.

System Information:

Model: MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2023)
Chip: Apple M2 Pro
RAM: 32GB
OS: macOS Sequoia Version 15.0 Beta (24A5331b)
Cycle Count: 21
Maximum Battery Capacity: 100%

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.0

Posted on Sep 18, 2024 4:14 AM

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Answer 1

PRP_53

Level 10

90,997 points

Sep 18, 2024 5:18 AM in response to ezziniginal

Apple Beta — Unenroll Your Devices

The you can Install the Recently Pubic Released of macOS 15.0

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Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

60,140 points

Sep 19, 2024 9:02 PM in response to ezziniginal

Run the third party app EtreCheck and post the complete report here so we can examine it for clues.

Also, disconnect all external devices in case one of them is causing a problem.

ezziniginal wrote:

I frequently encounter momentary system freezes, especially when performing tasks like screen sharing and using multiple Chrome tabs.

I highlighted a possible problem in the quoted section above. Chrome is known to cause performance issues especially when a lot of tabs/windows are open.

Previous Mac• : I previously had a MacBook Pro with an M1 Pro chip and experienced similar issues. I assumed the performance drop was due to the laptop aging, but I now suspect the issue might not be hardware-related.

This tells me you most likely have a software issue that is common to both systems. Or possibly a hardware issue if you use the same external device(s) with both systems.

Data Migration• : I used Apple’s "Migration Assistant" to transfer my data from the M1 Pro to my current M2 Pro MacBook, and the same freezing issue persists.

Did you migrate the macOS user account with just the "data" selected, or did you also have "settings" selected?

Or did you migrate any "settings" outside of the user account (there is a separate option)?

If you migrated anything other than just the data, you may have migrated a setting which is the cause of the problem (could be a corrupt .plist even). This could be why even the new system has the same issue as the old system.

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