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Video-conferencing is crashing my Mac (Teams, Zoom, Skype, etc.)

I am having big trouble whenever using any video-conferencing tool like Teams, Skype, Zoom, Jitsy (you name it). Every single time, after a random time (sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes 2 hours) and specially when somebody is sharing their screen... my Mac freezes and shuts down. I have to turn it manually on again and then I mostly jump to using the mobile device to continue the conversation... but this is not the way it was meant to be.

While I was using High Sierra this never happened to me, it began just after the last update for High Sierra and has been chasing me all the way long with every MacOS update until Catalina with 10.15.5 yesterday. And... it still crashes. Does any body have the same problem?


My Mac is: 5K, 2017, Radeon Pro 580 8 GB, 40 GB RAM, 4,2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 10.15

Posted on May 28, 2020 3:28 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 11, 2020 7:05 AM

Ok, here´s an update that might help some others who have/had a similar problem: after getting in touch with some Apple Advisors and going through all the standard procedures to find the solution I got in contact with a very friendly and smart guy there and we tested some things out. Finally, after we had come to the result that my machine had to be send to an Apple Center for further investigation, he asked me one last question: did you upgrade your RAM? And I said "Yes". He then asked me if the RAM sizes were now different... and I answered "Yes: 2x4 -the stock RAM- and 2x16 - the RAM I had upgraded".


Well... voila... that had been the problem! I took out the 8GB RAM (the 2x4 stock that came with the machine) and left only the 2x16GB which I had upgraded by myself... and: problem gone! No more freezing, no more crashes and the Mac even seems to be faster than before. I have tested all the video-conferencing apps that usually would make the Mac crash... and put them under heavy load... and the Mac runs just like a good oiled machine.


So, my tip: IF you have upgraded your Mac with RAM sticks that do not match the original sizes... try to take them out and check who it works. I have the feeling that Catalina is a bit more sensitive regarding RAM than Sierra or High Sierra were.


At least this solution worked for me and I consider my case closed.


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7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 11, 2020 7:05 AM in response to ericpurdy

Ok, here´s an update that might help some others who have/had a similar problem: after getting in touch with some Apple Advisors and going through all the standard procedures to find the solution I got in contact with a very friendly and smart guy there and we tested some things out. Finally, after we had come to the result that my machine had to be send to an Apple Center for further investigation, he asked me one last question: did you upgrade your RAM? And I said "Yes". He then asked me if the RAM sizes were now different... and I answered "Yes: 2x4 -the stock RAM- and 2x16 - the RAM I had upgraded".


Well... voila... that had been the problem! I took out the 8GB RAM (the 2x4 stock that came with the machine) and left only the 2x16GB which I had upgraded by myself... and: problem gone! No more freezing, no more crashes and the Mac even seems to be faster than before. I have tested all the video-conferencing apps that usually would make the Mac crash... and put them under heavy load... and the Mac runs just like a good oiled machine.


So, my tip: IF you have upgraded your Mac with RAM sticks that do not match the original sizes... try to take them out and check who it works. I have the feeling that Catalina is a bit more sensitive regarding RAM than Sierra or High Sierra were.


At least this solution worked for me and I consider my case closed.


Video-conferencing is crashing my Mac (Teams, Zoom, Skype, etc.)

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