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MacBook Pro randomly freezes

Hello, when using my MacBook Pro it randomly freezes and needs a hard reboot to get fixed. It happens a couple of times a day. When it does freeze everything except the power button becomes unresponsive. It happens when I close out of some applications. Any help would be appreciated.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Dec 15, 2020 2:46 PM

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Posted on Dec 16, 2020 11:34 AM

I don't see any software problems in the report except for the high System Load. Google Chrome is known to use a lot of memory & CPU resources, but during the report collection Chrome seem to be almost idle.


Try running Disk Utility First Aid on the SSD. You may even want to run First Aid on the Container instead by clicking on "View" within Disk Utility and selecting "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive and Container appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. Even if First Aid reports everything as "Ok" click on "Show Details" and look for any unfixed errors. If you find any unfixed errors, then it will require erasing the whole physical SSD to create a fresh file system before restoring from a backup or clone.


It is possible you are encountering some sort of Big Sur issue.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 16, 2020 11:34 AM in response to JoeKazmac

I don't see any software problems in the report except for the high System Load. Google Chrome is known to use a lot of memory & CPU resources, but during the report collection Chrome seem to be almost idle.


Try running Disk Utility First Aid on the SSD. You may even want to run First Aid on the Container instead by clicking on "View" within Disk Utility and selecting "Show All Devices" so that the physical drive and Container appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. Even if First Aid reports everything as "Ok" click on "Show Details" and look for any unfixed errors. If you find any unfixed errors, then it will require erasing the whole physical SSD to create a fresh file system before restoring from a backup or clone.


It is possible you are encountering some sort of Big Sur issue.

Dec 15, 2020 7:53 PM in response to JoeKazmac

Run the Apple Diagnostics.


Run EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.


Within the Finder click on the "Go" menu and select "Go to folder ....". Type "/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports" which will then open up a new Finder window. Look to see if there are any files with the name beginning with "kernel" and ending in ".panic". If so, then post the contents of several of these files here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.


Dec 16, 2020 6:48 PM in response to JoeKazmac

The high System Load can sometimes be caused by some other issue like waiting for a device to go ready. Try disconnecting all external devices in case one of them is causing a problem. Like I said I don't think Chrome is the cause at least at the time of the EtreCheck report was taken since Chrome's CPU usage as less than 1%. I'm guessing it is either an external device or a Big Sur issue. I know a co-worker has mentioned to me that their Mac will have intermittent freezes that he has been unable to resolve for the last few years (he is an experienced tech and Mac user).


A file system issue could easily cause a problem as I have seen unfixable APFS issues severely impact performance of a laptop.


You can try restoring the system from an older backup made before this issue began. You can also perform a clean install by first erasing the SSD before re-installing macOS. Then migrate your stuff from the backup or even better just migrate your user account(s) and manually reinstall your third party apps.

MacBook Pro randomly freezes

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