Regular crashing and takes an eternity to start-up

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Level 1

8 points

Regular crashing and takes an eternity to start-up

Can someone who knows about these things please take a look at the log since yesterday afternoon on my MacBook when it crashed again without warning and let me know if it sheds any light on my problem(s)?

Spec: MacBook 13 inch late-2009, processor 2.26GHz Intel core duo 2, memory 2GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Apple System Log (ASL) Messages:

Source: /var/log/asl

Size: 132 KB (132,168 bytes)

Last Modified: 18/03/2021, 07:52

Recent Contents: ...

This message is repeated 14 times between 17:21:03 and 17:21:16

17 Mar 2021 at 17:21:03 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 1 seconds.

Then:

17 Mar 2021 at 17:21:16 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: Service exited due to signal: Killed: 9 sent by mds[78]

And the same again but 50x between 17:21:17 and 17:21:33

17 Mar 2021 at 17:21:17 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 1 seconds.

Then:

17 Mar 2021 at 17:22:04 systemstats[67]: assertion failed: 17G14042: systemstats + 447564 [0E3BB256-E154-3D1D-ABD3-1FE1C5E68145]: 0x0

And the same again 40x to 17:22:45

17 Mar 2021 at 17:22:04 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 1 seconds.

Then:

17 Mar 2021 at 17:22:45 syslogd[57]: ASL Sender Statistics

And the same again for another 6 cycles before it crashed ands shuts down.

Regular crashing and takes an eternity to boot up

Any advice would be much appreciated. So much time spent looking at a spinning beachball and it can take 10-15 minutes to launch virtually any app. Only apps used are Finder, Chrome and iTunes (not at the same time).

Brian

MacBook, macOS 10.13

Posted on Mar 18, 2021 1:29 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

BobHarris

Level 9

53,159 points

Mar 19, 2021 8:05 PM in response to bazomis

If you would like to post the panic report, I will look at it.

Finder -> Go (menu) -> Go to folder -> /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

Press: Command-Shift-period - this will show invisible files. We are looking for .contents.panic

Or any recent file that ends in the word .panic

If you find such a file, please post it in an Additional Text box

Press: Command-Shift-period again to hide the invisible files

Also please post the text output from an EtreCheck report

https://EtreCheck.com

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Answer 2

sterling r

Community Specialist

Mar 19, 2021 1:39 PM in response to bazomis

Hi bazomis,

We understand that your Mac is restarting, then providing an error message. We'd be happy to help with this! Does it seem to occur when using certain apps or features?

Start with the steps in this article: If your Mac restarted because of a problem

Be sure that all software updates are installed, including those in the App Store and for macOS.

If you have anything connected to your Mac, disconnect it to see if the behavior persists.

Be sure to test it out in safe mode to help isolate what could be causing it: How to use safe mode on your Mac

If needed, reinstall macOS after backing up your data: How to reinstall macOS

We hope that helps!

Cheers!

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Answer 3

bazomis Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 20, 2021 4:14 AM in response to BobHarris

Hello BobHarris,

I have pulled up the diagnostics report via Finder and added her as additional text. No reference to 'panic', but lots to logs of Piriform CCleaner registering crash reports. Don't understand why.

Diagnostic Reports

I have also carried out an EtreCheck report - would seem to highlight and confirm many problems with this laptop!

EtreCheck Report

Thanks

bazomis

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Answer 4

Mar 19, 2021 1:52 PM in response to bazomis

On no evidence (and until proven otherwise), I’d assume the hard disk drive is failing.

If you do not have a current and complete backup, do what you can to try to get one.

If you don’t have a current and complete backup, that’s pretty much your only priority.

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Answer 5

bazomis Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 20, 2021 3:47 AM in response to sterling r

Thanks sterling r.

It has always happened when Google Chrome is in operation (only app open), at roughly the same time of day (5-6pm), on battery power and after an automatic update of this app in recent days. Once crashed the MacBook will not re-boot, despite 70-80% battery charge remaining. I have to plug the power back in and wait until the following morning.

Does that provide any additional insight?

Thanks

bazomis

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Answer 6

Mar 20, 2021 7:10 AM in response to bazomis

On ample evidence, I’d assume the hard disk drive is failing.

If you do not have a current and complete backup, do what you can to try to get one. Now.

If you don’t have a current and complete backup, that’s pretty much your only priority. Now.

If you don’t have a backup, the longer you defer getting that backup and the more work you give to this (failing) hard disk, the less data you might potentially recover.

Failing hard disks tend to degrade.

“Degrade” here means “loses more and more of your data”.

Backups are not something you can get after the problem (hardware failure, device loss, fire, flood, etc) happens,

You cannot repair or diagnose or troubleshoot your way out of a failing hard disk. They get flaky, slow, crashy, beachballing, and start to lose data, start to lose more data, then they stop working. The ‘fix” is to replace the hard disk and restore the backup. Or to replace the Mac, and migrate the backup.

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Answer 7

BobHarris

Level 9

53,159 points

Mar 21, 2021 8:56 AM in response to bazomis

When looking in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports, did you do the Command-SHIFT-Period trick so you could see invisible files? If you have a panic, there might be a .contents.panic file

  Failing hard drive - This computer has a hard drive that appears to be failing.

is a strong indication that MrHoffman was correct about your boot drive failing.

Also a battery that is in bad shape will cause the Mac to slow itself down in order to conserve battery life (only affects performance with running on the battery).

This is a 2009 Mac. Rather than upgrade the hardware, I would seriously consider getting a new (newer) Mac. Maybe one of the new Apple Silicon M1 Macs. Even the lowest end M1 Macbook Air would run rings around your current Mac, even if you upgraded the hardware.

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Regular crashing and takes an eternity to start-up

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