My MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) Big Sur keeps crashing regardless of how many or how few apps I have running, EXCEPT when Zoom is running, then I can watch Netflix, send emails, Chrome, Safari, Photoshop, and more, all day! Any thoughts much appreciated.
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.2
Multiple users have posted over the years that the MacBook Pro 2014 model in particular, more likely the 15-in model, has a problem where is "passes out". The screen goes black, then within about five seconds the Mac powers off, but there is no diagnostic report, and no errors in the log. These Macs will then pass user diagnostics, and Genius bar diagnostics without issues.
Random Shutdown on Macbook Pro (15" mid 2014)
It is particularly interesting because a hobbyist/hacker developed, and now is selling for US$10, a software script that claims to solve the problem by giving the Mac CPU a little more to do.
http://realmacmods.com/product/macbook-pro-nocrash-utility/
Multiple Readers respond that nocrash seems to work! Another reader suggests removing the ThunderBolt Ethernet driver, and this also seems to have the result that the Mac has a little more CPU activity and does not "pass out".
Multiple users have posted over the years that the MacBook Pro 2014 model in particular, more likely the 15-in model, has a problem where is "passes out". The screen goes black, then within about five seconds the Mac powers off, but there is no diagnostic report, and no errors in the log. These Macs will then pass user diagnostics, and Genius bar diagnostics without issues.
Random Shutdown on Macbook Pro (15" mid 2014)
It is particularly interesting because a hobbyist/hacker developed, and now is selling for US$10, a software script that claims to solve the problem by giving the Mac CPU a little more to do.
http://realmacmods.com/product/macbook-pro-nocrash-utility/
Multiple Readers respond that nocrash seems to work! Another reader suggests removing the ThunderBolt Ethernet driver, and this also seems to have the result that the Mac has a little more CPU activity and does not "pass out".
alittleknowledge,
Great isolating, thanks for taking the time to work through those steps. What this tells us is the issue is system-wide on your Mac, not isolated to a specific user.
Since it is happening system-wide, and everything is already up to date, we'd next like to have you reinstall the macOS. This step is not designed to erase any data from your but to reinstall the operating system files. However, we do recommend you have a backup of your Mac's data before performing any type of update or reinstall.
We're eager to hear the results.
Greetings alittleknowledge,
We understand that you're experiencing a behavior you're describing as crashing when running apps on your MacBook Pro, unless you have the Zoom app also running. Can you tell us what happens when things crash? Are apps quitting unexpectedly? Is your Mac restarting unexpectedly? Are there any error messages?
Is your Mac running the latest incremental macOS Big Sur update of 11.2.3? If not, please create a backup and apply the update.
How to update the software on your Mac
Next, we'd like to have you start up in safe mode and test to see if the same things are happening. How to use safe mode on your Mac
Be sure to read through the article about safe mode and what to expect when starting up that way.
Let us know what you find out.
Such an investigation! Thank you for your persistence.
Edit to my original concern: MacBook is still crashing, unless Zoom, YouTube video on Safari, YouTube video on Chrome is running.
Zoom video does not need to be on. When I uninstall Zoom, MacBook crashes as usual.
No external devices on my Mac.
Have not replaced any internal hardware.
Attaching screen shot of Activity Monitor because I'm not sure what any of it means.
Hi i_rina,
Thanks for your response.
Yes, my MacBook Pro is crashing when running apps, unless I have the Zoom app also running. So strange!
When the MacBook crashes, the screen goes blank, stays blank for ~30 seconds and then shuts down, and stays shut down. When I turn it on again, the apps that were open when it crashed, open up again, and files are saved as recovered.
Apps do not individually quit unexpectedly.
The Mac does not restart unexpectedly.
There are no error messages.
My Mac is running the latest incremental macOS Big Sur update of 11.2.3, and all apps are up to date.
I started up in safe mode, and the same thing happened. I went to another user on my Mac and the same thing happened.
Thanks again for your response, any help would be much appreciated!
alittleknowledge,
Let's continue working through what we know and eliminating situations. Are there any other external devices connected to your Mac? If so, please remove them and test things out again. Have you replaced any internal hardware? Also, please launch Activity Monitor and look at what's using the memory and CPU. Anything running that you wouldn't expect or at higher rates than you'd expect?
When Zoom is running, is the camera on? What happens if you temporarily uninstall Zoom? Here's a link to their website on removing it for macOS: How to uninstall Zoom.
Thanks.
alittleknowledge,
We sure appreciate the information you've been able to pass on. From the Activity Monitor, nothing looks like it is pulling more CPU or Memory than would be expected or running away with any resources.
At this point, we'd like have you reach out to Apple Support using the following link, so they can continue investigating the situation and gathering any additional information needed. Here's a link to get started: Get Support
Thank you.
macOS reinstalled, still crashing, with or without apps running, unless Zoom is running. So frustrating! Thanks for any more help you can offer.
Sorry, spoke too soon, MacBook crashes while YouTube on Safari and YouTube on Chrome. Just Zoom keeps it running.
I bought the $10 script and it works! The laptop feels hotter than usual, but at least it's not continuously crashing. Thanks Grant!
MacBook Pro crashing EXCEPT when Zoom is running
