Random shutdowns with iMac 5k 27 2014 (15,1) Mojave?!

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Random shutdowns with iMac 5k 27 2014 (15,1) Mojave?!

I have been suffering from chronic shutdowns (or what looks like shutdowns) with my iMac late 2014 (5k, 4ghz i7, M295x @4Gb, Mojave 10.14.6). This is making me crazy. The computer will simply shut down randomly - sometimes exactly when you move the mouse or press a key. Sometimes the machine will run for days; sometimes it will go into a crash loop; sometimes it just conks out.

When I am lucky enough to get an opportunity to see a log, I get error 13 (General Protection) on Processor 2. Otherwise, after login, the computer keeps on doing whatever it was doing. It feels a lot like Hibernate on Windows.

I've read all 60 threads on this issue, and so I have tried as many things as I could compile. I've had about 200 more crashes trying everything.

I have tried it on and off a UPS
There are no 3rd party extensions
I have removed Malwarebytes
I have switched out 2 DIMMs at a time (it has 4x8Gb)
I have tried it with and without external disks (Thunderbolt makes this bug more likely)
I have tried wiping the SSD and reinstalling
I have restored from Time Machine
I have tried Safe Mode
I have tried booting from an external drive
I have reset the SMC and PRAM
There is no correlation to temperature on any sensor
There is no correlation to CPU load
There is no correlation to sleep
Everything passes Apple diagnostics
I have sucked all the dust out of the case
I have replaced all peripheral cables
I tried disabling Ethernet over Thunderbolt
The Apple Store could not replicate the problem [in a limited amount of time]
This happens a lot less with Windows in BootCamp (if it even happens)
Sometimes it goes down right after login

Is there anything I've missed here, other than cracking the unit open and checking the thermal paste? This quitting/sleeping/crashing is driving me crazy. Post 10.14 is not an option due to needing to run certain 32-bit legacy software (mainly to run scanners).

The best I can come up with is that the incidence is higher with TB drives attached, particularly a LaCie Rugged 500Gb SSD, but this also happens with no TB devices attached. And it seems to happen less when the screen is off. Seems.

And it doesn't look like Apple fixes this model anymore?

Thanks!

iMac 27″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jul 24, 2021 2:33 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

BobHarris

Level 9

53,147 points

Jul 26, 2021 8:01 AM in response to Xeon5100

The panic called out by EtreCheck says you had two 3rd party kernel extensions loaded

    3rd party kernel extensions: 
      com.LaCie.ScsiType00
      com.samsung.portablessd.driver

Both of these seem to related to storage. It is rare for macOS to need any assistance accessing storage.

The kernel backtrace says you panic'ed while accessing storage

      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         com.apple.filesystems.apfs
            dependency: com.apple.kec.corecrypto
            dependency: com.apple.driver.AppleEffaceableStorage
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily

Given this information, I would suspect these 2 kernel extensions.

Also, you have 32GB of RAM. Most users buy less RAM, then add 3rd party RAM. If you have 3rd party RAM, then that is also a possible cause of a kernel trap

3rd party kernel extensions are the #1 cause of kernel panics

3rd party RAM is the #2 cause of kernel panics

broken USB devices or cables is the #3 cause of kernel panics

4th and below are way below and more more rare.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

239,267 points

Jul 25, 2021 10:38 PM in response to Xeon5100

Just to add...

Uninstall CleanMyMac per their directions , then run etrecheck again to see what chaff it left...

On CMM…

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251370955?answerId=252661013022#252661013022

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251442443?answerId=252814053022#252814053022

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251464557?answerId=252841819022#252841819022

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251889446?answerId=253629452022#253629452022

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

239,267 points

Jul 24, 2021 3:06 PM in response to Xeon5100

Excellent work so far! :)

EtreCheck is a FREE simple little diagnostic tool to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. It will not display any personal info.

https://www.etrecheck.com/

Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report if you capture the URL while there…

https://pastebin.com/

Whew, they've changed pastebin & made it harder, but after pasting in, click Create new paste button, then Embed button, then copy the URL...

The important part of the above is between the quote marks...

https://pastebin.com/embed_js/KuvnghqA

Workable but harder for me to work with...the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck. In a Reply before you click post, look for this to add longer texts...

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Answer 4

Xeon5100 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 25, 2021 7:18 PM in response to BDAqua

Etrecheck here:

https://pastebin.com/MW2HEpic

I need someone to disabuse me of the idea that this is a hardware issue... I have an appt at the Genius Bar on Monday night, and unless there is a better idea, I am going to ask them to replace the motherboard (I seriously doubt this could be the SSD because I can replicate this malfunction without the SSD mounted).

I get a different result from crash reports, suggesting that 3 other things are touching off this problem.

*** Panic Report ***

panic(cpu 6 caller 0xffffff801a0dab9d): Kernel trap at 0xffffff8019d980a7, type 13=general protection, registers:

CR0: 0x0000000080010033, CR2: 0x00000001707e2000, CR3: 0x000000076219f0de, CR4: 0x00000000001626e0

RAX: 0x0000000000000004, RBX: 0xffffff8060fa5114, RCX: 0x000000000000002e, RDX: 0x00000000000001f8

RSP: 0xffffffa3cf4e2d08, RBP: 0xffffffa3cf4e2d20, RSI: 0xffffff8060fa5278, RDI: 0xffffff8060fa527c

R8: 0x000000000000041d, R9: 0xfffffffffffffbe3, R10: 0xffffff8060fa6000, R11: 0x00000000ffffffff

R12: 0xffffff8060f9bb68, R13: 0x0000000000000009, R14: 0xffffffa3cf4e2f38, R15: 0xffffff8060f9baa8

RFL: 0x0000000000010682, RIP: 0xffffff8019d980a7, CS: 0x0000000000000008, SS: 0x0000000000000010

Fault CR2: 0x00000001707e2000, Error code: 0x0000000000000000, Fault CPU: 0x6, PL: 0, VF: 0

Backtrace (CPU 6), Frame : Return Address

0xffffff8019d54290 : 0xffffff8019fad5cd

0xffffff8019d542e0 : 0xffffff801a0e9245

0xffffff8019d54320 : 0xffffff801a0da97a

0xffffff8019d54390 : 0xffffff8019f5a9d0

0xffffff8019d543b0 : 0xffffff8019facfe7

0xffffff8019d544d0 : 0xffffff8019face33

0xffffff8019d54540 : 0xffffff801a0dab9d

0xffffff8019d546b0 : 0xffffff8019f5a9d0

0xffffff8019d546d0 : 0xffffff8019d980a7

0xffffffa3cf4e2d20 : 0xffffff7f9b4578b2

0xffffffa3cf4e2da0 : 0xffffff7f9b4546e5

0xffffffa3cf4e2ec0 : 0xffffff7f9b478b9e

0xffffffa3cf4e2f90 : 0xffffff7f9b475005

0xffffffa3cf4e3000 : 0xffffff7f9b474539

0xffffffa3cf4e3100 : 0xffffff7f9b4536a6

0xffffffa3cf4e31d0 : 0xffffff7f9b453534

0xffffffa3cf4e3240 : 0xffffff7f9b45becd

0xffffffa3cf4e3310 : 0xffffff7f9b45c3a9

0xffffffa3cf4e3390 : 0xffffff7f9b42f3ac

0xffffffa3cf4e3450 : 0xffffff7f9b42eee7

0xffffffa3cf4e3620 : 0xffffff7f9b42ede8

0xffffffa3cf4e3650 : 0xffffff7f9b404035

0xffffffa3cf4e3720 : 0xffffff7f9b42f416

0xffffffa3cf4e37c0 : 0xffffff7f9b40153b

0xffffffa3cf4e3bb0 : 0xffffff801a1d8deb

0xffffffa3cf4e3f40 : 0xffffff801a5b847d

0xffffffa3cf4e3fa0 : 0xffffff8019f5b196

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.filesystems.apfs(945.275.10)[A2F8A55F-1345-3CF7-80F5-9AD3619428DD]@0xffffff7f9b3c3000->0xffffff7f9b4c5fff

dependency: com.apple.kec.corecrypto(1.0)[E020A818-5DB9-3AC5-87C2-06C8083A498F]@0xffffff7f9a998000

dependency: com.apple.driver.AppleEffaceableStorage(1.0)[DB021557-C731-3BA5-9C59-A67116D43249]@0xffffff7f9b325000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily(2.1)[E28FB7B6-F78E-340D-91AC-7B78EC5F7D8D]@0xffffff7f9a852000

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Answer 5

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,554 points

Jul 25, 2021 8:59 PM in response to Xeon5100

Get rid of CleanMyMac, one of the worst things you can do to your mac, is more likely to cause your mac to malfunction.

Get rid of Memory Cleaner, macs do not need this, they look after the memory very well on their own.

Get rid of Cleaner.app.

Contact the developers of these apps to get full uninstall instructions.

Macs do not need apps that pretend they clean and optimise your mac, macs do this on their own,

any third party apps will conflict with the macs own management and cause problems does the line.

Often they will flag up files which you may be tempted to delete, often these are system files that if

deleted will cause problems.

Same goes for AV apps, macs do not not need them., there are no viruses that attack the mac.

If you have third party drives do not install any software that comes with them, again this will interfere

with the macs own management of the device.

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Answer 6

Xeon5100 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 26, 2021 7:29 PM in response to BobHarris

Yours actually turned out to be the right answer. I figured out where the LaCie iSCSI(?) driver kept propagating in (I'm not even sure what device this was for - this machine has been in use for 7 years now). The Samsung driver did not cause this; I only bought that drive three weeks ago. It probably didn't help, though; I actually loaded that utility to see if you could get SMART/Trim status on the drive (answer: no).

The Apple Store figured out that the TB ports were out of position due to a fragment of plastic being stuck in one hole. That couldn't have helped.

RAM was not an issue; I switched out both the original and the extra, one set at a time, in both banks. That was one of the first things I suspected.

The side effect of this is that my LaCie 2Big Thunderbolt 2 with two Exos drives in it isn't making unhappy noises anymore (those drives are loud, and when they idle, they sound like bovine songs... no more). And the relative speeds of a TB2 Raid 0, a 1Tb T7, and a 500Gb LaCie TB SSD have all changed. Must have been some interference to be causing that...

Thanks for the help!

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Random shutdowns with iMac 5k 27 2014 (15,1) Mojave?!

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