Instable macbookair after Catalina upgrade

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lud129 Author

Level 1

4 points

Instable macbookair after Catalina upgrade

Hi there,

not an easy question, I read a lot and went to Genius bar as well, please help!

My macbook air is from 2012. it was perfectly working before upgrading to Catalina.

Now, it is impossible to use: spinning wheel. switching off. cannot restart witout internet recovery..

So I called the support to reinstall Catalina. it did not fix.

Sometimes, in Disk Utility I cannot see the internal drive "Macintosh HD". it's random when I can see it or not (with appropriate filter of course)

I went to Genius Bar, the Genius guy plugged the power + internet cables. Disk Utility was showing the internal drive (which I could not see before). full install of Catalina - factory reset.

I imported data from backup including apps.

few days later same instability, crashing etc

I did again full install without importing data.

it's now even worse.

I thought it was due to Google Chrome (I saw some people having issues with Google Drive)

but even with safe mode start the computer is slow and finishes by switching off..

I installed a software to scan the disk: SMART Utility | Volitans Software

the result is OK no errors etc

question is whether I should downgrade to High Sierra?

I'm surprised to see all these people having same issue but could not fix it.

Your help is much appreciated!

Should you need more info please let me know.

Best

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 11, 2022 7:59 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

a brody

Level 10

83,131 points

Feb 13, 2022 10:51 AM in response to lud129

High Sierra is compatible with 32 bit programs. Catalina is not.

Catalina does require more space. If you are running off a 128 GB drive, your space constraints are too great to run Catalina.

If you are backing up to iCloud or OneDrive, or using Time Machine backup automatically, that may result in slow speed times because everything is automatically cached on the root of the hard drive, leaving little space for the system.

Make sure your disk space is at least 15% free in Apple menu -> About This Mac -> Storage -> Manage Storage.

Do not use any optimizers, cleaners or antivirus.

You can use Etrecheck to help us identify what is slowing down your machine.

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Answer 2

lud129 Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 1, 2022 5:28 AM in response to a brody

Hello A Brody,

thanks for your message but as I mentioned before, the computer is empty, no application, no nothing. factory reset. 120GB to be used as the computer wants/needs. the goal of that topic is to:

make this 2012 Mac usable - i.e. using internet + google docs

for that, I just need to diagnose if there is a hardware problem. it seems the hardrive is ok as per tool "SMART Utility | Volitans Software"

How can we diagnose the main board?

Thanks

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Answer 3

lud129 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 13, 2022 2:00 PM in response to a brody

Hello, thanks a lot for taking time to answer.

My mac is completely clean. no app, no files, so out of 120GB I have no more than 20GB used for the system. I guess it's enough but as you said High Sierra might be better. So I should downgrade?

I don't do backup automatically with icloud or time machine. but I will double check it's not activated by default.

To run Etrecheck I need to restart the computer which is not starting.. or when I succeed it freezes. I will give it a try as it seems the best diagnostic to run.

I will keep you posted. thanks

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Answer 4

lud129 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 13, 2022 2:24 PM in response to lud129

I did an internet recovery (for the 1'000th time) but in the disk utility there is no Macintosh HD. and when I try to restart it fails by displaying the folder icon with the question mark. What is strange is that I have a brand new version of catalina and it worked few hours before being so critical like this..

Restarting in safe mode does not work neither. so I'm stuck...

btw should I mention that the battery of the mac is not an original one? could that have an impact?

thanks

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Answer 5

lud129 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 14, 2022 1:18 PM in response to a brody

Hello, I went again to Apple Store today to discuss with Geniuses. One took my laptop and opened it: a user session was showing up. I was surprised!! as I could not do that before. Then starting the computer again, with ethernet cable.. the computer faced an issue. the Genius told me "the computer cannot connect to Apple servers to run diagnostics, it seems there is an instability. this is either the hard drive or the mother board. as your computer is obsolete, we cannot proceed further."

Just after, I restarted my computer, went to a user session.. just the time for the spinning wheel to appear and freeze until the computer switches off and could not restart with the icon folder with question mark.

OK, so now I'm puzzled.

if there is some instability, could that be a software or a hardware issue? any clue?

Thanks

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Answer 6

a brody

Level 10

83,131 points

Feb 27, 2022 4:30 PM in response to lud129

Hardware issues gone undiagnosed will not suddenly disappear by running a different operating system.

A 2012 machine should at minimum have the firmware to run the built-in diagnostics. If it doesn't then it probably won't have the hardware to reliably run any operating system.

Before July 22, 2011 all Macs included a hardware test CD, or a USB Flash that included hardware diagnostics.

Starting then, the 'D' key startup would reveal a firmware installed hardware diagnostic software.

June 2013 and later Macs still supported firmware installed diagnostics, but the software was renamed Apple Diagnostics and modified slightly.

November 2020 and later Macs with the Apple M1 and later CPUs support command-D started for the firmware based diagnostic software.

.

If the diagnostic does not show up, the machine's main board may be damaged in some way.

Note: Keyboard based diagnostic startups require a built-in laptop keyboard or external USB keyboard. Only very rarely will wireless keyboards work.

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Answer 7

Feb 27, 2022 11:53 PM in response to a brody

I want to stress the a key point from a brody:

"Do not use any optimizers, cleaners or antivirus."

Most of these products are just adware and cause more damage than improvment.

The fact than you find some of them on App Store is not any waranty they are any better than MacOS.

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Answer 8

lud129 Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 28, 2022 12:25 AM in response to daniel Azuelos

Thanks but I'm trying to get a working computer with no software at all.. a factory reset does not help yet..

Regarding diagnostic, how can I see that the main board is damaged and/or can I replace it? Is it worth it?

How to know it's the main board or the hard drive (which seams ok)?

Thanks again!

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Answer 9

a brody

Level 10

83,131 points

Mar 1, 2022 3:35 AM in response to lud129

Catalina does not support 32 bit applications, drivers, or plugins. If any of your software requires older components, you may be better off keeping a separate partition with those applications. Of course you need to make sure neither partition gets over 85% full.

Unfortunately once you convert Picture and Music libraries to a newer operating system, you won't be able to use the data that includes library albums and playlists in the older system. Keeping a clone backup of the original before upgrading avoids such a problem.

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