External monitor causes slowdown after upgrade to Monterey

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External monitor causes slowdown after upgrade to Monterey

I use my Macbook Pro (16-inch 2019) connected using a USB-c to DisplayPort cable to a ASUS PB287 28" monitor which I use as my primary monitor (i.e. with the MBP shut) at the office.

Since upgrading to Monterey from OSX 11 I have found that every 4th or 5th time I power up my Mac it starts up correctly then becomes extremely slow and unresponsive.

There are no processes using CPU time or memory - it takes about 5 minutes to start Activity Monitor - and the only solution seems to be to shut down Monterey, often by opening up the Mac and pressing the power button for 5 seconds as the "Shut down" menu, once it actually appears, takes forever to even think about shutting down the system.

Once shut down the next boot is, most of the time, normal and I can get on with work.

This has never happened while using the Mac open as a laptop so I'm assuming that it has something to do with the external monitor, although what I have no idea as this monitor worked perfectly using Catalina and Big Sur and only became problematical after upgrading to Monterey.

Anyone have any bright ideas that don't include buying a new monitor to try?

Thanks

Posted on Apr 22, 2022 1:46 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BDAqua

Level 10

245,567 points

Apr 22, 2022 2:13 PM in response to jchertiton

We need to see what all is running, a report from this will not display any personal info...

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...

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 2

jchertiton Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 26, 2022 11:51 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi BCAqua

Thanks for your reply. I downloaded EtreCheck Pro and waited until, this morning, my machine decided to boot and then become extremely unresponsive.

I started EtreCheck and waited.... wand waited... wand waited. After 20 minutes (just as well I have other stuff I need to do!) I attempted to open Activity Monitor, only to find EltreCheck and "unresponsive".

Cmd/Opt/Esc, force quit. Wait...

Ctrl/Eject, Shut down. Wait...

Power up, now working.

This is a typical of the problem. It'll manifest once then, after a reboot, forced or otherwise, the machine will start responding as it should.

All very frustrating. I can't help feeling that this started when I upgraded to Monterey simply because nothing else has changed in the meantime and the problem started 2 days after upgrading.

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

245,567 points

Apr 28, 2022 11:37 AM in response to jchertiton

Start with this...

Safe Boot, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode? Could take 10 minutes or more.

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches & loads safe Drivers, & prevents loading of 3rd party extensions, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

Most people don't like hearing this, but Uninstall Sophos, Restart , run another etrecheck report to see if their uninstaller left any chaff hanging.

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Answer 4

jchertiton Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 29, 2022 1:41 AM in response to BDAqua

Thanks BDAqua

It seems to me that this is going to take quite some time as this problem only manifests occasionally. For example this week it has only happened once, yesterday, so proving that any "fix" actually works is likely to be a long drawn out process, not least of all as starting the machine in Safe mode repeatedly until the problem manifests (or not, but how would one know?) is going to lose me quite a few valuable work hours.

I'll give it a go over the weekend and see if anything happens but frankly it seems to me that I may be better off downgrading to Big Sur and using the machine as normal until I see the problem reoccur, if indeed it does.

Thank you, in any case, for your valuable input.

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