Problems after upgrading to 13.5.2

After being prompted, I upgraded to Ventura 13.5.2. Now my iMac (2020) crashes every few minutes. Crash means immediate black screen and reboot, with nothing saved. The frequency is unpredictable. Sometimes 15 minutes, other times less than 5. Not sure what’s going on but my Mac is now, for all intents and purposes, unusable. Tried to restore MacOS and each time it says the install fails (ensured the computer did not go to sleep). Tried to install on a separate drive - same installation problem. Will try target disk mode for re-installation. Any one else seeing this?!

iMac 21.5″, OS X 10.10

Posted on Sep 8, 2023 1:20 PM

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18 replies

Sep 10, 2023 3:08 PM in response to gregsoc

Download and run Etrecheck. Be sure to give it Full Disk access before running.



Copy and paste the results into your reply. Etrecheck is a diagnostic tool that was developed by one of the most respected users here in the ASC and recommended by Apple Support  to provide a snapshot of the system and help identify the more obvious culprits that can adversely affect a Mac's performance.


Copy the report


and use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.



Then we can evaluate the report to see if we can determine the cause of the problem.




Question marked as Helpful

Sep 10, 2023 3:42 PM in response to No Re Mac

I have a 2018 Intel Based i7 Mac Mini, and it was a zero day exploit so it downloaded a 400 MB approx update.


I loaded it Friday 09/08/2023 morning and when it rebooted it halts about half way with the Apple logo and won’t fully boot to the login screen. I cannot even get to the login screen.


I have made bootable USB installers of Ventura 13.5.2 and I have reinstalled MacOS numerous times with the same result.


Today, I am trying to install MacOS to a Thumb Drive, with the hopes of booting up into MacOS Ventura 13.5.2 so that I can use Carbon Cloner to copy my internal disk to another NVME external drive so that I can boot off of it and then restore it back to the internal disk and boot off of it and use it again.


However, upon installation to the USB 256GB SanDisk, I got a continuous reboot when it tries to boot up now.


The good news is that I don’t believe that our hardware is damaged. I think there is a flaw with this update.


My proof is that prior to upgrading to Ventura, I used Carbon Cloner to make a bootable external image using a USB 1TB HDD of Monterey. Yes it boots up perfectly, but slow. But shortly after booting up I hear the clicking sounds of potential disk failure. It’s a 7200 RPM HDD.


So I have to figure out another strategy. Or wait for 13.5.X to come out so that I can make another bootable USB to upgrade my way out of this mess.


I am currently trying to install it to an external USB C Thunderbolt device a Sabrent Tech NVME drive with a 1TB WD NVME SSD.


If it does the same thing, I will report back here.


It’s sad, because I felt compelled to load the Security Patch, and instead it made my system unusable. I am sure that was not the intended result.


I honestly don’t like how they kind of lock you out from downgrading, without reformatting the whole disk. But I am sure that they have their reasons.


From now on, I will always back up before I do a small update using Carbon Cloner with an NVME drive. Yes they can fail like a HDD can, and yes they are more expensive, but when you need a solid working backup, I don’t need to her HDD failure clicks from my only backup…


I am confident that the folks at Apple will get it fixed, and we will be able to make a new bootable USB installer and we will be back up and running again.


The upside is that I learned a heck of a few new things that I didn’t know before, and I chalk this up to a positive learning experience, even though I currently cannot use my system. It thankfully I have others until they can get this fixed.


Now, sometimes memory modules can go bad. So that could be a problem also. But if you can boot and use a prior backup of MacOS Monterey like I did, it means that it is probably not the Hardware that is the problem.


Especially when I am getting similar results like you are where it keeps rebooting. Although mine is doing it at startup.


Sep 24, 2023 12:29 PM in response to ekirscht

So here is what I did. I got a 1TB Western Digital NVME plus the usbc thunderbolt NVME enclosure from Sabrent Tech all on Amazon.


I unplugged everything that was previously plugged in. I took a 32 GB SanDisk with a USB extension cable (because they can get really hot), and I made a bootable image of MacOS 13.5.2 and installed it to the new external 1TB NVME drive.


it booted right up and then the migration assistant asked me if I wanted to copy my settings from another Mac or Startup Disk. I selected Startup Disk. Everything copied over except for the file and date stamps on my downloads folder.


I wiped the internal disk, did the same procedure and copied all the files back from the 1TB NVME external disk, and I was back up and running.


It can be easy to forget to turn off wifi and unplug your network cable so that your external disk doesn’t get updated when you are installing.


So something definitely corrupted my boot process, but I am good now once again.


In this Blog, in retrospect to what the person on this thread reported, it unfortunately sounds to me like a bad memory module if it randomly starts to reboot.


Airflow is important and we should do what we can to limit overheating where possible.


I have mine on tempered glass for example and another I have on top of a Windows PC metal tower and the 2018 MacMini Intel model does great.

Problems after upgrading to 13.5.2

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