MackBook Pro with macOS Ventura freezes at start up.

Disconnect all external devices in case one of them is causing a problem.

Try booting into Safe Mode to see if that makes any difference. If this works, then most likely you have an issue with some third party software.

Exactly when does it freeze up? How far does it get in the boot process? If the progress bar gets less than halfway through, then try booting into Verbose Mode (Command + V) which will display the boot log onscreen. If the system freezes while this is still displayed, then take a picture of it & post it here (make sure the picture is correctly oriented since I will ignore any pictures that are sideways or upside down). Possibly a clue will be in that log shown on the screen.

Try running the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected.

Is this the Touchbar or non-Touchbar model?

What may have recently changed to the laptop or OS/software that may have contributed to this issue?

EzeHodari wrote:

Thank you so much HWTech. Your comments are very precise. In SafeBoot mode it works fine, even faster obviously.

Then most likely some third party software is causing the problem. If uninstalling the software I mentioned does not help, then you will need to start looking at the other software listed in the EtreCheck report. Software listed in Login Items, system extensions, Launch Agents & Launch Daemons are the most likely cause. Unfortunately I'm not a macOS software expert, so won't be able to advise you further except to point out the items I am unfamiliar since to me, they would be next on the list since I haven't seen them listed in others' reports.

Hopefully another contributor will examine your EtreCheck and provide a comment if anything stands out to them besides what I've already mentioned.

I dont use that Malwarebytes app at all...do you think I should deleted altogether?

At the very least disable the real-time scanning option, but if you are not using it, then uninstalling it is best since it removes another potential vulnerability vector. You can always reinstall it if you ever suspect you have accidentally installed malware or adware. macOS already provides great security especially if you also practice safe computing habits as outlined in this excellent article written by a respected forum contributor:

Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community

I'm glad things are doing better. We also appreciate all your updates.

Thanks for the extra details.

It appears you have a MacBook Pro 13" (2017) with Touchbar. FYI, I'm asking the moderators to remove the serial number from your post since that is considered personal information these days.

Run the third party app EtreCheck and post the report here so we can examine it for clues. Since Safe Mode works, it most likely means you have an issue with some third party software that is installed which is interfering with the normal operation of macOS. The usual culprits are anti-virus apps, cleaning/optimizer apps, and third party security software....none of which are needed on a Mac. If you have any of these types of apps installed, then uninstall them by following the developer's instructions since these types of apps usually cause more problems than they solve, plus they impact system performance since they interfere with the normal operation of macOS.

I don't see any of the standard software culprits, but you are running some software that I am not familiar. I'm not a macOS software expert so maybe another contributor will chime in on it.

You have some software that looks like it may not be compatible with Ventura. The VPN software has a blocked extension for one, plus I believe the Surf Shark anti-virus may belong to the VPN software. VPNs don't provide the security you may think it does. VPN software is fine if you are using it to connect to a school or employer's network, or even to your own home network if you have your own VPN server on your home router.

Bittorrent software can cause performance issues, so you may want to make sure it is not running at all as a test until you can resolve the issue. I would also turn off MalwareByte's real-time scanning option as well.

From reading this forum I have seen a respected forum contributor mention that third party cloud file syncing services can cause performance issues due to how they access the macOS file system.

How does the system boot & perform when booted into Safe Mode?

You can also create a new macOS user account. Log out of the main user account, then log into the new macOS user account. Do not log into your AppleID or iCloud. How does the system work here? If it works here, then something within your main user account is at fault, possibly a Login Item or an item you left open on shutdown/reboot/logout which reopened again after logging in.

You may also want to run Disk Utility First Aid on the hidden Container. Within Disk Utility you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" before the hidden Container appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Even if First Aid says everything is "Ok", click "Show Details" and scroll through the report to see if any unfixed errors are listed. If there are, then run First Aid again to see if they are fixed. If they still are not fixed, then you will need to try running First Aid from Recovery Mode, otherwise you will need to erase the whole physical SSD (Intel Macs only) followed by reinstalling macOS & restoring from a backup.

Make sure all of your third party apps are completely up to date & compatible with Ventura.

Disconnect all external devices in case one of them is causing a problem.

I see the Battery is showing a "Service Battery" condition which usually indicates the battery has a hardware issue. If the battery is causing a power related issue, then it could possibly cause the laptop to run extremely slow even when connected to the power adapter.....but the system would be slow to boot and slow to operate the whole time. If the laptop is running fine at times, but not other times, then the Battery is unlikely to be the problem. It is a bit unusual to see a "Service Battery" condition on Ventura which usually will just show "Service Recommended". The "Service Battery" condition was used with older versions of macOS such as Mojave.