Mac Studio crashing after latest macOS Sonoma update

BGIV wrote:

Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128 GB - The system is freezing, crashing, and incorrectly reporting RAM usage and disk space. This is way too buggy to have gone unnoticed in Beta... Not happy at all.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

First I heard an issue with a simple 14.4 point update

I might suspect third party...

To trouble shoot further you can:

—A SafeBoot Use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support will sort many anomalies

Does a quick disk repair before it fully boots up, and certain system caches get cleared and rebuilt, third party system modifications and system accelerations are disabled.

Login and test. Reboot as normal and test. Caches get rebuilt automatically.

This test will tell you if third party interference; most extensions etc are not loaded in safe boot mode.

—Test issue in another user (or guest user) account Change Users & Groups settings on Mac - Apple Support

This will tell you if it a universal issue or isolated to your user/admin account. 

unplug all non-essential third party peripherals when testing

Uninstall all third party apps that are Cleaners/Optimizers/VPN/Anti-Virus

all known to cause issues on the macOS

BGIV wrote:

Oddly, it seems to have been the Bit Defender/Virus Scanner Plus that I have used for five years + of OS updates with no issue!

Third party AntiVirus is not recommended— it typically does nothing but add issues to the macOS and competes directly with Apple’s own built in security:

 macOS - Security - Apple  macOS - Security - Apple

Apple Platform Security - Apple Apple Platform Security - Apple Support

Apple uses its Software Update service (which also drives the system software updates that show in the App Store)  as a mechanism for installing “background and critical” updates that are installed silently in the background with no notifications to the user.

  Gatekeeper mechanism, central to security services, which tries to ensure that any code loaded is ‘safe’. Code signatures are only part of this.

 XProtect checks the security and integrity of files, including in broader ways too, vulnerable document types, such as JPEG images, are also screened to ensure that they’re not malicious.

 MRT  (Malware Removal Tool) an app which often complements XProtect’s signature-based screening, and can automatically remove all traces of many different species of malware.

 SIP  (System Integrity Protection)  which ensures that nothing can tamper with key system files, or even Apple’s bundled apps.