Failing Fusion hard disk!

Allan Jones wrote:

• I certainly agree with den.thed's assessment.

24 GB RAM - Upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR4 SO-DIMM 2400

BANK 0/DIMM1 - 8 GB DDR4 SO-DIMM 2400

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 4 GB DDR4 SO-DIMM 2400

BANK 1/DIMM1 - 8 GB DDR4 SO-DIMM 2400

When you added RAM, what brand did you use? Not all RAM advertised as OK for Macs is.

• Check the all modules are fully seated.

• If you used RAM other than Crucial or OWC, remove the modules you added and test. Kernel panics are often related to "value" RAM.

I added the RAM some years ago. I bought it from OWC.

As we don't have access to your previous post: Did you install Kaspersky to diagnose problems you were having? If so, please explain what symptoms you experienced.

No. I've not been having any problems with my computer - but I do like experimenting!

If not, please completely uninstall Kaspersky and then run and post another EtreCheck report. Anti-virus slows Macs while offering almost no benefit.

I've not noticed ANY slow-down.

See this April 2024 CNN report on Kaspersky:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/09/politics/biden-administration-americans-russian-software/index.html

I do not trust Kaspersky's assessment of drive condition in the presence of an Etrecheck report showing your drive performing as expected in a 2017 iMac 27.

Performance:

System Load: 1.91 (1 min ago) 1.62 (5 min ago) 1.54 (15 min ago)

Nominal I/O usage: 0.40 MB/s

File system: 32.05 seconds

Write speed: 761 MB/s

Read speed: 2757 MB/s

I collect drive EtreCheck drive scores and, typically, a Fusion drive with these specs will do Writes between 600 and 900MB sec and reads from 1500-2000 MB/sec. Your Writes are 'in the zone," and your reads are far better than expected.

FYI: On my Macs, Black Magic usually reports drive speeds a bit lower than does Etrecheck.

You may find this item of interest. An exact match with Kaspersky's finding:-

Most people installing client-side VPNs do not need one. You appear to have two or three.

I have VPN Unlimited which I purchased from the Apple App Store some years ago. At the moment the others are provided free of charge by Kaspersky as part of my current trial.

If you require a VPN for work-from-home, your company should issue you one that is 100% compatible with their server systems. Some of the VPNs spending $millions$ on TV adverts are not even secure. This Consumer Union White Paper has useful info on the flood of such utilities. If you don't read the whole thing, at least read the last paragraph.

https://innovation.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/VPN-White-Paper.pdf

Thank you very much Allan. I appreciate your input. 🙂

den.thed wrote:

Could be a miss-read by Kaspersky.

What I showed you was a log file from my iMac showing what was sent to Apple after a crash - caused, it seems to me, by EtreCheck.

Most long time users around here will strongly advise against using any third-party AV-ware and VPNs including ClamXAV and Kaspersky.

In normal course, I leave the protection of my computer to Apple. I was ...... 'experimenting'!

My advice is to get rid of Kaspersky and use DriveDX to get second opinion for the SSD and HDD health.

https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

Thank you yet again. 😄 I have already downloaded and run DriveDX and it does, indeed, indicate problems with my hard drive.

Hey! 😃 Thanks for that suggestion, 'den.thed' - I might well do that in due course.

Right now, though, my iMac is functioning well and I do have backups on my Time Machine and, of course, have most of my data in my iCloud too.

Have you ever seen a malfunction such as I showed in my attachment yesterday?

It's a bit complex!

I forgot to include this. My apologies!