iMac is crashing more often than I'd like.. EtreCheck says possibly related to 3rd party software.

Hello,


The crash usually occurs when I'm away from my desk so I'm not sure what is happening immediately beforehand. EtreCheck notes as a major issue: This system has experienced kernel panics that could be related to 3rd party software.


The computer actually isn't "restarting," I come back to the desk and it has turned off. When I press the button, the screen says the computer had to shut down because of a problem.



I would very much appreciate if anyone is able to see from the below exactly which 3rd party software could be causing the issue.


Thank you in advance!



iMac (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Jul 1, 2024 3:31 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 2, 2024 9:15 AM

I'm concerned about your internal SSD since there was a Kernel Panic with the SSD which is usually associated with an SSD that is beginning to fail "nvme: Fatal Error Occurred". That type of SSD failure usually occurs when first powering on the computer & when waking from sleep. Every case where I've personally seen this Kernel Panic has been confirmed to be a bad SSD. There is a slim chance that one of the apps mentioned by @BDAqua is the cause since DropBox is listed in the Kernel Panic. In my own personal experience the SSD is most likely bad.


It is also very interesting that your external Toshiba hard drive is shown first in the EtreCheck report since I would expect the internal SSD to be the quickest drive to go ready. This supports my case that the SSD is beginning to fail.


Another concern is the other Photoshop crash where it had a memory related error "malloc: Incorrect Checksum for Freed Object". This could indicate a hardware issue, but also possibly a software issue possibly from one of the apps mentioned by @BDAqua.


Your internal hard drive is also a weak point since your iMac is about 7 years old, so there is a good chance the internal hard drive portion of the Fusion Drive is beginning to wear out or even fail. You can run the third party app DriveDx (free trial period) to check the health of the internal hard drive. I doubt it will find anything wrong with the internal SSD since that type of failure is related to the SSD's controller which has no health monitoring. Post the complete DriveDx text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper on the forum editing toolbar.


You can also run the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected. The diagnostics don't usually detect problems, but it never hurts to check. I'm thinking more of looking for possible memory issues than a bad drive with this suggestion.


There is a chance one of your connected external devices could also be causing a problem.


I hope you have a good backup of your system since trying to recover data from a broken Fusion Drive is not easy & will likely result in a huge mess for you. I also hope you have backups of all your external drives as well, including any data in the cloud.


7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 2, 2024 9:15 AM in response to ckalimba

I'm concerned about your internal SSD since there was a Kernel Panic with the SSD which is usually associated with an SSD that is beginning to fail "nvme: Fatal Error Occurred". That type of SSD failure usually occurs when first powering on the computer & when waking from sleep. Every case where I've personally seen this Kernel Panic has been confirmed to be a bad SSD. There is a slim chance that one of the apps mentioned by @BDAqua is the cause since DropBox is listed in the Kernel Panic. In my own personal experience the SSD is most likely bad.


It is also very interesting that your external Toshiba hard drive is shown first in the EtreCheck report since I would expect the internal SSD to be the quickest drive to go ready. This supports my case that the SSD is beginning to fail.


Another concern is the other Photoshop crash where it had a memory related error "malloc: Incorrect Checksum for Freed Object". This could indicate a hardware issue, but also possibly a software issue possibly from one of the apps mentioned by @BDAqua.


Your internal hard drive is also a weak point since your iMac is about 7 years old, so there is a good chance the internal hard drive portion of the Fusion Drive is beginning to wear out or even fail. You can run the third party app DriveDx (free trial period) to check the health of the internal hard drive. I doubt it will find anything wrong with the internal SSD since that type of failure is related to the SSD's controller which has no health monitoring. Post the complete DriveDx text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper on the forum editing toolbar.


You can also run the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected. The diagnostics don't usually detect problems, but it never hurts to check. I'm thinking more of looking for possible memory issues than a bad drive with this suggestion.


There is a chance one of your connected external devices could also be causing a problem.


I hope you have a good backup of your system since trying to recover data from a broken Fusion Drive is not easy & will likely result in a huge mess for you. I also hope you have backups of all your external drives as well, including any data in the cloud.


Jul 1, 2024 9:16 PM in response to ckalimba

I was afraid they might be requiredm but they're sort of best gues as they're all know bad actors.


One thing to try also...


To find out if it's system wide or user specific, try this...


Open System Preferences>Users & Groups, unlock the lock, click on the little plus icon, make a new admin account, log out & into the new account.


Does it work in the new account?

Jul 1, 2024 4:10 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks so much for your reply!


I will need to test the three items you mentioned (apart from the RAM), but it will be difficult as at least two of the three are used daily for work (what this machine is for) and it's not feasible to have them not running for long enough to see if a crash occurs. I'll try to think over how I could accomplish that.


Are they likely culprits based on the info in the report?

Jul 2, 2024 2:27 PM in response to HWTech

My thanks for such a thoughtful and kind reply. I downloaded DriveDX and attached the report.


I share your concern about the internal drive, but not sure whether there are any clues to be found in this: In April, my previous machine also began experiencing crashes like this and eventually would not turn back on. At which point I pulled this current machine back into service. The first was an elderly iMac BUT I had replaced the internal drive with a new SSD from OWC only last year, so it seems less likely that it also went bad?


I feel like the universe is screaming at me that there's something wrong here but I don't know what.


I'll come back after I have been able to try some of your other ideas.



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iMac is crashing more often than I'd like.. EtreCheck says possibly related to 3rd party software.

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