Macbook Air M2, 24GB RAM slowing down / kernel task CPU usage high- Etrereport

If you restart, does the performance improve? Restarting clears a lot of caches and temp files that things like Chrome are happy to generate.

Although your storage is not crowded, I believe it is running a little slower than expected. I expect to see M1 and M2 write as reads speed in the 320MB/sec range. That could be from using both Google Drive and DropBox together.

Chrome is a know resource hog on both Windows and Mac OS. I'm surprised you are getting perforamce ao any time given the number of windoes ope.

Yours appears to be a managed computer:

Configuration Profiles:

com.apple.mdm

Topic

AccessRights

CheckInURL

ServerURL

IdentityCertificateUUID

CheckOutWhenRemoved

ServerCapabilities[0]

SignMessage

com.apple.security.FDERecoveryKeyEscrow

EncryptCertPayloadUUID

Location

com.apple.MCX.FileVault2

UserEntersMissingInfo

Enable

Defer

UseKeychain

UseRecoveryKey

com.apple.mobiledevice.passwordpolicy

minLength

forcePIN

allowSimple

maxGracePeriod

requireAlphanumeric

That can certainly increase the workload. If this is a managed (school or business) computer and you are not part of the IT team that handles this, you should start by asking them. If you are on the team, well, there is no support for managed computers in these user-to-user forums. There should be a point person in your organization that has access to Apple MDM support contacts.

To add to @John Galt's analysis, the bad hardware is most likely the built-in Display Assembly although Apple tends to first replace the Logic Board. Unfortunately there are at least a half dozen variations on those DCP related Kernel Panics....some can be due software issues, while some can be an issue with an external display, etc. However, I think your DCP Kernel Panic is the type related to a bad built-in Display Assembly.

Make sure to get a good backup before taking the laptop to be repaired since Apple will not back up or restore the data for you. People should already have frequent & regular backups of their computer and all external media (including the cloud) which contains any important & unique data. FYI, there are lots more new ways to permanently lose access to the data stored on the internal SSD of the recent Macs due to all of the hardware, software, and security changes.

You have a number of Unsigned files installed. Modern software from Trusted developers is signed with the Developer's Registered Certificate. Unsigned software may be old or fake.

This calls into question your installed versions of Edge, Teams, Dropbox, and GoogleOne and its VPN. They may be very old, wrong versions for your Mac, or malware:

Unsigned Files:

Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.EdgeUpdater.update.system.plist

Command: /Library/Microsoft/EdgeUpdater/109.0.1518.107/EdgeUpdater.app/Contents/MacOS/EdgeUpdater --server --service=update --enable-logging --vmodule=*/components/update_client/*=2,*/chrome/updater/*=2 --system

Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.teams.TeamsUpdaterDaemon.plist

Executable: /Applications/Microsoft Teams classic.app/Contents/TeamsUpdaterDaemon.xpc/Contents/MacOS/TeamsUpdaterDaemon

Details: Restrictive config permissions - possibly malware

Running app: /Library/DropboxHelperTools/Dropbox_u501/dbkextd

Details: Domain name invalid - possibly malware

System Extensions:

[Not Loaded] com.google.one.NetworkExtension - version 1.9.0.1 (Google LLC - installed 2024-03-11)

Application: /Applications/VPN by Google One.app - version 1.9.0 (Google LLC - installed 2024-03-11)

Almost every use of user-installed VPN software is a SCAM. The correct number for almost all users is ZERO.

focus their attention on this panic report, distilled for the EtrecheckPro summary:

2025-06-24 11:06:36 Kernel Panic

Details:

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xfffffe0020013dac): DCP PANIC - ASSERT!AppleDCPDPT

XPowerController.cpp:564 No device added after powering on the rails.

HPD=0 - dcpav(27)

Panicked task 0xfffffe1b3361b2d8: 0 pages, 540 threads: pid 0: kernel_

task

Genius Bar technicians are NOT trained to read panic reports!

Do Not proceed to the Genius Bar unless/until you can reproduce crashing on command, or Apple Support had DIRECTED an Apple-authorized Service provider to change your hardware and you have a reference number for that.

Your files will NOT be saved or returned to you!

The telephone support people are more likely to work with you. They will insist that you go through the motions to eliminate software issues. But when they get to the end of their list, you should insist on having your problem escalated to a specialist. Specialists are more likely to actually read your panic reports, and to agree this is a problem and DIRECT an Apple service provider to swap things (likely mainboard) for a new one.

Apple support does appreciate what we do as Volunteers here on the forums. They can and should read what has already been posted. Be sure to tell them where they can read it. But they do NOT take our conclusions at face value -- they have their own more rigorous procedures they follow.

You MUST have a Trusted backup before submitting your Mac for service. if the mainboard is swapped out, the boot drive will be swapped out as well, and you will not get your files back.

Your Mac has a hardware problem endemic to that specific model. Contact Apple: Official Apple Support

marcs108 wrote:

Oh jeez, thank you! Is there anything I should say to Apple Support regarding the problem specific to this model, so they know what it is quickly?

You could draw their attention to that KP report, but I am nearly certain they will disregard it and disavow any knowledge of any problem endemic to that specific model Mac, let alone that one. Apple technicians are required to follow protocol.

Participants of this site are not so constrained though. That problem will persist until the defective hardware is identified and replaced.

Be persistent.

Instead of Edge & Chrome, get Brave browser, stay away from any VPN, the others, depends if you have any need for them.

"On the cloud" is great for sharing photos, but is not a viable backup solution for everything you have. The stuff is not under your control, and is subject to sloppy handling, arbitrary changes in policy, theft, accidental deletion, data loss [are they making frequent backups using best practices?], and discontinuation or throttling of the service. It can easily take three days to restore it at ordinary Internet speeds.

If you do not have a recent local, disk-based backup, your computer is like a ticking Time bomb. You are only one disk failure, one mainboard failure, one crazy software, or one "oops" away from losing EVERYTHING! Drives do not last forever. It is not a question of IF it will fail, only WHEN it will fail. In addition, you never know when crazy software or Pilot Error throws away far more than you intended.

If you are using another direct-to-disk backup method that you prefer, and you currently have a recent disk-based backup, that is great. If not, you should consider using Built-in Time Machine. Take steps to acquire an external drive as soon as possible. If you buy one, a drive 2 to 3 times or larger than your boot drive is preferable for long term trouble-free operation. Do not pay extra for a drive that is fast.  (You can get by for a while with a "found" smaller drive if necessary, but it will eventually become annoying).

Attach your external drive and use

Settings > General > Time machine ...

... to turn on Time Machine and specify what drive to store your Backups on.  It may ask to initialize the new drive, and that is as expected. APFS format is default format if running MacOS 11 Big Sur or later.

Time machine works quietly and automatically in the background, without interrupting your regular work, and only saves the incremental changes (after the first full backup). Time machine backs up your machine — including every connected drive that is in a Mac compatible format. it can not back up Windows format drives.

Time Machine's "claim to fame" is that it is the backup that gets done. It does not ruin performance of the rest of the computer while doing its backup operations. You do not have to set aside a "Special Time" when you only do backups. When you need it, your Time machine Backup is much more likely to be there.

How to use Time Machine to Backup or Restore your Mac:

Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support