Q: Mac keeps freezing after Mavericks 1.9.2 clean install

I would only worry about tools that actually modify something on your system. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you do a site search on here you'll find people praising some and others swearing at them. Some people swear by defragmentation tools, others say they're unnecessecary. A tool like smartmontools can be very complex to use and understand.

You need to be worried about tools that actually attempt to modify something, like a bad sector. Both Scannerz and Drive Genius provide warnings about attempting a disk repair using their tools. The Scannerz manual has a diatribe in it about "why you shouldn't do this" and tosses up a sequence of dialogs warning you about attempting a repair. They say to reformat using Disk Utility and zero the drive to remap sectors. Drive Genius does likewise with the warnings. Some of the others might do the same for all I know. On something like a Fusion drive where the volume management software relocates data between an SSD and its companion HD, this could be a real problem for very good reasons. My opionion would be to never use that option, even if the product says it can do it successfully. Some of the tools in that list are old, and file systems have changed, and drive management has changed as well.

Defragmentation on an SSD is totally unnecessary. The SSD doesn't seek around a drive mechanically because it acts like RAM. A file is obtained by simply using addresses of data on the SSD gathering the data up, and then sending it to the CPU. The only thing that will happen if you defragment an SSD is that you'll be using up SSD write cycles for no good reason.

Others with HDs will swear by defragmentation, while others will, likewise, swear at it.

Understand what Disk Utility does. Some tools appear to have some functionality that seems to be nothing more than a glorified interface to it. There's no reason spending money on functionality that's built into the OS for free, like formatting or partitioning a drive.

Apple should really put some surface scan capability into Disk Utility, but it doesn't. I don't think even AHT can do it. Unfortunately, with HDs, that's one of the biggest problems. Surface scanning is what I think is needed, at least periodically. It can't hurt anything. All any of those products do is read the drive for errors.

Disk Warrior has saved the skin of many users. I don't own the application, but when the index files of a drive get corrupt to the point that Disk Utility can't recover them, for many people, Disk Warrior has come to the rescue. Others haven't had such luck, and it doesn't support all formats (like Windows/DOS - at least I don't think it does). There have been a few times I wished I had it, but not many.

Keep good backups.

I looked at the images you posted again:

Cinema: check again for mavericks compatibility, then reinstall, it is missing a file.

VLC: it is missing a codec, download latest version, reinstall over the existing VLC. Check all settings.

Do not use tools like Scannerz and so on. Not necessary.

Most of the tools I referenced in the original link about tools have free demo versions that you can get from CNET, MacUpdate, or both. smartmon tools is free, period. A warning about the Scannerz demo - it s*cks. It only allows you to do limited surface scans to 10GB and the iteration level for interface and memory tests are limited to a 10 count. It is, literally, a demo.

I agree that the most likely cause is the SATA cable or the drive itself. The symptoms are there. You might be able to use a Techtools Pro, Drive Genius, or Scannerz demo to isolate it or at least give you a clue, and it won't cost you anything. Why not use all three if they're available and free. Just don't go overwriting existing data with any "repair" options until you know what they really do.

I just have to say... the enclosure is $16 and the odds are 99% it's going to tell you if it's the drive or the cable. You've put way more effort into this than it requires.

By the way, search the forums here for Cnet. Programs from there often install other unwanted items, causing problems on the machine. One example...

https://discussions.apple.com/message/23657828#23657828

Stop promoting these tools. Only to be used in special cases, by people who know what they do. In a lot of threads here just installation of such a tool can cause issues by loaded kexts. In some situations DiskWarrior can do miracles, but you must be sure what is wrong before you use it.

In this case there is no need for such a tool at the moment.

Yes Cnet: a good assortment of apps, but never download apps form such sites. Softonic is another one to avoid. You can search on such sites, but go to the original developer site to download something. These sites live by advertising, promoting and building in trackers.

It means put the drive in the enclosure and test it that way. It's either the drive or the cable.

Bad blocks on a disk (SSD or HDD) is normal, they are taken care of by the disk controller: they will be taken out of use. Using a tool to find that out is useless. It proves that you do not need such a tool for that.

It means you're getting I/O errors. You can't tell whether it's the SATA cable or the HD itself causing them. Download the Scannerz demo, which I assume is still available, put it into diagnostics mode, select the volume, then perform the interface tests, and only the interface tests on it. You have to configure it before you run the tests. Do it 10 or 20 times. This is why their demo s*cks...you can't do real tests with it. If it picks up system faults it's the cable. If it doesn't, it's the drive. You could also do a normal mode surface scan on it then do diagnostics, but usually only the OS and system files exist in the first 10GB of space, which is their demo limit, and your files are data files, and if you were having problems there I would think the system wouldn't boot or it would be crashing erratically if not a lot.

Assuming it passes interface tests which means you've got bad sectors, run Disk Utility on the drive and reformat it with the security option to write a single pass of zeros over the entire hard drive. This will force bad sectors to be re-mapped to good sectors.  I would not advise using either Scannerz or TechTool Pro to "repair" these. If Disk Utility can't properly format the drive and it quits with an error, it means the damage is so bad it can't remap them, and your drive is toast.

Another thing you could do is write down the bad sectors from TechTool Pro, re-scan, and see if the problems are repeatable. The big difference between TechTool Pro and Scannerz is that TechTool Pro assumes an I/O error is a bad sector, Scannerz forces you to retest and re-evaluate to make sure what the cause is.

You can do all this without opening your system up and if it reformats properly and clears the bad sectors, then you're back in business. If I recally correctly, you said that you were about to sell the system. I'm assuming the drive itself is the problem. Please be honest and let the new buyer know that the drive has had problems. Another, and better option would be to put a brand new drive in it and sell it with the drive and its warranty which would certainly help elavate the selling price and be a good deal for a buyer. Just my opinions.

...I'm going to bed now. Later.

Ciao

It takes 10 minutes and 2 screwdriver to transfer the drive, and when you're done you don't have to worry about false positives that you may get from all this software. The tools may be good in the hands of someone experienced, but they're overkill in this situation.

Lex, do you agree?