New MacBook Just Started to Freeze...

The latest version of El Capitan is actually 10.11.4. First run Disk Utility. Select the startup drive, not the volume indented below the drive, in the Disk Utility sidebar, and click First Aid to the right. If there are no errors reported, select the volume (usually called Macintosh HD) indented below the drive in the Disk Utility sidebar, and click First Aid. The second check is the more important one, which is an indicator of data corruption on your startup disk.

Also, start up the Mac in Safe Mode. This fixes other types of errors (during startup) and starts up the Mac without loading third-party system extensions. And third-party background processes that auto-start at login also do not run in Safe Mode. Third-party software can cause instability in the system.

Try safe mode if your Mac doesn't finish starting up - Apple Support

Most apps should run in Safe Mode, although overall performance of the system will be slower. Does the "freezing" problem still occur? If not, you'll need to investigate possible causes through a process of elimination.

If the startup disk is getting close to being full, that can cause issues. In Finder (or on the Desktop), right-click on your startup disk icon and select Get Info. Do you have plenty of free space Available?

memikey wrote:

I know it has to do with the .4 version and i do believe you will have to have a fix for this. You disagree? Thanks for getting back so quick. We are an Apple family (5 MacBook Pros, 6 iPhones, 2 iPads) for many reasons. NOT having my machine freeze is one of them. :-)

Just so you understand, this is a user to user forum. Not an Apple Tech Support Forum. You can send feedback to Apple here…

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

There are experienced users here willing to help but you do have to at least try their suggestions.

Apple leadership and Product teams do not participate in these open user communities. We are volunteers, not Apple employees, so we can fix nothing in OS X unless it is to assess your current environment for issues, and recommend procedural changes. You can communicate with the OS X product team via a feedback form.

If you downloaded and installed anything that used a .pkg or .mpkg installer extension, there is a distinct possibility that you may have installed something incompatible into System locations. You may have also inadvertently clicked something on a website, and now have malware working against you. It especially true if you are running any anti-virus software, or have used a so-called Mac cleaner application that may have over-aggressively removed what it should not.

Are you seeing anything in your Console (Launchpad : Other : Console) that shows ongoing issues that may point to the source of the problem? Most current log entries on the bottom. Search for keywords like I/O, Error, Warn, etc.

I didn't go to Safe because i've added NO extensions and it's happening in PHOTOS, an APPLE app.

You should try Safe Mode. The point is that incompatible third-party extensions INTERFERE with Apple's apps and smooth operation of the OS. Problems occurring in Photos is what you'd expect if a third-party extension is interfering. If your system is an existing "old" system that has been progressively updated over the years, the third-party extension (or background process) could have been installed many YEARS ago (you may not even require it anymore), and it has become incompatible with the latest OS update. AND, "third-party" extensions (or background processes) can be malware, which you installed unintentionally (perhaps through a "trojan" hack).

I see so many people in support groups and other Mac groups saying the same thing, that they freeze and it's happened since. the .4 version.

There are TENS of MILLIONS of El Capitan users who did the update at about the same time. If this was a common problem, there would be an overwhelming number of users reporting problems. Even 1% having a particular problem is hundreds of thousands of users. There would be lines at the Genius Bar coming out the door of Apple Stores. Apple customer support would have had a melt-down. In fact, the vast majority of users are not having issues related to 10.11.4. I'm not. However, system updates will always cause problems with a fractional percentage of users, for various reasons not directly related to the update or "bugs."

if it's only two months old and you are concerened with it's performance or stability you can take it to an Apple Store for diagnostics and it will be covered under the warranty.

http://www.apple.com/contact/

Again, it does not necessary have to be something installed recently. It could have been installed a long time ago, if you been progressively updating the same system over time. It may have been for an accessory (or an app) you no longer use. The latest OS X update caused an incompatibility. (And it could be malware, which by design is not something you knowingly installed.)

Here are two other tests you can try, for narrowing down the cause:

- Create a new user account in System Preferences Users & Groups pane. I have a Test User account for trouble-shooting and other testing. The new user account can be Standard (not Administrator). Log out of your usual user account and log in to the new user account. Do not use Fast User Switching for this test. In the new user account, do the things that cause this problem. If the problem does not occur in the new user account, the cause is likely to be something in your usual user account. For example, it may be a background process that starts automatically when you log in. If the problem occurs in the new user account, then cause is something at the system level (or maybe hardware-related). Either way, you can better focus your trouble-shooting (instead of trying "random stuff").

- If you have an external drive that you can erase, you can install a fresh OS X system on it. I use an SD card in my Mac's high-speed SD card slot as an alternate startup disk for testing. You can get good-quality 64GB "SDXC" cards for less than $20 these days. It needs to be re-initialized (erased) using Disk Utility to reformat it for Mac. Then, it acts like an external drive, and you can install an OS X system on it. Surprisingly fast. Or you can use an external USB hard drive. USB flash drive may or may not work well, depending on speed. 32GB or more is large enough to install and efficiently run an OS X system (64GB is better if you want to install additional software on it).

Run the clean test system and do the things that cause this problem. If the problem does not occur, the cause is somewhere on your normal OS X system. If the problem does occur, then it's a hardware problem or it may actually be a "bug."