Constant program freezing and needing to reboot on new Studio

[kat.hayes]

I have a Studio with 64GB of RAM running 12.3.1 that I have only had for maybe 5 months and all of a sudden I am having issues with programs constantly freezing and when I try to Force Quit it often doesn't help and than all of the other program stop working and I have to reboot. I have not installed any new programs since getting it 5 months ago. Anyone have any suggestions for what I might try to fix this or am I going to just need to reinstall the OS?

Thanks

 

[rm5]

I think you need to reinstall macOS, unfortunately. Try to use Erase All Content and Settings, though, and if that doesn't work, you'll have to do a complete wipe through Recovery. At this point, it seems kinda hard to isolate exactly what program, file, etc. is causing the issue, so reinstallation is probably the easiest way to go!

 

[Basic75]

Seconded, do a fresh install, but if the problems persist you'll have to exchange the machine. Shouldn't be an issue, after 5 months you are still under warranty.

 

[haralds]

Before going that drastic, look at the console messages/crash dump from your forced restart. It might give you a hint of where it is hanging.

 

[chrfr]

I have a Studio with 64GB of RAM running 12.3.1

Confirming that you're still using macOS 12.3.1 here and not 13.2.1. If that's the case, update it to 12.6.3 and see if anything gets better. There have been a lot of bug fixes since 12.3.1 was released.

 

[chrfr]

Seconded, do a fresh install, but if the problems persist you'll have to exchange the machine. Shouldn't be an issue, after 5 months you are still under warranty.

After 5 months it'd be a repair, not an exchange.

 

[BrianBaughn]

You didn't say if you used Migration Assistant after getting the new Mac. You should probably also list what apps you've installed and any external devices that you have attached.

I agree with trying a fresh install and NOT using Migration Assistant. It's a pain but necessary to rule out a lot of issue possibilities that can occur from migrating.

Even if you didn't migrate like that you've gotta give a clean install of everything a shot.

 

[stradify]

Op,
This article, which just posted this morning, should give you a good starting point of how to go about troubleshooting the problem: https://eclecticlight.co/2023/03/06/how-troubleshooting-has-changed-with-macos-security/