It used to be random. Now it's all the time. Less than 5 minutes after startup, either the cursor and keyboard stopped responding or a beach ball keeps rolling forever.
Sometimes it will just shut down on its own and restart.
Here's what I did to try to resolve the issue.
- Used Ccleaner to remove junk files, including clearing the browser memory from Chrome and Safari. It did not work.
- Rebooted in a Safe Mode by hold down the Shift key while restarting until the Apple logo appears. It starts. Icons and text are larger than my previous serving. The operation is sluggish though. Took about 1 second to respond to every click. About 3 minutes later, the cursor turned into a loading icon and the screen turned black. A big blinking question mark in a folder icon appears with a URL below, support.apple.com/mac/startup
So I went over to the URL and I got a few instructions to follow.
If your Mac starts up to a question mark
"A folder with a flashing question mark means that your startup disk is no longer available or doesn't contain a working Mac operating system."
OH NO! 😱
"If the question mark appears only momentarily before your Mac starts up normally, - Reset NVRAM."
(Done the NVRAM method. Didn't work.)
No. The question mark appeared after the startup.
"If the question mark persists, follow these steps:"
- Press and hold the power button on your Mac for up to 10 seconds, until your Mac turns off.
- Turn on your Mac and immediately press and hold Command (⌘) and R to start up from macOS Recovery.
- While in macOS Recovery, use Disk Utility to repair your startup disk.
- Here I can't even select anything with both the mouse and keyboard.
- If Disk Utility found no errors or repaired all errors, reinstall macOS.
Let me try a few more things first.
- Reset the SMC. Press Shift-Control-Option on the left-hand side of your keyboard while the power button is pressed at the same time. Hold all four keys for 10 seconds and then release. Push the power button again to start your Mac. - https://cleanmymac.com/blog/mac-keeps-shutting-down
- Took a long time to startup. It froze halfway through the startup. So I shut down repeat this step.
- This time the startup was fast. Things look normal after startup.
- PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!! 🥳🥳🥳😂😃😄
I spoke too soon. It crashed again about 15 minutes later.
Update on 14 Sep 2021:
Made a reservation for Apple Repair.
What: Genius Bar reservation
Why: MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), Unexpected shutdown or restart
When: Wednesday, 15 September 2021 at 11:20 a.m.
Where: Apple Orchard Road
Update 15 September 2021:
My Macbook Pro is diagnosed.
Hardware that could require replacement:
- Screen replacement S$709
- Battery replacement S$288
- Speaker replacement S$44
- 128 GB storage S$567
- Motherboard S$709
Likely case for freezing issue
- Software
The solution to the freezing issue:
- Factory reset to Catalina MacOS
- it's one step back but more stable
- Spinning beach ball still happens within 5 minutes.
Left my Macbook Pro with Apple for further diagnosis.
Wait for 3 to 4 days for the result.
Sidenote: I was told if I were to buy a new unit directly from Apple, I can return it within 14 days if it doesn't work out for me.
Sidenote: My late 2013 MacBook pro will not be supported for repair after 30 Sep 2021. Even the repair warranty will expire by then. Today is 15 Sep 2021.
Side note: A good set can sell for about $500 on Carosell. The trade-in value at the Apple store is $180.
~ Adrian Lee
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