Recurring M3/M4 MacBook Failures — Device Dying Audio Completely Stopping

Thanks for your reddit links. Without the ability to qualify whether those users know what they are doing, their complaints are far less valuable.

Consider downloading and running this little "discovery" utility, Etrecheck. It changes NOTHING. Etrecheck was developed by a senior contributor here, and uses mostly system calls and simple tests to collect often-needed information.

it contains little tests for speeds of devices, CPU utilization, memory usage, energy usage and a digest of recent problems, in one easy to use package. it does not even need to be Installed. Because less can be learned when your Mac is running great, best time to run is when your problems are actually occurring, if possible.

if you follow the directions faithfully, its report (pre-laundered of all personally-identifiable information) can be "Shared" to the System ClipBoard, then Pasted into an ‘Additional Text’ window in a reply on the forums.

Use Etrecheck Pro for free:

http://Etrecheck.com

The amount of data you get can be daunting. If you POST your report, some Readers here are willing to look over those reports, and can provide valuable insights.

Then start a reply on the forums, click the "additional text" icon in the forum, and PASTE

Overall assessment:

You have a remarkably large number of resource-intensive things all open and running at all times.

Your real RAM memory is overdrawn, and you are simulating the additional RAM needed on the boot drive. That is so much stuff that the boot drive writes have measurably slowed down.

it is not at all surprising that you have issues playing audio, as that requires full speed processing, which is not available when part of the RAM required is being simulated on the boot drive.

To run all this stuff at once, in an appropriately-responsive way, you would need a machine with about twice as much real RAM as is installed in this Mac.

OR consider cutting back on some of the most resource-intensive items, or launching them only when needed, not at all times in the background.

 Unsigned files - There are unsigned software files installed. These files could be old, incompatible, and cause problems. They should be reviewed.

Unsigned Files:

  Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.docker.socket.plist

    Command: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.docker.socket ***

[Not Loaded] com.docker.socket.plist (Not signed - installed 2025-09-28)

    Command: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.docker.socket ***

While we are on the subject of Docker, are the tools running under Docker ones you REALLY need? Because on a Mac, Docker tools run in a Linux Virtual machine, which can use a LOT of resources.

-------

Then there's these:

  [Not Loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Not signed - installed 2025-09-08)

    <Empty>

  [Not Loaded] com.google.keystone.xpcservice.plist (Not signed - installed 2025-09-08)

    <Empty>

those should be deleted.

Chrome is responsible for RAM memory usage almost as large as your over-draft:

Top Processes Snapshot by Memory:

Process (count) RAM usage (Source - Location)

Google Chrome Helper (Renderer) (61) 4.09 GB (Google LLC)

Figma Helper (Renderer) (5) 1.08 GB (Figma, Inc.)

EtreCheckPro 930 MB (Etresoft, Inc.)

Code Helper (Renderer) (2) 453 MB (Microsoft Corporation)

Google Chrome 413 MB (Google LLC)

then there's this:

"Chrome is particularly resource-intensive because it installs Google which renders your Mac a full time information-harvesting and -uploading "bot" for Google's purposes. Those processes can't be turned off or disabled, even if you quit the Chrome browser. Even without knowing what else is installed on that Mac it is all but assured a multitude of Google's automatically updating virus-like processes are causing your Mac to work overtime.

Get rid of it. No one needs Chrome. Follow these removal instructions."

—senior contributor John Galt

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95319?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop#zippy=%2Cmac

https://chromeisbad.com/

If you need to re-install, upgrade, downgrade, or submit your computer for service, you need a recent, Trusted disk-based backup.

¿what is the date of your most recent backup, and by what method?

You need to do a Restart after the changes you made, to have them all take effect.

THEN post a new Etrecheck report.