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kernel panics every few minute

After installing BigSur, I have been experiencing kernel panics every few minutes. I have a macbook air early 2014 11"

MacBook Air 11″, macOS 11.6

Posted on Dec 21, 2021 8:42 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 21, 2021 7:16 PM

Since the EtreCheck report did not provide any details on the Kernel Panics see if the Kernel Panic logs are still available and post several of them here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. The Kernel Panic logs will have file names beginning with "kernel" and ending in ".panic" and located in "/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports".


Make sure to disconnect all external devices in case one of them is causing the problem.


The EtreCheck report shows Spotlight using 130% of the CPU (may be the problem or another symptom). Run Disk Utility First Aid on the hidden Container. You may need to click "View" within Disk Utility and select "Show All Devices" so that the hidden Container appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Even if First Aid says everything is "Ok" click "Show Details" and manually scroll back through the report to see if any unfixed errors are listed. If there are any unfixed errors, then try running First Aid from Recovery Mode to see if the errors can be fixed, otherwise you will need to erase the whole physical SSD and restore from a backup or clone.


You may want to check the health of the SSD by running DriveDx and posting the health report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.


7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 21, 2021 7:16 PM in response to kutlugiray

Since the EtreCheck report did not provide any details on the Kernel Panics see if the Kernel Panic logs are still available and post several of them here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper. The Kernel Panic logs will have file names beginning with "kernel" and ending in ".panic" and located in "/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports".


Make sure to disconnect all external devices in case one of them is causing the problem.


The EtreCheck report shows Spotlight using 130% of the CPU (may be the problem or another symptom). Run Disk Utility First Aid on the hidden Container. You may need to click "View" within Disk Utility and select "Show All Devices" so that the hidden Container appears on the left pane of Disk Utility. Even if First Aid says everything is "Ok" click "Show Details" and manually scroll back through the report to see if any unfixed errors are listed. If there are any unfixed errors, then try running First Aid from Recovery Mode to see if the errors can be fixed, otherwise you will need to erase the whole physical SSD and restore from a backup or clone.


You may want to check the health of the SSD by running DriveDx and posting the health report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.


Dec 21, 2021 12:09 PM in response to kutlugiray

You have this "paloaltonetworks" thing that was apparently installed in 2015, so many versions of the OS ago.

You apparently have upgraded in place since then.

At some point, such old system modifications will cease to work in a newer OS.


I would try uninstalling this.


It is also possible that some hardware failing is causing the panics.

You may want to run the hardware test.

Start your mac and immediately press and hold the D key.

Tell us what the hardware test says.

Dec 22, 2021 4:33 PM in response to kutlugiray

The DriveDx report shows a problem with the SSD:

=== DRIVE HEALTH INDICATORS ===
ID | NAME | TYPE | UPDATE | RAW VALUE | VALUE | THRESHOLD | WORST | STATUS
175 Bad Cluster Table Count Life-span offline 21,405,511 1 0 100 1.0% Warning

The numbers listed here don't really make sense, but drive manufacturers are known to implement the health reporting feature incorrectly. There is a slim possibility that some part of the SSD controller has gotten corrupt so performing a hardware secure erase of the SSD may "fix" the SSD by resetting the SSD to factory defaults. However, in order to access the SSD's built-in hardware secure erase feature requires using a Linux boot disk and the command line (there may be a paid option which uses a GUI), but not all Apple SSD's have the built-in hardware secure erase feature. I don't recall if the Toshiba SSD has it or not. I can provide instructions if you are interested, but beware there is a slim possibility the process could brick the SSD (the SSD already has issues). FYI, I have "fixed" SSDs which were having issues by utilizing the SSD's built-in hardware secure erase feature.


If you don't attempt to use the SSD's built-in hardware secure erase feature to reset the SSD to factory resets, then you will need to replace the SSD. OWC sells a drop in replacement SSD which works with Apple's proprietary SSD connector.

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-air/2013-2014-2015


I highly recommend you get a good backup of your data now while you still can since an SSD can fail at any time and we know your SSD is having an issue.


You should always have frequent and regular backups.



kernel panics every few minute

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