After years of no problems, laptop keeps crashing repeatedly, and EtreCheck and DriveDx's apparently conflicting reports

I should have thought of mentioning this though most of the experts probably know.

The original SSD (that failed) on this laptop was 128 GB. The replacement is 256 GB.

In case that makes a difference.

(As mentioned elsewhere the replacement SSD is an Apple OEM by Samsung.)

HWTech, I owe you a beer! Your replies are very helpful.

Yes, OWC seems like a godsend.

I am planning to get this 500GB SSD with tools and enclosure. (Checked that it's compatible with my MB Air 2017 7,2.) That way I could try simply to re-create by mirroring off my current SSD after putting in the new one. Or should I get something else?

If you can point me to how I may mirror, I would really appreciate that too. I don't use TimeMachine; I prefer FreeFileSync but how would I boot to be able to use it? I'll probably have to install Catalina online and then restore my ~/Library and then my ~ though I'd much rather try to recreate. Otherwise I'll have to download and re-install drivers, Java, etc.

This laptop came with Sierra and I went up to Catalina (10.15.7).

I did not want to upgrade from that because this is a 'lightweight' machine and each new O.S. consumes more CPU and VM than the previous one (one route to planned obsolescence), and because after Lion you never know what weird stuff a new MacOS will bring and do – I've been on this OS since before OSX, i.e. NEXTSTEP/OpenStep so I am very aware of the sharp difference in 'New Apple's philosophy towards computing. (The [not-so] new regime seems to think that a laptop is just a glorified smartphone.)

I've asked OWC a couple of questions, if you know:

1. What do the stars (*) before some of the products indicate.
2. Why do the SSDs (from the same manufacturer) have such wildly disparate warranty periods – two years through five years.

Thanks again.

HWTech wrote:

Kersie wrote:

I've asked OWC a couple of questions, if you know:

1.What do the stars (*) before some of the products indicate.

I don't see any on the page you linked. Usually somewhere further down the page either at the end of a section or perhaps at the bottom of the page there should be a footnote with "*".

Sorry, I should have copy-pasted a couple of examples. Stars appear to the left of certain products on the results-set pages. OWC explained that '*' indicate refurbished/overstock/discontinued products.

2. Why do the SSDs (from the same manufacturer) have such wildly disparate warranty periods – two years through five years.

They are usually two different tiers of drives. One is either low end or average, while the other one is a higher end drive.

Thanks, this is good to know. I tried to order an SSD set with a five-year guarantee.

I understand that owc is considered the gold standard but they refuse to ship to Karachi (on transparently and demonstrably) false pretexts -- not even on their list of countries

So are there any online stores that are considered silver- and bronze-medallists?

In the meantime I am trying to find a local brick-and-mortar store but no luck so far.

Thanks for any tips.

Actually I used to live and work over there until 2003 but after a few years I lost contact with the few persons I had kept in touch with.

I did email an old 'partner-in-crime' (i.e. a successful skunkworks) but no response. I can't even be sure if the email reached him.

Thank you, again.

Actually I bought a new laptop – same specs and size, only an M1 processor – a few hours back but I certainly don't want to junk this one so I'm going to try to place an order.

May have a follow-up question, though will post it in a proper section, about copying my ~/Library (from a backup disk) to replicate my environment.

That's because – I don't know if you all realized – but Apple changed the format of the 'Music' (iTunes) Library in-between/during Catalina (minor) versions! I got caught (because of the replacement SSD) and had to spend some time figuring it out and restoring my music that I would rather not have wasted.

Thank you. Between this and HWTech's lead I may be able to get what I need . . .

It's tough to do this research on a slow android smartphone which I need to do as this laptop can just crash anytime, even in safe mode.

Thanks for the tip. I shall try to find out how to check the grounding of that point/outlet as well as the pins, and do so.

But if that is actually the case, why did the EtreCheck report, apparently strongly, point to the SSD and the crash reports also imply an SSD problem.

Back on smartphone

First there has not been any tingling/shock at all if that is a clue

Was doing homework like checking the earthing (as it's 3pin) using multimeter etc but it crashed on battery twice -- same thing, indefinite pinwheel and couldn't recover SATA in crash report

So that eliminates mains power use as a cause

It was prob a false dawn

Hello,

Thanks for the tip. Did that and the results are attached in my Reply to the post itself.

Yes, I know. I've never installed any anti-virus product before. I did it just this once to see if it could find any virus which may be the cause of the crashes.

Thanks.

Somehow I missed that you'd asked about the latest crash report which I've now attached.

Yes, I uninstalled Avast and now BitDefender too.