Unexpected shut-down; here is the report

[Steve B]

Hi, I'm using a 17" MBPro early 2009 with a Samsung 500GB SSD in the optical bay, running 10.11.6, 8GB memory, 2.66 GHz. The ssd is a recent install. The hard drive died recently and that bay sits empty. I love that it's faster, quieter, and more stable. But today for no apparent reason the system shut down and rebooted. I will attach the error message in full below in case someone can advise how worried I should be, or what steps I might take. I do have Time Machine, it has saved me before more than once....I am making sure it is backed up now.
Thanks for being there,
Steve
---

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

I see the following from your report:
-MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009)
-2.66 Ghz C2D, 8 GB RAM
-Samsun 850 EVO 500 GB SSD
-Mac OS X 10.11.6 El Capitan

-AVG Internet Security or AntiVirus is installed
-Spotflux VPN is installed
-Google Chrome is installed, and seems to have caused the crash

Questions:
-Is there a reason you installed the SSD in the optical bay instead of replacing the factory hard drive? You will get better performance if you move it to the hard drive bay.
-What version of Chrome?
-Do you have Adobe Flash installed?
-Was Google Chrome running when the shutdown/panic occurred?
-Were you viewing Flash-related content on a website or streaming video in Chrome?

Hopefully it's a software issue.

C

 

[Steve B]

Thanks for your note Cory.
--When I ordered the SSD, I had a hard drive in place (it was old, and crashed). Could I switch it now without having to do a new install of OS, etc.? Just switch places and boot from the new location? Performance would be significantly better?
--Chrome Version 62.0.3202.94 (Official Build) (64-bit)
--Flash is installed on Chrome but not enabled, I have to approve it
--I don't remember if I was using flash that day on Chrome. LIkely I was using it, or perhaps with Firefox
--sometimes I hear my fans cranking up to cool down when the CPU is taxed, which can happen when streaming video content.

 

[honestone]

Not to "intrude", and Cory is definitely way more knowledgeable than I, but I would think you could install the SSD where the old hard drive was, and your machine should work fine.

In case you have not yet, you might want to do some disk cleanup. You can do a good amount on your own, but another good thing to do would be to download the excellent programs AppCleaner, Malwarebytes and Onyx. You can get them from here:

AppCleaner: https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

Malwarebytes: https://www.malwarebytes.com/

Onyx: https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

For Onyx, given that you are running El Capitan, make sure you download V3.1.9.

First, use AppCleaner to remove EVERYTHING associated with Google Chrome and Firefox. Yes, you'll lose your bookmarks, but it's better to be Safe than sorry.

Next, run Malwarebytes to insure you have no virus "stuff" on your machine.

Finally, run Onyx. Run the following routines:

Under "Maintenance", run Permissions (you should run that 2 or 3 times, at least), Scripts, and Rebuilding.

Under "Cleaning", do not run Trash and Erasing. Run everything else.

Finally, you can re-download the latest versions of Firefox and Google Chrome and install them.

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries honestone...not intruding at all.

-Actually, on that model, the hard drive and optical drive interfaces are both 3.0 Gbps Serial ATA (SATA), so performance would be the same. Older models had a slower optical drive bus. You can move it to the hard drive location without reinstalling anything. You could then reinstall the optical drive and use it if you needed to.
-That's the latest Chrome build.
-Flash is sandboxed in Chrome, so use Chrome for Flash-enabled websites.
-I assume that means you don't have Flash installed in System Preferences - that's a good thing!
-It is totally normal on older MacBook models to have the fans ramp up during video streaming or graphics-intensive tasks like gaming, etc. You should hear my old MBP from 2007!

Has it crashed since?

C

 

[honestone]

Thanks, Cory.

Steve, even if things work fine after the switch, it would still be good if you go through what I described above. Yes, the loss of bookmarks might be a "hassle", but you can easily rebuild them.

 

[Steve B]

Thanks Cory and Honestone. No crashes since the one. I have Flash on Safari and Chrome; both are set to request permission before running. Flash is not in System Preferences. Since there is no benefit to relocating the SSD I will leave it for now (my old DVD player was not functional). I will run through Honestone's suggestions also.

I appreciate your time and attention.