2019 16-inch MacBook Pro crashes

[markedlymac]

I wanted to create a thread for people to talk about any crashes with the 2019 16-inch MBP model.

I got mine two days ago, and had a rather terrible type of crash just now. I really hope it doesn't come back.

Conditions:

- Connected to power.
- iPhone connected (charging it).
- On Wifi, was heavily uploading a 40GB file to the cloud (at~ 40Mbps), about 2/3 through (a 5-hour process).
- Watching a YouTube video in full-screen.
- (Nothing outlier-ish, all official Apple cables and nothing modified hardware- or software-wise.)

What happened:

- My Youtube Video starts completely freezing up. Sound continues, but screen is LOCKED to the video frame for up to a minute.
- Then, I got this awful distortion across the whole screen. This lasted about another 20 seconds.
- Then lastly, the Mac suddenly takes me back to the user login screen. (It killed my session entirely, but didn't power off the Mac.)

This reminds me of what I conclude have been T2-caused freeze-ups in my former 2018 model since ~Catalina. It scares me because those were also a similar symptom: during full-screen video, the screen locks up for a short while (but no crash afterwards).

This crash caused my 40GB upload to have to resume from the beginning. Thanks, Apple. You're doing real good with your engineering.

 

[iMacDragon]

sounds like a gpu or gpu driver issue causing window server to fail.

 

[markedlymac]

This is probably overblown, but I'm going to call this 'freezegate'.

It's started on my T2-enabled 2018 MBP since ~Catalina, and now it's continuing on my brand new 16-inch MBP.

While watching full-screen video - and I've seen this both on YouTube in Chrome and in MPV.app) - very often, i.e. around once a day, the screen will start freezing for a period of time during video playback. The freeze can happen for as long as around 30 seconds or even a minute. I haven't timed it yet. The sound continues, but the screen completely freezes. Haven't tested whether the touchpad or touch bar freezes up during this moment either, it's still so novel to me.

I think it's somehow T2-related.

It's not that big of a deal, honestly - not something I'd return my MBP for in my case. But it's something. And I sincerely hope Apple fix it further with firmware updates. (Given I paid $5000 for this thing.)

Will let this sit here and over time see if others report the same thing.

 

[am2am]

I have mine for two months and never had a freeze. Neither have seen many posts with similar problem - might be something specific to your config.

Why you believe it's T2 related - any rationale/justification?
If anything else I'd say its Catalina related - this OS is buggy like never before.
Would love MBP16 with previous OS

 

[Dominus Mortem]

The only freeze/crash type of issue I've had is that twice now Safari has froze. It doesn't break the whole machine, a force/quit gets everything back on track. So, probably a software problem (for me at least).

 

[mightyjabba]

My understanding is that people frequently mistakenly attribute crashes to the T2 chip when in fact it's basically just the messenger and the true cause is something else. I haven't had any issues like the one described, but Catalina in combination with this hardware does not seem to be the most stable thing.

 

[markedlymac]

Just happened again now. (watching MKBHD full-screen.)

It is a full, legitimate freeze - keyboard presses like ESC don't do anything in the OS. But trackpad and keyboard does respond with force touch and backlights responding, so maybe not a T2 issue thank God.

A graphics issue? Or indeed, a Catalina bug.

Still annoying, but minor compared to what we've gone through with the T2 and butterfly issues. (etc.)

I agree, Catalina is buggy as hell...

 

[markedlymac]

Just had my first ever T2 crash on the 16-inch MBP.

At least I think it's a 'T2 crash', because it's the exact same behaviour as on the 2018 MBP - macOS suddenly freezes, trackpad also non-responsive, then shuts off with a fan blow-out, and then reboots.

It happened IMMEDIATELY after plugging in an Ethernet-to-USB-C adapter - the adapter I've used since my 2017 MBP (which doesn't have the T2) and which since only my 2018 MBP have I had crashes with.

I caught it on camera.

And here's the crash log upon restart:

"BAD MAGIC! (flag set in iBoot panic header), no macOS panic log available"

 

[jerryk]

I would avoid doing anything while uploading that file if that is when it crashes. It's a little to hard to tell from your write up if that is a required background action. And also how you are uploading the file.

 

[Viamusic10000]

Just had my first ever T2 crash on the 16-inch MBP.

At least I think it's a 'T2 crash', because it's the exact same behaviour as on the 2018 MBP - macOS suddenly freezes, trackpad also non-responsive, then shuts off with a fan blow-out, and then reboots.

It happened IMMEDIATELY after plugging in an Ethernet-to-USB-C adapter - the adapter I've used since my 2017 MBP (which doesn't have the T2) and which since only my 2018 MBP have I had crashes with.

I caught it on camera.

And here's the crash log upon restart:
View attachment 891278
"BAD MAGIC! (flag set in iBoot panic header), no macOS panic log available"

Got the same one this week
[automerge]1580347960[/automerge]

My understanding is that people frequently mistakenly attribute crashes to the T2 chip when in fact it's basically just the messenger and the true cause is something else. I haven't had any issues like the one described, but Catalina in combination with this hardware does not seem to be the most stable thing.

Well the exact same behaviour is happening to many people that happened with the previous MacBook pros. It’s the same behaviour as the bridge os crashes and this type of kernel panic is only happening on t2 macs. There is a host of t2 issues most of them audio related. I bet these crashes (since they often happen when peripherals are plugged in) are related to the same power management issues causing audio bugs like thumping 808’s, popping speakers and unusable audio interfaces.

 

[adamzeis]

I have this same issue constantly. With YouTube videos, I get the video freeze while the audio continues to play. If I'm on a Google Meet video chat, everything will freeze, I can still heard audio, then often times I get the wicked distortion and my system reboots. Not all the time, but far too often. I'm also using a USB-C hub with various things attached to it including an external display (HDMI). Anyone have any suggestions? Driving me nuts.

 

[scottish]

I have this same issue constantly. With YouTube videos, I get the video freeze while the audio continues to play. If I'm on a Google Meet video chat, everything will freeze, I can still heard audio, then often times I get the wicked distortion and my system reboots. Not all the time, but far too often. I'm also using a USB-C hub with various things attached to it including an external display (HDMI). Anyone have any suggestions? Driving me nuts.

I'm also having the same issue with video playing and then it freezing while the audio continues. Also very frequently open the lid to find the computer has restarted then get an error report with reference to kernel panics and the cpu or gpu. I reinstalled macOS and the same issues occurred so I've sent it back to the seller for service.

 

[meirithekid]

same here.. sent it to be repaired, came back 10 days later "after they found nothing wrong". within 2 days froze several times..

 

[scottish]

same here.. sent it to be repaired, came back 10 days later "after they found nothing wrong". within 2 days froze several times..

That’s not good. Did you send to Apple? Mine is still with the seller in a queue to be inspected. I am half expecting them to return it having not found any issue.. hopefully not.

 

[meirithekid]

That’s not good. Did you send to Apple? Mine is still with the seller in a queue to be inspected. I am half expecting them to return it having not found any issue.. hopefully not.

Yes, sent it to them again 3 days ago. thats the second time its sent for service in the one month I've had it... Unless they tell me they found the issue and completley fixed it, I'm gonna demand a replacement or my money back

 

[scottish]

Yes, sent it to them again 3 days ago. thats the second time its sent for service in the one month I've had it... Unless they tell me they found the issue and completley fixed it, I'm gonna demand a replacement or my money back

Just to update that I received repaired laptop back and they’ve replaced the logic board and Touch ID. Will be sure to update about how it goes.

 

[meirithekid]

update: I just got my MBP16 back after a logic board & top case replacement. seems like they swapped the battery too as it has 1 cycle on it, unless they just reset the cycles?
I'll report back in a few days if the freezing problem is solved.

 

[scottish]

Just to update that I received repaired laptop back and they’ve replaced the logic board and Touch ID. Will be sure to update about how it goes.

No crashes so far but the Touch Bar becomes unresponsive sometimes

 

[meirithekid]

No crashes so far but the Touch Bar becomes unresponsive sometimes

The touch bar is a mess. a useless gimmick, and not even a good one at that.
If/when Apple finally decides to do away with it I will gladly swap my machine for one with 'oldschool' physical, functional keys, as will pretty much anyone I talked to that owned a touch bar MBP.
In the meantime, I use keyboard shortcuts for volume/brightness control etc. There's a bunch of apps that can create custom kb shortcuts, I personally use spark as it's free, lightweight and does what it's supposed to do.

 

[meirithekid]

Update: unfortunately that didn't fix the problem - screen froze twice in the last hour, second time while uploading the first video.. 🙄

I'm going to ask for my money back now.

 

[techieweirdo]

Made an account to join in on the conversation. I have the 16" MBP (i9, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 5500M) with the exact same set of issues - macOS suddenly freezing, trackpad becoming non-responsive, fan blow-out then reboot. This has happened to me literally dozens of times a day. I finally tried reviving the T2 chip's firmware. I did it just now and everything seems to be working fine for the moment. Will test for a while and report back.

Edit: if you do try to revive the firmware, BE SURE TO BACKUP YOUR DATA FIRST.

Edit 2 while waiting for moderator approval: just tried rebooting and it froze again. This time, however the problem is way easier to locate. My laptop only freezes when you boot the first time, after it reboots it runs normally. I got this error:

panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff8016ac3002): CS_KILLED initproc exited -- exit reason namespace 3 subcode 0x2 description: none

Thread 0 crashed

RAX: 0x00007fff94432138, RBX: 0x00007ffee3a6ae10, RCX: 0x00007fff6d79ff54, RDX: 0x00007fff6d79ff54
RSP: 0x00007ffee3a69ca8, RBP: 0x00007ffee3a6a350, RSI: 0x0000000000000003, RDI: 0x00007ffee3a6ae20
R8: 0x0000000000000403, R9: 0x0000000000000000, R10: 0x000000000000002c, R11: 0x0000000000000206
R12: 0x00007fff2681c000, R13: 0x00007fff94431b50, R14: 0x000000010c195000, R15: 0x00007fffe140fa60
RFL: 0x0000000000010202, RIP: 0x00007fff6d7953f5, CS: 0x000000000000002b, SS: 0x0000000000000023

Thread 0: 0xffffff8063b3a520
0x00007fff6d7953f5
0x0000000112b76214
0x0000000112b70227
0x0000000112b70025
0x0000000000000001


Mac OS version:
Not yet set

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 19.4.0: Wed Mar 4 22:28:40 PST 2020; root:xnu-6153.101.6~15/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: AB0AA7EE-3D03-3C21-91AD-5719D79D7AF6
System model name: MacBookPro16,1 (Mac-E1008331FDC96864)
System shutdown begun: NO


I am currently on macOS 10.15.4. Does anyone have any idea what this means?

 

[markedlymac]

I thought this problem went away after recent Catalina updates, but I was wrong.

I just had a full crash - a forced reboot - after the screen froze for a solid minute while watching a youtube video in full-screen. Audio continued on for a minute, touch bar etc. unresponsive, then suddenly an awful glitchy colours on the entire screen and then a forced log out of the user session. (Not as bad as the old full system reboot. Maybe they're trying to make it less bad?)

I keep getting regular full-screen video playback temporary freezes, as well. They're VERY frequent. Almost once a day.

I hate this.

Other than this though, the 16-inch MBP feels extremely solid. Really worth the $5000 price I paid for it. And in my case, this issue is not bad enough to bring it in to Apple like the butterfly keyboard or former T2 models crashes were.

It's also harder to prove this defect to Apple anyway, because as I observed some months ago, Apple is no longer showing ANY of these crash logs in Console.app even though the crashes are still happening, and that is absolutely reprehensible.

I'll bet that they are now 1. recording crash logs secretly in the system and 2. forcibly uploading them to Apple without our knowledge or consent, where who knows what other private data is being sent without our consent? It's obvious they can't be trusted, and that they don't give a **** about us or our privacy.

All this unconscionable behaviour is why I am trying to plan to move to Linux full-time. I love Apple hardware and software, and god damn I love that Apple trackpad, but more importantly my computer is a tool of democratic power and expression and autonomy, and with macOS, we don't truly have control over our own devices.

 

[markedlymac]

I cannot believe this. Just happened AGAIN, in less than the space of half an hour! This after weeks of it not happening.

My mac is also running super hot, even though there's no reason why it should. Not connected to any fancy external monitors or devices. Just trying to watch YouTube videos.

And work from home full-time as well.

 

[SantaCruzDad]

I got my MacBook Pro 16" in Jan and it's been fine up until recently. But I updated to Catalina 10.15.4 last week - it may just be a coincidence but since then I've had numerous kernel panics. Some days nothing, but on the worst day I had 3, all about an hour apart. This happens both with and without peripherals connected, and I can't see any common factors as to what actions I was performing at the time or what apps were in use. What seems to happen is that my cursor movement gets a bit jerky for a while, then freezes up completely, then the fans go full on and the machine reboots itself. I can see the panic logs in /Library/Logs but they don't seem to give any clues as to the cause. Time to get in touch with Apple I think...

 

[me55]

update: I just got my MBP16 back after a logic board & top case replacement. seems like they swapped the battery too as it has 1 cycle on it, unless they just reset the cycles?...

Top case includes the battery, so you got a new battery with it.