High Sierra firmware updates

[kellizer]

Anyone aware of any firmware updates applied in High Sierra for a full & clean install (on rMBP 11,3) that could result in conflicts/kernel panics if one was to revert back to Sierra/El Captain (i.e. firmware that resides even after a disk wipe).

I'm thinking graphics/wifi cards specifically but does anyone know of any specifically?

 

[amaze1499]

Although it cant be ruled out, i have not heard or read anything about this kind of issue. Whats the result of the hardware test? Does the error log gives you any specifics about the kernelpanic (via console)?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

 

[kellizer]

Although it cant be ruled out, i have not heard or read anything about this kind of issue. Whats the result of the hardware test? Does the error log gives you any specifics about the kernelpanic (via console)?

No Panic, No Hardware issues reported. I've gave a detailed review of the issue on stack exchange (link below) & where I posted a full sysdiagnoses but no panics in the logs. The issue only came about after rolling back to Sierra (and El Captian). Cleared SMC & NVRAM Before updates. Sierra was crashing 10+ times a day - doesn't when back on high sierra. This is an 11,3 (2014) rMBP that came with yosemite (which also crashed when i tried to roll back to the OS that came with the machine).

If it behaves on 10.13 but not on 10.12/10.11/10.10 then I can't understand what the issue could be. The simple solution is 'stay on high sierra' but i'm hit with the discrete nvidia lag issue that makes the machine feel like you're walking through glue.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/317221/random-freezes-on-rmbp-2014

 

[amaze1499]

No Panic, No Hardware issues reported. I've gave a detailed review of the issue on stack exchange (link below) & where I posted a full sysdiagnoses but no panics in the logs. The issue only came about after rolling back to Sierra (and El Captian). Cleared SMC & NVRAM Before updates. Sierra was crashing 10+ times a day - doesn't when back on high sierra. This is an 11,3 (2014) rMBP that came with yosemite (which also crashed when i tried to roll back to the OS that came with the machine).

If it behaves on 10.13 but not on 10.12/10.11/10.10 then I can't understand what the issue could be. The simple solution is 'stay on high sierra' but i'm hit with the discrete nvidia lag issue that makes the machine feel like you're walking through glue.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/317221/random-freezes-on-rmbp-2014

At first glance it looks like a software / driver issue in El Captain and Sierra wich has been solved in HighSierra. Since your machine came with OS X 10.9.4 (13E28) preinstalled, I would start there, trying to reproduce the issue by booting from an external HD with a fresh 10.9.4 to save you some time.

 

[kellizer]

At first glance it looks like a software / driver issue in El Captain and Sierra wich has been solved in HighSierra. Since your machine came with OS X 10.9.4 (13E28) preinstalled, I would start there, trying to reproduce the issue by booting from an external HD with a fresh 10.9.4 to save you some time.

Thanks for the headsup - the machine ran good for 22 months with no freezing or panics. it was only when i dabbled with HighSierra then rolled back that the issue seems to be present.

 

[dianeoforegon]

How did you roll back? Restore from Time Machine or do a clean install?

 

[kecinzer]

That is weird. I think I have the same MacBook Pro 15" 2014 and I have no issues at all. I had installed High Sierra several times and then every time I did clean install of 10.12.6 all works perfectly.

 

[kellizer]

How did you roll back? Restore from Time Machine or do a clean install?

Clean install but machine froze for the first time last night under highSierra (after 2 days) so that now disproves my hypothesis & I saw a 'shutdown cause -128' so Most likely is a faulty machine that started along with the graphics lag & upgrade of the OS. Bootcamp doesn't crash so will use that for the interim as still don't believe this is hardware (I expect faulty hardware would manifest in osx & windows). Thanks guys!

 

[dianeoforegon]

If you boot into Recovery Drive and run diskutil list, do you see a bunch of extra partitions. I found 20 additional disk all just a few MB in size. I had to unmount each using terminal while I was in Recovery then I was able to erase and make one partiton. Not trusting Disk Utility, I booted into El Capitan and was able to use Disk Utility to partiton the drive successfully.

There is something "off" with Disk Utility in High Sierra. Do you have a bootable copy of El Capitan or Sierra you could use to reformat the drive? Yosemite Disk Utility is too far back to be used successfully.

 

[kellizer]

If you boot into Recovery Drive and run diskutil list, do you see a bunch of extra partitions. I found 20 additional disk all just a few MB in size. I had to unmount each using terminal while I was in Recovery then I was able to erase and make one partiton. Not trusting Disk Utility, I booted into El Capitan and was able to use Disk Utility to partiton the drive successfully.

There is something "off" with Disk Utility in High Sierra. Do you have a bootable copy of El Capitan or Sierra you could use to reformat the drive? Yosemite Disk Utility is too far back to be used successfully.

Yes - I can make a bootable USB with Sierra & have seen some rogue partitions - i'm seeing a '-128' shutdown code that the internet may indicate hardware issue BUT I can run the rMBP fine in Bootcamp/Safe Mode. If this was really a hardware issue then I would be expecting something to pop up in windows as they are both running on top of the same hardware. I also applied the 2018-001 spectre/meltdown fix which I 'believe' is a firmware update.

Before i do the nuclear option of reformatting (again) i want to see if I can get to the bottom of it as spent a week setting up my work env on windows & don't want to lose the setup.

Why would something fail in OSX but run fine in Bootcamp/Safe Mode?? I'm no expert but this points to software/firmware does it not?

PS - i'm also hit by the dGPU lag issue that is being discuss elseware on this forum.