January '19 / MacOS 10.14.3 2018 Macbook Pro "Bridge OS" Kernel Panic Poll

[csurfr]

Final update on my repair:

Apple was unable to duplicate the BridgeOS issues but engineering wants to capture the machine. They are doing an in-store exchange when I get back in town on the 13th.

They are processing it as a repair though, so the warranty won’t start over, even though I’m getting a new machine in the box. I won’t spend the money to upgrade anything, though I might pick up a silver one instead of space gray.

Once that is done Apple is going to extend the proverbial olive branch (read: $300 from the Apple online store) for the troubles of sending the machine away for 3 weeks, only to have it crash the day it returned while plugged in to my external screens (something they admit they don’t test at depot). Maybe I can get them to just give me AppleCare+ for free instead.

 

[RumorConsumer]

Final update on my repair:

Apple was unable to duplicate the BridgeOS issues but engineering wants to capture the machine. They are doing an in-store exchange when I get back in town on the 13th.

They are processing it as a repair though, so the warranty won’t start over, even though I’m getting a new machine in the box. I won’t spend the money to upgrade anything, though I might pick up a silver one instead of space gray.

Once that is done Apple is going to extend the proverbial olive branch (read: $300 from the Apple online store) for the troubles of sending the machine away for 3 weeks, only to have it crash the day it returned while plugged in to my external screens (something they admit they don’t test at depot). Maybe I can get them to just give me AppleCare+ for free instead.

If they give you a finished good the warranty must start over. They may tell you that to be petty but that’s the truth. New computer, new warranty. Don’t push it w them but i guarantee you that if you check it later by calling AppleCare and just asking casually what your purchase date is it will reflect the current date. They’d have to do A LOT to change that purchase date and I’d bet money they don’t.

 

[csurfr]

If they give you a finished good the warranty must start over. They may tell you that to be petty but that’s the truth. New computer, new warranty. Don’t push it w them but i guarantee you that if you check it later by calling AppleCare and just asking casually what your purchase date is it will reflect the current date. They’d have to do A LOT to change that purchase date and I’d bet money they don’t.

I’m not sure. I feel like they are doing this the exact same way as it is when they hand you a replacement iPhone. The warranty continues as it stands.

 

[RumorConsumer]

I’m not sure. I feel like they are doing this the exact same way as it is when they hand you a replacement iPhone. The warranty continues as it stands.

Not possible. There are no service part computers and thus no swap protocol.
They’d have to replace each part individually and still the machine would carry the same serial number. It’s ugly but geniuses are not always the most honest especially when you are getting something they think you don’t deserve. Also, the person calling you to tell you about this stuff isn’t usually the one who really knows how it goes down. If AppleCare told you this is what’s happening it’s likely they ordered the replacement via their own cost center as opposed to the store doing it from store stock. I’ll bet a dollar you get a new serial number w new date of purchase. Let us know how it goes!

 

[csurfr]

Not possible. There are no service part computers and thus no swap protocol.
They’d have to replace each part individually and still the machine would carry the same serial number. It’s ugly but geniuses are not always the most honest especially when you are getting something they think you don’t deserve. Also, the person calling you to tell you about this stuff isn’t usually the one who really knows how it goes down. If AppleCare told you this is what’s happening it’s likely they ordered the replacement via their own cost center as opposed to the store doing it from store stock. I’ll bet a dollar you get a new serial number w new date of purchase.

Well believe me I hope you’re right! I’ll find out when I return, or maybe sooner if this snow doesn’t let up (my flight in the am may be cancelled).

 

[youthfire]

I strongly suggest you guys to reset SMC. At least, no more issue since then for me.
Please use second method directly (The first method works great before 10.14.3 but not working after that):

1. Choose Apple menu > Shut Down.
2. After your Mac shuts down, press and hold the right Shift key, the left Option key, and the left Control key for 7 seconds. Then keep holding those keys while you press and hold the power button for another 7 seconds.
3. Release all three keys and the power button, then wait a few seconds.
4. Press the power button again to turn on your Mac

Official guide from apple
Mac notebook computers with the T2 chip
Try this first (first method):

1. Choose Apple menu > Shut Down.
2. After your Mac shuts down, press and hold its power button for 10 seconds.
3. Release the power button, then wait a few seconds.
4. Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

If that doesn't resolve the issue, follow these steps (second method):

1. Choose Apple menu > Shut Down.
2. After your Mac shuts down, press and hold the right Shift key, the left Option key, and the left Control key for 7 seconds. Then keep holding those keys while you press and hold the power button for another 7 seconds.
3. Release all three keys and the power button, then wait a few seconds.
4. Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

 

[my_mac_flickers_wtf_apple]

Had my 2018 MBP since early Dec, first time ever it KP'd on mojave.3... really sad - I may never buy another mac again.

 

[RumorConsumer]

Had my 2018 MBP since early Dec, first time ever it KP'd on mojave.3... really sad - I may never buy another mac again.

a KP here and there is not abnormal. My different model MBP KP'd the other day. If you only have one every few months its not actually a point against if you ask me. Even the most stable Apple OS's would KP here and there. I know because Ive been a thorough user of every OS since 7.

 

[csurfr]

a KP here and there is not abnormal. My different model MBP KP'd the other day. If you only have one every few months its not actually a point against if you ask me. Even the most stable Apple OS's would KP here and there. I know because Ive been a thorough user of every OS since 7.

Yeah, I can definitely tolerate one here and there, but when it comes to every day twice a day and you can reproduce it, then there is a problem.

I’m at the Apple Store now getting my machine exchanged.

 

[RumorConsumer]

Yeah, I can definitely tolerate one here and there, but when it comes to every day twice a day and you can reproduce it, then there is a problem.

I’m at the Apple Store now getting my machine exchanged.

woo hoo! tell us that story?

 

[hansenc]

sad to see this is such a problem, even worse that apple thinks this may be a hardware issue.

 

[RumorConsumer]

Yeah, I can definitely tolerate one here and there, but when it comes to every day twice a day and you can reproduce it, then there is a problem.

I’m at the Apple Store now getting my machine exchanged.

How’s the new one?

 

[SDColorado]

I had an odd shutdown today. Just shut down with a "puff" sound and eventually rebooted. When I tried to send the error report, the box just disappeared, so I am not really sure why it did so.

 

[csurfr]

How’s the new one?

The first replacement they gave me had backlight bleed around the rubber gasket (and a build date of July 2018, not sure how that could have been in stock still (it was silver)) so I took it back. The newest one (space gray, they didn’t have another silver in stock) looks like a build date of 28 December 2018. No backlight bleed, and is running strong so far!

 

[Howard2k]

a KP here and there is not abnormal. My different model MBP KP'd the other day. If you only have one every few months its not actually a point against if you ask me. Even the most stable Apple OS's would KP here and there. I know because Ive been a thorough user of every OS since 7.

On my 2015, I haven't had a single KP since I installed Mojave. HS wasn't very stable. Sierra was solid too. If I was getting occasional KPs in Mojave I would probably roll back to Sierra. I know it's different hardware, but my point is that there should be a way to have a KP free environment for the vast majority. I'm not saying your tolerance level is wrong, but I'm saying that Apple can do better than what you seem to be experiencing.

 

[Plutonius]

sad to see this is such a problem, even worse that apple thinks this may be a hardware issue.

Apple has not acknowledge it's a problem let alone it's a hardware problem .

 

[RumorConsumer]

On my 2015, I haven't had a single KP since I installed Mojave. HS wasn't very stable. Sierra was solid too. If I was getting occasional KPs in Mojave I would probably roll back to Sierra. I know it's different hardware, but my point is that there should be a way to have a KP free environment for the vast majority. I'm not saying your tolerance level is wrong, but I'm saying that Apple can do better than what you seem to be experiencing.

I agree - Im not saying to expect them often, just that they aren't unheard of. My last machine was a 15" 2015 2.5ghz. Stellar machine. Maybe 1 KP every 7-8 months at most. My 13" 2017 3.5ghz I think has maybe done it once in its whole life. Im just saying a KP is not itself an indicator of a problem or defect.
[doublepost=1550776379][/doublepost]

The first replacement they gave me had backlight bleed around the rubber gasket (and a build date of July 2018, not sure how that could have been in stock still (it was silver)) so I took it back. The newest one (space gray, they didn’t have another silver in stock) looks like a build date of 28 December 2018. No backlight bleed, and is running strong so far!

this is great to hear!

 

[vaugha]

Well I came here to vote b/c my bto 15" kp'd during initial setup today. It was a 2.2/555x/32gb/2tb w/ 10.14.3, the latest. When I first opened the laptop, it didn't have the paper cloth that they put in between the screen and the keyboard. Anyways, I thought it was odd but decided to proceed w/ the setup.

During setup, it said something along the line of, "your computer restarted because of a problem." After the setup was complete, I went into the console app and looked at the system report and lo and behold, there was a single entry for t2 kernel panic log. I said, "Wow, I'd never thought I would see this w/ my own eyes." I spent 6k Canadian on this machine w/ applecare+ and it kp'd during the very first setup process.

So I said, this is totally unacceptable and I packed the machine and went back to the apple store and returned it.

One thing I found bizarre was the machine manufacture date at 2019-02-11. However the battery manufacture date was 2018-09-18 from simplo and it already had 3 cycles on it. Seems like whoever assembles these laptops keeps 5-month old batteries in their stock. Anyhoo, I thought t2 kps were some urban myth but after having seen it w/ my own eyes, I'm a believer. Jeez, I cannot believe apple still hasn't fixed this issue yet since 2017 w/ imp.

I have another bto on the way w/ the same specs so if the same issue persists, then I'm not gonna play lottery anymore w/ these machines. Macs in recent years have really gone down in reliability. I'm very happy w/ my iphone xs max 512gb minus the price of course. But it seems to me that apple isn't really doing enough testing on their macs as opposed to iphones. I'm guessing that is b/c macs only account for 10% of their revenue when iphones take up majority.

 

[tsukeyomi]

Had my 2018 15" MBP since over a month now, never had one of these kernel panic issues related to BridgeOS. I was scared before getting this machine but I guess I was lucky (as it looks like the majority of people is).

Nevertheless Apple should acknowledge and fix this issue since it is hitting a more than normal percentage of users/machines. Hopefully they will fix it once for all or extend the warranty or whatsoever.

 

[RumorConsumer]

We are about 2 months in, have our most popular poll yet and are hovering at about 70/30 no to yes. Interesting interesting.

Accidental Tech Podcast began talking about T2 issues with USB audio devices and John Siracusa talked about his Macbook Pro KPing while plugging into a display. Not sure if he has a T2 equipped mac or not.

 

[CMiYC]

I have a brand new iMac Pro, fully loaded. The kernel panics started within a few hours of setting up the machine. After 2 days and 17 kernel panics, I re-installed macOS. It ran for almost 12 hours before the first kernel panic happened. Within 2 hours the second occurred.

{"caused_by":"macos","macos_system_state":"running","bug_type":"210","os_version":"Bridge OS 3.3 (16P3133)","timestamp":"2019-02-27 06:32:29.71 +0000","incident_id":"09419476-7104-4527-B206-AA78C3F74475"}

The only pattern I can follow is that after I open Adobe Premiere and close it, the panic tends to occur within 2 hours. With the fresh install:

8 hours, finally opened Premiere.
2 hours later, kernel panic.
Reboot
Open Premiere again, export a project and let it start encoding
45 minutes later, kernel panic.
8 hours (overnight) no panics yet
Launched Premiere and opened project 15 minutes ago
(found this thread)
about 2 hours later, core dump
repeated the premiere cycle

So whatever Premiere Pro does seems to activate the bug in Bridge OS to cause a crash on the order of 2 hours later. I've even started using a terminal script to capture the screen once every 60 seconds, so I can gauge the time while the iMac Pro sits in the corner of the room.


Things I had disabled since the first panic:
- Display Sleep
- Prevent computer from sleeping when the display is sleep checked (but greyed out because of above)
- Not allowing hard drives to go to sleep
- Night shift is off
- Firewall is off
- FileVault is off (was turned on for the initial setup, but I left it off this time)
- Screen Saver turned off
- In Network, Ethernet is manually configured for 1000base-T, full-duplex, flow-control (lol, there is a new bug here where your settings don't take effect unless you release the DHCP before clicking apply or OK. Makes no sense, but whatever.)

At this point, I'm done with the machine. I am behind on the project I bought it to help me with. And it is far too unstable to rely on. I lost two working days trying to figure out what is wrong. Now that I realize it is the buggy T2 chip that is taking down a $12,000 machine, I'm just going to return it to the retail store. Sadly, it is time for me to join the trend of other content producers and switch to a PC.

But I wanted others to know, even after trying all of the "fixes" I could find, the iMac Pro is the world's most expensive paper weight.

Edit. I returned it this morning. When asked why, I said, "because the T2 causes a kernel panic every 2-3 hours." The associate slummed his head and in a defeated tone said, "yeah..." Then after a few taps, he asked if I wanted store credit or put back on my card.

So now I'm looking at the HP Z4 or Z8 as my next workstation.

 

[xgman]

wow, bad experience there. I would have been interested to see how long you stayed up without Premiere installed and also if you had any external drives attached and whether you turned off secure boot in the recovery environment.

 

[CMiYC]

wow, bad experience there. I would have been interested to see how long you stayed up without Premiere installed

The first time I set up the machine, creative cloud was one of the last things I installed. I also did it away from my primary work desk, so no external devices were attached except for the keyboard and trackpad. I experienced the T2 crash before adding either of those.

The crash definitely was not BECAUSE of Premiere Pro or Creative Cloud. However, it could be exacerbated by something PPro did. Which for me, was a 100% no-go. I literally bought the iMac to run two applications: PPro and After Effects.

if you had any external drives attached

During one test, I almost made it to 13 hours without a crash without attaching my external drives. But it still kernel panicked eventually. Regardless, if the external drive caused the problem, that was a 100% no-go for my workflow.

And whether you turned off secure boot in the recovery environment.

Damn. I missed that one. But after troubleshooting an $11,500 machine for 3 days, you eventually just give up.

 

[vaugha]

The first time I set up the machine, creative cloud was one of the last things I installed. I also did it away from my primary work desk, so no external devices were attached except for the keyboard and trackpad. I experienced the T2 crash before adding either of those.

The crash definitely was not BECAUSE of Premiere Pro or Creative Cloud. However, it could be exacerbated by something PPro did. Which for me, was a 100% no-go. I literally bought the iMac to run two applications: PPro and After Effects.


During one test, I almost made it to 13 hours without a crash without attaching my external drives. But it still kernel panicked eventually. Regardless, if the external drive caused the problem, that was a 100% no-go for my workflow.


Damn. I missed that one. But after troubleshooting an $11,500 machine for 3 days, you eventually just give up.

Did you return it? I’d never put up w/ that kind of experience after spending 12g on a computer. Return it and get the same config if you wanna stay on macOS.

 

[RumorConsumer]

whatever comes next will be better. for sure.