Mac Studio kernel panics on Tahoe - anyone else?

[archvile]

I’ve been running Tahoe since the first public beta on my M2 Max Mac Studio. At first things were fine but somewhere within the most recent 2 beta updates, I am randomly getting what I assume are kernel panics where my system will completely hard lock up and I have to reboot via power button.

I am not sure if it is a combination of displays/accessories, or an issue specific to Mac Studio/the M2 Max chip.

The only thing that indicates this happens (outside of not being able to do anything), is the left half of my main 49” monitor goes completely black, the right side remains on and my secondary 34” screen also remains on. Just the system is completely locked up.

I can’t pinpoint what is causing it to any certain app running, or action I am doing, as it is completely random. I don’t have a lot of apps installed outside of the stock apps, most of my work is done in browsers but I always have a LOT of stuff open. I typically am using about 22 GB of the systems 32 GB memory, so I don’t think it is anything with that causing the issue (note this was almost exactly the same under Sequoia, maybe a little higher now which is expected).

As for accessories, outside of the displays I have a Logitech 4K camera, the wireless Apple keyboard and trackpad, and a QNAP DAS (not NAS) connected via USB-C. I also have Logitech speakers connected via USB.

The strange thing is my M3 MacBook Air has not once crashed or froze on Tahoe, it has been rock solid, and I have the EXACT same software load out running on it. So that tells me it is either something with one or some of my accessories, or the M2 Max chip (or some other Mac Studio specific hardware device) causing the issue.

I’ve reported it every time it has happened to Apple (the first time it happened I though my damn 49” monitor **** the bed), I was just curious if anyone out there on a Studio was seeing any similar issues.

Thanks!


EDIT - Think I figured out what it was, apparently macOS has issues running monitors at 240Hz. Found numerous Apple support and reddit posts (along with other forums) of users having kernel panics with various monitors while trying to run at 240Hz, completely random with no rhyme or reason or specific action triggering it. Some even had the same half-black display that I was seeing. The fix seems to be to set the monitor back at 120Hz. I did this and it has been stable for several days now. I remember changing it to 240 sometime in between beta 3 and 4 just to see if I would notice a difference, it did make things a tad smoother but not worth the tradeoff of having to hard reboot every day due to kernel panics. 120 is good enough for me until Apple fixes this issue.

 

[smithrh]

Are you still on Beta 2, or has it been happening since Beta 2?

 

[benwiggy]

Really, you need to roll back to Sequoia, and see if the problem occurs there. If it does, then it suggests a hardware problem.

 

[archvile]

Are you still on Beta 2, or has it been happening since Beta 2?

It started on public beta 3 and has persisted through 4 and 5

Really, you need to roll back to Sequoia, and see if the problem occurs there. If it does, then it suggests a hardware problem.

It never occurred on sequoia in the almost year I’ve had this machine. Only since beta 3 of Tahoe

 

[benwiggy]

It would be surprising if this was a software defect affecting all Studios at this stage of the beta. Test in Safe Boot mode; test a brand new user account; test with Sequoia. You need to rule out all other causes.

 

[smithrh]

For a few months (!) I had kernel panics on Sequoia 15.5 when using high performance screen sharing. Sometime once every few weeks all the way up to 4-5 a day. 15.6 addressed it. Since it started as soon as 15.5 came out, I knew it was OS related and waited it out.

We're all the way up to Beta 8 now, try the latest. If it KPs again, I would hope Apple's reporting mechanism forces you to upload the log files to them for analysis (I believe that's a condition of using the beta). Sometimes the bug reporting is optional in that you can opt out of it or cancel it before files are sent. When I was testing 15.6 beta and had another KP the log files and other diagnostic info was sent in a non-optional way, and it was a lot of data so quite noticeable.

I also had the same data collection happen on a bug in one of the betas and it also collected a vast amount of data and sent it up to Apple.

Edited to add - yes, a lot of times KPs are indeed hardware related, but they absolutely can be software related as well, the software can drive the hardware into a poor state. It happens.

 

[archvile]

For a few months (!) I had kernel panics on Sequoia 15.5 when using high performance screen sharing. Sometime once every few weeks all the way up to 4-5 a day. 15.6 addressed it. Since it started as soon as 15.5 came out, I knew it was OS related and waited it out.

We're all the way up to Beta 8 now, try the latest. If it KPs again, I would hope Apple's reporting mechanism forces you to upload the log files to them for analysis (I believe that's a condition of using the beta). Sometimes the bug reporting is optional in that you can opt out of it or cancel it before files are sent. When I was testing 15.6 beta and had another KP the log files and other diagnostic info was sent in a non-optional way, and it was a lot of data so quite noticeable.

I also had the same data collection happen on a bug in one of the betas and it also collected a vast amount of data and sent it up to Apple.

Edited to add - yes, a lot of times KPs are indeed hardware related, but they absolutely can be software related as well, the software can drive the hardware into a poor state. It happens.

I've been on the latest public betas as soon as they have been released. And every time this has happened, I have submitted the bug report to apple that pops up after the reboot.

I did disconnect my QNAP DAS (connected to one of the USB-C ports on the back) to rule that out, and in 24 hours it hasn't occurred, it will need more time to be certain but it could be something with that causing the system to freeze, I did not use it very long in Sequoia before switching to Tahoe beta, so it may not have had enough time to present any possible issues.

I did some general searching if QNAP or any kind of DAS causes any similar issues with macOS in general, and found a few possible related issues, but nothing concrete.

 

[archvile]

It would be surprising if this was a software defect affecting all Studios at this stage of the beta. Test in Safe Boot mode; test a brand new user account; test with Sequoia. You need to rule out all other causes.

Figured it out, I think. Seems to be an issue running monitors at 240Hz, macOS just doesn't seem to like it. Searching around I finally stumbled on an Apple support post that led down a rabbit hole of people having kernel panics when using 240Hz. I then remembered I DID change this sometime after jumping on the Tahoe betas, not even thinking it would cause an issue. But so far it seems to have fixed It by running at 120Hz instead.

 

[omenatarhuri]

Still not fixed in Tahoe then? Came here looking for hope that could utilize 240hz in Tahoe...