MacBook Air M1 when connecting to an external HD causes a shutdown and reboot

[knightwrangler]

I am using an external Henge dock with my M1 Air currently and there is a Seagate 2TB slim external drive connected for data/backup for iPhone, iPad and also includes my Photo library and music files.The other day I plugged the Seagate drive into the dock and it flashed a pink screen, then a complete crash of the computer and finally an endless reboot cycle.
I tried different USB cables on the drive, then the USB ports on the dock and finally via a usb-c adaptor on the Air's thunderbolt port and the Air still crashes.
Not sure if it's the slim drive or the Air that is the issue but I'd like to try and get the data of this drive if it is corrupt but the drive won't even mount it just crashes the Air everytime.

I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this odd issue and if you know of a solution?

 

[knightwrangler]

Almost one month later and coming up to 500 views on this thread and nobody else has encountered this problem and can provide a solution? I can't be the only one who has had this issue!

 

[Clix Pix]

Is the Henge dock actually even compatible with Apple's M1 and M2 series of computers? There may be conflicts somewhere. Is the Seagate 2TB "slim" drive an older "platter" hard drive or a more current SSD?

 

[Chancha]

If the drive fails even with a variety of cables and ports then it is likely something power related is borked in the enclosure. Luckily your drive is not an SSD just a 2.5" SATA HDD, the easiest thing to do is to buy a cheap USB3 to SATA connector cable, then yank the 2.5" HDD out of the Seagate case, then try connecting the disk this way.

Actually if you happen to have old Macs lying around you can use those as surrogate enclosure. Especially ones with Thunderbolt target disk mode.

 

[knightwrangler]

Is the Henge dock actually even compatible with Apple's M1 and M2 series of computers? There may be conflicts somewhere. Is the Seagate 2TB "slim" drive an older "platter" hard drive or a more current SSD?

Didn't get a chance to reply earlier but yes the Henge dock works well with my M1 Macbook Air. The Seagate is a platter drive. I had the drive hooked into it going back at least a year.

 

[knightwrangler]

If the drive fails even with a variety of cables and ports then it is likely something power related is borked in the enclosure. Luckily your drive is not an SSD just a 2.5" SATA HDD, the easiest thing to do is to buy a cheap USB3 to SATA connector cable, then yank the 2.5" HDD out of the Seagate case, then try connecting the disk this way.

Actually if you happen to have old Macs lying around you can use those as surrogate enclosure. Especially ones with Thunderbolt target disk mode.

I actually removed the Seagate HD from it's stock enclosure and tried it in a different enclosure I had (USB3toSATA) and still the SeagateHD crashes my Air. I then put a Toshiba 1TB HD into the Seagate enclosure thinking it was the controller was shot, but it worked fine and was able to read the drive contents on the Air. I don't have any other Macs to test the Seagate drive on.

 

[Chancha]

I actually removed the Seagate HD from it's stock enclosure and tried it in a different enclosure I had (USB3toSATA) and still the SeagateHD crashes my Air. I then put a Toshiba 1TB HD into the Seagate enclosure thinking it was the controller was shot, but it worked fine and was able to read the drive contents on the Air. I don't have any other Macs to test the Seagate drive on.

In this case, experimentally we can conclude it is the drive itself that has electrical issue then? I have only ever had NVMe SSD power issues with M1/Intel latest MBA, and it was obvious the problem was not enough or unstable power supply from the Mac to the enclosure. But with SATA, issues like this is almost unheard of since it is such a tried tech and also HDDs are much more forgiving in power requirements.

If I were you, I will see if the data is important on the drive, if not I will just move on using something else. Sounds like a one off issue with just the drive, not the Mac itself.

 

[knightwrangler]

In this case, experimentally we can conclude it is the drive itself that has electrical issue then? I have only ever had NVMe SSD power issues with M1/Intel latest MBA, and it was obvious the problem was not enough or unstable power supply from the Mac to the enclosure. But with SATA, issues like this is almost unheard of since it is such a tried tech and also HDDs are much more forgiving in power requirements.

If I were you, I will see if the data is important on the drive, if not I will just move on using something else. Sounds like a one off issue with just the drive, not the Mac itself.

Well from what you wrote above and from what I have done with all my testing is that it is the Seagate drive is definitely faulty. The Macbook Air and dock work as usual.I can replace the Seagate drive but the data is important and I need to find away of recovering it and I can't obviously use my M1 Air to do that. Any suggestions?

 

[MBAir2010]

Seagate is kinda weird,
I have a 1TB external drive I only use to storing movies,
because everything else is a Plan in the A$$
they demand software to use which needs updating and then the program takes over ones OS
in my case, Mojave and Windows 10 when I used that with a Dell XPS.
finally I had to reformat the drive to MAC Journaled after many confusing attempt to read a file
or have the external drive appear in a MacBook Air 2010 on the desktop.
I complained and they told me I need a new MacBook, which wad in 2018
soi deleted my account.......

I guess you get the gist of my reply!

 

[knightwrangler]

Seagate is kinda weird,
I have a 1TB external drive I only use to storing movies,
because everything else is a Plan in the A$$
they demand software to use which needs updating and then the program takes over ones OS
in my case, Mojave and Windows 10 when I used that with a Dell XPS.
finally I had to reformat the drive to MAC Journaled after many confusing attempt to read a file
or have the external drive appear in a MacBook Air 2010 on the desktop.
I complained and they told me I need a new MacBook, which wad in 2018
soi deleted my account.......

I guess you get the gist of my reply!

Yeah, I called Seagate for warranty on this defective drive and they refused to assist even though I registered this drive on their website the day it was purchased! I couldn't find the purchase receipt and they still refused to help. I think I am done and won't be purchasing any more hard drives from them.

 

[MBAir2010]

I left Bose, Publix, Windows, and other companies in 2023 for their careless incompetence.
"PM" they always quest.

I can recommend Satechi for hubs, and OWC or Western Digital for ssd drives and Mac related things.
and this site is excellent for advice!

 

[trevpimp]

I think a lot of technical issues coming from USB C/ Thunderbolt especially with adapters is the lack of correct signals being transferred between Macs and Devices

I Personally believe that it could be a dock problem, have you tried using another dock?

 

[knightwrangler]

I think a lot of technical issues coming from USB C/ Thunderbolt especially with adapters is the lack of correct signals being transferred between Macs and Devices

I Personally believe that it could be a dock problem, have you tried using another dock?

I don't have another dock handy! I do have an older USB-C adaptor with HDMI/USB3 and power so I will try that and report back.

 

[SgtPepperBR]

Hi @knightwrangler, i'm in a similar situation.

I have a Macbook Pro M1 Pro and I use a TPLINK USB Hub (UH720) in which I connect 6 devices:
1) DSLR Camera with USB Video Adapter
2) Data cable to controle DSLR Camera
3) Stream Deck
4) Microphone
5) Webcam
6) Seagate 2TB Slim HD

The TPLINK is connected in Macbook by using a and USB-A to USB-C adapter, to connect in Mac Thunderbolt input.

Well, I just noticed that unplugging the TPLINK USB from Macbook stopped the same problem: Pink Screen + Reboot, 30 seconds after initializing. Then I started to unplug each one of the devices separatly. When I unplugged last one, Seagate 2TB, the issue stopped also!

The weird thing is that it was working fine, for about a month. I have MacOS Monterey 12.6.3.
Seagate HD is NTFS format and I use Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software (15.10.599).

I'm about to install Ventura to see it this problem goes on or not.

 

[knightwrangler]

Hi @knightwrangler, i'm in a similar situation.

I have a Macbook Pro M1 Pro and I use a TPLINK USB Hub (UH720) in which I connect 6 devices:
1) DSLR Camera with USB Video Adapter
2) Data cable to controle DSLR Camera
3) Stream Deck
4) Microphone
5) Webcam
6) Seagate 2TB Slim HD

The TPLINK is connected in Macbook by using a and USB-A to USB-C adapter, to connect in Mac Thunderbolt input.

Well, I just noticed that unplugging the TPLINK USB from Macbook stopped the same problem: Pink Screen + Reboot, 30 seconds after initializing. Then I started to unplug each one of the devices separatly. When I unplugged last one, Seagate 2TB, the issue stopped also!

The weird thing is that it was working fine, for about a month. I have MacOS Monterey 12.6.3.
Seagate HD is NTFS format and I use Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software (15.10.599).

I'm about to install Ventura to see it this problem goes on or not.

Hi, I spoke to someone at Apple over the phone and they seem to think that the issue could be solved by installing Ventura, but as it turns out through my additional testing the Seagate drive is the problem and not the Macbook Air.

 

[knightwrangler]

So after using a USB-C adaptor I had and connected to the Air, the problem is with the Seagate 2TB slim hard drive not the computer or dock. The drive is not showing up in my Air, but now "beeps" upon connection. I guess the drive is faulty and I won't probably buy another Seagate product again but I still need to find a way of getting the data off of this drive and hope any one reading thread this could provide some suggestions?

 

[SgtPepperBR]

Hi, I spoke to someone at Apple over the phone and they seem to think that the issue could be solved by installing Ventura, but as it turns out through my additional testing the Seagate drive is the problem and not the Macbook Air.

It's bad to know that. Is your macOS Ventura?

I'm not gonna buy Seagate agains also. Thinking in stay with @MBAir2010 suggestion and look for OWC and Western Digital HD or SSD.

 

[knightwrangler]

It's bad to know that. Is your macOS Ventura?

I'm not gonna buy Seagate agains also. Thinking in stay with @MBAir2010 suggestion and look for OWC and Western Digital HD or SSD.

I’m still using Monterey and I’m done with Seagate as no support from them! Apple was more helpful they even suggested taking my Seagate drive to store and they would try and get the data off it but I wanted to see if anyone in this community had suggestions first! I did watch a YouTube video about the beeping issue, and how to fix but it seems risky not sure I want to attempt taking the cover off to get inside the drive.

 

[Kobayagi]

I’m still using Monterey and I’m done with Seagate as no support from them! Apple was more helpful they even suggested taking my Seagate drive to store and they would try and get the data off it but I wanted to see if anyone in this community had suggestions first! I did watch a YouTube video about the beeping issue, and how to fix but it seems risky not sure I want to attempt taking the cover off to get inside the drive.

Hey, it's one year later. Have you ever solved the problem? I'm having the exact same one with my Western Digital drive. Multiple MB pros I tried instantly freeze when I connect it. And another WD drive I have just works directly. So its not the Macs or cable I'm using. Hoping I can still access the drive somehow.

 

[knightwrangler]

Sound like your Western Digital drive is failing like mine did last year. I still have this Seagate drive in my possession, but I did routine backups as well. Eventually I'll crack it open and adjust the platter to find out if there is any data I need to retrieve from it.