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MBP 16" regular kernel panics since 11.4

IceStormNG

IceStormNG

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 23, 2020
517
678
Since I updated my 16" MBP to 11.4, I get almost daily kernel panics. It's always the exact same stacktrace and error (see attached panic).

It always happens, when I connect my TB3 dock to the Mac.

My setup is:
MBP16 is in clamshell mode (in a vertical dock). HP G2 Thunderbolt Dock has Monitor (via DisplayPort), KB + Mouse, USB Audio interface, Ethernet and some other peripherals connected to it.
I disconnect the dock every evening when I stop using the device, and re-connect it the next day so the Mac goes to sleep overnight (and the keyboard backlight turns off).

The exact same setup worked perfectly fine under Catalina. But since upgrading to Big Sur, every time I connect the dock, the mac panics and restarts.

I talked to Apple support already. They claim it's the monitor (which I don't believe them as the monitor works perfectly fine and worked on the same machine before the OS update). If you look into the crash trace, you can see that it's a USB driver that causes the crash.

Does someone knows how to solve that? Or is that a "common" issue?
And ideally, I don't want to buy more crap crap just to get my (quite expensive) machine to work as it should.
 

Attachments

  • panic-1.txt
    9.5 KB · Views: 411
It says VHCI. Isn't that T2 related? On my Mac mini 2018, it's the virtual USB controller that the T2 and headset are connected to. VHCI = virtual host controller interface. I guess BCE = BufferCopyEngine
Add keepsyms=1 to nvram boot-args so the back trace has more readable.
 
Alright. Thanks. I added that to the bootargs and will wait for the next panic. It will probably crash tomorrow anyway.

As to the VHCI: There's no USB device connected to the Mac itself. Only to the dock through Thunderbolt. But those do not run over the T2's USB Controller (AFAIK).
 
So.. it crashed again, as expected.

Attached is the symbolicated crash log. I looked at it, but to me it seems to be a bug in one of Apple's kernel extensions (the HID Driver?) that cannot properly hand device (dis)connection.
 

Attachments

  • panic2.txt
    12.8 KB · Views: 129
IceStormNG said:
So.. it crashed again, as expected.

Attached is the symbolicated crash log. I looked at it, but to me it seems to be a bug in one of Apple's kernel extensions (the HID Driver?) that cannot properly hand device (dis)connection.
Click to expand...
I guess since you already reported it to Apple, the next thing to do would be to stop doing whatever it is that is causing the panic.

Consider not putting the Mac to sleep? They don't use much power when not doing anything.

What is the vertical dock?

What is the monitor? Does it have a USB cable connected as well?

You are saying the Mac won't go to sleep while using the HP Thunderbolt Dock G2?

The HP Thunderbolt Dock G2 is full USB containing two USB hubs (the first is a 10 Gbps hub and the second is a 5 Gbps hub). The Ethernet port is a USB adapter. What if you disconnect the ethernet?

The HP Thunderbolt Dock G2 contains two DisplayPort ports and a USB-C DisplayPort Alt Mode port connected to a DisplayPort 1.4 MST hub. The VGA port when used takes over the DisplayPort connection of the USB-C port (they cannot be used at the same time for a display but the USB-C port is still usable for USB devices). What if you don't use the MST hub, and instead connect the display to the downstream Thunderbolt port?

Maybe consider updating the firmware of the HP Thunderbolt Dock G2. You'll need Windows to do that (either Boot Camp or a PC), and non-DCH Thunderbolt drivers.
 
Thanks for your reply.

So. I do not use the integrated Ethernet because it's Realtek and Apple's ECM driver su**. I use Apple's TB2 Ethernet with a TB3->TB2 adapter on the downstream TB port (yeah I know how crazy that sounds. but it works).

The vertical dock is not connected to the Mac in any way. It's just a frame to hold the MacBook upright to save space while in clamshell mode.

The Mac doesn't go to sleep when connected to the dock (that worked fine on Catalina though). I can see it on the keyboard's backlight. It turns off. But after 10 seconds it turns back on. Then after 15s off again. And so on and so on. That's why I disconnect the dock when I put the mac to sleep.

The G2 Dock is actually Thunderbolt, but yeah, internally, it uses USB for all the components (even the Ethernet chip and also the audio chip).

I actually connect the Monitor (MSI PS321URV) to the first DP port. It has USB-C and also a USB hub integrated, but neither of those are connected.

The Firmware of the dock is updated since I got it, and HP didn't released a new firmware since then. I already tried to connect the monitor directly to the Mac, instead of the hub, but it did not changed anything to the crashes.
The crash log shows a USB driver crash, not the GPU driver or something related to that. That's why I was sure it couldn't be the monitor.

Like I said: It worked perfectly fine under Catalina. It just happens since I updated to Big Sur.

And Apple is of no help here. They said the dock would be "not made for mac" and told me to buy a new one. Yeah thank you Apple.. for nothing.

That's why I hope it's something else. Because it worked fine on Catalina. Maybe a "feature" of Big Sur or a setting that causes this.
 
I experience the same thing. It is very frustrating and I suspect it is due to the upgraded / second graphics card.

Steps:
1. Use computer while plugged into my USB-C monitors/keyboard
2. Unplug computer to use in a different location
3. Set it aside (don't manually put it to sleep)
4. Come back and it has to boot up from scratch

Equally irritated at the loss of my development state.
 
Hello,

do you know if the issue was fixed for you in 11.5.2?

We do have a couple of MacBooks 16" i7 and i9 with 32GB of RAM and 5500M (i9) or 5300M (i7) which have the issue described in this topic. Funny enough I've installed a brand new 16" i7 32 5300M with 11.5.1 and it did not crash when connecting to the USB-C. I've tried like 15 different monitors with it mostly Dell and LG single and dual setup. Due to Home Office work schedules, I do not have an access to the laptops which were crashing for now thus the question.

Maybe it is not a macOS issue but a 3rd party software. I found that at least one of the faulty MacBooks had an Intel software with kext com.intel.driver.EnergyDriver (3.7.0) 35E739F9-BF6C-3024-A67C-750711B3FB64 <8 6 5 3> installed.

Regards,
Marcin
 
I haven't installed 11.5.2 yet as I read reports about even more bugs with thunderbolt devices.

I also have the Intel Energy driver installed, but I already tried a clean install, nothing setup, not even an AppleID. It still crashes.

Apparently, Monterey should greatly reduce amount of crashes. But still no 100% fix.

Here I have 1 Asus, 2 LG, 2 Samsung, and 1 MSI monitor with different resolutions and capabilities. They all cause those crashes equally. And every single of them works absolutely flawless under Windows (Bootcamp) on the same machine with the otherwise exact same connection and setup.

If you read the panic log, you can clearly see that this is purely a driver error. To be more exact: A memory managent error. It's still beyond me how apple hasn't fixed that. It's not like this issue is new and only a few days old.
 
That might be a pretty loose shot but did you try a NVRAM reset? Something which might be corrupted by te update but it si not cleared during a reinstall. Just trying to find why a fresh MBP does not have this issue but the ones which were update do have it
 
xszuflax said:
That might be a pretty loose shot but did you try a NVRAM reset? Something which might be corrupted by te update but it si not cleared during a reinstall. Just trying to find why a fresh MBP does not have this issue but the ones which were update do have it
Click to expand...
Yeah. NVRAM and SMC where my first tries. I even tried clean installs. Nothing changes. Tried monterey Beta on a seperate volume, same issues.
And since 11.5.1 there are even more issues. I tried rolling back to Catalina, no issues. Booted into Bootcamp (Win 10) and also there, everything works.

I guess my only hope is that Apple will get their crap together at some point... but my hopes are low with this given how they reacted to such issues in the past.
 
It looks like that someone at Apple is actually trying to fix the issue. The higher config MacBook 16" with i9 and Radeon 5500M did not crash since installing 11.5.2. The lower spec i7 with 5300 M still has the issue though.
 
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