Why Did My MBA Restart When Power Went Out?

[jordii]

My power went out for a minute while I was using my mid-2014 MacBook Air (plugged into wall charger, and using an external monitor, fwiw). Though the battery's fine, the computer restarted (and, strangely, my mouse tracking speed reset to "very slow").

Can anyone account for this? Here's the crash report:

Wed Aug 19 12:28:42 2015

*** Panic Report ***
panic(cpu 1 caller 0xffffff801bc17cc2): Kernel trap at 0xffffff7f9dbe4048, type 13=general protection, registers:
CR0: 0x0000000080010033, CR2: 0x00007fff6dc26000, CR3: 0x000000024bc6a042, CR4: 0x00000000001627e0
RAX: 0xffffff8032977c00, RBX: 0xffffff802f74d000, RCX: 0x0000000000000001, RDX: 0x7fffffffffffffff
RSP: 0xffffff8137c4bb80, RBP: 0xffffff8137c4bbc0, RSI: 0x0000000000000002, RDI: 0xffffff804c8ddc00
R8: 0x0000000000000011, R9: 0xffffff801f2eb148, R10: 0x0000000000000000, R11: 0xffffff803179b5a0
R12: 0xffffff801c312f48, R13: 0xffffff801c229750, R14: 0xffffff804c8ddc00, R15: 0xffffff803e0dfe00
RFL: 0x0000000000010282, RIP: 0xffffff7f9dbe4048, CS: 0x0000000000000008, SS: 0x0000000000000010
Fault CR2: 0x00007fff6dc26000, Error code: 0x0000000000000000, Fault CPU: 0x1

Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff811d41de10 : 0xffffff801bb2bda1
0xffffff811d41de90 : 0xffffff801bc17cc2
0xffffff811d41e050 : 0xffffff801bc34b73
0xffffff811d41e070 : 0xffffff7f9dbe4048
0xffffff8137c4bbc0 : 0xffffff7f9db43a68
0xffffff8137c4bc00 : 0xffffff7f9db52b95
0xffffff8137c4bc30 : 0xffffff7f9db44479
0xffffff8137c4bc50 : 0xffffff7f9dba96f8
0xffffff8137c4bc70 : 0xffffff7f9db442dc
0xffffff8137c4bca0 : 0xffffff7f9db526a1
0xffffff8137c4bd00 : 0xffffff801c0b6eb1
0xffffff8137c4bd50 : 0xffffff801c0fe5b5
0xffffff8137c4bdc0 : 0xffffff801bbe26be
0xffffff8137c4be10 : 0xffffff801bb3000c
0xffffff8137c4be40 : 0xffffff801bb149f3
0xffffff8137c4be90 : 0xffffff801bb2531d
0xffffff8137c4bf10 : 0xffffff801bc031ea
0xffffff8137c4bfb0 : 0xffffff801bc35396
Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily2(156.16)[8DA5CE1F-2C00-3CE3-8BF1-1FC07BFCF4E7]@0xffffff7f9db28000->0xffffff7f9db96fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[D8F585E8-2EE9-3135-8E37-A034123FE45C]@0xffffff7f9c37f000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.4.1)[6F7F093D-DBEA-356A-9A08-D8EAC7F767DE]@0xffffff7f9cce1000
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHD5000Graphics(10.0.6)[3DD992A1-946D-3C47-AA58-2927ED68AF7B]@0xffffff7f9dba5000->0xffffff7f9dc04fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOSurface(97.4)[A4AE35B7-0C17-38F2-AD0D-A4C4B40196FB]@0xffffff7f9cbc0000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[D8F585E8-2EE9-3135-8E37-A034123FE45C]@0xffffff7f9c37f000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.4.1)[6F7F093D-DBEA-356A-9A08-D8EAC7F767DE]@0xffffff7f9cce1000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily2(156.16)[8DA5CE1F-2C00-3CE3-8BF1-1FC07BFCF4E7]@0xffffff7f9db28000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: VDCAssistant

Mac OS version:
14E46

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 14.4.0: Thu May 28 11:35:04 PDT 2015; root:xnu-2782.30.5~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: E3C26B2F-8B97-3F1D-B193-690F7E34F830
Kernel slide: 0x000000001b800000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff801ba00000
__HIB text base: 0xffffff801b900000
System model name: MacBookAir6,2 (Mac-7DF21CB3ED6977E5)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 2474218621645386
last loaded kext at 2474214018265372: com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCDC 4.3.3b1 (addr 0xffffff7f9e273000, size 20480)
last unloaded kext at 2229996094899899: com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCDC 4.3.3b1 (addr 0xffffff7f9e273000, size 16384)
loaded kexts:
com.usboverdrive.driver.hid 3.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCDC 4.3.3b1
com.apple.filesystems.udf 2.5
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBODD 3.5.5
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBDisplays 372.1
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 3.7.5
com.apple.filesystems.autofs 3.0
com.apple.driver.AGPM 110.19.6
com.apple.driver.ApplePlatformEnabler 2.2.0d4
com.apple.driver.X86PlatformShim 1.0.0
com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC 1.70
com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet 1.0.1
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager 4.3.5f8
com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport 4.3.5f8
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 3.6.1
com.apple.driver.AppleOSXWatchdog 1
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 272.18.1
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelHD5000Graphics 10.0.6
com.apple.driver.AppleBacklight 170.7.4
com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltIP 2.0.2
com.apple.driver.AppleCameraInterface 5.36.0
com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl 1.2.12
com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 1.7.3
com.apple.driver.AppleSMCLMU 2.0.7d0
com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X 7.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHWAccess 1
com.apple.driver.AppleHV 1
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelSlowAdaptiveClocking 4.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelFramebufferAzul 10.0.6
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBCardReader 3.5.5
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 705.4.2
com.apple.driver.AppleTopCaseHIDEventDriver 67
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless 1.0.0d1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib 1.0.0
com.apple.BootCache 36
com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 404
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 2.7.1
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 3.1.2
com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4360 930.37.3
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBXHCI 710.4.11
com.apple.driver.AppleSmartBatteryManager 161.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 3.1
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.8
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 2.1
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 3.1
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.7
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 161
com.apple.security.quarantine 3
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 8
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice 3.7.5
com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily 1.7
com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily 1.7.1
com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily 1.7.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHIDKeyboard 176.2
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBAudio 295.23
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriverPM 710.4.7
com.apple.kext.triggers 1.0
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport 4.3.5f8
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily 4.3.5f8
com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib 272.18.1
com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib 1.15
com.apple.iokit.IOSurface 97.4
com.apple.driver.AppleBacklightExpert 1.1.0
com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport 2.4.1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver 705.4.0
com.apple.driver.X86PlatformPlugin 1.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusController 1.0.13d1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient 705.4.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController 272.18.1
com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily 272.18.1
com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily 203.3
com.apple.vecLib.kext 1.2.0
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily 5.9.1d7
com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily 11
com.apple.driver.AppleSMC 3.1.9
com.apple.iokit.IOSlowAdaptiveClockingFamily 1.0.0
com.apple.AppleGraphicsDeviceControl 3.10.24
com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily2 156.16
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily 2.4.1
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice 3.7.5
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageClass 3.7.2
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 3.7.5
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 705.4.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite 705.4.9
com.apple.driver.AppleHIDKeyboard 176.2
com.apple.driver.AppleHSSPIHIDDriver 41.3
com.apple.driver.AppleMultitouchDriver 264.6
com.apple.driver.CoreStorage 471.30.1
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 2.7.5
com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltDPInAdapter 4.0.6
com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltDPAdapterFamily 4.0.6
com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltPCIDownAdapter 2.0.2
com.apple.driver.AppleThunderboltNHI 3.1.7
com.apple.iokit.IOThunderboltFamily 4.2.2
com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family 730.60
com.apple.driver.mDNSOffloadUserClient 1.0.1b8
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 3.2
com.apple.driver.AppleHSSPISupport 41.3
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelLpssSpiController 2.0.57
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelLpssDmac 2.0.57
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelLpssGspi 2.0.57
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 720.4.4
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 2.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1
com.apple.security.sandbox 300.0
com.apple.kext.AppleMatch 1.0.0d1
com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore 2
com.apple.driver.AppleMobileFileIntegrity 1.0.5
com.apple.driver.AppleCredentialManager 1.0
com.apple.driver.DiskImages 397
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOReportFamily 31
com.apple.driver.AppleFDEKeyStore 28.30
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 3.1
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.9
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.4
com.apple.kec.Libm 1
com.apple.kec.pthread 1
com.apple.kec.corecrypto 1.0
Model: MacBookAir6,2, BootROM MBA61.0099.B19, 2 processors, Intel Core i7, 1.7 GHz, 8 GB, SMC 2.13f15
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5000, Intel HD Graphics 5000, Built-In
Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 4 GB, DDR3, 1600 MHz, 0x02FE, -
Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM0, 4 GB, DDR3, 1600 MHz, 0x02FE, -
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x117), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (7.15.166.24.3)
Bluetooth: Version 4.3.5f8 15969, 3 services, 18 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Wi-Fi, AirPort, en0
Serial ATA Device: APPLE SSD SM0512F, 500.28 GB
USB Device: Internal Memory Card Reader
USB Device: BRCM20702 Hub
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller
USB Device: USB2.0 Hub
USB Device: OEM Mass Storage
USB Device: My Book 1230
USB Device: HL-L2320D series
USB Device: Hub
USB Device: Keyboard Hub
USB Device: Apple Keyboard
USB Device: USB Receiver
USB Device: Apple USB SuperDrive
USB Device: Hub
USB Device: Display Audio
USB Device: Display iSight
USB Device: Apple LED Cinema Display
Thunderbolt Bus: MacBook Air, Apple Inc., 23.6

 

[motrek]

There might have been a power surge that was related to the power outage that tripped a protective circuit in the laptop. Dunno just speculating.

 

[Boyd01]

Never saw that happen. But I remember many years ago I was sitting in a little office at a jobsite using my PowerBook G4 while a staff member sat across from me using his desktop PC. Suddenly the power went out and he lost everything and said something obscene while I just kept working. Then he looked over at me, kind of mad and said "why didn't your power go out???". I told him it was because I had a Mac.

 

[Newtons Apple]

I have pulled to power cord out of the wall to move to another location with my MBAir 13 and it never missed a bit. What you describe should not have happened.

 

[jordii]

I have pulled to power cord out of the wall to move to another location with my MBAir 13 and it never missed a bit. What you describe should not have happened.

Agreed. It's the strangest thing that's happened to me in 26 years of Mac computing. I should probably report it to Apple....not sure who to approach....

 

[Newtons Apple]

Agreed. It's the strangest thing that's happened to me in 26 years of Mac computing. I should probably report it to Apple....not sure who to approach....

Like the others have said could be a fluke. Next time on your device try pulling out the cord and see if it happens again. Just pulled mine again and the screen does darken ever so slightly but it keep right on going.

 

[motrek]

Like the others have said could be a fluke. Next time on your device try pulling out the cord and see if it happens again. Just pulled mine again and the screen does darken ever so slightly but it keep right on going.

That's a power saving feature that you can disable in System Preferences.

 

[motrek]

Agreed. It's the strangest thing that's happened to me in 26 years of Mac computing. I should probably report it to Apple....not sure who to approach....

Uh, what are they supposed to do about it?

 

[jordii]

Uh, I don't need anything "done". But if computers with functional batteries require restart after power glitches, that's an edge case they'd surely like to know about.

To thread:

Shortly thereafter, my TM drive was reported to have irreparable problems, so the power glitch may have happened during a TM backup. I can understand why loss of power to the TM drive might crash the TM app, but I still don't understand the restart. And the slow mouse speed upon reset is another strange result.

 

[Gav2k]

I think there was a surge. That caused your issue

 

[motrek]

Uh, I don't need anything "done". But if computers with functional batteries require restart after power glitches, that's an edge case they'd surely like to know about.

To thread:

Shortly thereafter, my TM drive was reported to have irreparable problems, so the power glitch may have happened during a TM backup. I can understand why loss of power to the TM drive might crash the TM app, but I still don't understand the restart. And the slow mouse speed upon reset is another strange result.

They obviously don't "require restart" after loss of power, or people would see their laptops turning off all the time when they disconnected them from the wall charger during normal use.

What you saw was almost certainly a power surge that drove the laptop out of spec.

You don't need to report this to Apple any more than I need to report to Apple that we had a lightning storm last week.

If you're worried about this then invest in a UPS.

 

[jordii]

They obviously don't "require restart" after loss of power.

Awesome! Sounds like you're beginning to see my point.

I have surge suppression for computer and external drives. Not that that's 100% reliable.

My theory is that TM app had a particularly nasty crash when write to the TM drive was interrupted as drive suddenly dismounted during outage (the drive functions fine; it just had its directory farkled). So perhaps restart was due to kernel panic due to crash. I.e.more an indirect result of power problem, re: power impact on external drive in mid-write. If so, that's an interesting edge case.

I'm not good at crash report decoding; I'd imagine such a scenario would be detectable from my report, above.

 

[motrek]

...
I'm not good at crash report decoding; I'd imagine such a scenario would be detectable from my report, above.

To Apple, maybe. The dump you have above doesn't have symbol names, so nobody outside of Apple would be able to figure out anything useful from it.

When my computer kernel panics and reboots, I get an option upon reboot to report the crash to Apple. Did you not see this dialog box?

 

[jordii]

Did you not see this dialog box?

No, I did not not see it. Why do you need to phrase things so snottily? it's so unnecessary.

I sent the crash report. They have no way of knowing about the power issue.

 

[motrek]

No, I did not not see it. Why do you need to phrase things so snottily? it's so unnecessary.

I sent the crash report. They have no way of knowing about the power issue.

Tone of voice is hard to read from these posts. It wasn't my intention to be snotty with the question. I'm not sure how else to ask that question. "Didn't you see this dialog box?" "Did you see this dialog box?" These all seem basically the same to me.

 

[jordii]

I appreciate your trying to help out, regardless of tone.

Yes, I saw the dialog box. And sent a report. So...?

 

[motrek]

I appreciate your trying to help out, regardless of tone.

Yes, I saw the dialog box. And sent a report. So...?

Oh. So you reported it to Apple. Nothing else to be done then. No symbols in the stack trace so nothing anybody else can do. I might start Time Machine over again with a different drive just to get yourself into a known-good situation.

 

[dwig]

There might have been a power surge that was related to the power outage that tripped a protective circuit in the laptop. Dunno just speculating.

+1, a simple power loss won't cause a notebook with a good battery to reboot.

Power outages often occur as a result of a failure in a piece of equipment that produces a surge or other power instability. A segment of the power grid may then shuts down, often just briefly, to protect itself.

I highly recommend that you NEVER plug any computer equipment's power cord or brick directly into a wall outlet. Always use a surge protector. If the computer equipment doesn't have its own battery, then always use a UPS, which will provide both battery support but also surge protection.

 

[westom]

+1, a simple power loss won't cause a notebook with a good battery to reboot.

That part is correct. But the following recommendations are contradicted even by specification numbers provided by each plug-in protector. It does not even claim to protect from that type of surge. A UPS typically claims even less protection.

A surge is blamed when consumers are at a loss to know what caused an anomaly. If he had that type of surge, then a surge blew through superior protection (already inside every computer) resulting in hardware damage.

Protection from that type of surge must connect low impedance (ie less than 10 feet) to what can harmlessly absorb hundreds of thousands of joules. A solution that typically costs about $1 per protected appliance. How many joules does a UPS claim to absorb? Hundreds? Near zero protection is sufficient so that subjective claims and other myths are recommended using hearsay.

Question is apparently why software (data) changes occurred. Existing computer hardware should have averted that change. That is not hardware damage created by a surge. Most only blame surges as if magic will explain a mystery.

 

[motrek]

...
Question is apparently why software (data) changes occurred. Existing computer hardware should have averted that change. That is not hardware damage created by a surge. Most only blame surges as if magic will explain a mystery.
...

We didn't know that the computer was in the middle of doing something with external devices that lost power. That wasn't mentioned in the original post.