A small number of 2018 MacBook Pros and iMac Pros are suffering from kernel panics seemingly related to the T2

[D13H4RD]

Another day, another thing with the 2018 MacBook Pro, although this one is more limited and happens to affect the iMac Pro as well.

 

Some users have reported that at least once/twice a day, their machines run into a kernel panic, indicated by a message telling the user that the machine needs to be rebooted. Kevin Parrish of Digital Trends suspect the issue could be related to the T2 chip that's inside the machine.

Quote

Of all the error messages uploaded to these threads, there is one detail they seem to share: Bridge OS. This is an embedded operating system used by Apple’s stand-alone T2 security chip, which provides the iMac Pro with a secure boot, encrypted storage, live “Hey Siri” commands, and so on. It’s now included in the new 2018 models of the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar.

 

But whether the T2 chip is behind all the kernel panics is up in the air. The symptoms and solutions are varied across complaints, such as iMac Pro owners daisy-chaining storage devices seeing crashes along with those with nothing connected at all. But Apple is aware of the problems and is apparently working on the issue behind the scenes.

 

“Looking at the Kernel Panic dumps, looks like someone may have been working on it, as the Kernel Version got bumped from 17.3.0 in January to 17.4.0 yesterday and it feels like I’m seeing fewer panics,” reads one post. “Where it used to panic once or twice a day it now appears to panic once or twice per week.”

 

Apple is replacing these machines — in some cases twice — but the problems still occur on the new hardware. One owner said he actually turned off the T2 security chip and never saw a Bridge OS-related problem again. Another user made a Time Machine backup, booted into recovery mode, erased and formatted the system disk, and restored from Time Machine for an error-free iMac Pro.

Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/apple-t2-chip-may-be-causing-imac-pro-macbook-problems/

 

The Apple T2 chip is a recent addition to the refreshed MacBook Pro, being on the iMac Pro earlier, being responsible for many tasks, notably security, as it handles secure boot verification alongside on-the-fly storage encryption. While there is no permanent resolution yet, Apple recommends the following if users get the issue.

Quote

Apple suggests that [affected] owners wipe and reload MacOS from scratch, disable FileVault, and disable Power Nap, the latter of which worked for some iMac Pro owners.

Looks like these MacBooks can't catch a break. Checkmate, Apple.

[Drak3]

Wonder how many users is a small number when it comes down to it.

[D13H4RD]

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

Wonder how many users is a small number when it comes down to it.

9to5Mac says a "very" small number

 

Yeah......I don't get how "small" it is without specifics

[Speed Weed]

1 minute ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

9to5Mac says a "very" small number

 

Yeah......I don't get how "small" it is without specifics

That author might as well just say ALL instead of SMALL NUMBER. It's like Apple saying 2% Apple customers experience CPU throttling on the new Macbook 2018. 

[Drak3]

Just now, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

9to5Mac says a "very" small number

 

Yeah......I don't get how "small" it is without specifics

So, huge issue and 9to5's Apple shills are trying to do some damage control then?

[D13H4RD]

1 minute ago, Drak3 said:

So, huge issue and 9to5's Apple shills are trying to do some damage control then?

Don't know

 

If it's more significant a la Core i9 volcano, we should be hearing more of it by now

[ArkesPC]

Theres quite a bit issue on this new product from apple...

Wouldnt be surprised if they didnt test for abnormalities...

Quite poor show from a company with that much net worth

[PlayStation 2]

Apple really can't catch a break this month.

[Christophe Corazza]

Quality control...

 

[DrMacintosh]

Don’t really see the problem. The 2016 Macs were suffering from “wide spread kernel panics” (hint, they weren’t) and they got patched within a few weeks. 

 

Kernal panics have never been wide spread and there has never been any evidence to support that which I have seen. 

[Shadestones]

Growing pains from new tech. I only expect this to become a real problem if it isn't something that can be fixed with a patch.

[mr moose]

now, hands up all those windows/linux users who have never seen a driver crash or bsod?

[D13H4RD]

26 minutes ago, mr moose said:

now, hands up all those windows/linux users who have never seen a driver crash or bsod?

*recalls the 5 BSODs in a row when running 1803*

[Speed Weed]

Just now, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

*recalls the 5 BSODs in a row when running 1803*

clean install? 

[D13H4RD]

4 minutes ago, DaPhuc said:

clean install? 

Haven’t got any after a series of updates 

 

Probably the usual with the mess that is Windows 10 updates

[Speed Weed]

Just now, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Haven’t got any after a series of updates 

 

Probably the usual with the mess that is Windows 10 updates

Yeah. I ran into a lot of problems from 1709 to 1803 through Windows Update. A clean installation of 1803 solve all the problems I had from Windows Update. 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

13 hours ago, Christophe Corazza said:

Quality control...

 

I'm pretty sure Microsoft increased the maximum bug threshold for release ten fold. 

[DrMacintosh]

Just now, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

I'm pretty sure Microsoft increased the maximum bug threshold for release ten fold. 

Yeah, with Apple it’s breaking news if a Mac gets a Kernal Panic but when a PC BSODs it’s expected behavior. 

[D13H4RD]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

Yeah, with Apple it’s breaking news if a Mac gets a Kernal Panic but when a PC BSODs it’s expected behavior. 

It’s expected from Windows 10 at this point

 

 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

Yeah, with Apple it’s breaking news if a Mac gets a Kernal Panic but when a PC BSODs it’s expected behavior. 

Expect nothing less from machines running a rather buggy OS, made by OEMs that believe HDDs are still good options for OS drives. 

[Blademaster91]

4 hours ago, DaPhuc said:

Yeah. I ran into a lot of problems from 1709 to 1803 through Windows Update. A clean installation of 1803 solve all the problems I had from Windows Update. 

I didn't have any crashes with a fresh install of 1803, except it was kinda annoying Windows Update  now installs a bunch of stupid games that I didn't want from the store without any notification,taking up all my internet bandwidth lol.

4 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

Yeah, with Apple it’s breaking news if a Mac gets a Kernal Panic but when a PC BSODs it’s expected behavior. 

Except it's like Apple doesn't quality control stuff quite enough lately.  I haven't had a BSOD in a really long time though,but buggy things yeah for one when they added the "gamebar" feature which turned all my games into a lagging mess even with gamebar off. Edit- Maybe it's expected for Windows 10, but not Mac held to a higher standard especially when these are the pro machines.

[mr moose]

4 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Yeah, with Apple it’s breaking news if a Mac gets a Kernal Panic but when a PC BSODs it’s expected behavior. 

 I rarely use mac so when the mac community tells me they don't have bugs and are more secure I believe it, then when I find out they are just as insecure and buggy as any other OS it is news.  Basically if people didn't put such products on a pedastool no one would shit on them for discovering the obvious.  

[Emberstone]

46 minutes ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

It’s expected from Windows 10 at this point

 

 

And here I am, on a Windows install that originated with a Ryzen mobo/CPU that is now run by an 8700K, having never experienced a Win10 BSOD that wasn't due to some hardware failure (a blizzard destroyed a powerline here in 2016 and it kind of fucked shit up in my last PC).

 

If you're getting BSOD's, something is probably broken. I think Win10 is stable enough at this point.

[suicidalfranco]

those damn iHaters at 9to5mac always trying to bash apple for every significant thing. I haven't opened my mbp for a couple of months and have yet to experience this "kernel panic", clearly not an issue as they are trying to portray

 

2 hours ago, mr moose said:

now, hands up all those windows/linux users who have never seen a driver crash or bsod?

since i moved to Ubuntu 16.04.1 (basically 16.04 2 or 3 months after it's launch with all the patches released in those months baked in to it) i have yet to experience any full system crash *knock on wood* like i used to when i first tried ubuntu with 9.10, 10.04 and 10.10.

Two years have passed and i'm still on 16.04, decided that for once i'm going to take the long route and wait the end of it's LTS before i even consider an OS upgrade if it means no issues in the long run.

[mr moose]

44 minutes ago, Emberstone said:

 

 

If you're getting BSOD's, something is probably broken. I think Win10 is stable enough at this point.

TBH,  I have not seen a BSOD since I stopped installing pre-release drivers and software, stopped using programs that hook into the OS (like magicISO, registry apps and the like) and cycle my PC like normal people (off at night).