iMac keeps crashing after Catalina upgrade

So did anyone have this issue resolved? I have taken my iMac into the Apple store twice. They wiped it out both times. And it still is happening? There is a new update that i just sae today. If this doesn't resolve Im calling again and making them pay (their staff time) again until this is resolved or replaced

Another new issue I've noticed with 10.15.3:

Turning off the MBP is now a bit of a problem. All seems to be shutting down and the display goes blank but the keyboard backlights stay on forever unless I decide to hold the power button down! Then on turning the machine on again I get the usual kernel panic report! Aaargh!

Can someone please connect me with a moderator? My posts are constantly being deleted for explaining how this issue can be reproduced, which is an absolutely essential part of determining how a fix can be made and tested.

JasonG69 wrote:

So far so good for me, 15 days and 8 hours uptime without any crashes/Kernel panics etc - bet it goes soon!

Or maybe not 😃.

I think there's a lot less people in this thread than there were... so I'm guessing cases are getting fixed 🤷🏽‍♂️🤞🏼

Maybe not. I have just discarded my 2017 iMac because it was so unstable after I upgraded to Catalina. Downgrading to Mojave does not give me back the legendary Mac stability. A two-year old computer costing rather a lot a money is now of no use. I bought a Windows desktop and a 4K monitor and am happily using that. The only reason now I want Apple to sort the problem is so that I could at least sell the iMac and recoup some of the money spent on it. To be honest, it's shockingly bad that Apple doesn't appear to care. I think you'll find others have just given up. I wouldn't buy a Mac again and I wouldn't recommend to friends and family that they do either.

Phillip Deackes wrote:

Maybe not. I have just discarded my 2017 iMac because it was so unstable after I upgraded to Catalina. Downgrading to Mojave does not give me back the legendary Mac stability. A two-year old computer costing rather a lot a money is now of no use. I bought a Windows desktop and a 4K monitor and am happily using that. The only reason now I want Apple to sort the problem is so that I could at least sell the iMac and recoup some of the money spent on it. To be honest, it's shockingly bad that Apple doesn't appear to care. I think you'll find others have just given up. I wouldn't buy a Mac again and I wouldn't recommend to friends and family that they do either.

How in the world does downgrading to Mojave not fix your iMac? There's no T2 chip in there. A clean install of Mojave today is the same as a clean install a year ago (updates notwithstanding). Are you restoring from Time Machine or something?

Congrats on the new Windows machine though I guess. I'm also expanding my horizons from iOS development a bit these days.

EDIT: If the downgrade doesn't fix things, there's probably something wrong with your hardware.

Best advice on a thread this length (because there are probably ten reasons for the same result of a "crash" )

is:-

• Start your own thread
• Get Etrecheck from Etresoft.com or from App Store
• Describe your problem with full details.
• Include an Etrecheck report set up with full disk access and attach it to your thread using the Additional text icon. This will inclue the latest crash report as well as other details that will encourage members to analyse. Once it gets past a few pages the thread goes stale and becomes a "me too" thread like this.
• Send crash reports to Apple either by the normal sharing method or as a bug report at Apple feedback
• Apple Suppport cannot and will not help on this forum - only enthusiastic fellow users. And if you **** them off they will not come back.

Anyone getting the red screen when trying to post should clear all Apple website data in Safari Preferences, advanced tab.

There was a forum problem that when fixed would then not accept Apple website data and cookies stored in all your apple devices.

Any posts deleted usually have some sort of message from the moderator why the post was inappropriate, unless the post was in the reply stream after an offending post, in which case they just disappear as collateral damage.

You don't need to contact the moderator - they come to you.

Any problems with posting generally can be discussed in the Using Apple Support Communities forum

As I was the one who created this thread I have been following the issues with Catalina. Although I have no proof I suspect that Apple snuck in some firmware upgrade that gets installed along with Catalina and this is why rolling back to a prior OSX doesn’t resolve the issue and it doesn’t downgrade firmware.

While it is clear that the Catalina problems are a software issue, and may be connected to firmware changes in graphics cards in some cases, the fact that some of the problems caused the machine to run hot, hence the fans cranking up, may have caused internal damage.

My MBP (late 2013) was reported by one Genius Bar to have a swollen battery. Yes, that happens over time (6 years), but it can also be a problem caused, in part, by heat. A swelling battery may be damaging the logic board and other things in subtle ways, and this may be an additional cause of apparent hardware issues.

My MBP is, effectively, dead, after a long series of various kinds of crashes. I'm hoping I can revive it, as buying a new one will be a major expense and the current MBP 16" is exhibiting these same problems in some cases. Currently running Mojave on the two temporary replacement machines, pretty much without problems, and very, very wary of doing anything with Catalina. I skipped Windows Vista and 8 (and 98 and Me), so skipping Catalina doesn't worry me.

Recalling the announcement of an earlier version and the choice of name, where there was a bit made of the potential for "OS X Weed" (all the California names), I suspect that the "Weed" version is the one we got here, but disguised as Catalina. ;-)

Yes, that is true but we also know that there are others who have not found success with that route. We really shoudl not be trying to gaslight people who's issues have not been solved by downgrading to Mojave.

Of course we're all aware there are others who have successfully downgraded. But I just don't get the point of insisting that others have successfully reverted when there are quite clearly others who have not. Esp when:

1. We have no idea what proportion these successful ones constitute or
2. You are unable to say what it is that the unsuccessful ones might be doing wrong.

There are people on this thread saying that Catalina changes the EFI firmware such that reverting to Mojave is impossible.

I am simply saying that is not a general rule because some others have reverted to Mojave ok and posted on this and other threads as "proof that Catalina is to blame.

There are many reasons for this crash and many fixes and unfortunately many unfixable macs. At least lets agree on that.

Alternatively, give up and move to Windows . . . you shouldn't have to go through all that rigmarole and I very, very much doubt any useful help will be forthcoming. If Apple themselves are replacing logic boards (read the thread) they haven't a clue either. I will not be buying another Mac. I have used Macs for 18 years and am now at the stage where, for me, Windows is clearly better.

A Mac is a PC these days. It contains standard PC components. Creating an NTFS partition and installing Windows without Bootcamp doesn't need to be 'supported'. What do you think Bootcamp actually does? If you download the Apple Windows drivers and install Windows 'manually' you are doing pretty much what Bootcamp does with a wizard. I merely used Windows as an example of how the Mac boot still plays up when you take macOS out of the equation. Just ignore what I said about Windows then. My only expectation is that I pay a lot of money for a computer and I expect it to work reliably. My iMac doesn't - whether I'm using macOS, Windows installed through Bootcamp or Windows installed outside of Bootcamp.

There are too many excuses being made for Apple. Just stop.