"BAD MAGIC! (flag set in iBoot panic header)" — Catalina freezing all the time!

I got the Bad-Magic errors 3 times now. I have an Macbook Pro 13" buyed in October 2019.

My install.log:

bridgeOS prepare summary: 17P1081 -> 17P2551, update = 17.16.12551.0.0, brain = 17.16.12551.0.0, variant = com.apple.bridgeOSCustomer, macOS = 19B88 (customer), project = BridgeOSInstall-72, userAuth = 0, prod fused = 1, model = j132ap, client = SoftwareUpdate, retries = 0, session = 33A0D10C-9CBD-4195-8342-EF9436E28295: success

Same error happens to me on a new MacBook Pro 16 i9 32GB ram.

Crashes occurs mostly when the Mac is on sleep mode I have always connected to an external monitor, but lately it also occurs to me when using the Mac, Fan boost up for a second or so, and it shuts down. I'm very frustated with this problem, I reset the SMC and the PVRAM hoping it would fix it, I'll post later with the results. I started the Mac with a clean installation not from a backup or a migration.

I had this issue on MacBook Pro 16-inch only when I did some heavy stuff in Final Cut Pro X, then it started happening even during the update to 10.15.1, I had issues erasing drives. Btw, I did those smc and nvram resets as suggested by Apple Support. But, that was on the very first versions of Catalina that it came with (10.15 and I had available 10.15.1). Finally, when I managed to erase drives and reinstall Catalina to 10.15.1 it still happened while I did any heavy work in Final Cut. I don't know, maybe it shipped damaged to me. But, I replaced it, and after about a month, it happened again when I opened it after a night. It happened while it was just sitting there on the table with no apps opened. After that (Bad magic), so far I never had that issue even during doing both heavy work in Final Cut and Motion. Maybe with 10.15.2 they fixed those kernel panics with heavy work and new panics were discovered.

hmmm.

do we maybe have an relation for this issue to MacBooks which are connected to two (or one) external monitors?

How do you have them connected? I connected my two external displays (1x 4k, 1x1080p) via HDMI to USB-C cables.

Cheers and happy new year from Germany!

I have only connected one Dell monitor, but I had crashes using it on battery without any monitor connected. Anyway since I had reset the SMC and VRAM yesterday I haven't experienced any crash yet (fingers crossed).

I have mine connected via Apple’s usbc to HDMI connectors. One on each side.

Ever since I did a fresh (downloaded apps from scratch instead of a backup) reinstall, I haven’t had any issues. More than two weeks without crashes. Pheww! It was happening daily.

I have checked with numerous mac geniuses , numerous files got sent to Apple’s engineering team in Ireland. The bad magic kernel error does not let mac os leave any console logs or any traceable reports.

The mechanics have nothing to do with double monitors but rather how much the T2 chip is stressed. It is basically an iphone processor in charge of so many processes, including but limited to data security and encryption, facetime camera, audio (mic), secure boot, etc.

This time, they are avoiding a huge recall if you ask me.

Users who use their systems lightly are not prone to experience this error. I have this issue when I am doing a project on final cut pro. If I surf the web all day long nothing happens.

But hey we did not pay this huge amount of money for surfing on the web right?

I do the same as well. If I will not be using the MBP for more than 48 hours, I disconnect everything. Other than that, everything stays connected, and, thankfully, crashes have stopped.

I found this post in reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/ei88v6/is_anyone_at_amd_aware_that_the_radeon_vii_is/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Could it be a graphics card problem? I was reading through Apple’s site, and Apple recommends an eGPU if utilizing heavy programs or dual monitors.

Man Apple that's so disappointing, I bought a 16" mbp yesterday, It was working all together for 30min and this error. It happens every time within a minute, sometimes doesn't even get past the apple loading screen. Its completely unusable. I did pram and smc resets, nothing. I ll try to reinstall os but reading from this forum 8 don't think it will help. Tomorrow I am returning this 3k eur piece of junk, what a joke.

I had the same logs until it started with the Bad Magic log. I already has 2 days without having any crash since I reseted the SMC and VRAM, still keeping my fingers crossed, but before doing it the crashes appears every day and several times, so at least it's better now, hopefully its fixed for good.

I see a lot of users here who are victims of this issue. Yet, this company fails to make any comments on this issue... I have completely lost faith in the products. I have spent 15000$ on an imac pro and a macbook pro. There is not a single “pro” feature in terms of product support. I own a small business that relies on video production. All day long, we are buried in this company’s time wasting procedures. Format, reinstall, reset SMC, T2 chip firmware update, replacement units and so on...

Shame on you for putting your share price above user experience. They forgot that the aggregate result of positive user experiences got this brand to where it stands today...

Make an announcement, say you are aware of the issue, say you are working on it, but be honest for God’s sake...

I did reset and reinstall the computer, everything was working fine until I turned on the external monitor and it freeze right away. So I figured it could be graphic card switching. I got it back to work and did a test, switched off graphics function in power saver - bum, doesn't even pass the loading screen anymore.

Can people who own a 16" report their T2 chip version? Mine has a bad magic kernel panic. And I doubt there is a new T2 hardware to address the issue...

Please

Go to terminal

paste the below command

/usr/libexec/remotectl list

Mine is (J680AP) iBridge2,3   J680AP   4.2 (17P2551/17.16.12551.0.0,0)

My friend in Germany bought one, and this one has j152fap

I doubt it's much deferent, I think it's from the same series, as the serials are very similar. Also I don't think they have any clue about this issue - they are a technics store not official apple service. They just had to give me a new one because the machine didn't fully boot after their factory reset and os reinstalI, what else can you do with 1 day dead computer that costs 3k eur?

I checked the T2 version now :

iBridge2,14 J152fAP 4.2

i have a 16" that had the bad magic crash one time on the first day, after i had (mistakenly) used it to delete a year of time machine backups from an external drive. it never had the crash since then (knocking on lots of wood), and my heavy use is parallels with dedicated computer assisted translation software, as well as photoshop and lightroom. i had problems with a wireless mouse which, when it was losing its charge and needed recharging, caused the trackpad and keyboard to freeze multiple times; i stopped using that mouse and have an old usb 2.0 mouse (with a usb c dongle thingie) and have had no problems since. i did have problems with a blue tinted screen after waking the computer up a few times, but that has stopped.

the T2 chip version as described above is

 iBridge2,14  J152fAP  4.2 (17P2551/17.16.12551.0.0,0

so it is the J152FAP that your friend in Germany has (mine is purchased in the US)

fwiw mine behaves now, but it scared the bejeezus out of me when this happened on the first day and i almost traded it in until i saw the problems others were having (still) and decided that since nothing had happened yet.. well, fingers are still crossed that it stays that way