Macbook pro 16 2019 freezes randomly and restarts

Darn it ... took too long to post: reposting.

Interestingly I too have a Space Grey MacBook Pro that was "custom".

My specs are: i9 2.3ghz, 32gb Ram, 1TB storage, AMD 5500m 4gb

It took 4 days to troubleshoot but I believe I have a reproducible way to test the Intel 630 UHD GPU issues people are having.

1. Download Geekbench 5 (I used version 5.1.0)
2. Select "Later" when the dialog pops up about paying for it. You'll be testing in "Tryout Mode"
3. Look the the left of the program and you'll select the "Compute" Benchmark
4. Select Compute API: METAL (OpenCL doesn't error out but Metal does.)
5. Select Computer Device: Intel UHD 630 Graphics
6. Open the Console Log app BEFORE YOU run the GEEKBENCH 5 test
7. Select "Errors and Faults" from the Console log app. It should be at the top.
8. Start the GeekBench test.
9. Watch all the red dots proliferate the Console Log app. Most of them will be IntelAccel errors. Many times you will likely see the internal GPU restarting as evidenced by the attached screenshot. Look for signalHardwareError in your logs.

Here is my video of the whole thing. https://youtu.be/Rxh3wATgPOA

During my 7 minute video I try to select the "About the Mac" it takes almost 3 minutes for the window to render while the test is running. You can see in the Activity Monitor in the video it showing as unresponsive.

I truly hope this helps folks - and I wish you all luck. I love Apple and their products. This is obviously something they need to admit and get ahead of because this is turning into something that appears to be a real issue.

My laptop is currently at Apple repair awaiting a logicboard (MLB).

Edited because I hit post too quickly.

Two weeks in to using macbook pro 16 2019. $7000aud machine (64gb ram, 2.4ghz 8 core i9 etc). As mentioned by OP, freezes in chrome when a lot of tabs are open. Here is a list of other things this macbook is freezing over:

• Rendering projects in Adobe After Effects (freeze, force restart)
• Opening a 3D object in Blender (freeze and restart without user interaction)
• Adding a 6K RAW video file to a Final Cut Pro project (freeze, force restart)
• Having more than 8 apps open (freeze, force restart)
• Low graphics gaming in Windows 10 Pro Bootcamp (freeze, force restart)
• Using Parallels Business to load bootcamp partition in macOS (freeze, force restart)
• Opening a 50mb file in visual studio code...when I have 64gb of ram lol (freeze, force restart)

I've reformatted the system three times. The lack of OpenCL/GL & Vulkan support in favour of the not widely accepted Metal API really shows. The lack of CUDA support due to Apple & Nvidia execs not seeing eye to eye really shows here too.

It's taken 15 days to discover all of this and I'd have to say when a company charges $7000 for a machine, you'd expect the hardware AND software to be up to scratch on release date. I'm not waiting a year for software support since you can't downgrade (downgrading is how you get OpenCL/GL & CUDA support which generally stops crashing with heavier tasks).

Luckily as an Australian I actually have 30 days under our consumer law to return this defunct product.

You aren't speaking to Apple here. Your machine is under 1 year of standard AppleCare for hardware issues.

Random freezes can be due to:

1. Filevault needing to encode.
2. Backup software running.
3. Third party optimizers. Mackeeper and Advanced Mac Cleaner and zeobit and macpaw software are actually malware and should be removed by a Mac malware removal expert.
4. If the machine gives you a four language screen telling you it needs to restart and automatically restarts, and you have nothing connected to the machine besides power, and have no third party applications installed, then you likely have a hardware issue which Apple Diagnostics usually can detect: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202731 when it can't that doesn't mean there isn't one.
5. If your hard drive is over 85% full, open some room by copying stuff to the cloud, flash drives and external hard drives. Your system's swap files may be running into each other when this happens.
6. https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250002463 Etrecheck is able to quickly diagnose the causes of freezes, and if you post the results here as directed, someone here can usually tell you where to start looking.

Edit: I just noticed this is a 32 page thread. Folks, please start a new topic thread so you can get focussed attention. Otherwise we will be all over the place trying to solve problems for difficult people.

I don't think the T2 firmware update helps. Got my full replacement back two days ago (30/03/2020). All I did the first day was download apps without installing anything, just let the battery do a full cycle. It got stuck waking up with 1% left, although it was on 1% for an hour (the reason I do a battery cycle, so % is accurate). Closed lid and reopened to escape wake freeze. Then battery went flat and I recharged back to 80% while downloading things. It froze while in sleep, at that time nothing downloading or running, just recharging. Then after restart battery charge got to 100%. This is why I got a full replacement after all the 'repairs', since months of never being able to complete a full battery cycle diminished it's total design capacity a lot faster than you would expect for a few months of use.

Not a good start. I couldn't have used the machine any less, just downloading things here and there while mainly working on my slow iMac.

It had 10.5.3 on there, I updated to 10.15.4 from system preferences, supposedly that includes the latest T2 firmware?

2nd day of brand new machine with a Mar 2020 build date, starting to install things...boom! Force restart with a CPU panic. All I've done is download files the first day, then install apps the second day and it already has the same issue as the previous one with multiple logicboard replacements. You can't work on a machine that freezes & restarts randomly, even if it's fast.

By any standard, I've literally done nothing on this brand new replacement and can't even set it up without freezing/restarting. You can see from the apps I've installed so far there shouldn't be anything out of the ordinary.

No bootcamp. No VMs.

I pay for all my software too, so what am I to do with so many macOS only apps? Thousands worth there too and Apple's "best" macbook is a total failure, what platform do I work on now? Sure there's Windows but it's the fact that I have invested so much over time in licensed software that only works on macOS.

This has put me so behind in work. Nov 2019 -> Apr 2020 and this has been nothing but a total waste of time.

Thanks a lot Apple.

Coconut Battery:

App Installs:

I did also notice a very light suction cap mark around the logo on the lid when unboxing....refurb? Not brand new?

I've had a few replacements, my latest machine has been good. I always use Chrome Beta and haven't had issues with it.

This machine has been beyond a joke. Never have apple made a macbook this "fast" or expensive, and they gave their customers an option to go "all in" at a time when they were about to drop intel support and are now releasing an M1X version of this laptop. I guess I was right I wouldn't be getting my usual decade of use out of the most expensive apple device I've ever purchased. 4 months of being unable to use it after purchase as well, having to swap for replacements until I got one that didn't force restart every 5 minutes.

Another joke is how on apple's own macbook 2019 16" page they advertise how much better performance is with adobe products, yet adobe doesn't even support the 5500M gpu (you get a black screen as soon as you open an adobe product due to gpu being force shut off to prevent a crash). Is that why apple did a sneaky 5600M release? This is AMD's fault like the supply line quality was intel's fault?

When apple release their M1X and say it's much cheaper than intel because they are making the chip, will it be us that are used as the example of how expensive and crappy intel hardware is?

Absolutely disgusting.

If it''s new you have 14 days to return for a full refund and purchase another. You also have 90 days of free telephone support (800) MYAPPLE in US. I suggest you use it to open a ticket.

See this for UK:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201232

More on this over here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250991137?page=1

Youtuber getting the same problem: https://youtu.be/q--7N-4zDps?t=700

and followup with Apple on the product: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAAHjE5U6Ow

Right now, engineering is lost. They have no idea. I have done everything that they wanted including running it with no software at all... fresh OS. Same problem occurs.

A quick "fix" I've also found for this situation is to use Amphetamine from the App Store to keep your mac awake.

https://apps.apple.com/au/app/amphetamine/id937984704?mt=12

You can set rules like allow the screen to sleep but the macbook actually stays awake, dodging the force restart a lot of the time and mimicking the power saving functionality of your screen turning off.

I usually use it for apps that fail to run when the mac has gone to sleep, like things that take a long time to render or process tasks. Applying it to the case of a macbook restarting every time it sleeps, it serves to allieviate the problem until APPLE SORT THEIR CLIENTS OUT.

THANKYOU.

Another freeze, different log this time. I force restarted to escape freeze. Catalina 10.15.3.

Macbook with lid unclosed was awoken from sleep with a press of the spacebar to no avail, just a back-lit black screen. Attempted to avoid a restart by closing & opening lid.

Recording of freeze & Crash Report:

http://pd.omg.lol/apQ9gQ

Thats maybe because you don’t understand what power nap means. The power nap feature actually wakes your mac up to fetch e-mails etc. when it is sleeping, so disabling this feature will makes your MacBook last longer and safe you a lot of power.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204032

You could try and se if it works for you.

I purchased a MacBook Pro 16" on May 2nd, and it was crashing every 5 minutes. I tried everything with Apple Support and then just returned to Best Buy and got a brand new one. 5th day of use, guess what: same issues. I'm wondering if this is a huge problem but people are not noticing and Apple hasn't suggested a recall or something. It doesn't make sense, this machine is almost US$3k!

This time the error message is this one attached.

You can follow my posts since I've been replying to myself each time on this forum. Please review my prior posts if you need information on my story.

I just got off the phone with my Senior Advisor at Apple and she said that after reviewing my system logs, video evidence, and kernel panic, that the engineers and Apple are actually aware of the issue. The Senior Advisor said that they have a team that is investigating this issue to find out if it is hardware or software related. At the moment, they have no idea what is causing it.

The Senior Advisor told me to keep an eye on Exchange + Repair Extension Programs - Apple Support to see if there's an issued recall due to hardware problems. She also told me to keep an eye on my updates to see if they issue any updates regarding kernel panic bug fixes.

Other than that, she said that she was told by the engineers to specifically not waste resources performing any service at the moment until the investigation has been concluded. So we're all stuck with our 2019 16" MacBooks until they issue a recall or an update to resolve this issue. The Senior Advisor said that if they don't issue a fix by the release date of the next 16" MacBook (probably coming in December) that I would be able to exchange this one for an updated one, hoping they resolved the issue in the newest one.

Other than that, we're all stuck with this issue until they find a fix but they are actively investigating this issue and have a team dedicated to this investigation.

I have no further information at this time. Please keep your eyes open for recalls issued or kernel panic fixes in software updates. I hope this helps you all.

I had the MBP freezing problem. I got it refunded. I bought a new MBP 16 and the new one worked fine (except when using Geekbench) for a few months and today I had a strange new problem:  Display Issue - Horizontal blue lines in Chrome. Please refer to this discussion: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251248169. Anyone else facing this problem?

Regards,

Vishal

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2044?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US - is a patch Apple wrote for 10.15.5 that addresses issues with the Radeon 5600M and 10.15.5 on June 15, 2020. It is likely that the July 15, 2020 10.15.6 update also addresses those issues. If your issues are with a different graphics chip, please let AppleCare know which one it is.