Macbook pro 16 2019 freezes randomly and restarts

NP philux,

I would be asking Apple to credit you back an incident.

I posted a comment, minutes ago, asking Apple to reply to this forum and confirm, but they deleted my post as "not constructive"....LOL...

I guess we are truly on our own. Call Apple Support and let us know what they tell you. I have my appointment Saturday and will spend time getting the "replacement" up and running. I really hope this problem will be resolved.

Truthfully, I only experienced 6-8 freezes over the past 2 months since my purchase, but my screen has been switching between blue and yellow (True Tone, I guess) every 30-60 minutes, and it just got annoying, so I called...

But, I would be concerned if the store replaces it with an older (un-repaired unit).

Good point I hadn't considered. I've got a customized one, so my guess is they'd have to redo the order to Apple. But yeah who knows where their stock is coming from. Maybe they have more like mine...with the issues.

Is Apple making these exchanges with the limited 1 year warranty? I'll get Applecare eventually, most likely +.

Am about to call Apple today to initiate my 3rd return and then be on my 4th macbook pro 2019 16".

Funnily enough, right before I am about to call my macbook has crashed again, this time all I did was open Final Cut Pro X and it froze, I had to hold the power button to escape.

This is one of the more common freezes, when you have to force restart yourself you usually don't get a crash log after, which means there is no way to prove this to Apple Support. Lucky I have heaps of recordings of it:

http://pd.omg.lol/s1ADyD

Well this is it, I've sent back my 3rd macbook pro 2019 16" with AMD 5500M on 10.15.3 and am awaiting my fourth. I requested a different sized nvme drive this time though, I'll have to pay slightly more on top but it ensures I'm getting a brand new machine, not a refurb. So will take a little longer for return.

Anyway as advised by Apple Support, I backed up my machine. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to make a 1:1 bootable backup that will work on other mac devices (20min, 300gb). At this point I don't trust Apple software. I made a Time Machine backup that took 5 hours for the same 300gb backup! External usb-c SSD.

Testing the Time Machine backup from my 2019 macbook on my 2016 macbook, it doesn't work 😂

Lucky after what I would call client abuse from lack of Quality & Testing I had the foresight to use a different backup software.

Here is an article on the Time Machine 10.15.3 bug, which is quite important information considering a lot of people in this thread are backing up on 10.15.3 and won't know until they get their replacement that the backup was a dud:

https://eclecticlight.co/2020/02/12/time-machine-in-catalina-10-15-3-has-serious-bugs/

At this stage, this is a complete joke and a great example of why companies try to keep product failure rates under 1%...if it goes to 2% or above, suddenly all the people with bad luck (like in this forum) get all the issues.

UPDATE: Apple is out of logic boards and have no ability to obtain them due to supply side issues (corona virus). Apple offered a full replacement for my laptop, however, due to the corona virus, they will not be able to get me a new laptop until March. I had them ship my back my broken laptop and they will pre-ship me a laptop when it becomes available. I guess this is what happens when a company bets the farm on global supply chain and gets everything built in a single country. We wonder why they missed earnings this quarter... maybe they will learn not to put all of their eggs in one basket.

A tip for those who have custom builds and not stock, be sure that when you open the case with Apple and they request that you send in your machine, check they have the logic board (they call it a MLB) on hand or that they can get it in short order. You can still hobble along with your laptop if you prevent it from sleeping and you don’t run anything that switches to the AMD GPU (just Safari/Firefox web browsing and email, etc). Get them to contact you when they have the part, otherwise expect to be without your machine for weeks.

If your machine is stock, they can usually fix it or get a replacement to you in short order and you should be fine with sending it in.

Final tip... I have found that if that you can’t boot into normal mode, boot into safe mode, then you usually can boot into normal mode afterwards.

Definitely the dedicated GPU: "In addition to multiple displays, a number of applications also spur the system to use the dedicated GPU. While graphically intensive games and creative professional programs are expected to require more GPU power, there are a few dedicated-GPU users you may not expect. For example, Apple's Chess and Photo Booth programs, which use graphics acceleration features even though they are not too demanding."

Nicely done! It failed in the Intel test for Sobel. I was able to reproduce it.

I will test it with the AMD as well.

Keep in mind, the GPU panic states "Powerplay" whick is an AMD driver, so they may be sharing the code. I'll report back with my AMD tests.

Oh one more thing, my AMD 5500m tests were completely fine (on both Metal and OpenCL). It is an INTEL UHD 630 error. That's why it's so hard to track down. I use a Radeon 580 in a Mantiz Venus eGPU and between the 5500m and the 580 I didn't have any issues. When I got to the internal screen of the laptop that's when there were issues.

Yep... I can confirm the same results. AMD seems fine under all tests and the Intel seems to die on the Metal Sobel test. OpenCL seemed to pass without incident.

Thanks for finding this out... this is great to know the culprit.

This also underscores why safe mode doesn't tickle this because the metal drivers aren't loaded.

visualinventor wrote:

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

Good luck on the wait. Mine was there for 3 weeks waiting on a part. They finally sent it back to me broken as I await a new laptop from them. Let us know how long it was at Apple's repair facility for. Custom laptops are taking forever. Standard ones are readily available.

PS. I set it to helpful as requested. I also gave you props over on MacRumors.

I had a MBP16 Grey i7 16 GB 512GB. It worked OK with very few crashes (once in 2-3 days) in the first few weeks but after 5-6 weeks use it started crashes every 10-15 minutes. I could see that the crash frequency was increasing with usage. I reinstalled the OS 3-4 times and did all what was told by the Apple support. Finally Apple took it back for refund. I again purchased the same configuration but this time in silver colour. I have been using it for 3 days and no crash so far. However, when I ran Geekbench 5 with Compute API: METAL and Computer Device: Intel UHD 630 Graphics, as suggested by @visualinventor, I am getting similar error in the Console Log app. When I change the Device to AMD there are no errors. So I have a laptop which is not freezing but giving errors running Geekbench 5. Will start freezing after a few weeks of usage?

Got my 4th replacement this Friday 28/02. Opted for a logic board replacement for faster fix and to avoid supply shortage.

Been setting it up all weekend ready for work on Monday, but no! Check this out! This is a joke!

Macbook Pro 2019 16" number 4, screen won't stop flickering:

http://pd.omg.lol/gatahF

Doing a full refund this week instead and going for the new Surface Laptop. Wtf Apple.

gargvishal wrote:

I had a MBP16 Grey i7 16 GB 512GB. It worked OK with very few crashes (once in 2-3 days) in the first few weeks but after 5-6 weeks use it started crashes every 10-15 minutes. I could see that the crash frequency was increasing with usage. I reinstalled the OS 3-4 times and did all what was told by the Apple support. Finally Apple took it back for refund. I again purchased the same configuration but this time in silver colour. I have been using it for 3 days and no crash so far. However, when I ran Geekbench 5 with Compute API: METAL and Computer Device: Intel UHD 630 Graphics, as suggested by @visualinventor, I am getting similar error in the Console Log app. When I change the Device to AMD there are no errors. So I have a laptop which is not freezing but giving errors running Geekbench 5. Will start freezing after a few weeks of usage?

Your LB is defective. Waiting and hoping is not going to help you. Yes, it gets worse and you will begin to get panics and reboots as time goes on. You are highly recommend to contact Apple and open a support case. If you have a custom MBP, you will have a heck of a wait due to LB shortages, so you may just open the case and tell them to contact you when the LB part is in. Since China production is fully running at this point, I expect shortages to lessen.

Your work around for this right now is to go into System Preferences/Energy Saver...turn off "Automatic graphics switching" and turn on "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" on the Power Adapter tab. This works ONLY on power and you will likely get issues when on battery. But at least you can fully use your machine on power without these issues in the short term.

Well returning my 4th faulty macbook pro 2019 16" in a row isn't going as well. I have to yet again prove for a forth time that it's faulty by taking it to the authorized apple repair centre that's an hour drive from my place. So 2 hours there and back. 8 hours driving between 4 faulty macbooks, at least 6 hours on the phone using my Apple Care.

I said this time I want a fully replaced unit, since in reality there isn't a single household appliance I have where the company wouldn't outright replace a faulty unit out the box, instead of endlessly repairing the faulty unit and putting their customer through ****.

Of course if I don't get a fully replaced unit I will have to contact the ACCC as this is beyond a joke now. Spending $7000 in 2020 for a company to then tell me I have to prove that they have supplied me with 4 duds in a row and the amount of time and energy it's wasted. Considering $500 of that grand total goes towards the right to be told I'm wrong (apple care+) and should accept this is totally crazy. To further add to that torture, every call is the same. 1st level tech is completely on your side and willing to help, 2nd level tech hits you with legals and processes and you're wrong sir.

Apple supplies a faulty macbook, Apple replaces faulty macbook. That simple. Much like they do with their iOS department. Faulty iPhone? Replacement. Faulty iPad? Replacement. Faulty MacBook? Yeah nah drive interstate to prove it.

I got my new machine from Apple today. No panics and everything works as expected. The slow issues and errors as shown above are normal for 10.15.3, and they are fixed in 10.15.4. However if you get the GPU panic, its a good bet you have a hardware issue. You need to get it fixed.

My production run is 9th week of 2020 (1st week of March) with no issues. Problems have been shown in November and December batch units so far.

@philux, I cannot comment here on your situation as when I do, I get moderated. So the only advice I can give you is to read the thread in MacRumors on 16" MBP GPU panics as it will explain what you need to do. I know you can get this resolved.