MacBook Pro 16 2019 10.15.4 Kernel Panic / Reboot When Plugged In -- Help!

I recently bought a brand-new MBP 16' too and I experienced several crashes each day even though I had update it to the lastest version of MacOS. I am also very disappointed about Apple's software quality.

What helped was the following:

• Reset System Management Controllers (SMC) according to the instructions given here (sorry, just the German link; please look for the corresponding English version)

https://support.apple.com/de-de/HT201295

• Additionally I reset the NVRAM or PRAM even though I don't really know if was necessary:

https://support.apple.com/de-de/HT204063

• Additionally I turned off power nap in the energy control.

I did all steps after the latest update of MacOS.

Since then no more crashes.

Let uns know if this help for you too.

Stay healthy!

Here are the links for description in english :

• Reset System Management Controllers (SMC) according to the instructions given here :

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201295

• Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204063

So glad I've found this thread. Almost went nuts on this issue. Have had this with my:

• 15" MBP 2015 i7 2.5 Ghz 16GB RAM 2GB Radeon
• 16" MBP 2019 i9 2.3 Ghz 32GB RAM 4GB Radeon 5500M

Sadly don't remember when I installed 15.4 on the 15" but I did so immediately after getting the 16" this week. Same scenario. Connected to USB-C monitor, closed lid, unplugged it after few hours and opened the lid just to report a kernel panic. Logs attached.

I now disabled Power Nap and will report my results. Let's hope this gets fixed soon.

I think I'm experiencing something very similar with my brand new 2020 13" MacBook Pro, running macOS 10.15.6.

I have an Apple 27" Thunderbolt Display (which I still really like and don't want to upgrade) which is plugged-in to a Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD via the Apple USB C to Thunderbolt adapter. My new MBP is then connected via a single Thunderbolt 3 cable to the Belkin dock. Everything worked perfectly with my old work 2017 MBP (apart from the keyboard, of course) but since I got this new 2020 model for personal use, it is impossible to connect and disconnect the cable from the dock to the MBP without the MBP having a kernel panic.

Apple Hardware Test finds no issues with the new machine and macOS appears to be working fine in standalone mode (as a laptop). The issues start as soon as I attempt to use the MBP in clamshell mode, connected to my Apple 27" Thunderbolt Display.

What normal seems to happen is this:

1. I plug the sleeping MBP into the Belkin dock via the Thunderbolt 3 cable
2. The desktop is visible, momentarily, on the Apple 27" Thunderbolt Display
3. The display then flashes a few times
4. Then it goes dead

If I then disconnect the Thunderbolt 3 cable, and open the lid of the MBP, everything appears to be frozen. The fans spin-up for a brief second and the screen goes blank.

When I press the power button on the MBP, I then see the multiple language "Your Mac shut down because of a problem" black screen of death. Once the Mac reboots successfully, I then see the error reporting screen:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT200553

Obviously, I report this to Apple every time it happens.

I'm fairly confident this is not an issue with the Thunderbolt Display or the Belkin dock since both worked flawlessly a couple of weeks ago with the old 2017 MBP. I believe the issue is with this new 2020 13" MBP I just bought. I guess I could try bypassing the dock and plug the USB C adapter directly into the MBP.

I've tried turning off the well-documented "power nap" options in Energy Saver preferences but this does nothing to help my situation.

Does anybody else have any ideas what might be going on here, please?

Thanks,

Steve

I received a brand-new Macbook Pro 16, i9, Radeon Pro 5500M a week ago, created a new user connected to iCloud and moved some applications and data to the new device and upgraded to 10.15.4. After I saw the same problems described above I tested the following, partly with the help of apple support (2 calls made), partly on my own:

Reformatted the disk and reinstalled 10.15.4 from scratch, created a new user and configured it with my iCloud during initial user setup. No data or settings transferred from my old machine.

SMC Reset

PRAM/NVRAM Reset

No other applications or device drivers (kernel extensions) installed

No other peripherals connected, no monitor connected, only the power supply via USB-C

created a test user, without configuring iCloud during setup.

Observations:

1) With my own user, putting the macbook to sleep (closing the lid), waking it up again (opening the lid) after 5 minutes: no problem, login via touch id possible.

2) With a test user, putting the macbook to sleep, waking it up again after 5 minutes: no problem, login via touch id possible.

3) With my own user, putting the macbook to sleep, waking it up again after more than 1 hour: laptop starts with white apple displaying and progress bar, thereafter touch id not possible, need to enter password, kernel panic report is shown after login. This behaviour is 100% reproducible, each time I leave the macbook in sleep mode for more than one hour.

4) With a test user, putting the macbook to sleep, waking it up again after more than 1 hour: no problem, login via touch id possible

5) With my own user, power nap disabled, waking it up again after 6-8 hours: no problem, login via touch id possible.

Conclusion: disabling power nap is a workaround for me. I haven't experienced the kernel panics in sleep mode thereafter.

I called apple support, told them I believe 10.15.4. has a bug with the new Macbook Pro 16, i9. Told them that it seems I am not the only person experiencing this problem, offering to give the this thread id, also mentioning a second thread.

apple support level 1 passed me on to level 2. Level 2 support told me he couldn't find in his support database anything regarding kernel panics after sleep with 10.15.4. He wasn't interested to be pointed to this thread and told me that to me it may look like a problem of general interest, but they receive so many reports, and my single call wouldn't be sufficient for him to escalate that further to engineering. He would need more proof to do that.

As the Macbook is brand-new, I expressed my concern that it might be a HW fault and that I would like to have the HW exchanged to exclude that it's a problem of my specific device. He said "he doesn't believe" that it's a HW problem.

He looked into his support instructions and asked me, if I had any third party kernel extensions, to which I told him (again) that it's pure 10.15.4., not even data copied from the old machine.

He looked into his support instructions and told me I could narrow down the problem, if I wanted to, by keeping power nap on, and disabling cloud services one by one, to see if it makes a differences. To which I answered that each test would take more than one hour and I would prefer that Apple engineering or quality assurance spends their time debugging. Rather than a customer who just spent a considerable amount of money for a brand new device.

So my confidence that Apple will take care of this problem soon is rather low. Apple support also told me he believed that if it's a general problem Apple engineering will become aware of it and fix it at some point in time, but he cannot tell me when.

That was long, but if you read until here thanks for letting me vent. :-)

Where did you read about this bug in news portals?

Maybe Apple engineering is aware of it already, it's just the support team which isn't. Could well be. Apple support told me if it's power Nap he doesn't consider it a serious problem, not many people would consider it important anyhow. Well, personally, I think it's useful if the macbook wakes from sleep when powered, e.g. to do Time Machine backups to my ancient time capsule that it didn't do yet while on battery.

Feedback with feedback type bug report can be given via:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

On the other hand: if this exact problem is in official news already we may consider saving our own time ...

Similar issue here. i9 processor, 32 gb of RAM, 8 gb GPU. Computer totally freezes on me for a few minutes before the fans turn on at 100% for a split second, then the whole thing crashes and shuts down.

My report:

Installing the 10.15.4 supplemental update and using the first method on the SMC reset description help page (shut down laptop, then press the power button for 10 seconds) fixed it for me: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

Technically it is not an SMC reset that I did. There is no description on what the first method on the help page (shut down computer, then press the power button for 10 seconds) really does.

Nice try. Installed 10.15.5 this morning, just came back to lunch and here we go again:

panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff801c29169c): Sleep transition timed out after 180 seconds while calling power state change callbacks. Suspected bundle: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily. Thread 0x1eabd.

Installed update 15.5 yesturday(May 27th). Closed the lid after finished working at night and left the computer plugged . For the first time in the 45 days i own this 16" macbook(i9 2.4ghz/64GB\8gb 5500M) it came back out of sleep plugged in with out crashing ... BUT right now May 28th 9pm i re started the PC and reseted pram due to it being slow on a 90MB photoshop document ... Right after Re start i closed the lid to go to the grill and turn the meat and put some chicken and bacon also on the grill . Came back 3 minutes later, opened the lid and it didnt comeback from sleep i heard the fans go full spend for half a second and it turned off . So i held the button to turn it on again and this is the error i had .

I tried returning it before the 15 days return policy, I had enough i7 macbook pros super stable systems and i wnated to just return this one and get the exact same with a i7 cpu,,, they said there was no evidence the computer was defective and since this computer was already a replacement for my 2019 15Inch Similar specs that was overheating and CPU throttling they didnt accept the return . Even though when i got emails about this one being ordered it stated i couold return this in 15 days . The senior tech that was taking care of my case told me ALOT of time that she understood i wnated to return it and i had the right to do it and she would do it, but she wanted to try and troubleshoot this computer first before we tried returning it. Long story short right at the 15 day mark they called me and just told me, "Sorry, we can replace this computer again, there is no evidence this computer has a hardware problem and i had an issue not the computer." Since they were already cool enough to replace my 8month old 15inch for this brand new machine i just let it go and decided to wait for this patch since i was reading eveyone saying it wasnt hardware related ... These i9 macbooks are not stable at all. they are warmer then they are supposed to be, and they crash . I also had a photoshop video driver related crash today . i9 cpus are not supposed to be on thin computers like these yet ... Im stuck with this computer... at least it works most of the time and hopefully it doesnt crash or go completly bad on me in the middle of an important editing/job .

I ll stop here before they remove my comment like the last time i tried posting a comment here and they emailed me syaing if i had feedback on their product to go to the feedback section .

Anyway i miss my 2017 i7/16gb/560xRadeon i had before my 2 i9s macbook. Was a solid macbook and was doing the job just a little slower .

@pnm1 Try this, re start it, let it come back and settle for like 45 seconds or so ... Close the lid, wait 3-5 minsand open the lid again. This is how mine crashed even after the 15.5 patch.

Its official. UPDATE DID NOT WORK for me. Last night after i commented here i kept working, then when i went to sleep i unplugged and then closed the lid took it to my room . Just woke up and opened the lid it didnt come back from sleep. I turned it on to this error ...

The power button for 10 seconds is a precursor to actually resetting the SMC. It may resolve the problem. If it doesn't, there are further steps to accomplish the full SMC Reset.

How to reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

Your Mac is damaged not because you held down the power button, but because it was already damaged.

The reset method as instructed by Apple Support was the full SMC reset you mentioned

Did you read the SMC Reset article I linked? Holding down the power button is recommended before actually resetting the SMC. You never got to the "full SMC reset" despite what the AppleCare script reader told you. From the article,

Before resetting the SMC, try these steps:

Shut down your Mac.

Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds, then release the button.

Wait a few seconds, then press the power button to turn on your Mac.

I have a 2018 MBP with T2 chip and I have shut down and held down the power button for 10 seconds a couple of times. Nothing bad happened to my Mac.

Edit: also, there is definitely a good possibility that my MacBook might be damaged but as you can tell, most people on this thread have the same underlying problem that tells me it’s not only particular to my case, and it might not be a “damage” issue, rather than a software issue.

I agree that there is an underlying problem with the 16" MBP. I have advised on most of these threads to take them in for service because Apple will never recognize that there is an underlying hardware problem until they get their hands on them and see what is happening. Posting anything on this forum will not raise any concern from Apple. Trying to resolve the problem over the phone will not raise any suspicions.

Wow, that's quite a story.

Would you mind how you were able to get past these "Apple Support Technicians" and over to the engineers? In my observation, it seems like it's just a draw of luck, depending on the Apple Support "Technician" and if they're actually willing to raise the issue to the engineers? And you're not the first person I've heard of being able to eventually reach the engineers to talk with them, so I know it's at least possible.

Apart from this problem, I was dealing with a whole different MacBook Pro 16 in problem regarding blue screens here. And the Apple Support just tells me to go to the "Apple Store," when I just want a confirmation that it's a software/OS problem with one quick talk with the engineers or if they could just quickly confirm Apple is aware of the issue and are working on a fix.

I'm having so many problems with the 2019 16 in 😓 while my mid 2014 13 in MacBook Pro is completely fine..