Kernel Panic on 16" i9 MBPwRD

If you have a way of engaging apple support to get there attention, I would love to hear your suggestions.

I already told you how. You report a problem with your Mac to AppleCare or a Genius Bar. That is the only way they will identify the problem. When you get garbage responses from the AppleCare people, you ask to talk to a supervisor. And, you keep asking to elevate the problem. You tell them that you have already erased the drive and reinstalled the OS. Nothing else is installed and the problem persists. If you actually still have AppleCare, then you make them repair it.

The Problem is Genius and even Apple Tech supervisor have no clue about their work. They just have standards to follow, like clean install. Actually thats the last thing they can advice.

Just to name one example. I have also problems with my Apple Pro Display XDR. And I was talking to an Apple Tech supervisor, so not first level call center. A supervisor.

He asks me, no kidding, seriously:

"What is the brand of the Apple Pro Display XDR?"

He was a Level 2 Technical supervisor!!!

Agreed with jsima — my case has been escalated to engineering for ~10 days now with no action at all. Most support reps still deny they’ve ever run into this bug.

Along those lines... If most of what’s involved in this bug is open source, we *might* be able to find a fix or work-around ourselves. Does anybody know if it’s possible to build your own XNU kernel for Catalina? Or are we locked out of loading custom kernels (e.g. from T2, Secure Enclave, etc.)?

Since the power state timeout functionality is in the XNU kernel (which is still open source), there may be something we can change. That said, I’m fairly sure the Intel video driver is closed source, so there’s no guarantee of a fix/work-around via custom XNU kernel...

I’ll take a closer look at the referenced XNU source lines in the panic when time permits, and any relevant debug symbols for the Intel kext that are public... Any tips/current links to custom kernel builds would be greatly appreciated!

Mate, while I would normally agree with you and try and fix this myself... we re taking about multiple Gs machines this is clearly something Apple should notice and fix. I’m into Macs to avoid you’re on your own route. I suppose others are as well.

Oh, I’m definitely on the same page. I dropped $5k on mine (plus AppleCare), and this absolutely *shouldn’t* be on any of us to fix (or even diagnose given how common it is). The blame is entirely on Apple, but given their lack of willingness to even look at the logs I sent 10 days ago, I figured I’d try to be creative.

I should also mention that I’ve been working on OS kernels (both development and security research) for nearly 20 years. So I don’t mind exploring open source code as much as I mind endless calls to inept staff.

It’s *insane* that Apple Support cannot work with engineering, and engineering has a policy not to ever work directly with customers. The result is a constant game of telephone, and repeating the exact same redundant, time-consuming steps ad nauseam with no progress.

I should also mention that I have 15 iCloud-related cases open since October 12th, and haven’t resolved a single one, despite 200+ hours on the phone (not to mention submitting feedback and even opening Feedback Assistant cases with very clear repro steps). None of this is acceptable to me, and it shouldn’t be acceptable to anybody.

I hope my interest in taking matters into my own hands doesn’t excuse Apple’s absurd support procedures... In fact, I should probably take those efforts into a new post so I don’t distract from this one. If I find a viable fix or work-around, I’ll be sure to share it here!

Fair enough... and thanks for looking into it. Let's hope someone will see this thread and help from their side. Disabling powenap has been a lot better for me so far as others mentioned if it helps your investigation. Cheers.

As I mentioned before, the problems disappeared with SMC/VRAM-Reset plus to shot down and after a view minutes to turn on the Mac.

Now the device is working fine for two days at least. No crashes at all. I will let you know if the wind is changing again.

I have exactly the same problem. SMC reset used to solve (at least temporarily) it for 10.15.3, but after this problem reemerged in 10.15.4 SMC reset no longer helps.

I also use windows PCs and they also frequently encounter problems when trying to wake up, like XPS 15 stuck at black screen when waking up and I have to force-shut down the laptop by pressing the power button and restart.

I guess nowadays computer manufacturers (whether it is Apple or Dell or any other) just don't care whether the basic functionalities (like sleep, wake up, etc) of their product work. They only care whether they can sell it.

My first computer was a COMPAQ desktop with windows 95, and my second one was a SONY VAIO with windows 2000. On those good old days I never experienced those annoying glitches. What happened to those modern machines that are supposed to save our times but are actually wasting our times? Are "sleep" and "wake" that complex functions to implement and maintain while spaceX engineers can write codes to land their rockets on a floating platform?

Frustrated...

Didn't solve anything... another restart today morning... I will try next to disable powernap - but this shouldn't be a solution, it's not expected to need to disable functions in order to get rid of errors...

Looks like 10.15.5 fixes that issue:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/some-users-experiencing-system-crashes-on-macos-10-15-4-especially-during-large-file-transfers.2229749/post-28341955

https://www.macrumors.com/2020/04/06/macos-10-5-4-kernel-panic-crashing-issues/

Finally in the news...

It's happened to me twice in the last two days, and I was just about to say I had "Prevent computer from sleeping [etc.]" turned on in Settings (under Power Adapter) but realized I didn't. So I assume that would "fix" it as well.

I push my machine pretty hard with multiple VM's (16" i9, 32GB RAM, 1TB) and dev tools and frequently do leave it awake for long periods. Does Panic! At the Kernel only happen when plugged in or has it happened to anyone on battery? (I know it's unusual to leave power nap enabled on battery power but I used to do it for some reason.)

Thanks for being there in these challenging times!

After some days without any problems and quit heavy using I think the problem could be solved under certain circumstances:

• MBP 16" with the lowest available configuration. No special graphic adjustments or special software in using, just the standards for office. Power nap is still on. Using with power plug in and without. Multiple times closing and opening the MBP. Sometimes with longer breaks.

After the known kernel panics with opening the book I have done the following steps, which were helpful, apparently at least:

1. SMC/VRAM-Reset
2. Turning of the Mac, waiting a view minutes, turning on.

It seems the low profile MBP 16" (probably the graphic unit) haven't has such a deep problem. Especially these steps helps although the power nap feature is on.

Of course I can't say that it helps anybody with the same kind of MBP 16" but in my case the problem is really solved.

Good luck to anybody!

Supplemental update released today... Doesn't explicitly mention this issue; closest sounding plausibility is:

Resolves an issue where a USB-C port in your Mac may become unresponsive

I've never had a USB-C peripheral despite countless crashes, but the fix mentions the *port*. But that's a huge stretch given the panic is during the sleep phase setting the power state of the Intel GPU. Anyway, here's hoping this is resolved!

Noticed the screen flashed entirely white for ~3 seconds during install... A glimmer of hope?

Also wanted to post, for the record, I have yet to receive an update from engineering on my AppleCare support case, which was escalated to engineering (with an RTA) ~10 days ago. My Sr. Customer Relations Advisor and Sr. Technical Advisor *still* have absolutely no information.

Apple needs to take customer bug reports much more seriously, or it will be their demise (which I really don’t want to see). Hopefully they’ll implement a much more sane release cycle that involves a *much* better QA process than whatever happened during the Catalina and iOS 13 releases... Fingers crossed!