Kernel Panics on new Mac Book Pro 16" late 2019

Hello TJHokieTiger,

After reviewing your post, it sounds like the MacBook Pro had a kernel panic. There are a couple things you can try that may be able to help. I would recommend you use this article to help troubleshoot the issue.

"Check your software

If the issue is caused by software on your Mac, one of these steps might help:

• Install all available software updates.
• If your Mac suspects that a particular app caused the restart, it might ask whether you would like to move the app to the Trash. Click Move to Trash, then contact the software developer to see if a software update is available.
• Use safe mode to try to isolate the cause of the issue.
• Reinstall macOS. If the issue continues after reinstalling macOS, check your hardware.

Check your hardware

Learn how to check your connected devices and other hardware.

Check peripheral devices first

If you don't have any devices attached to your Mac, skip to the next section.

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Disconnect all peripheral devices, such as hard drives or printers. If you have a desktop Mac, make sure that only a display, keyboard, and mouse or trackpad are connected.
3. Turn on your Mac.
4. Use your Mac for the amount of time that it would usually take for an unexpected restart to occur.
5. If an unexpected restart occurs, follow the steps to check the internal RAM and third-party hardware.
6. If an unexpected restart doesn't occur, turn off the Mac and connect one peripheral device at a time until an unexpected restart occurs."

If your Mac restarted because of a problem

Please don't hesitate to let us know if the steps resolved your issue or if you need additional assistance.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities. Have a nice day.

I ordered two brand new Macbook Airs with i7 1.2Ghz, 16MB (2020) and faced the issue you described.

No issues while using the MBAs away from a monitor.

As soon as I plug one MBA to the external monitor, when I want to turn off the MBA, I see a black screen with a little grey wheel turning. Then for half second I hear the fan going like crazy. The MBA restarts and give me the notification about the crash: Kernel panic.

I tested the Apple USB-C to digital AV dungle and 2 others models: same issue

I tested 4 different monitors: Acer, HP, Viewsonic, Asus. Same issue

I tested 3 different HDMI cables. Same issues

I did the same test with the MBAs with only the Apple applications installed. Same issues.

I have a developer account and after seeing you website I downloaded and installed the 10.15.5. Same issues.

I still have my old MBA from 2019: 1.6 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 ; 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3 ; Intel UHD Graphics 617 1536 MB. I'm not seeing this issue and never faced it.

I don't know what's going with the USB-C ports and the new Intel graphic card but there is an issue. 

Called Apple support and one clueless support person told me to do the NVRAM reset and it did not do anything. Tried also the SMC and did not help.

I'm returning the MBAs to Apple today.

I believe this is a common problem that is erupting with the 2019 models. It also evolves. Just today, I only had my USB-C dock plugged in with pass-through power to the Mac along with a USB Dongle attached and after 45 mins of work the CPU Usage spiked to over 60% on the system values.

This isn't just an external monitor issue. It is a USB-C Hardware and possibly GPU issue. I am convinced of this. I have been dealing with this for over 4 months with my support tickets at the senior level and engineering working on it. I have done every bit of trouble shooting one could possibly perform on this machine aside of getting it drunk and seducing it to work properly.

This isn't a software issue. I couldn't edit cellphone footage in premiere last week. I can't draw in Photoshop. All of my design work is being done on PC's.

This has to be the most frustrating computer laptop experience I've had in my life and there is no resolution in sight.

The MBP 16" may very well go down as the computer that doesn't play well with others.

Have you tried testing it without the external monitor connected or anything else connected? The first thing is to make sure it's not the MacBook that is defective.

I had my first kernel panic today on a TB3 enabled mbp, and guess what? For the first time, I connected a new external monitor via an external gpu connected via a TB port.

I already had another monitor frequently connected this way, this was a 2nd new monitor.

The only thing that was off when I setup the monnitor was that MACOS attempted to give me the option to "extend or mirror" the new monitor once connected for the first time. I had already set this up myself and missed the helper notification, so I just closed it.

Also, I used the system in the new configuration for several hours, then disconnected all external monitors, and used the laptop for a couple more hours after that without issue. Annd yes, I closed out the external gpu properly.

The kernel panic probably occured when the laptop went to sleep overnight. It had crashed and forced a reboot by the time I opened up the next morning.

I'm also having "CATERR detected" errors with my MBP 2016 and a LG 27UL850-W monitor connected with the provided USB-C cable. They happen when waking up from sleep. I haven't had the same error ever when not plugged to the monitor. I'm not fully able to reproduce the problem as it happens quite randomly.

I will try to move the plug to the other side.