Macbook Air M1 - Kernel Error code 86

Quick update from me:

I have a AppleCare call booked today. I did briefly speak with them over chat but they basically just got me to do a reinstall I’d already done.

I have two friends receiving their MacBook Pro 13’s this week, one of which has already contacted me to say his doesn’t show this issue. This has made me even more curious!

Note: I did plug in a Belkin USB-C adapter at one point but had thought the issue existed beforehand.

Since then I’ve tried:

1. Removed any reference to the Belkin peripheral (network profile)
2. Reinstalled Big Sur in-place (WiFI).
3. Erase Mac + Reinstall with setup (WiFi)
4. Erase Mac + Reinstall with setup (Ethernet via old USB-A apple adapter + converter, WiFi off)
5. Erase Mac + Reinstall with no setup (WiFI).

Interestingly things took a turn for the worse at this point as because I had to wipe the partition manually and now it won’t reinstall giving “personalisation error” during install.

So, I’m likely going to need to pull out Configurator 2 and bootstrap it from my MacMini. Interesting this does also have a revive option that will rewrite firmware, and I do wonder if this might do the trick and explain why it doesn’t affect all units (and thus not hardware fault)!

Link: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/apple-configurator-2/apdd5f3c75ad/mac

Cheers.

As an update I took the MBP to the Apple store and the genius ran a full diagnostic test and saw no hardware errors. I haven't seen any way to reset the SMC if there is one. Performance seems ok. The fact that so many here have seen the error seems to point to a software issue. The percentage of users opening the console is probably pretty low (maybe a little higher in the early adopter crowd) so possibly this is happening across the board for M1 machines in Big Sur? Otherwise it's a bad run of some hardware component

No my external SSD is non-bootable, data storage only; I keep my Music, Photos, and Movies/TV directories there. The drive is a new ORICO TCM2-C3 with a Samsung 1TB 970 EVO Plus. The SSD seems rock-solid and super fast while being used via either USB-C (10 Gbps) or USB-A 3.1 (5 Gbps) mode. I just woke-up to another kernel panic restart notice and I'll post the crash log below. This time the SSD was connected via USB-A, mostly to test if it would still crash as previous connections were via USB-C.

Next I'll pull the ORICO SSD and try a different one to see what happens...

Final update from me:

Spoke with AppleCare yesterday and explained the problem and steps taken so far (above). They confirmed I’d done everything they would suggest and were happy to talk about service options or returning under the 14-day remorse period.

We worked round the peraonalization issue/bug using the terminal steps here (https://support.apple.com/kb/HT211983), although predictably it didn’t fix the SMC error.

NB: The Tech also did seem surprised I’d gotten the personalization error given this should be fixed in 11.0.1 and asked if I was sure the unit came with 11.0.1 installed (which it did).

Most interestingly though was I heard from my other friend receiving a unit this week, and he too has the problem. This seems at odd with my other friend who says he can’t observe the problem in his unit received Wednesday.

As one last roll of the dice (and given the machine needed a full reinstall for my own setup anyway) I did a revive and restore from another machine using Configurator 2. This includes firmware too so should cover all bases. Alas the problem remains.

This probably exhausts my efforts now. It was interesting but now I just need to decide if to keep the machine. I likely will but I’d have preferred both my friends to have observed it, thus confirming it affects all units and is almost certainly a software issue.

Best wishes.

Same issue. Same constant error.

• First issue was jumpy mouse (bluetooth). Changed to universal receiver and jumpy mouse fixed.
• Random beachballing
• Intermittent freezing
• Bluetooth headphones disconnecting (Airpods, Airpods Pro, Bose AE2)
• Bluetooth headphones unable to connect at all. Sometimes will show connected but no audio/confirmation of connection from headphones
• Bluetooth keyboard connection lost
• Cant do anything

Also seeing a lot of this in my logs. Kernel is regularly consuming 40-100% CPU according to Activity Monitor, and preventing me from getting the battery life I should be getting. Brand new MacBook Air M1 8GB / 512GB. Started out great last night, but this morning been a little sluggish and some beach balls.

Have tried restarts

Same issue daily since I got my M1 Mac Mini last week. It just happened again which is what sent me here. I have the base M1 MM with a 1TB Samsung NVMe M.2 SSD @ 10 Gbps USB-C for external data storage. Tonight I was running Photos (master photo library on the external) when Photos beachballed and froze, the external SSD was rudely ejected followed by a disk ejection warning. I checked the Console and found 2,000+ of these Kernel SMC messages. They are still filling my Console at a rate of about 5 new ones per second, all exactly the same.

I realize this is 1.0 release hardware and 1.01 release MacOS and I'm not prepared to say it will never get better. However I'm hoping this particular problem is addressed by Apple quickly because for the first time in 20+ years of Mac ownership -- I now feel as if I can't trust this one to work reliably for me.

Do you have a no questions asked return policy in your country? It's like 14 days. Return it and get a new one. This does not seem to be a common problem, so you would have a low probability in getting another one with this issue.

R

UPDATE: I have since done a clean install of MacOS Big Sur 11.0.1 and nothing has changed. The Console Log shows the same "Failed to write (code) to SMC. Error code 86." about five times per second. (Do M1 Mac's even HAVE an SMC? Apple seems insistent that they don't... which might explain the failure to write to it.) Meanwhile I'm running the Intel version of the same MacOS Big Sur on a MacBook Air and this error has not appeared anywhere in the logs.

My bigger concern however is that my USB-C external SSD continues ejecting abruptly and the M1 Mac Mini occasionally crashes & reboots during sleep. I believe this is related to the USB-C driver because the error logs sent to Apple always mention a USB error. And -- so far -- plugging the same SSD into the USB-A port hasn't been ejected.

I'll keep experimenting as I anxiously wait the next version of Big Sur to fix all these problems.

I believe this is related to the USB-C driver because the error logs sent to Apple always mention a USB error.

Are you booting off of this drive? Some external devices have had issues with working with the mac.

what make and model of external drive

R

Same issue here in my Mac mini M1 using macOS Big Sur Version 11.0.1 with unstable bluetooth connection! (Actually I came to here searching "to SMC with errors code 86"). I am also having several errors from "bluetootl" such as "Apple80221Get(APPLE80211_IOC_BTCOEX_MODE) returned error-3903".

In my case the bluetooth issue has gone after disconnecting current Wi-Fi connection and using tethering via my iPhone but the "SMC" errors persist. Not sure if both symptoms are related.

I'm definitely seeing the same, I'm on a MacBook Pro with the 1TB SSD. I am thinking that this might be a hardware issue with the SSD, and I see slowdowns on some behavior. I am going to try to swap the computer, I tried a complete re-install of the OS as well as updating to the beta version of Big Sur (11.1). I still see the same kernel error (kernel Failed to write key xxxxxxxx to SMC with error code 86) about 5 times a second.

same issue on a fresh out of the box M1 Pro (16GB / 1TB)... noticed it when i was trying to see why my external USB-C backup drive refuses to mount or prompt for password.

drive light is constantly flashing but never mounts. additionally the top (closest to screen) won't mount *anything*... it'll do power but no drives. tried 4. 3 worked on the bottom port without issue. the 4th being the encrypted backup drive I was hoping to migrate from.

My earlier contributions here perhaps linked-together two unrelated issues...

1) I have learned my "unstable" ORICO TCM2-C3 USB-C 3.1 Gen-2 external drive had very old Realtek RTL9210B-CG firmware from March 2020 which has since been updated several times. Including specific fixes for Mac compatibility. I was able to find a Windows 10 app to flash the firmware to the current version and it has been flawless ever since. It was not easy to determine this and most purchasers probably would have just returned it and bought something else. But now that its firmware is current this little drive is very impressive indeed. It's writing at 786MB/s and reading at 725MB/s. More importantly I am no longer seeing any USB errors or messages in my M1 Mac Mini's Console output. And I feel a whole lot better about this new system as a result.

2) I continue to see multiple SMC Error Code 86 errors per second in the Console output. I don't believe this is hardware related nor do I believe exchanging it will fix the problem. I believe this is strictly an OS translation error as my Intel MacBook Air running Big Sur does not generate them. M1 Macs don't have an SMC; Intel Macs do. I'm hopeful that a subsequent update to Big Sur will remove this faulty code from the M1 kernel.

Thanks everyone for the knowledgeable advice as I worked through this problem. This was my first time contributing to this forum after referring to it for well over a decade.

Hello All,

Did anyone find a definite answer as to why the "Failed to write (code) to SMC. Error code 86." error is appearing? I have a new MacBook Pro M1 less than an hour old and it has the same issue. I'm finding it hard to believe it is a hardware issue but with this thread being the only evidence I can find of the issue (and only 46 "Me Too's" against it) if it were Big Sur it seems bizarre more people aren't reporting the issue?!

Without a definitive answer I'm probably going to return this under the 14-day guarantee :-(

Thanks.