Mac Pro 2013 Kernel Panic/MCA Error since updating to macOS Monterey
Hello, posting here as suggested by Apple Support representative on a telephone call today.
It was also suggested I use the OS feedback page to report this (which I have done) so posting here not in the expectation of any kind of suggested fix but to hopefully prompt anyone else having this issue to report it to Apple.
I recently updated my Mac Pro 2013 (3.5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5) from macOS Mojave to macOS Monterey.
From that point the machine went from a 100% reliable work horse to an completely unstable work environment.
The machine now throws a kernel panic when waking from sleep, or randomly restarting when I am away from it (I suspect also a wake from sleep situation).
Same error for every panic : *** MCA Error Report ***
Apple Support initially suggested this might be related to a connected peripheral but testing proved this not to be the case.
Erase and clean install of macOS 12 - did not resolve the issue.
SMC Reset - did not resolve the issue.
To verify the hardware I have ran both the built in diagnostics (cmd+d) and also the Apple Service Diagnostics (3S159) for this Mac model. No errors reported, all hardware tests pass.
Using an external SSD I then tested various revisions of macOS Monterey and Big Sur to see if this could be a software issue. The results seem to indicate this is the case:
macOS Big Sur :
11.6.4 - no panics
11.6.5 - MCA kernel panics
macOS Monterey:
12.0.1 - no panics
12.2 - no panics
12.2.1 - MCA kernel panics
12.3 - MCA kernel panics
12.3.1 - MCA kernel panics
12.4 (beta 1) - MCA kernel panics
While I appreciate this machine is approaching its end of life it is a machine that Apple lists as being supported by the current shipping version of the macOS so it is very disappointing to have this experience and end up with a machine that cannot be updated past a version of the macOS (e.g. 12.2) and therefore will not get any security updates.
Searching the Internet does indicate other Mac Pro 2013 users are also experiencing this issue since updating, for example on this Apple discussions site:
But also present elsewhere such as as the Apple/Mac communities on Reddit.
(I also tried the pmset command line suggestions in these forums and on Reddit to modify the sleep settings but while the number of panics was less frequent it still happened overnight.)
At this point my only option is to prevent the machine from sleeping - not ideal with the ever increasing costs of electricity 😞
