MacBook Pro 14 M3 MAX crashes with Kernel Panic

I received my MacBook on NOV 20 2023

M3 MAX 16c/40c 64GB RAM 512 SSD

After 1 week the crashes started occurring.

On Sonoma 14, the Kernel Panics were logged and were always the same:

Kernel Panic IONVMEController

Sometimes, a shutdown stall is created:

Shutdown stall

I've been in contact with Apple Support from the moment it occurred.

Their suggestions, which I've executed, were:

Reinstall macOS (without restoring backup, setup as a new machine)
Run Diagnostics (no issues found)
Format drive using disk utility in Recovery and reinstall macOS
Use another Intel Mac to revive the MacBook via DFU mode and reinstall macOS
Reinstall macOS AGAIN but do not install ANY third-party software and try to reproduce

The latter I did during the Christmas break, the machine had an uptime of nearly 14 days.

During this period, I installed my software day after day to see what triggers the restarts.

I also kept the machine up to date (now Sonoma 14.2.1). Now the machine crashes and restarts but the Kernel Panic message does not always appear.

I'm a Software Developer, I run a Windows ARM VM using Parallels, Docker containers, IDE software, MS Teams, MS Office and OpenVPN.

Apple Support finally suggested going to an Apple store to hand in the device for examination, which is difficult since there's only 1 Apple Store in my country and its a long drive, I cannot afford to miss the device for weeks without a replacement.

I'm out of ideas here...

MacBook Pro 16″

Posted on Jan 11, 2024 12:51 AM

Top-ranking reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

141,745 points

Posted on Jan 11, 2024 11:59 AM

NVME is the interface to the internal Boot drive.

Support should DIRECT an Apple Service Provider to replace your mainboard under warranty, to replace the drive soldered to that mainboard.

You need to ask support to connect you with a Specialist to read your detailed (and obvious) panic reports. They can read what has been posted here, (if you point them to it) but they do NOT take our word for conclusions. They have their own more-rigorous process.

If you visit an Apple Service Provider COLD, they do not read panic reports, and will not know from your reports that you have an obvious Hardware problem. They will run the diagnostic overnight and if no failures, return it to you, "no faults detected".

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MacBook Pro 14 M3 MAX crashes with Kernel Panic

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