Kernel panic when reconnecting to OWC Thunderbolt dock

To rule out any 3rd party software you can do the following: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and and run for a while to test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE 1: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following; 

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts 

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

NOTE 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will insure a successful boot into Safe Mode.

If the problem goes away in the Safe Mode but comes back when rebooted normally there's some 3rd party software that may be the culprit. In that case do the following:

Download and run Etrecheck. 

Copy the report

and use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.

Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine the cause of the problem.

Disconnect all other external devices from the computer and from the dock in case one of them is causing the problem.

Have you tried creating a new macOS user account to see if that new user account has the same issue? If the new user account works, then something is wrong with your main user account. Perhaps a Login Item or maybe a corrupt or misconfigured preference file.

If both user accounts have the issue, then either you have a system wide software issue or a hardware issue.

Are there any firmware updates available for the dock?

I agree that OWC tech support is definitely good.

Did you contact OWC Customer Support on this matter? They are very good at resolving issues.

You can choose to continue to use your "workaround." However I have been using these OWC docks for years: I have had one in my work office, and through the pandemic years also had one at the "home office." These are expensive docks. Once in a while, one will start to fail. What I have seen is that sometimes one port on the dock stops working, or works intermittently, or causes the freezes or panics you experienced. When that happened, we replace the dock, it's that simple. The workarounds with specific or tricky order of connecting/disconnecting are all unacceptable to me, these freezes or panics will simply get worse over time once the hardware has begun to degrade. The freezes are hardware related and are concerning because they can damage your Mac's file system or potentially even your Mac's hardware.

Hogster86 wrote:

I’ve also been using this dock for years and don’t see this as a sign of failure. OWC’s full reply to me was as follows:

Thank you for reaching out to us and providing detailed information about the occasional kernel panic issue you're experiencing with your 16-inch MacBook Pro M1 Max and the OWC Thunderbolt 3 dock. We appreciate your thorough description of the problem and for attaching the crash log for further analysis.

Upon review, it appears that this issue may be related to how macOS communicates with third-party external devices, especially after deep sleep. This is why often, disconnecting & reconnecting the device from the port it is connected to would result in the device working again. Similar issues have been reported with various external devices and are not exclusive to OWC products. To address the kernel panic problem, we recommend the following steps:

1. Adjust your Mac's energy settings to prevent it from going into sleep mode. While not an ideal solution, this workaround may help avoid the kernel panic until a more comprehensive solution is available.

2. Ensure that your macOS is updated to the latest version. Apple often releases updates that address compatibility issues and improve system stability.

So it sounds like it’s just a bug in how MacOS communicates with some external devices.

The workaround becomes second nature after a while and in lieu of a full solution I’m happy to have found a way to avoid the kernel panics, which can’t do the computer or file system any good.

Cheers,

David 😊

Sorry, I don't buy it. We have thousands of Macs on site where I work and hundreds of these OWC docks, they are a standard item in our workplace catalog. Which cause no problems nor symptoms like you describe except when one is starting to fail, or one of its ports is failing. Our IT people are familiar with this and bring a new dock when this happens, which is uncommon but still seen from time to time. The problem goes away when the dock is replaced with a new one. If it was due to the MacOS the problem would persist.

OWC software is very finicky and has a history of inoperability with Apple. Apple's Thunderbolt 4 implementation is also subpar. I had many months where I could not use any of my 3 OWC devices on the Mac because of incompatibilities. The latest version seems to run quite reliably, though. Try different docks and cables as well and latest version of SoftRaid.

Hogster86 wrote:

Sorry, I don't buy it. We have thousands of Macs on site where I work and hundreds of these OWC docks, they are a standard item in our workplace catalog. Which cause no problems nor symptoms like you describe except when one is starting to fail, or one of its ports is failing. Our IT people are familiar with this and bring a new dock when this happens, which is uncommon but still seen from time to time. The problem goes away when the dock is replaced with a new one. If it was due to the MacOS the problem would persist.

Hi Steve,

Oh that’s pretty conclusive then, I’m only going on what OWC told me … have you contacted OWC about this? Did they admit it’s a fault with their product or did they just try to push the blame onto the OS?

Thanks ☺️

David

We never contacted OWC because this sort of failure only happened after many years of operation and use. The symptom we have seen is that one port (USB, or Thunderbolt, or ethernet) stops working or works erratically. Our IT people just replace the dock with a new one and then the issue is gone. I have seen this myself with only one out of four or so docks used over 5-10 years, but the IT people said they see it now and then with older docks, not often but once in a while -- these docks are in constant use 24/7, if providing power they do heat up. OWC has a Mac-oriented product line and while no one is perfect, I expect that they test and use their products with Macs a lot. Old Toad's suggestion about Etrecheck is a good one because anytime one person sees a serious problem like this but most users do not, it can often be traced to something installed or a specific configuration -- Etrecheck is good for diagnosing those things. It seems unlikely to be a MacOS problem because most users don't see your issue.

oxmox11 wrote: OWC software is very finicky and has a history of inoperability with Apple. Apple's Thunderbolt 4 implementation is also subpar. I had many months where I could not use any of my 3 OWC devices on the Mac because of incompatibilities. The latest version seems to run quite reliably, though. Try different docks and cables as well and latest version of SoftRaid.

oxmox11 -- the OWC docks plug in and work without software. So not sure what "finicky software" you are referring to. And OWC products are for Macs so "history of inoperability with Apple" also does not make sense. The original poster did not mention SoftRaid so not sure why that would be relevant. Your setup is obviously different. I think the original poster was using the dock with external monitors.

i am having the same issue with the same adapter using the caldigit tb4 dock in between .. using a m2 max model and this is really frustrating!