M2 Macbook Air kernel panics and crashing when lid is closed or when entering into sleep via software.

I’ve been using my M2 Macbook Air for almost a year now, and one recurring problem I have faced was when closing the lid of the laptop or forcing it into sleep, the screen would go black, trackpad would go unresponsive, and the laptop would restart and present me with a DCP panic crash report stating ‘No device added after powering on the rails’. This issue bothered me for a while but other than this, the mac ran fine and I didn’t use it all that much to pay attention to a random restart issue, until I started using it daily and found out the cause of the problem which was putting it into sleep. I realised this was a bigger issue than I expected, and this caused me to reach out to Apple and I will explain the process I was taken through to try and resolve this issue.

Another thing to note is that one day my Macbook restarted into recovery mode and was stuck, unable to find its startup disk. I had to reinstall macOS, losing all my data and this pushed me to finding a resolution for the problem. 

I researched on this issue extensively before calling Apple, and this is the process they guided me through.

Firstly, the advisor instructed me to factory reset the mac to see if the issue persisted, which it did. This did not resolve the issue. Neither did booting the mac into safe mode, as this is what we tried next to rule out if it was a software issue.

After both attempts failed, I ran diagnostics on the mac (command + d in startup options) which could not find any issues. Then, I was forwarded to a senior advisor who told me this was a main logic board issue and I would need to get it replaced from an authorised service provider (there is no apple stores in New Zealand). I brought it into the service provider, and they took the issue into their own hands, I am not sure why, and began telling me it was a software issue because they could not troubleshoot what was causing the issue. I then had to contact Apple again who explained to the service provider on my behalf which components needed replacing. The service provider replaced the lid angle sensor, the issue was not resolved. The touch id and motherboard were replaced, and the ‘issue was resolved’. The first thing I did once I received the Mac back was put it into sleep and test for the issue again, and it was still there. 

I contacted Apple again, urging for a replacement because this was obviously not working out and I had spent weeks of my time trying to find a fix for this issue and the service provider could not fix it. By now, the advisors I was paired with had made an extensive list on notes about my problem (apple customer support was amazing during this whole period of time) and it made it much simpler to troubleshoot the problem. 

We eventually found that putting the mac into sleep for over 30 seconds before waking it back up again worked fine. However, if the mac was put into sleep and attempted to wake up immediately or under 10 seconds, it would crash and present me with that same DCP panic report. As of now, this is all of the information I’ve gained about this issue, and currently I am trying to get a replacement sorted, which seems to be working out in my favour due to consumer laws in my country (this will vary depending on where you live).

Another thing to note is that the advisor tried this on his own device, (sleeping then waking immediately) three times and faced the same issue. It is obvious from what I have read online and experienced that this is a widespread issue among M2 Macbooks, although I am not sure about any other models experiencing this same issue. 

I will update this in about a week once I hear back from Apple about a supposed replacement because no hardware or software issue was found in the diagnostic report I received from the service provider.