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Brent D. Author

Level 1

27 points

Kernel Panics, com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily

Hello...

Yes, there are KB articles on this topic, and much written.

Here are some symptoms:

My iMac Retina 27" crashes, rebooting itself, always when I am away from the machine
The crash reports have a few things in common:
- Kernel Extensions in backtrace: com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily(2.0)[917971EF-5947-3DF5-BB9F-D353D05C0484]@0xffffff7 f9ee4d000->0xffffff7f9eec2fff dependency: com.apple.driver.AppleFDEKeyStore(28.30)[3BAA7FEE-7EF3-3A9A-A0B1-902A4AB7171F]@ 0xffffff7f9ee42000
- BSD process name corresponding to current thread: Connect
- Sometimes, there will be one or two non-Apple kexts loaded, but sometimes none.

In my web-research, there seems to be a wide variety of kernel panics, and I've been trying various approaches:

1) Make sure there are no non-Apple kexts loaded.

I'm facing two issues here:

Parallels. Sometimes crashes follow using Parallels, but not immediately. And it isn't reproducible because it is sometimes. And Parallels doesn't predictably fail to unload its kexts after using it, so it remains mysterious as to why, after using Parallels and quitting Parallels, will the Crash Report show the Parallels kexts. And, simply, their support people deny that seeing their kexts in the crash reports are of any significance.
RogueAmoeba. Often, after I reboot, I see com.rogueamoeba.HermesAudio in the kext list. I have been unable to get RogueAmoeba's solution as to why this old extension is loading, but if I see it running, I will kextunload it and it isn't always present in the crash logs.

2) Pay attention to the BSD process name corresponding to the current thread

This flat out doesn't help because "Connect" is such a common word and searching on the whole string "BSD process name corresponding to current thread: Connect", yields no search results.

3) Pay attention to input devices, since the com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily is the kext found in the backtrace.

Input devices, like, which ones? Anything connected to the iMac? How do I narrow that down? Does that include connections via Bluetooth? The crashes are infrequent enough that I need some hypotheses to test before I disconnect things willy-nilly.

Any help?

(I'll post a crash log if that help.)

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Feb 1, 2015 8:41 PM

22 replies

Brent D. Author

Level 1

27 points

Mar 10, 2015 7:34 PM in response to Barney-15E

Still no crashes, but I did notice the other day that kernel_task had ballooned from 1.75 GB to 6 or 7 GB, and a few tasks below were close to 1 GB. I decided to reboot, and now those tasks are all back to what I've seen before.

Sigh. Still no clue as to what was causing the crashes, really.

Brent D. Author

Level 1

27 points

Apr 4, 2015 10:16 AM in response to Brent D.

48* days.

Same crash after 48 days without crashes.

This one came 13 days after I plugged back in four things:

An Apple USB-Lightning cable that I infrequently use to synch an iPhone
An Apple USB-30 pin cable that I rarely use to synch an older iPod
A USB to mini-USB cable that I use about once a week to synch a digital camera
A Pebble USB Syncpoint that relates to a pedometer I use

For now, I'm unplugging the two, non Apple things to see if I can plug them back in only when I need them and avoid crashes. I was doing that during the first 35 days without a crash.

Boy, this is a tricky one to solve.

Brent D. Author

Level 1

27 points

Apr 25, 2015 7:18 PM in response to Brent D.

Okay, so .... 21 days later, and no crashes.

I have, from time to time, plugged back in USB to mini-USB cable and the USB Syncpoint, but I remove them when I'm done. I've also plugged in the usb cable for the scanner on occasion. No crashes.

For now, I'll plug back in the USB to mini-USB cable, and, heck with it, the Apple SuperDrive.. If it doesn't crash for another few weeks, I'll try other things, leaving the USB Syncpoint out (I'm guessing that's the culprit).

Brent D. Author

Level 1

27 points

Jun 14, 2015 12:36 PM in response to Brent D.

It has now been 71 days without a crash.

I am going to plug back in the one thing that I had left unplugged after the last crash on April 4, the USB Syncpoint.

If I get a crash within 30 days, I'll call that a culprit. If not, I'll rule that it was the old extension I removed (plus some randomness that caused the last crash).

Crossing my fingers!

Brent D. Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 1, 2015 6:08 PM in response to Brent D.

So, I guess that's the culprit.

I had a crash today, 17 days or so after I plugged back in the USB Syncpoint. It strikes me that must be the main reason for the other crashes now.

Well, there is another possibility: yesterday, I plugged in an old iPod Shuffle adapter (and iPod Shuffle) via the USB port on the Apple Extended Keyboard. I'm pulling the USB Syncpoint, since that's 3rd party.

Sigh.

Jul 26, 2015 3:30 PM in response to Brent D.

Thanks, Brent, for cataloging this problem. I have had the same issue on my machine (Mac Pro 5,1), and, with your guidance, I was able to narrow it down to a Firewire 400-to-800 adapter used to power the ports in my Apple Cinema Display. Grateful for your diligence…and patience.

Brent D. Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 26, 2015 4:41 PM in response to Dana Beck

Well, my pleasure!

Any problem that takes days (or weeks) to re-occur is the worst of the "intermittent" problems I've ever seen. Mostly, troubleshooters want to see something that is repeatable (do X then see Y), so you can start reducing the inputs (e.g. removing hardware or software components that may be root causes), repeating X, then either eliminating or not eliminating the things you removed depending upon if you see Y.

This one has been taking months to solve since the "do X" part is "just run the computer normally, including letting it idle, for weeks at a time". Seeing Y has been so infrequent as to make each "do X" opportunity few and far between.

Glad I was able to help with my own attempt to track and solve the problem on my machine!

Kernel Panics, com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily