iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) Randomly Restarts Without Errors

Well said Linc!

I spoke with the Apple Senior Advisor I've been working with (Vince). He had me send in another set of logs from Mac's Capture App to send to the engineers. The Engineers had said to pull out my OWC RAM, empathically suggesting (or outright claiming) that the RAM was at fault. I knew this wasn't the case since the RAM had been doing just fine for a couple of months since I bought the machine.

The iMac inevitably shutdown with the "-128" cause again with the original Apple RAM in there.

So it's back to square one for the engineers––with the long holiday weekend I expect I'll hear from them next week (Tuesday) as that was Vince's guess as to when I'd hear back, but it's critical to keep this thread alive so that Apple recognizes this problem and solves it, either through hardware or software, for everyone involved.

If your not having the "Random Restarts" on your machine we are happy for you. I suggest not posting here unless Apple is giving you the run around, your machine is constantly restarting with no errors and you wife is constantly badgering you to get Apple to exchange or refund the $2,000.00 ($4,000 in some cases). It has been two months now with no resolution for me. Apple wants more logs. Log, logs, logs. Nothing in the logs - the last engineer ridiculously suggested it was the screen saver...

This is extremely frustrating folks and it is kind of you if you want to offer suggestions - but don't discount us as an anomaly. Countless people read this thread without posting. Apple is now reading this thread. It is a real issue.

I also have a call into an Apple Senior Advisor, and have submitted logs to be sent to engineering.

On the chance that is a third party app causing the problems, quick survey- how many of you are running apps not from the Mac App Store? Which ones?

My list;

Coda

Alfred

Crashplan

Dropbox

Sketch

Now, I don't think it could be Sketch or Coda causing an issue as the issue occurs even when those apps are not running. It could only be a third party app running always in the background.

I too am in touch with a Senior Advisor, will be sending logs, but it's worth noting that this Advisor said that Apple is NOT aware that this is a general problem. With any enterprise as large as Apple, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that it's just a case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing, at least yet. But this DOES related to my problem in general with Apple Customer service, which, I'm sorry EtreCheck, I find consistently lacking in one respect: they are VERY good at interaction and at listening, and they are all very well-trained to run down a protocol, to run certain diagnostics, and then to check the results of those diagnostics, looking for certain problems that they have been trained to look for. What they are NOT good at, and admittedly this is a high bar, is approaching a problem creatively when it DOESN'T tick any familiar boxes, instead proposing various pat solutions that clearly don't fit the situation. What I have experienced is exactly the same as the frustrating experiences outlined by many here: it's a confusing, opaque problem that likely would take some serious firmware/deep diagnostic parsing and investigation, but instead, we get lots of ideas out of a trouble-shooting playbook that clearly don't work and don't apply.

Anyway, rant over, but clearly I'm not the only one who has been frustrated. To answer your question, Greg, the only one of those apps that I'm running is:

Dropbox.

I am also running Microsoft Word a lot, which has a licenser daemon running in the background I believe. Other apps:

Swinsian

Apogee Maestro (software for the Apogee Duet USB device)

Plus a ton of audio apps/plugins through Logic.

-Jon

Not running any of those apps. Wish it was that easy.

Understood. The real question I was driving at was how many are running apps not installed from the Mac App Store. In other words, non-sandboxed apps that may be running amok.

The only non-Apple App I am running is an Amazon.com Music player APP. Other than that all Apple APPS. Random Restart this AM while listing to ITunes.

Hello again brendean,

No one outside Apple, and few people inside Apple, know what shutdown cause -128 means. Some people say it means "unknown" (http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/212809/shutdown-cause-128) and I have no reason to dispute that. I see no point in digging through Apple open source code to find this code when a simple Google search will show that it has been widely reported across Apple's entire Mac product line for decades.

In Jon's specific example, EtreCheck showed that 3rd party software was unlikely to be involved. And I guess if you eliminate 3rd party software as a likely cause, that is going to leave you with a hardware, firmware, or operating system problem. Then again, the cause could even be unrelated to the Mac entirely, as in this case (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4054699?start=0&tstart=0).

The claim that Apple told owners there was nothing wrong with their machines and then reluctantly "took responsibility" is completely false. Apple has a proven track record on this matter. Apple doesn't say anything until it knows an answer. Individual owners may have been told by individual Apple service techs that they couldn't find a problem, but that isn't the same thing. If and when Apple determines there is a widespread problem and they have a fix, they will let you know. But until then, demanding a hardware replacement that Apple is unable to diagnose is just going to cause people more problems for themselves. If Apple doesn't know where the problem is or how to definitively identify it, then it seems logical that a faulty logic board could be replaced by yet another faulty logic board. And if the problem is in firmware, os, or external, then you've replaced a good logic board with one of unknown provenance. That could then make you ineligible for a special extended repair program later. But all that is just speculation. The problem might also be fixed with a firmware update next month, assuming you let Apple technicians do their job and properly investigate the issue.

I understand that if a few people have the misfortune of buying a flaky instance of a complex, mass-produced machine, they will be upset and might even think that all similar machines have the same problem. But that just isn't true. I urge people to be very skeptical of these claims being spread on the internet. If you have a problem, and people here on Apple Support Communities can't help, then contact Apple directly. Apple didn't get to be the #1 company in the world in sales, quality, and customer satisfaction for no reason. And yes, Apple may ask you to reinstall the OS or swap out RAM. Debugging these issues is a process of elimination. Checking for 3rd party software is a necessary first step. Removing 3rd party RAM is a last-ditch effort. I'm sure they know RAM isn't an issue, but they have to prove that to engineering and senior management as part of the process.

Etresoft, I hear you, and think what you're suggesting is logical.

But I do hope you recognize also why people here are frustrated. I've been using Apple computers since I was in the single digits (somewhere around 7-8 years old), love the company, etc.

But I do want to compel them to take this issue seriously, and to work on a fix as quickly as possible––hence the posting here by me and others.

As for the -128 error, I don't know what it means either––I cite that error because it is the single uniting factor for me with these mysterious shutdowns. The Console reports it every instance of this type of shutdown, and time stamps it too. That's the only reason I consider it relevant.

For historical precedents, see this 51-page thread:

Frequent Panic NVRM[0/1:0:0]: Read Error 0x00000100

or this 196-page one:

Lion randomly crashes - black screen

Eventually there was a warranty extension on the MacBookPro6,2.

Just got off the phone with a Senior adviser and he admitted Apple has no solution for the Random Restart problem. They are very aware of it. I spoke also with a 3rd party service center that Apple referred me to. He suggest creating an alternate User and signing into that one to see if restarts happen. Also suggest a clean install of the OS. The Random Restarts in the past according to him were power related but in the newer machines it has been faulty Logic Boards. The dilemma according to him is trying to replicate and catch a random restart and then at that point ruling out an OS or Software issue - which according to him is very complicated. I would have to leave the machine with him for a week - not really willing to do that at this point.

The last Senior Adviser said Apple will now replace my machine if the Random Restarts cannot be fixed. A bit of progress in getting Apple to replace the machine entirely - which is not their policy.

In the meantime I have another set of logs to send Apple.

That's good to hear that at least they are aware of it. Please let me know how you get on with the replacement/ fix and hopefully if replaced it's not with another problematic Imac.

As far as third party apps, I had the issue after only unboxing and updating mine so it was stock standard except what it came with in terms of software.

And the second user thing... tried that still get restarts it doesn't make the slightest difference.

All they told me was take it back to the store... but if they don't know it's pointless really.. any advice on what I should do? Contact the senior advisor I was put in contact with regarding the issue?

Thanks in advance ,

Ps. Mine had the whole clean install of the OS when it was sent in, it was stable for about 4 days before the restarts started reoccurring.

According to the 3rd party repair guy -who sounds very experienced, until Apple finds out what is causing the Random Restarts all he can do is try to isolate the issue. He suggest I live with the inconvenience until Apple has a solution. Or leave the computer with him for a week and he can try his hand at it. I have an appointment with him but I might just sit tight. He says besides the inconvenience my Warranty is good until Feb of 2017 and suggested I extend that warranty for two more years. Basically, if the problem is just an inconvenience - the computer is still under warranty and he says it can be fixed for free under warranty at any time. I got the impression he wants a definite solution from Apple first and can't really do anything at this point.

I asked about others getting a new Logic Board and solving their issue -

He will not be able to install a new Logic Board unless that proves to be the issue. He also says if I take it to the Apple Store they also need to prove a faulty Logic board is to blame as their techs are under the same rules. Apple just doesn't swap out parts under Warranty.