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Brand New MacBook Pro 15" crashes and restarts randomly

I have a brand new MacBook Pro 15" with touch bar and a 2 TB SSD, 16 GB and fastest graphics card. I restored all my data and apps from a Time Machine backup of my 2013 MacBook Pro and everything works ok, except the new MB randomly crashes, freezes, goes to black screen and restarts. Sometimes it happens frequently and sometimes takes longer. In particular it crashes while trying to do my first full backup after all setup work is done. I've tried backing up to external drives, like 4TB erased and empty and another external and the crashes are frequent, stopping the backups. I also ran a Time Capsule backup which ran for 10 hours, was 3/4 done and then crashed.

I had on older MB Pro that crashed randomly too and it turned out to be a hardware issue- bad graphics card.

Is anyone else having this type of problem? Very discouraging!!

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2016), iOS 10.1.1, With Touchbar, 2 TB SSD, 16 GB

Posted on Nov 20, 2016 2:56 PM

43 replies

Nov 20, 2016 6:54 PM in response to edo237

Mine is similar but no beachball

Nov 20, 2016 6:57 PM in response to Fruitlover84

Exactly what mine does

Nov 21, 2016 9:33 PM in response to fredfrommccormick

Thought it may be the Seagate drive so I tried a brand new WD 3TB Ultra Metal External Drive, same result. Tried both drives on a Macbook 12" 2015 and both times Time Machine backed-up without any issues. On a side note, I was able to make a full backup of the Macbook Pro to my Network Attached Storage device. So I don't think it's a Time Machine specific issue.

Made a Genius Bar appointment for tomorrow. Will be returning the machine, sadly. Here's too a minimum 4 week wait for a replacement.

Nov 22, 2016 2:25 PM in response to Fruitlover84

Ditto on all items for me and mine

Nov 22, 2016 4:31 PM in response to fredfrommccormick

Went to the Apple Store this morning and got a full refund. They were very friendly and offered me an adapter for the trouble. I did mention that I had been in contact with other people whom have experienced a similar issue.

Once I got home I placed a new order. Earliest delivery date is December 29th.

Later I received an email from someone at the Apple Early Field Failure Analysis team requesting details of the store I visited. Seems they really want to get the faulty device back so they can figure out whether its a software or hardware issue.

Will keep this thread updated if anything interesting happens.

Dgroo

Level 1

17 points

Nov 29, 2016 8:26 PM in response to fredfrommccormick

FWIW I am having the same issue with random crashes. As yet, haven't been able to isolate it to any particular factor. So far I've seen it crash while connected to external drives/monitor and awake, I've seen it crash several times "during sleep" (or on wake), while completely unconnected to anything. I've had at least two crashes while just doing normal light load work.

FM5506

Level 2

161 points

Nov 29, 2016 8:24 PM in response to fredfrommccormick

I am having the same issue (in my case with the new 13"Touchbar MBPro 16GbRAM, 1TB SSD). Will not complete either a Time Machine Backup or a Carbon Copy Cloner Backup. In both cases it will freeze and then shut down about half way through --around 350GB into a 700GB data set.

I have tried multiple drives and multiple USB-A to USB-C adapters (both Apple branded and 3rd party) --all with the same result

Very frustrating!

Nov 29, 2016 8:25 PM in response to FM5506

Identical problem

Nov 29, 2016 8:27 PM in response to Dgroo

Identical problem

mflitsch

Level 1

4 points

Nov 30, 2016 7:40 AM in response to fredfrommccormick

My MBP 15" is also spontaneously restarting. When it restarts I don't have any option to report a problem either. The one thing I've been able to notice, is it seems to be happening for me when I'm connected to an external display, I swipe into Mission Control, and attempt to move a fullscreen safari window from one display to the other. Another thing is while in Mission Control, any application preview on the top bars shows up as blank. It'll blink black when you first get into the Mission Control, then become blank

suisse2k

Level 1

41 points

Dec 3, 2016 4:33 AM in response to fredfrommccormick

same issue here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7759507?start=15&tstart=0

That happens with the USB-C Apple adapter using an external usb 3.0 disk

using a usb 2.0 disk also from the same brand (Western Digital) works fine. Seems to be related to the higger I/O of usb 3.0

Dgroo

Level 1

17 points

Dec 3, 2016 8:48 AM in response to fredfrommccormick

FYI, I have started a consolidated MBP Touch Bar Crash discussion, to try to cross-reference where folks are having issues: Macbook Pro Touch Bar - Consolidated Crash Discussion

Based on a few days of slow, painful debugging (which was probably necessary, but still - cranky...), my problems SEEM to be software related (a full reinstall has significantly lessened my crashes, albeit not removed them completely). Much more detailed writeup over there.

Hope that is helpful - seems to be widespread enough that there are probably multiple causes (not totally surprising given the extreme architecture change), but hopefully we can narrow down a few of them.

Dec 4, 2016 11:38 AM in response to fredfrommccormick

Update to my previous post and some more info to help others with the same issue and perhaps come up with a solution:

Running a Time Machine backup to an empty 4T external drive and then a different brand 8T external, the pattern was repetitive- it ran fine until it hit the same approximate point every time- about 370 GB backed up and about 600 GB remaining. Then, when I resumed the backup it crashed repeatedly within a few minutes, I resumed it over and over and the same result. These crashes were all the same- first, "backup stopped," then cursor froze, then a black screen, then a restart and a crash report.

Next, I tried backing it up to my 3T Time Capsule via WIFi with nothing attached. Total size about 970 GB, time- 15 hours. It ran for about 10 hours and restarted with no crash report. After it restarted, I resumed the backup and it completed.

After all attempts at a backup had restarted or crashed, I tried just letting it sit overnight with nothing running and nothing attached. In the morning I found that it had restarted again at some point - no crash report though.

After hours with Apple Support he recommended and made a Genius Bar appointment at which the store's top tech guy and 3 others spent an hour with me. Lots of speculation- hardware issue, software issue, problem with USB-C data transfer, problem with external drive, wipe and reinstall and a few more. Consensus was to return it. A store return was said to be impossible because I had ordered it through Apple Business, so I waited 2 weeks for an RMA label and finally got it after many hours of emails, phone calls and frustration. While waiting, I wiped it and reinstalled the OS to try to eliminate a possible corrupted OS and multiple errors occurred during the reinstall and the update of iTunes and after setting it up with just basic included apps, Photos crashed 5 times in 10 minutes.

At that point, I gave up, waited for the RMA labels and finally returned it yesterday.

I did order another one right away, but was informed first that shipping would be 4 to 5 weeks. Later was informed that it would be 7 weeks or so and later that it was on backorder.

I'd like to add that I also purchased a 13" model MBP, 1TB SSD and top of the line on everything else and it works perfectly and I love it.

FM5506

Level 2

161 points

Dec 4, 2016 5:43 PM in response to fredfrommccormick

I ended up returning mine also. Also had to reorder and get back at the end of the line (4 weeks for replacement). Frustrating that there seems to be no way to get an expedited replacement. Sigh.

Dec 4, 2016 11:17 PM in response to fredfrommccormick

I'm having exactly the same problem. My late-2016 15" MBP dies frequently

enough that I haven't been able to complete a backup. After spending two

weeks just getting the right collection of dongles together to connect to

all of my Apple devices that are now incompatible with it, I have yet to

do any actual work with the laptop, only work "on" it.

Brand New MacBook Pro 15" crashes and restarts randomly