MacBook Pro 15" (2016) Crashing while connecting/disconnecting the LG 5K Monitor

Apple Support documents HT202824 and HT201635 talk about deep sleep.

Last year, when the issue was most prevalent. It was little over an hour, when it was in sleep mode then an immediate crash when connecting to an external monitor. The machine would automatically restart and once I login - it would indicate a Sleep Wake Failure report - 7-8 out of 10 times. The remaining times there'd be no report.

Kdupreez, my machine finally crashed - going into a screen saver, while connected to the USB C monitor; and after running some heavy video editing software.

Can you run an experiment in your setup and see if it crashes.

laptop is in clamshell mode; connected to the 4K or 5K monitor.

Run a few heavy intensive applications - getting the fans on the machine to run; for about 15 - 30 mins.

Close the intensive applications and leave the machine to go into screen saver mode (could be 10 - 20 mins later) while connected to the monitor.

Mine crashed with that scenario; and I remember it crashing almost every time last November with the scenario. This year, I haven't been doing much intensive work like the above yet.

I think the problem is with the AMD graphics card. It becomes very apparent when connected to 5K monitor, but it remains problematic even if not connected to one...

After 5 years Apple will recall these devices, as they did with the Nvidia 2012 MBP. The problem is that when this happens your computer will have no value any more... and thus the replacement will be cheap for Apple as well...

8:28 up 11 days, 14:23, 2 users, load averages: 1.94 2.44 2.55

Still working with 2 4K monitors with the laptop in clamshell mode; and I'm able to connect / disconnect it without a crash. However, I do make sure to close any intensive applications that I may be running before doing so. The strange thing is that, - at times the USB C does not come alive at first when connected to the laptop; and I would have to connect the DP monitor - that would come alive - and I would log in; then unplug and replug the USB-C monitor for it to come alive.

If you'd like to run an experiment to see whether the machine would crash. Open up Lightroom or Photos with a large photo; then have a few applications running in the background (mail, safari with a few windows / tabs, notes, stickies, etc); then have a virtual machine running windows using up 4-8GB ram and a couple of apps within Windows. See how that goes when you connect the machine / disconnect it to the monitors, and the machine would have been in sleep mode.

So what happened Tim? did they replace the Motherboard and it's all working good now?

Since the release of 10.13.4 I haven't had a single crash; I'd have the occasional lag of a screen steadying itself at connecting / disconnecting, and thankfully no crashes. The machine works great now - as expected of a $4K machine.

I'm slightly concerned that when 10.14 comes out later in the year, - it'll be buggy and won't handle the 4K / 5K monitors and crashes the machine. I think I may hold off the update till 10.14.2 or so.

Send it to Edgadget, MacRumors and all the other high footprint tech geek news/blog sites you can think of..

My crashes have been 100% during deep sleep (plugging in my 5K while my Mac is hibernating). Wonder if there's a way to turn that off to see if my machine stops crashing.

I experience the same issue since upgrading to High Sierra, previously I never experienced this issue. My MacBook is the 15 inch first gen from fall 2016. I was quite surprised to find out many people experienced the issue earlier before High Sierra, I assumed it's related to the OS release. I have a LG 5k display at home and at the office and both give me crashes, so it's definitely not related to the screen hardware. Using latest High Sierra version and latest LG 5K firmware.

Does anyone know for certain if it's a hardware issue or a software issue?

I am always plugging my monitor on the right side of the MacBook Pro and will try to plug in on the left side now to see if that solves the issue. Already got 2 keyboard replacements and would hate to bring in my MacBook for a third repair...

Edit: I think I noticed it already crashes when I open from clam shell mode, rather than simply unplugging the cable. Will observe that closer too.

I had crash issues from earlier version of Sierra but they fixed that since 10.12.3. Now the issue comes back again in High Sierra (10.13.1). I'm inclined to think that it's a software issue but you never know. It could be related to certain hardware or firmware. It's getting quite annoying now as this problem seems to be worse than those found in the initial version of Sierra (10.12.1 - 10.12.2).

I’ve found a consistent way to reproduce the problem. Before connecting the LG monitor, do one of the following:

1. Capture video from an iOS device through a USB cable using QuickTime Player

2. Run Final Cut Pro X

Now, connect the LG monitor. MBP hangs immediately!

I got a new logic board from Apple, which means I had to reinstall everything from scratch which took me half a day. Unfortunately the problem is not solved and my Mac keeps crashing when I unplug and replug the screen. It's less frequent than before (Before it was like 75% of the time, now only 25%) but it still ridiculous that it happens 2-3 times per day still. I will try deactivating Touch ID and yes mine was gone several times too... this computer is a disaster

PS: Unlike the other poster I got a 2016 logic board so maybe that's why the problem still exists

Removing LG manager does not help...

The engineering team send me a message that they have fixed this problem in 10.13.2 beta 4.

I installed beta 4 yesterday and it happened again. I think the problem is the 460 GPU. I had this problem even before with the Sierra. I know other people with the same computer and they have same problem irrespective of the OSthey are running in their system.

Hm ok. I have the "Radeon Pro 450 2 GB" MacBook early 2016 and also have the problem. So its not only the graphic card. I'll try to get a new logic board from apple... maybe the problem is resolved after that.

I just got off with Apple support, they claim they have no info about it either, Norwegian support. First representative didn't understand basics, but the next one was understanding. Got the classic, "an engineer has to look into it", which means troubleshooting and uploading system logs with timestamps.

I've already started switching back to Windows 10 and haven't really used a PC as my main computer since 2006 when Intel got introduced to the Mac. It was hard, but now I prefer Windows 10 and since I've had six or seven MacBook Pro 2016, both 15" and 13", with or without touch bar, and all of them are affected or had other defects, there isn't much of an alternative as I've tried all Apple Pro laptops on the market. Different batches and bought in separate stores. Tried all versions from 10.12.4 to 10.13.1 of macOS. Clean installs as well. SMC and PRAM resets. Nothing will make it more stable. It always happened after some extensive usage and when I unplug it from the external monitor I get the black screen, frozen keyboard and touch bar.

I would still like to have an Apple laptop, but I won't settle for a fully priced 2015 15" that has a CPU from 2013 in it. My MacBook 12" from 2015 actually is stable connected to the same display, a Dell UP3216Q, even though not officially supported by Apple. It does have some interface transition lags, but it doesn't go black and freeze. Neither did my 2014 MBP 13" or MBP 15" AMD 370 2015, when I had them earlier. I have considered an iMac, but that means I can't use it around freely like I would with a laptop.

I uploaded a video of a classic example of the crash

Macbook pro 2016 - radeon pro 450 - sleep wake failure - YouTube