Constant kernel panics after macOS High Sierra upgrade

MacbookAirUser1 wrote:

Hi BobHarris,

i have the same issue. Do you have any suggestions for me?

apfs error - Pastebin.com

Actually, I do NOT think you have the same original problem.

In your case, I think your anti-virus is messing with your system

1. com.sophos.nke.swi 9.6.52
2. com.sophos.kext.oas 9.6.53
3. com.avatron.AVExFramebuffer 3.0.1
4. com.avatron.AVExVideo 3.0.1

I do not know anything about avatron, but as it appears to be related to video, and your panic is in file system where anti-virus, such as Sophos like to insert kernel hooks, I strongly feel your problem is Sophos

I would the Sophos uninstall procedure (check their web site if you are not sure).

I would NOT install any 3rd party anti-virus. macOS does a good job all by itself

Please read "How does Mac OS X protect me?"

<http://www.thesafemac.com/mmg-builtin>

And Please read

<Effective defenses against malware and other threats>

If you want to run anything, then use MalwareBytes (written by a long time respected forum contributor)

<https://www.malwarebytes.org>

I am ONLY talking about the free option, where you manually run it if you suspect something, otherwise do not consume your Mac's memory and CPU resources having it continuously run for something that is unlikely to happen (again, because macOS does a good job).

I'm having kernel panic issues too and I've looked through this thread and tried near everything suggested.

There's nothing to try. Since you don't have any third-party kernel extensions, you have a hardware fault. You'll need to take it in to be evaluated by Apple or a certified repair center.

It could be caused by a external peripheral, but your report doesn't list anything connected. If there is something connected disconnect it and test, or if you have replaced your original RAM, replace the original chips and test.

"thread_call group 'high' reached max thread cap (500): active: 1, blocked: 499, idle: 0"

Interesting. This is not a typical kernel panic.

You do not have any 3rd party kernel additions. It appears to be the original 4GB of RAM.

I other words, the common ways to experience kernel panics do not appear in your panic report.

I said the panic message was interesting, as it seems to indicate that software you were running, attempted to create too many threads of execution.

I would suspect the software you were running at the time of the panic as being suspect.

Unless you can narrow it down to running a specific app, this could be a messy problem to diagnose.

Just in case this helps too: noticed @Bob Harris mentioned it in first few threads.

EtreCheck version: 4.1 (4A162)

Report generated: 2018-03-06 23:46:36

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 2:37

Performance: Excellent

Problem: Computer is restarting

Description:

Kernel panics

Major Issues: None

Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems.

Small backup drive - Time Machine backup drive is too small.

32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps that may have problems in the future.

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports)

MacBook Pro Model: MacBookPro14,1

1 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5 (i5-7360U) CPU: 2-core

8 RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB LPDDR3 2133 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB LPDDR3 2133 ok

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 58

Video Information:

Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD 2880 x 1800

Drives:

disk0 - APPLE SSD SM0256L 251.00 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

Internal PCI-Express 8.0 GT/s x4 NVM Express

disk0s1 - EFI [EFI] 315 MB

disk0s2 250.69 GB

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD (APFS) 250.69 GB 32.49 GB

disk1s2 - Preboot (APFS) [APFS Preboot] 250.69 GB 23 MB

disk1s3 - Recovery (APFS) [Recovery] 250.69 GB 510 MB

disk1s4 - VM (APFS) [APFS VM] 250.69 GB 1.07 GB

Mounted Volumes:

disk1s1 - Macintosh HD 250.69 GB (216.45 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /

Encrypted

disk1s4 - VM [APFS VM] 250.69 GB (216.45 GB free)

APFS

Mount point: /private/var/vm

Network:

Interface en0: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

One IPv4 address

Interface en3: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

System Software:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 (17D102)

Time since boot: About an hour

System Load: 1.91 (1 min ago) 1.25 (5 min ago) 1.16 (15 min ago)

Security:

32-bit Applications:

System Launch Agents:

System Launch Daemons:

User Launch Agents:

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper Application (Apple, Inc. - installed 2018-02-09)

(/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Internet Plug-ins:

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2018-01-19)

Time Machine:

Skip System Files:

Mobile backups:

Auto backup: Yes

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 250.69 GB - Disk used: 34.23 GB

Destinations:

B********p [Local] (Last used)

Total size: 0 B

Total number of backups: 8

Oldest backup: 2017-11-19 15:04:42

Last backup: 2018-02-08 23:01:20

Top Processes by CPU:

Top Processes by Memory:

Top Processes by Network Use:

Top Processes by Energy Use:

Virtual Memory Information:

Diagnostics Information (past 7 days):

2018-03-04 19:34:55 findmydeviced Crash

2018-02-09 20:28:14 Kernel Kernel Panic

End of report

Internal PCI-Express 8.0 GT/s x4 NVM Express

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff7f9640da3c): nvme: "Fatal error occurred. CSTS=0xffffffff

Combining the kernel panic report with the EtreCheck output, the nvme from the panic report is your NVM Express storage.

Since you have a 2017 Mac, I suspect it might still be under full warranty. Make a Genius Bar appointment at your local Apple store and see about getting your Mac repaired.

Basically I agree with Luis Sequeira1

Reply to janet99x

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.kext.AMDRadeonX4000(1.6)[1069DE07-9A4D-3E0D-8664-1906A6A08124]@0xffff ff7f8f02d000->0xffffff7f8f8affff

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOSurface(209.2.2)[AE58720D-7079-388F-AD95-FD2366F98F8D]@0xffff ff7f8ef6b000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[8E6C654E-4A8F-3C6B-BBFE-BA8A68C9C146]@0xffffff 7f8cc94000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(517.22)[2AEA02BF-2A38-3674-A187-E5F610FD65B7]@ 0xffffff7f8d435000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily2(376.6)[5F8F39B4-41AB-3263-9867-D0FAF9BBD2A E]@0xffffff7f8ef87000

I suspect you have a graphics card issue

RJHMUSIC wrote:

To simply say to uninstall the products that are causing the problem is a cop out. By the way, those products all ran fine on OSX 10.12. SO if they cause kernel panics on OSX 10.13 then in my opinion OSX 10.13 should not have been brought to the market before it was perfectly stable. I thought only Microsoft did things like that. And.... if i uninstall all of the products that cause a kernel panic, then i would not need the computer would I?

Wow, that is simply not how computers work.

You are correct if an app is just a user space app, it should never cause any issues with the kernel, but today many apps install kernel extensions ("kext"s). The kernel changes between OS releases, and if Apple changes things between releases an extension that directly manipulated kernel information some way in one release may well cause a panic in another, and it's the fault of the app developer simply because Apple always gives developers ample notice of these changes (and generally goes through at least six months of a beta program where the app developer could have watched their app crash and burn.)

To use a "Fast and Furious" analogy, if you buy a Chevy then immediately bolt on a supercharger and a nitrous system, when the engine blows up it's not necessarily because Chevy made a bad engine to begin with.

Uninstalling products is a tool; if you find out a particular app causes macOS to fall over, yes, Apple should fix it but they will have greater impetus to do so if say Adobe complains about it than if you do, but Adobe would never know if you didn't track down that it's occurring because you have Photoshop CC installed.

If you've had "nothing but panics" for weeks now, why haven't you been back to the Apple Store to diagnose what's wrong with your new machine? It may be defective as well - even balls on roulette wheels can land on the same number twice in a row. High Sierra is stable for the vast majority of users, faster too. That doesn't, however mean there isn't someone with just the right configuration to make it unstable, and odds are an install of Sierra will if anything be more unstable than High Sierra.

There's no reason why it should take you weeks to get everything up and running nor why a machine out of the box should fail or have other issues, but the latter cases do happen, these are machines made by humans.

Try this and see if it turns up anything:

How to use Apple Diagnostics on your Mac - Apple Support

Again and again. **** High Sierra!

And VirtualBox is updated

That doesn't necessarily mean VirtualBox is not implicated.

If you remove VirtualBox and still have panics, then you have a hardware fault that needs to be evaluated by Apple or an Apple certified repair center.

I did not uninstall VirtualBox yet, but I am using Visual Studio Code instead of Panic Coda as editor.

I want to try this first, bacause the kernel panic occourred always when I was saving files with Coda.

It also happened just a couple of times while the computer was in stop but that is probably another story.

Panic Coda, funny name if that's the culprit...

I've had them on a couple machines.

Kernel panics can be one of the toughest

GHOSTS in the machine if you will

things to track down.

It can be caused by a problem with your hardware, all the way to an install of software written or setup or corrupted.

The Color/Processor if you will to even TimeMachine for some reason.

Do you by chance have TimeMachine setup? If so, turn it off, power down and up and see.

mbk216 wrote:

So what does this mean to someone who doesn't understand all of this tech talk? 🙂

Do you have an external WiFi device plugged into a USB or Thunderbolt slot?

Do you have any external devices plugged in. Bad USB devices have been known to put bad things on the internal data bus.

It could also be failing hardware.

It could be a corrupt file system giving wrong bits for programs.

I have been fighting this same issue for months on my 2015 MacBook Pro. Last two months with Apple Senior Advisor and allegedly Apple Engineering. Running High Sierra and SSD storage so APFS. Panic traps coming 1-2/day seemingly I/O related.

First seemed related to FileVault since many of panic traps originated there. UnFileVaulted- which is a tedious process.

Panic traps continued seemingly I/O related - network primarily.

Suspicion thrown on old .kexts slowly migrated over operating system versions and indeed 3 computers. I had two third party ones - an old Sierra wireless USB modem driver and an old audio driver from some old USB microphone.

As I was rebuilding computer with erase and install from recovery partition got locked in loop of repeated panic traps during OS install. Clearly not third party .kext since there weren’t any.

Moved to network OS install. OS successful installed but panic trapped immediately as I began copying data from Time Machine backup. Literally first file.

Clearly not third party .kext since only virgin Apple software on machine and SSD drive.

Machine under AppleCare so in consultation with senior Apple support took to local Apple third party repair shop yesterday (since all the Apple Stores in San Francisco seem to have a weeks wait time). They ran hardware diagnostics over night without reported failure.

My conclusions. While third party .kexts may indeed be a problem (and always good to get the cruft out - and there IS a problem with Migration Assistant) there is a panic trap problem with High Sierra with all Apple software in at least one supported hardware configuration that does not show up on Apple diagnostics. My gut says APFS related - and worse under load.

Apple senior tech support and engineering appear in denial.

Me - I’m pushing for logic board and SSD replacement just because I’m ****** off.

I would be reluctant to move back to Sierra and HFS - but that may be only solution.

You should not be able to add or remove anything in /System/Library/Extensions. This should only contain kexts that Apple put there as part of the OS.

That is different from /Library/Extensions, which are added by third party software installers.

Maybe Nico is still willing to look if his system will boot when he moves the /Library/Extensions/*.kext files to an other place, narrowing it down to 3th part extensions.

There are no third-party kernel extensions listed as loaded in the panic report. Therefore, there is nothing to remove that will fix the problem.

The panic was either caused by a bug in Apple's kernel extensions or it was caused by hardware. There are some other obscure potential causes that I cannot remember at this time.

In your case, a system that won't even boot is generally caused by third-party kernel extension and thus you were successful at getting it to boot by removing the offending kernel extension.