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MBP Random Shutdowns With Mojave

My 2014 15" Retina MBP started randomly shutting down around Labour Day running High Sierra. After trying the Apple recommended approach with zero success I went to the internet and I found the tool NoCrashMBP and then the better fix which was renaming the ThunderboltEthernet KEXT to something else. But I have just upgraded to Mojave and the renaming of the Thunderbolt file doesn't seem to have worked. My machine keeps shutting down. So have gone back to NoCrashMBP.


Anybody have an experience with Mojave and resolving the problem?


And does anyone know if Apple is working on this problem which appears to have been around for a few years affecting a couple of years worth of this model? I suppose it will go away by itself through natural attrition but given the price of these machines that doesn't seem like an adequate view of customer service.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, Mac OS X (10.1.x)

Posted on Oct 15, 2018 12:56 PM

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Posted on Nov 8, 2018 1:01 PM

I had not renamed the file correctly, so the driver was still installing. When I figured that out the problem disappeared and the machine stopped the random shutdowns. Until today when an update was installed to Mac OS and there was the file back again. The behaviour started immediately with the computer only staying on for a minute or so before shutting down. I have renamed the file and the problem has stopped again. It appears the internet is right that this problem is related to this specific driver. The offending driver is AppleThunderboltNHI.kext

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Nov 8, 2018 1:01 PM in response to trevor_smith_brown

I had not renamed the file correctly, so the driver was still installing. When I figured that out the problem disappeared and the machine stopped the random shutdowns. Until today when an update was installed to Mac OS and there was the file back again. The behaviour started immediately with the computer only staying on for a minute or so before shutting down. I have renamed the file and the problem has stopped again. It appears the internet is right that this problem is related to this specific driver. The offending driver is AppleThunderboltNHI.kext

Oct 16, 2018 4:45 PM in response to trevor_smith_brown

Hello Trevor,

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities. I understand you've had some trouble with your Mac shutting down unexpectedly, and I have some information that may help.

Have a look at the article below for some helpful troubleshooting steps. If you've already tried these steps when using High Sierra, it may still be beneficial to try them now that you've updated to Mojave.

If your Mac spontaneously restarts or displays a message that it restarted or shut down because of a problem - Apple Support


If you run into any trouble, please reach out again.
​Best Regards.

Oct 17, 2018 7:27 AM in response to MoonJ.

Hi, thanks for getting back to me. When this started with High Sierra as the OS back in early September I went through all that including a clean install of the operating system. It still kept shutting down so I found the NoCrashMBP script which worked long enough I could google other solutions and came up with the information on removing the Thunderbolt Ethernet driver from the library and that worked perfectly until I upgraded to Mojave.


In September the fan would start running hard randomly, the screen would black out, then the machine would shutdown, I do believe there was a message on startup, it did not re-boot on its own I believe. Now no fan running hard, just a black screen followed by a shutdown, not a reboot. When restarting it restarts without a message. So there has been a change in behaviour from prior random shutdowns. It does seem to not occur as often if plugged in with a full charge (maybe never). NoCrashMBP does keep the machine from shutting down though, I understand it is not an ideal solution.


Given the prior experience I'm reluctant to wipe out my drive again and re-install all my applications. So I have decided to try a battery replacement (which is somewhat needed now anyway) thinking that might explain the problem and the age of the machine and that internet theories around this syndrome seems to be electrical in nature. I'll update if that works, though I notice many people have tried many hardware solutions without success.

MBP Random Shutdowns With Mojave

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