2018 MacBook Pros crashing with "Bridge OS" error

[Hakiroto]

I actually went to apple store today to return considering I bought this Mac just last week. However, they don't allow me to return because I bought it from my school, instead of directly from the apple store. They asked me to go back to school to return, but my school only accept laptop without opening box. What should I do?

Regardless of where you bought it, if it's new it comes with a year of warranty from Apple. They might not honour a 14 day no questions asked return window but if you take it in and complain about an issue they have to do something. What that is, however, depends on how lucky you are with the person you see and how willing you are to push. Emphasise that it's a week old, show them crash logs (if you have them), and be nice. Good luck.

 

[SDColorado]

Hard to say. My main issue is playing YouTube videos within Safari. The video will not play correctly, or is garbled/sped up. So it could be some issue with how the T2 interacts with video decoding where certain things (Google’s video codec) causes some kind of overrun error.

The issue with YouTube videos not playing within Safari may be a software issue. Not sure on that one. I am not sure if there is any relationship between those and the BridgeOS crashes though. I suppose it is possible that the T2 interacts with the video decoding, but I tend to think maybe they are two separate issues. Dunno
[doublepost=1542872727][/doublepost]

I actually went to apple store today to return considering I bought this Mac just last week. However, they don't allow me to return because I bought it from my school, instead of directly from the apple store. They asked me to go back to school to return, but my school only accept laptop without opening box. What should I do?

If you are in the USA or Canada, the steps here might be of use to force a return...

https://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/sales-policies/reseller.html

 

[Ma2k5]

I think it's software. I have some issues with the T2 in my iMac Pro. After a reboot, it works perfectly (for a while), which leads me to believe it needs a software tweak.

Unfortunately that doesn’t make it any more a software issue.

NB When I say hardware issue, I don't mean it in terms of a manufacturing defect, I mean it as a design issue. If it is a T2 chip design issue, they can try get around it using software (like how the CPU's suffer from hardware spectre/meltdown vulnerability so they used software to patch it) but it might come at some performance or usability cost that we are not aware of.

 

[betadecay]

This is the macOS panicking, not the T2. I strongly suggest most of the crashes users are blaming on the T2 are macOS panics which are now handled by the T2. Do you have Thunderbolt or USB devices attached to the computer? The backtraces indicate power issues with Thunderbolt in item 1, and USB in items 2 and 3.

These KP's happen as usual: Instead of returning from sleep the machine reboots.
How can you distinguish between T2 and macOS related KP's?

Indeed i have a Thunderboltdisplay connected which holds an external hard drive. I've also the problem that after some hours the left USB-C ports become unresponsive. This means that suddenly the HDD is "hard" ejected, which is always the sign for me that something happened. Then, Thunderbolt Display still works but it is not possible to adjust in example brightness anymore. When i disconnect the TBD and reconnect it, the display will not come back to life. Even when it is disconnected, the System report shows it is still plugged in. In case i plug it in on the right USB-C ports it will work again leading to two TBD for MacOS.
However, only a restart helps.

 

[BlueseaApple]

So just had my first KP and my 2nd machine after an AASP replaced it for the bridgeOS problem.
so to summarize it happens on 2 different machines (makes it seem like software problem).
It happens on a fresh install with SU2 and latest OS version (makes it seem like a hardware problem).
Basically I am out of ideas to why this keeps happening.
One correlation I have is that it always happens when I am using audio (listing to music using iTunes or YouTube).
Does anyone have a machine that doesn't crash after say a month ?
are they all broken or only a large part of them ?

[doublepost=1542892337][/doublepost]Had 2 machines too. Same issues. No fix. Got a refund. Suggest you do the same until this is fixed properly.

 

[chrfr]

These KP's happen as usual: Instead of returning from sleep the machine reboots.
How can you distinguish between T2 and macOS related KP's?

The mention of the BridgeOS is just showing which version it's running but the text of the kernel panic is all about macOS. I'd suggest doing testing on your hardware: run with just the USB drive attached and then try with just the display attached and see if one configuration or the other works. It's not impossible that there's a bug in the OS related to the Thunderbolt Display or your USB disk enclosure is faulty. You may want to check if your external drive has any firmware updates available.

 

[studying001]

The issue with YouTube videos not playing within Safari may be a software issue. Not sure on that one. I am not sure if there is any relationship between those and the BridgeOS crashes though. I suppose it is possible that the T2 interacts with the video decoding, but I tend to think maybe they are two separate issues. Dunno
[doublepost=1542872727][/doublepost]

If you are in the USA or Canada, the steps here might be of use to force a return...

https://www.apple.com/legal/sales-support/sales-policies/reseller.html

Thank you! the website is very helpful to me!

 

[Plutonius]

Unfortunately that doesn’t make it any more a software issue.

NB When I say hardware issue, I don't mean it in terms of a manufacturing defect, I mean it as a design issue. If it is a T2 chip design issue, they can try get around it using software (like how the CPU's suffer from hardware spectre/meltdown vulnerability so they used software to patch it) but it might come at some performance or usability cost that we are not aware of.

Yep, software and firmware can only go so far in masking a hardware design issue. Intermittent problems are the toughest to debug but, with the number of people with the T2 errors, they would have had it fixed by now if it was only a software or firmware issue.

 

[mario-64]

So this issue affects all 2018 MBP's? Do any NOT have the problem? Does it only present when connected to external thunderbolt devices?

 

[Ma2k5]

So this issue affects all 2018 MBP's? Do any NOT have the problem? Does it only present when connected to external thunderbolt devices?

There are people who do not experience the problem. There seems to be some use case that apparently will cause it to occur on any machine (something to do with photo booth record), which will probably crash even those who do not usually experience the issue.

 

[AZhappyjack]

So this issue affects all 2018 MBP's? Do any NOT have the problem? Does it only present when connected to external thunderbolt devices?

My 13" 2018 MBP has been pretty much perfect. No kernel panics, no random shutdowns or reboots.

The only issue that I had out of the box was the crypto_key errors after enabling FileVault, but that was resolved by wiping my drive and reinstalling my software (including macOS High Sierra). I've since upgraded to Mojave 10.14.1, and have not looked back.

I know that some have had many problems, and I feel for them... but not everyone is experiencing these issues. Still have no clue about what the common denominator is.

 

[betadecay]

The mention of the BridgeOS is just showing which version it's running but the text of the kernel panic is all about macOS. I'd suggest doing testing on your hardware: run with just the USB drive attached and then try with just the display attached and see if one configuration or the other works. It's not impossible that there's a bug in the OS related to the Thunderbolt Display or your USB disk enclosure is faulty. You may want to check if your external drive has any firmware updates available.

Just to repeat: As most people on this thread i am experiencing KP during/at wake up. Exactly the same symptoms!

All blaming the T2 chip (or the BridgeOS itself) since they read "BridgeOS" somewhere in the first line of the KP report. It seems nobody has had a deeper look into the KP report. This is why i would really like people to post their "PanicString" as mentioned above.

 

[Hakiroto]

My 13" 2018 MBP has been pretty much perfect. No kernel panics, no random shutdowns or reboots.

The only issue that I had out of the box was the crypto_key errors after enabling FileVault, but that was resolved by wiping my drive and reinstalling my software (including macOS High Sierra). I've since upgraded to Mojave 10.14.1, and have not looked back.

I know that some have had many problems, and I feel for them... but not everyone is experiencing these issues. Still have no clue about what the common denominator is.

Yeah, I've seen a few people in the same situation. It might be useful if you share some insights into how you use your MacBook Pro, e.g. with/without an external monitor, with external drives attached, with the lid closed, etc.

 

[AZhappyjack]

Yeah, I've seen a few people in the same situation. It might be useful if you share some insights into how you use your MacBook Pro, e.g. with/without an external monitor, with external drives attached, with the lid closed, etc.

Always with the lid open. External monitor on occasion, but usually not. I almost always have something connected to it - flash drive, external SSD or video camera. Don’t leave it plugged in to power... run it off battery, only charge it up when it gets low.

 

[michael31986]

Mine happened when opening lid from sleep. Although I had no external monitor on. So it isn't all cause of that. To me sounds like software. Has apple given any response? Mac rumours should frsture this to get their attention.

 

[Hakiroto]

Mine happened when opening lid from sleep. Although I had no external monitor on. So it isn't all cause of that. To me sounds like software. Has apple given any response? Mac rumours should frsture this to get their attention.

When I had my 13" the one and only crash I had in a month was when connected to an LG 4K screen with the lid closed. I opened it and it'd restarted. That was on, IIRC, day 14. I told Apple and they said I can keep it for a month and still have the return window. The next 2 weeks were crash-free but I still returned it as that point (in summer) I had a backup MacBook Pro from work and the talk of these crashes was pretty new so I didn't want to risk. As I mentioned a few pages back, though, I need to buy a MacBook Pro now so I'm going to have to buy the same again and roll the dice.

Oh, unrelated but Apple are offering a 200€ iTunes gift card when you buy a MacBook Pro this weekend but I live in Germany now and have a UK iTunes account so, well, that's not very useful as it's for the wrong store. Maybe I can sell it.

 

[donawalt]

Have there been any kernel panics/bridge OS crashes with the updated MBPs/Vega?

 

[brainray]

Oh, unrelated but Apple are offering a 200€ iTunes gift card when you buy a MacBook Pro this weekend but I live in Germany now and have a UK iTunes account so, well, that's not very useful as it's for the wrong store. Maybe I can sell it.

In Germany there a a lots of better offers today, check at idealo.de
I'm in the same situation: I'm about to send my second crashing refurbished MBP 13 back to Apple and will roll the dice with a new MacBook. I feel like in PC-land

 

[Hakiroto]

In Germany there a a lots of better offers today, check at idealo.de
I'm in the same situation: I'm about to send my second crashing refurbished MBP 13 back to Apple and will roll the dice with a new MacBook. I feel like in PC-land

Yeah, I've seen some good offers but nothing as good as what you get when your friend works at Apple (17%).

 

[Plutonius]

To me sounds like software.

This problem has been around for a long time since Apple released the iMac Pro with the T2 chip.

Since then, Apple has released multiple software updates including High Sierra to Mojave along with multiple firmware updates and the problem still happens.

To me, it definitely looks like hardware issues with the T2.
[doublepost=1542980169][/doublepost]

Have there been any kernel panics/bridge OS crashes with the updated MBPs/Vega?

I'm also waiting to see post from people with the updated MBP / Vega. The extra cost would be worth it if these computers are free of the Bridge OS error.

 

[Hakiroto]

I'm also waiting to see post from people with the updated MBP / Vega. The extra cost would be worth it if these computers are free of the Bridge OS error.

You'll likely never be sure, though. There are people on here that had computers for over a month before they had a crash and then one day, with no change in usage, it happened. It's so frustrating.

 

[Plutonius]

So this issue affects all 2018 MBP's?

Reading through the different forums at MacRumors, all 2018 model Apple with the T2 chip have a least some Bridge OS problems (the post are from people who claim that their computers failed).

The MacBook Air and the Mac Mini seem to have a small number of complaints although I'm not sure if that's because they are newer or because Apple made improvements since the MacBook Pro.
[doublepost=1542981144][/doublepost]

You'll likely never be sure, though. There are people on here that had computers for over a month before they had a crash and then one day, with no change in usage, it happened. It's so frustrating.

That is the nature of intermittent faults.

 

[harriska2]

Getting a mac mini and watching this. I will run photo booth and turn off siri (is that even an option without a microphone?).

 

[SDColorado]

There are people who do not experience the problem. There seems to be some use case that apparently will cause it to occur on any machine (something to do with photo booth record), which will probably crash even those who do not usually experience the issue.

From my experience, there doesn't seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason behind it. The first BridgeOS KP I ever got was right after initial setup and nothing other than the power cord attached. I went through the initial setup, realized what time it was and went and fed my dogs and let them out for a bit, came back to settle in with my newly set up MBP and had a BridgeOS Kernal Panic great me. Welcome to the T2 equipped MBP era

 

[jeroenvisser101]

Have there been any kernel panics/bridge OS crashes with the updated MBPs/Vega?

Got mine yesterday, crashed twice, but not because of a BridgeOS error (afaik), but because it's causing "GPU Reset" / "GPU Restart", going to get it exchanged tomorrow to see if that helps.