2018 MacBook Pros crashing with "Bridge OS" error

[SDColorado]

Maybe lol. That is the only settings that keeps making mine panic. As long as I leave it off no issues. Noticed the battery also drains quickly in sleep with find my mac on as well.

Oh.. okay. I misunderstood what you were saying. I did not realize you meant "Find my Mac." I thought you meant that when you find your Mac is turned on you have kernel panic issues, but when you find it turned off you do not. I thought you were just being funny

I don't know if Mac sleep mode is poorly implemented or what, but they do seem to drain a lot of battery in their sleep.

 

[Hakiroto]

Well, I've ordered a 13" again as I need a new MacBook. I had the same model in summer just as they were released and it had a single crash/restart on day 14 of owning it. It was while it was asleep and connected to an LG 4K monitor and power. I got a replacement but wasn't confident (despite it not crashing after ~2 weeks) so I returned it as I still had a backup MacBook. I say "not confident" because back then a lot of people were reporting this and I wanted to return it while I could still get a refund. Now, though, I don't have a backup so I need to roll the dice again. Fingers crossed.

 

[doitdada]

Now, though, I don't have a backup so I need to roll the dice again. Fingers crossed.

I got a replacement 2018 MacBook Pro after Mojave was released and it hasn't experienced any KPs, but I've had issues with flickering when it's connected to an external display.

Got a new cable from Apple and a new screen from Dell, but it didn't change the situation. There still seems to be bugs with the new machines from 2016 until present day. I have a MacBook Pro 15 baseline 2018. Waiting on Apple Care to take a decision.

The screen has no problems with other machines like the MacBook 2015 or any Windows computers.

 

[natif09]

This is my daily configuration, lid closed, external screen(s).
Keyboard, kernel panics, and flickering...
One more reason to keep me from buying one of these new models...
So the last reliable laptops seem to be the Pro 2015 and Air 2017... What a mess...
Steeve Job's missing...

 

[Ploki]

I got a replacement 2018 MacBook Pro after Mojave was released and it hasn't experienced any KPs, but I've had issues with flickering when it's connected to an external display.

Got a new cable from Apple and a new screen from Dell, but it didn't change the situation. There still seems to be bugs with the new machines from 2016 until present day. I have a MacBook Pro 15 baseline 2018. Waiting on Apple Care to take a decision.

The screen has no problems with other machines like the MacBook 2015 or any Windows computers.

Mine had flickering. Different kind - only on internal GPU and on the internal screen.
They couldn't fix it and refunded me.

 

[doitdada]

Mine had flickering. Different kind - only on internal GPU and on the internal screen.
They couldn't fix it and refunded me.

My last 2016 had flickering on both internal and external. Got a refund ...

 

[Ploki]

My last 2016 had flickering on both internal and external. Got a refund ...

the 2016-201x model year seems to be ripe with issues.

they also seem to be phasing out the touch bar, since no new models are released with it.

 

[Qaulity]

the 2016-201x model year seems to be ripe with issues.

they also seem to be phasing out the touch bar, since no new models are released with it.

I think the Touch Bar is saved as a Pro only feature. Seems kind of hilarious if that's the case. You would think a pro would be the one user who doesn't look at the keyboard. I think the Touch Bar is phenomenal for all the hunt and peck typers out there, for the rest of us, not so much. I am using the GoldenChaos preset with Better Touch Tool and I have to say, having 2 finger swipe for volume and 3 finger swipe for brightness make the bar slightly useful since I don't need to look at it for those features. If I'm ever feeling up to it I think the Touch Bar could be useful for gesture based commands for different apps, but it's still a solution looking for a problem. If I can do gestures on the touchbar I can just as easily do those gestures on the trackpad.

 

[natif09]

they also seem to be phasing out the touch bar, since no new models are released with it.

May be due to Intel not releasing a Coffee Lake CPU but with a 15W TDP, as used in the 2017 nTB model :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_Lake#Mobile_processors

Edit: sorry, this is rather the reason why we don't see a new nTB model...

 

[Plutonius]

Will wait until I can then I will return it and contributed to the refurbished market.

I would never purchase a 2018 model (especially the MacBook Pro) as a refurbished computer from Apple.

Apple has not stated the cause of the T2 Bridge OS problem and has not given a fix. The T2 Bridge OS problem also seems to be intermittent and I think these computers are just being resold after cleaning them off. I would not be surprised if the refurbished computers have a much larger percentage of the T2 Bridge OS fault.

 

[brainray]

I'm not sure about this. 2 colleagues sitting next to me didn't have a single KP yet. They also don't get the Photo Booth crash. That's why I have the impression that it's just some faulty units.

Correction: one of my colleagues just had his first KP when awaking MBP 15 from sleep. However, we couldn't force the PhotoBooth Mac on this one. It looks like every Mac seems to have a special footprint of T2 crashes.

Okay: 3 of 5 MacBook Pro 2018 in my near area seem to have some kind of T2 problem. This statistic is not representative of course.

 

[asiga]

Okay: 3 of 5 MacBook Pro 2018 in my near area seem to have some kind of T2 problem. This statistic is not representative of course.

Not representative, but it speaks volumes about Apple's goals nowadays: not having fixed (nor even diagnosed) the T2 issue yet after all these months means they have a ratio like 1 engineer working in MacOS for 50 engineers working in iOS.

Do you imagine new iPhones suffering KPs 4 months after their release? By answering this question, everything is said, I'm afraid.

 

[antonis]

Do you imagine new iPhones suffering KPs 4 months after their release? By answering this question, everything is said, I'm afraid.

Indeed, an excellent point. As a matter of fact it would bring an earthquake to Apple. Sure, many people here with the Stockholm Syndrome would try to defend it and blame the users, the planets and the universe, but it would never remain such an issue for such a long time in iOS. Just like the serious charging issues the new iPhones had during release were resolved ASAP.

MacOS and macs are undeniably an afterthought for apple for a few years now.

 

[Plutonius]

Not representative, but it speaks volumes about Apple's goals nowadays: not having fixed (nor even diagnosed) the T2 issue yet after all these months means they have a ratio like 1 engineer working in MacOS for 50 engineers working in iOS.

I'm sure by now Apple knows everything about the T2 Bridge OS fault (it started with the iMac Pro).

I believe that the fault is in hardware (T2 chip) and that they have no solution other than trying to fix the hardware issue with software / firmware changes. Software / firmware can do a lot but generally can't eliminate a hardware issue.

It would be bad for Apple if they admitted a hardware fault which is why I believe why they aren't saying anything about the T2 Bridge OS fault. People only have to look back at older MacBook Pros and GPU failures to know that Apple can sell products with known faults.

 

[maflynn]

I believe that the fault is in hardware (T2 chip)

Hardware malfunction, i.e., defective, or hardware design?

The reason why I ask, is its curious to see Apple further embrace the T2 chip usage, with the Mini and MBA now using it. With that said, it does not effect everyone which would seemingly point to be a defect

 

[Chancha]

Hardware malfunction, i.e., defective, or hardware design?

The reason why I ask, is its curious to see Apple further embrace the T2 chip usage, with the Mini and MBA now using it. With that said, it does not effect everyone which would seemingly point to be a defect

To me it points to a similar direction like keyboard failures, where there is an odds of getting perfectly working hardware, the failure rate is not great enough to initiate a recall, but enough to get noticed on scale.

Tham being confident to ship the chip in MBA and Mini, where it is very deep into the problems being publicly known, also seems fishy. If it were the old Apple, I would have concluded that they may be confident enough to have solved the issue through firmware / software updates. But with modern Apple, as with the Butterfly switches, they probably found themselves way too deeply invested into the design to pull out completely, the alternative is to roll with it.

 

[Ma2k5]

Hardware malfunction, i.e., defective, or hardware design?

The reason why I ask, is its curious to see Apple further embrace the T2 chip usage, with the Mini and MBA now using it. With that said, it does not effect everyone which would seemingly point to be a defect

Definitely hardware design. Unless the whole Apple team is totally incompetent, this is the only explanation I can think of as to why it has yet to be fixed. Software fixes for hardware issues are very difficult.

Apple also embraced butterfly gen 3 on thew new Air's, even though they still have issues on them, so I don't think that'll stop them from using the T2 chip - I mean they implemented it in the MBP after it had issues on the iMac's which weren't fixed yet...

Some people also don't have issues with the butterfly keyboards but I still believe the design is the defect itself of the keys and I think it is the same story with the T2 chip.

 

[Plutonius]

Hardware malfunction, i.e., defective, or hardware design?

The reason why I ask, is its curious to see Apple further embrace the T2 chip usage, with the Mini and MBA now using it. With that said, it does not effect everyone which would seemingly point to be a defect

I believe it's design issues in the T2 itself. If it was fabrication issues, we would probably be seeing a lot more failures and they would most likely not be intermittent.

Most people will never see the T2 Bridge OS fault and we will probably never know the cause.

But with modern Apple, as with the Butterfly switches, they probably found themselves way too deeply invested into the design to pull out completely, the alternative is to roll with it.

I don't think it's just Apple. All big corporations act this way.

 

[xgman]

7:45 in this guy also says he's had this happen on 4 of his, hasn't happened on his Vega 20 cause he disabled secure boot.

Disabling Secure boot has not made any difference for me., Still Bridge OS crash on occasional startups unfortunately. However, since as many functions of T2 I have disabled and I don't sue sleep, I only see the crashes upon certain startups or reboots and not in OSX once up and running.

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I'm sure by now Apple knows everything about the T2 Bridge OS fault (it started with the iMac Pro).

I believe that the fault is in hardware (T2 chip) and that they have no solution other than trying to fix the hardware issue with software / firmware changes. Software / firmware can do a lot but generally can't eliminate a hardware issue.

It would be bad for Apple if they admitted a hardware fault which is why I believe why they aren't saying anything about the T2 Bridge OS fault. People only have to look back at older MacBook Pros and GPU failures to know that Apple can sell products with known faults.

nope, they're sr level tech solution is still limited to "try and reinstall".

 

[Plutonius]

nope, they're sr level tech solution is still limited to "try and reinstall".

There is a difference in knowing why a problem is occurring and knowing how to correct the problem.

I believe that Apple engineering knows everything behind the causes of the T2 Bridge OS fault but doesn't know a fix other then perhaps a redesign on the T2 chip. As others have said, it looks like Apple is trying to delay until they can alleviate the T2 Bridge error fault in software / firmware (i.e. there is no final fix that they can currently give the sr level techs).

 

[xgman]

There is a difference in knowing why a problem is occurring and knowing how to correct the problem.

I believe that Apple engineering knows everything behind the causes of the T2 Bridge OS fault but doesn't know a fix other then perhaps a redesign on the T2 chip. As others have said, it looks like Apple is trying to delay until they can alleviate the T2 Bridge error fault in software / firmware (i.e. there is no final fix that they can currently give the sr level techs).

I'd agree with that, unless the threshold of people complaining about this and sending the crash reports doesn't meet their priority list.

 

[Pangalactic]

I'd agree with that, unless the threshold of people complaining about this and sending the crash reports doesn't meet their priority list.

I'm pretty sure it's a hardware problem. It's quite a noticeable trend with Apple:

If it's a software problem (which can be fixed without much $$$ spending) - acknowledge and issue a patch or a fix to resolve it
If it's a hardware problem (meaning a potential loss of $$$ for Apple) - keep quiet and pretend it's not there

 

[Plutonius]

If it's a hardware problem (meaning a potential loss of $$$ for Apple) - keep quiet and pretend it's not there

In this case, I would say the strategy is working. It seems to me that most people aren't aware of the T2 Bridge OS problem and just consider it another annoying software crash.

I think that most people that buy new model Mac laptops also aren't aware of potential problems with the butterfly keyboard.

The T2 is just an intermediate step until Apple can replace the Intel processors with an Apple designed Arm processor. It will be interesting to see if a T3 chip is released or if they directly transition from Intel / T2 to an Arm processor laptop.

 

[appelei]

Hi there! Just got my first Mac ever: a 2017 MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar. Now I am reading about these Kernal Panics and it scares the crap out of me! Am I ****ed now or is this only related to Touch Bar models? Thank you for commenting and helping me out. When I went to the store I was really confused with al the laptops they offered, but luckily someone with Apple experience went with me to buy the thing.

For now: I really enjoy the OS, the shortcuts and mission control and other stuff. Just started with learning some Python and coding on this display is so much better than what I was used to! Good for my eyes to look at the sharp text (1337 x something dell tn display). Battery life is amazing as well.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

In this case, I would say the strategy is working. It seems to me that most people aren't aware of the T2 Bridge OS problem and just consider it another annoying software crash.

I think that most people that buy new model Mac laptops also aren't aware of potential problems with the butterfly keyboard.

The T2 is just an intermediate step until Apple can replace the Intel processors with an Apple designed Arm processor. It will be interesting to see if a T3 chip is released or if they directly transition from Intel / T2 to an Arm processor laptop.

I do believe by the time they can ARM the MacBook Pro the AXX chip will have insane performance and leapfrog Intel. It's all about getting the timing right.