2018 MacBook Pros crashing with "Bridge OS" error

[Trillion]

so when you are watching on youtube always happens? after how much time or how do you reproduce it?

It could happen after watching a 30 sec video or not happen after watching 6 hours of videos a day for a week.
it doesn't always happen when watching a video or listening to music but when it happens I always do one of those two things (out of my computer working time half of it is doing those thinks and half is without listening to music or watching any videos so I would expect it to also happen when not doing any of those things).
but I might be imagining correlations after so much time trying to figure out what is causing this...

 

[Peanutheadxx]

It could happen after watching a 30 sec video or not happen after watching 6 hours of videos a day for a week.
it doesn't always happen when watching a video or listening to music but when it happens I always do one of those two things (out of my computer working time half of it is doing those thinks and half is without listening to music or watching any videos so I would expect it to also happen when not doing any of those things).
but I might be imagining correlations after so much time trying to figure out what is causing this...

no, you are correct. The only time I had KPs were during music streaming through Spotify and FaceTime Audio call.

 

[Trillion]

does someone experience those bridgeOS KP without having Intel power gadget installed ?
If it is not sound it is the only other thing that can cause the problem, I have fresh install with almost nothing on it beside the power gadget (and since it asks for system privileges at install it might interfere with system operation)
can someone confirm they have the problem without using it ?

it crashed again a few hours after the first one while watching a different video on YouTube.
both times Intel power gadget was running in the background and since I installed it only recently I suspect it.

 

[Ael_MR]

{"caused_by":"macos","macos_system_state":"running","bug_type":"210","os_version":"Bridge OS 3.0 (16P375)","timestamp":"2018-10-19 10:38:23.34 +0000","incident_id":"C565F3B1-80E7-4169-8ACD-2339850D6362"}
{

I get these at least once a week, always wake from sleep. If it's a software, fix I hope it gets patched soon...

 

[solouki]

Deleted file from SMB-mounted HDD...

Yes, I've had WiFi (no Internet, no ping, no rsync, no ssh) and bluetooth (no external keyboard) connection issues as well as KPs on an entirely pristine machine, i.e., one whose SSD has been erased with HS and SU2 freshly installed with no other software or files transferred to the machine, not even other Apple software such as Xcode or the Commandline Tools.

In attempting to test for the random and intermittent WiFi connection problems (now on the second of two 2018 MBPs) without loading any other software but the basic system, I mounted (SMB) an HDD over WiFi and played using iTunes an older iTunes Library of music streamed over WiFi to a HomePod. The MBP's iTunes app informed me that it was updating the older iTunes Library, so it copied the old one to the Previous iTunes Libraries subdirectory but then failed to generate the updated iTunes Library file in the iTunes folder. I discovered this when I attempted to restart iTunes, it complained that the iTunes folder did not contain an iTunes Library file. (I tested exactly this same scenario but using a 2016 MBP instead the 2018 MBP, and the 2016 model successfully updated the old iTunes Library on exactly the same WiFi mounted SMB HDD, thus showing that this error in no way was due to the old iTunes Library nor the WiFi mounted SMB HDD.)
I documented this error and uploaded the documentation to Apple Support.

In summary, iTunes had deleted a file on a disk mounted over WiFi on a pristine reinstall of the latest software -- granted HS/SU2 because that is what the machine came with. To me, this is a scary error since it means that the 2018 MBP is capable of deleting files improperly.

[doublepost=1539991558][/doublepost]
Dang nabbit -- I wish the blog software hadn't merged these two posts since they were on different topics.

Corrupted encrypted file...

Another error that I consider quite serious, is one entailing gpg encryption/decryption. I've been using gpg since before its inception and before that I had been using my own coded RSA algorithm to perform encryption/decryption tasks of files. In all that time (over 25 years), I've never seen the following error, that is, until last month on the 2018 MBP.

Because of the Heartbleed and CUPID security holes, I wrote a 3500+ line bash script to implement a more secure encryption/decryption scheme using gpg2 for the encrypt/decrypt tasks. By more secure I mean that before the encryption/decryption, the network is stopped (i.e., the machine is taken offline), the abilities to write sleep images and swap files are stopped, no logins are allowed, etc. The encrypted files are then decrypted and edited, and then re-encrypted. Before resuming normal computer operations, the re-encrypted files are temporarily decrypted and checked against the original decrypted and edited files (thus verifying that the decryption/editing/encryption worked correctly). All of these steps and their outputs are written to a log file, thus documenting that each step worked correctly. Any failures of these actions is caught by the bash script and the user is not allowed to complete the actions until corrective actions are taken. Once the decrypt/edit/encrypt is validated, then the script deletes the decryptions, overwrites RAM memory with random bits (to confound the Heartbleed and CUPID security holes), it then reattaches the computer's network connections, turns the sleep and swap images back on, etc., and completes the session with a successful terminal message.

On the 2018 MBP I used this bash script to edit an encrypted file. It did so successfully, meaning that the original encrypted file had been properly decrypted, the decrypted file was edited, and the edited file was re-encrypted. The re-encrypted edited file was then decrypted and the decryption validated against the original edited version, i.e., the decryption/edit/encryption worked properly. But when I went to re-edit the same encrypted file six days later the bash script alerted me to the fact that gpg2 had failed in its decryption. In particular, gpg2 complained that it did have the necessary key ID to perform the decryption. The offending key ID reported by gpg2 does not even exist: nowhere is this key in my public nor secret keychains. In other words, according to gpg2 I could not have created this encrypted file, and yet I did create it and I have the log files to prove it. So, the encrypted file on the SSD had a corrupted key ID. Since the decryption/encryption had worked correctly 6 days earlier, this means that while these files were in RAM memory, the decryption/encryption by gpg2 had worked correctly, but either when the file was subsequently written to the SSD, or at a subsequent time during the 6 day hiatus, the file stored on the SSD was corrupted. (Now this encrypted, but corrupted, file can never be decrypted, it is lost forever. Fortunately I had a backup of the encrypted file that was not corrupted, so I only lost the edits that I had done 6 days earlier. Remembering those edits allowed me to recover the file with all of its edits.) I carefully documented this SSD error and uploaded the results to Apple Support.

This is the first and only time that I have ever seen this type of encryption/decryption error in over 25 years of use of the RSA algorithm and gpg on dozens of computers under multiple different operating systems (Cray, Sun, Iris, DEC, Connection Machine, BBN Butterfly, PCs, Linuxes, Macs, even Raspberry Pis, ...).

In summary, to me, this is a very serious error because it means that the 2018 MBP is capable of corrupting the files on its own SSD, as demonstrated and documented by me.

This type of error might also partially explain the seemingly delayed KPs initially, but then ever increasing frequency of KPs. Say that initially the kernel code is pristine and correct, so no KPs initially. But over time the macOS slowly introduces corruption randomly into the kernel code, then voila, a kernel panic occurs because of a corrupted kernel module. With more random code corruptions, then more random KPs. In other words, there is no one reason for KPs, they happen upon wake from sleep, they happen while playing audio, they happen while playing video, they happen while using emacs to write code (a la my own KPs), they happen while the computer is apparently idle, they happen while the CPUs are completely saturated, they happen while using WiFi, etc. What do you think?

 

[RobbieTT]

Does anyone have a machine that doesn't crash after say a month ?
are they all broken or only a large part of them ?

I have 2 that have never crashed and 1 that has.

 

[solouki]

WiFi connection issues...

I've had too many WiFi connection issues to count, dozens that I've documented. And these WiFi connection issues manifest themselves as other problems. And I've seen them on two 2018 MBPs so far.

First of all, these WiFi connection issues are random and intermittent. I've tried to determine how to cause them, but haven't been successful, they just occur at apparently random times. And they are often, but not always, intermittent, meaning that they often resolve themselves. I've seen these WiFi problems resolve themselves within a minute or two (many times), I've seen them resolve themselves within 5 minutes, and I've waited 15 minutes with no resolution, 30 minutes, and even all the way out to 150 minutes without the WiFi connection issue resolving itself. When there was no resolution, I solved the problem by cycling the WiFi off and then back on to resolve the issue. So, on two machines, I found these WiFi connection issues random and often intermittent.

Why do I call these "WiFi connection issues"? I call these errors "issues" because the WiFi hardware is still working while the computer looses WiFi connection capabilities. I know this because on another computer, while the 2018 MBPs were having connection problems, I used Wireshark in promiscuous mode to capture all of the WiFi packets on my LAN, and I find that the 2018 MBP is still sending and receiving some WiFi packets, so the hardware is still operative. The problem often manifests itself by some other app/program being disconnected. For instance, Safari with produce an error stating that there is No Internet Connection, even though all of my other computers, all attached to the same WiFi router, still have Internet connection. I also can't ping either local machines (LAN) nor Internet machines (www.apple.com). Ping returns the errors: "cannot resolve www.apple.com: Unknown host", so I thought that the 2018 MBP had forgotten its DNS servers. But when I check the MBP's DNS servers (scutil --dns), they are correct. Not only that, but the MBP's Network Pane (System Preferences) says that the MBP is still connected to the WiFi router, and the router also thinks the MBP is still connected -- but ping doesn't work and Safari can't load new webpages.

I've had rsync/ssh (rsync --rsh='ssh -p12902' -avz --delete /Users/<username>/Math barbican.math.private:/Users/<username>) fail with ssh reporting a "broken pipe" error (the ssh tunnel) and rsync reporting an "unknown error". This was most likely a WiFi connection issue. I've had the Mac App Store fail to download an update, in particular, the Supplemental Update 2 failed the first time, also most likely because of a WiFi connection issue. I've had Time Machine fail to complete a backup to a Time Capsule (also my router), most likely because of a WiFi connection issue. I've had iTunes delete its iTunes Library on an SMB-mounted over WiFi HDD disk, probably a WiFi connection issue. I've had the MBP improperly eject SMB-mounted over WiFi disks without first umount-ing them, also likely caused by an intermittent WiFi connection issue. I've had the MBP fail to complete a printing job to a WiFi connected HP printer, probably because of a WiFi connection issue. I've had the MBP scan the first 3 pages of a document on a WiFi connected HP scanner only to have the MBP report that it has no scanner software for the HP and thus I had to reinstall the HP scanner software before completing pages 5 and 6 of the document, also likely caused by a WiFi connection issue.

Intriguingly, while the WiFi connection issues are active (no ping, no Internet, etc.), I often can still AirDrop files to the 2018 MBPs. Since AirDrop uses bluetooth to establish a private WiFi P2P network, this means that the WiFi hardware is still working even though there are no WiFi connections (as I also knew this to be the case because of the Wireshark packet sniffer results showing packets from the MBPs). On the other hand, I've also seen AirDrop fail about a half-dozen times in the middle of transferring files to the 2018 MBP.

While all of these WiFi connection issues were occurring on the 2018 MBPs, all of my other machines, including other Macs, PCs running Windows, PCs running Ubuntu and ArchLinux, and Raspberry Pis, iPhones, Apple Watch, HomePod, Amazon Echo, etc. all still had WiFi connection and Internet access.

I have carefully documented all of these WiFi connection issues and uploaded the data, including Wireshark packet capture files (pcap) and sysdiagnose diagnostic files taken during the intermittent WiFi disconnections, to Apple Support.

In summary, the WiFi randomly and often intermittently disconnects from the Internet and LAN. Many of these disconnections probably go unnoticed since the WiFi connection issues often resolve themselves in less than a minute, but sometimes they never resolves themselves and must be fixed manually.

Can these WiFi connection issues cause KPs? I don't know.

 

[asiga]

Does anyone have a machine that doesn't crash after say a month ?
are they all broken or only a large part of them ?

Mine is almost 3 weeks old with everyday use (got it on Oct 1st, although Coconut Battery says it was assembled on Sept 10th... but my BridgeOS firmware is 16P375, which I believe it's more recent than Sept 10th, so maybe they reinstalled firmwares on factory at the last minute). I got it with 10.13.6 but without the SU2 installed. I installed SU2.

I have been using it everyday since Oct 1st.
I also listen to music (Vox player and Youtube, but no iTunes) quite frequently.
I have FileVault turned on. Lots of data written into the SSD (587GB free out of the 1TB SSD).

But, some differences to your use are:

-My MBP never sleeps (because I'm used to shutdown).
-I don't have the Intel power gadget installed (which was another of your questions).
[doublepost=1540029952][/doublepost]

Installed Open Beta 4. T2 firmware was updated yet again and now has a version of
16P51061a. I haven't got any KPs since the last one on Open Beta 3 10 days ago too.

It's a very good symptom that they updated the firmware from beta to beta: This shows they are working at it.

 

[solouki]

Bluetooth connection issues...

I have a brand new external Apple Magic Keyboard (space gray) and external Apple Magic Trackpad (space gray). I've had numerous disconnections by two 2018 MBPs to these external devices.

After the initial setup of the two 2018 MBPs using the external keyboard and trackpad, both machines complained upon first login to my user account that the keyboard was "unknown" and asked me to press the key next to the left shift key (i.e., the Z key). This didn't work on either 2018 MBP and so the MBPs did not accept input from the external keyboard, and thus to resolve this error I had to disconnect and forget the keyboard (both the Bluetooth Pane as well as the Keyboard Pane of System Preferences thought that the external keyboard was connected, but the MBPs accepted no input from the keyboard), and then re-configure the new keyboard.

Later, at random times, the MBPs would loose connection to the external keyboard and trackpad -- often loosing connection to only one at a time with the other one still connected and still working. For instance, this even happened on the second MBP after erasure of the SSD and fresh reinstall of HS and SU2 with no other software or files loaded on the MBP. This time the MBP lost connection to the external keyboard - now the Bluetooth Pane and Keyboard Pane listed the keyboard as connected, but the MBP did not accept any input from any pressed key on the keyboard. During this time the keyboard was not working, the MBP was accepting input from the external trackpad. So, bluetooth was working, the MBP just lost the ability to accept input from the external keyboard. I attempted to fix this problem by cycling the power switch on the keyboard, but this did not work. I tried to disconnect and reconnect in the Bluetooth Pane, eventually I had to reboot the machine to reestablish bluetooth connection with the external keyboard.

I've seen an external keyboard issue where the MBP would input multiple (several hundred) random Unicode characters without any key being pressed on the external keyboard. I documented this error with an iPhone video showing that no key was being pressed on the keyboards but multiple Unicode characters were being input into a Terminal window.

I have also seen AirDrop fail to complete an upload of a file from an iPhone X to both 2018 MBPs. Since AirDrop uses both bluetooth and WiFi P2P, I don't know what was the cause of these AirDrop failures (about a half-dozen times). I have carefully documented these bluetooth connection issues, including with videos showing the problems in realtime, and have uploaded the documentation to Apple Support.

In summary, I have experienced multiple bluetooth connection problems, both disconnections as well as multiple random inputs, to both an external Apple Magic Keyboard and an external Apple Magic Trackpad.

I do not know if these bluetooth connection issues can cause KPs, but given that I've seen random Unicode character inputs over bluetooth perhaps this is possible.
[doublepost=1540035231][/doublepost]Thunderbolt 3 issues...

I have experienced numerous T3 issues on two 2018 MBPs. In particular, both 2018 MBPs were connected to a Blackmagic Design eGPU to which an LG 5K monitor was attached to which two 4TB LaCie HDDs were attached. In other words all of these devices were daisy-chained to a Thunderbolt 3 port on the MBPs.

Upon waking from sleep, I've seen the MBP's internal display as well as the external 5K monitor flicker around a half-dozen times, often resulting in the 5K monitor remaining black at the conclusion of the flickering. The only solution to these problems that I have found is to reboot the MBP. I have iPhone videos documenting these monitor problems.

I've seen the 5K monitor turn black and loose connection in the middle of work (multiple times), that is, not when waking from sleep mode. When this happens I've had the MBP terminate all 6 of my Terminal app windows, each with 6 tabs. I've also had the monitor turn black and the MBP terminate only one of my six Terminal app windows with the other five Terminal windows simply shifting to the MBP's display. I've seen my emacs windows on the 5K monitor being "resized" incorrectly from filling the 5K screen to filling only about 2/3 of the screen (multiple times on both 2018 MBPs). All of these problems I have carefully documented with Grab screenshots, iPhone photos, and iPhone videos.

I've seen the external 5K monitor turn into a 2.5K monitor, i.e., the 5K display is divided vertically down the middle, with the left-half working as a display and the right-half turning black. I documented these errors with iPhone photos and videos.

More worrisome, I have had the two Thunderbolt 3 attached external HDDs ejected improperly by the MBPs without first being umount-ed. I've also had a RAID0 Thunderbolt 3 SSD (LaCie Bolt3) attached directly to the MBP ejected improperly.

I have carefully documented these Thunderbolt 3 problems with screenshots, iPhone photos and videos, and uploaded the documentation to Apple Support.

In support of these issues being 2018 MBP problems, I have substituted a 2016 MBP into the same setup, simply replacing the 2018 MBP with a 2016 MBP. I have run the 2016 MBP in place of the 2018 MBP for over a month with none of the connection problems, KPs, Thunderbolt 3 problems that I have seen on the 2018 MBP. In other words, these problems appear to be related solely to the 2018 MBPs.

in summary, I have experienced multiple Thunderbolt 3 connection issues with an external 5K monitor and external mounted disks on two 2018 MBPs.

Can these Thunderbolt 3 issues cause KPs? I don't know, but given that I've seen Thunderbolt 3 connected disks being improperly ejected, I suspect that KPs may be possible from these types of issues. (For instance, I've seen a file on the MBP's internal SSD being corrupted -- perhaps caused by a bus problem on writing to the SSD.)

 

[solouki]

Boot issues and KPs...

I have experienced multiple KPs (over two dozen) on two different 2018 MBPs. Some of the KPs have occurred upon waking from sleep mode, but I have also experienced KPs occurring while I was coding on the MBP (not in sleep mode, in other words). I have seen these KPs occur when running multiple different programs, not always the same program. Since I almost never watch videos on the MBPs, I haven't had any KPs occur during video playing.

I have also had a KP on a pristine install of macOS HS + SU2 after erasure of the SSD, i.e., with no other software and no other files downloaded to the MBP. I have had a KP while the MBP was not connected to any external devices (except my LAN by WiFi) and on battery power.

I have also experienced 3 panics (shutdown/reboots) that happened so early that they never even made it to the crash and panic logs, i.e., unrecorded shutdown/reboots.

I had one failed "Restart..." (though the Apple menu) where the MBP's display turned dark but the cursor was still present and active through the external trackpad, i.e., I could move the cursor with the trackpad. However, the external and internal keyboards were inactive so that they would not register any input, and I couldn't ssh login into the machine over my LAN. After waiting for 8 minutes with nothing changing, I eventually performed a hard shutdown (holding the power button for 10+ seconds). When I attempted to boot the MBP by pressing the power button, the Apple logo appeared but no progress bar. I waited for over 30 minutes with nothing changing, the MBP would accept no keyboard nor trackpad input and I couldn't ssh login over the network to the machine. I eventually performed another hard shutdown (holding the power button for 10+ seconds) but was worried that I had "lost" the computer. I was able to perform a Recovery Boot, however, followed by a normal boot. When I logged in after these shutdown/boot errors, the sysdiagnose log files did not show any kernel panics. I documented these with iPhone videos showing the failed shutdown and failed boot.

I documented all of the KPs and boot troubles with iPhone photos, iPhone videos, and sysdiagnose diagnostic tests. All of this documentation was uploaded to Apple Support.

I order my first 2018 MBP the day they became available at the Apple online store. After 10 days of reporting errors and uploading documentation to Apple Support on my first 2018 MBP, Apple said that their engineers wanted the machine back to check it themselves. So a replacement was authorized. At this point I had assumed that I had just gotten a "lemon", perhaps some problem with one of the chips (T2) or on the motherboard. I hadn't yet read this thread, nor Reddit, nor the Apple Community forum. If I had been cognizant of these KPs, I probably would have just asked to return the MBP. But during my wait for the replacement, I decided to investigate these issues and found various threads on the Apple Community fora as well as this thread. When the replacement 2018 MBP arrived, I still had hope that there were 2018 MBPs that didn't suffer these issues, but immediately I started having problems with the new MBP, including the failure to install the Supplemental Update 2. Ultimately I found all of the same problems on the second MBP as I had on the first MBP, including after SSD erasure and reinstall of a pristine macOS + SU2 with no other software nor files downloaded to the machine.

My fourth Apple Senior Advisor has authorized a third 2018 MBP to replace my second one. He did this 10 days ago and I still do not have a Apple Replacement authorization (hopefully it will come on Monday). Actually, after 5 days I did get an Apple Replacement authorization, but it contained the wrong serial number (the SN for the first MBP, not the second MBP), and I got a FedEx authorization to pick up the machine, but I didn't want to send it back since the SN was incorrect and feared that Apple would thus not accept that it was a return. So, I am still waiting for this issue to be resolved correctly, although I've been told that I will get an Apple Replacement authorization with the correct SN.

I suspect that the third 2018 MBP will be built with macOS 10.14 Mojave instead of 10.13 High Sierra. The first two MBPs arrived with HS installed (i.e., before Mojave was available). A careful reading of this MacRumors thread had indicated that neither 10.14 nor any of the Betas solved the KP problems, thus I resisted upgrading the first two 2018 MBPs to Mojave. In the interest of simplicity and not wanting to add new parameters to my experiments attempting to track down the troubles on these machines, I stayed with HS+SU2.

In summary, I have had multiple boot/shutdown/KP problems on two 2018 MBPs including during sleep, while working, and on a pristine install of the macOS with no third-party software.

Because of the KPs, and especially since I have found a file stored on the internal SSD having been corrupted, as well as the macOS also incorrectly deleting a file on an external SMB-mounted HDD, I feel that I cannot trust the 2018 MBPs for my work (mostly coding, number crunching quantum calculations, and TeX writing). In fact, out of the roughly 90 days that I have had the 2018 MBPs, I have actually gotten only about 2 days of productive use, the rest of the time was spent tracking down errors and documenting them (I have uploaded over 900 files, 6+GB of data, to Apple Support), and setting the 2018 MBPs aside for weeks because I couldn't trust them. Since I discovered the WiFi connection issues early, I refrained from ever building my code or running my number crunching programs on data stored on SMB-mounted RAID0 disks, but I did typeset my scientific writing (17000+ pages of LaTeX contained in over 50000 files) during those two days of productive work on the 2018 MBP. But since I later discovered the SSD file corruption issue, I hope that I won't live to regret typesetting my writing since if any of the TeX source files were corrupted it would be nearly impossible for me to find the corruption -- i.e., I will never re-proofread all of this writing ever again.

If my third 2018 MBP has the same problems as the first two, then I suspect that nearly all 2018 MBPs have these problems. For example, say the probability of getting three 2018 MBP with these problems is 50:50, then 79.7% of all 2018 MBPs would have to have these problems. Or, from another viewpoint, the chances of me getting three 2018 MBPs in a row with errors is 1:8 if MBPs have a 50:50 chance of having these problems. I'll just have to wait and see if I get a third 2018 MBP that does not suffer these problems. And since I have found the same problems on two 2018 MBPs including one with no third-party software installed, these issues are either hardware (perhaps T2?) or Apple software (firmware) problems. They are not due to third-party software, in other words. Rather, these errors may manifest themselves while running third-party software, but the third-party software does not cause the errors in the first place.

At this point I cannot trust the 2018 MBPs with my coding or writing work. On the other hand I have trusted other Macs, including 2016 MBPs, earlier MBPs, iMacs, Mac mini, Windows PCs running RedHat, SuSe, Mandriva, Ubuntu, and Raspberry Pis running Raspbian for the last 20 odd years running exactly the same software programs building the same code and typesetting the same TeX documents without issues. (See my other posts for details of my other problems on the 2018 MBPs.)

[Two 2.9 GHz core i9 6 CPU 12 thread 32GB DDR4 4TB SSD 15" MBPs]

 

[content]

Boot issues and KPs...

I have experienced multiple KPs (over two dozen) on two different 2018 MBPs. Some of the KPs have occurred upon waking from sleep mode, but I have also experienced KPs occurring while I was coding on the MBP (not in sleep mode, in other words). I have seen these KPs occur when running multiple different programs, not always the same program. Since I almost never watch videos on the MBPs, I haven't had any KPs occur during video playing.

I have also had a KP on a pristine install of macOS HS + SU2 after erasure of the SSD, i.e., with no other software and no other files downloaded to the MBP. I have had a KP while the MBP was not connected to any external devices (except my LAN by WiFi) and on battery power.

I have also experienced 3 panics (shutdown/reboots) that happened so early that they never even made it to the crash and panic logs, i.e., unrecorded shutdown/reboots.

I had one failed "Restart..." (though the Apple menu) where the MBP's display turned dark but the cursor was still present and active through the external trackpad, i.e., I could move the cursor with the trackpad. However, the external and internal keyboards were inactive so that they would not register any input, and I couldn't ssh login into the machine over my LAN. After waiting for 8 minutes with nothing changing, I eventually performed a hard shutdown (holding the power button for 10+ seconds). When I attempted to boot the MBP by pressing the power button, the Apple logo appeared but no progress bar. I waited for over 30 minutes with nothing changing, the MBP would accept no keyboard nor trackpad input and I couldn't ssh login over the network to the machine. I eventually performed another hard shutdown (holding the power button for 10+ seconds) but was worried that I had "lost" the computer. I was able to perform a Recovery Boot, however, followed by a normal boot. When I logged in after these shutdown/boot errors, the sysdiagnose log files did not show any kernel panics. I documented these with iPhone videos showing the failed shutdown and failed boot.

I documented all of the KPs and boot troubles with iPhone photos, iPhone videos, and sysdiagnose diagnostic tests. All of this documentation was uploaded to Apple Support.

I order my first 2018 MBP the day they became available at the Apple online store. After 10 day of reporting errors and uploading documentation to Apple Support on my first 2018 MBP, Apple said that their engineers wanted the machine back to check it themselves. So a replacement was authorized. At this point I had assumed that I had just gotten a "lemon", perhaps some problem with one of the chips (T2) or on the motherboard. I hadn't yet read this thread, nor Reddit, nor the Apple Community forum. If I had been cognizant of these KPs, I probably would have just asked to return the MBP. But during my wait for the replacement, I decided to investigate these issues and found various threads on the Apple Community fora as will as this thread. When the replacement 2018 MBP arrived, I still had hope that there were 2018 MBP that didn't suffer these issues, but immediately I started having problems with the new MBP, including the failure to install the Supplemental Update 2. Ultimately I found all of the same problems on the second MBP as I had on the first MBP. including after SSD erasure and reinstall of a pristine macOS + SU2 with no other software nor files downloaded to the machine.

My fourth Apple Senior Advisor has authorized a third 2018 MBP to replace my second one. He did this 10 days ago and I still do not have a Apple Replacement authorization (hopefully it will come on Monday). Actually, after 5 days I did get an Apple Replacement authorization, but it contained the wrong serial number (the SN for the first MBP, not the second MBP), and I got a FedEx authorization to pick up the machine, but I didn't want to send it back since the SN was incorrect and feared that Apple would thus not accept that it was a return. So, I still waiting for this issue to be resolved correctly, although I've been told that I will get an Apple Replacement authorization with the correct SN.

I suspect that the third 2018 MBP will be built with macOS 10.14 Mojave instead of 10.13 High Sierra. The first two MBPs arrived with HS installed (i.e., before Mojave was available). A careful reading of this MacRumors thread had indicated that neither 10.14 nor any of the Betas solved the KP problems, thus I resisted upgrading the first two 2018 MBPs to Mojave. In the interest of simplicity and not wanting to add new parameters to my experiments attempting to track down the troubles on these machines, I stayed with HS+SU2.

In summary, I have had multiple boot/shutdown/KP problems on two 2018 MBPs including during sleep, while working, and on a pristine install of the macOS.

Because of the KPs, and especially since I have found a file stored on the internal SSD having been corrupted, as well as the macOS also incorrectly deleting a file on an external SMB-mounted HDD, I feel that I cannot trust the 2018 MBPs for my work (mostly coding and TeX writing). In fact, out of the roughly 90 days that I have had the 2018 MBPs, I have actually gotten only about 2 days of productive use, the rest of the time was spent tracking down errors and documenting them (I have uploaded over 900 files, 6+GB of data, to Apple Support), and setting the 20198 MBPs aside because I couldn't trust them. Since I discovered the WiFi connection issues early, I refrained from ever building my code or running my number crunching programs on data stored on SMB-mounted RAID0 disks, but I did typeset my scientific writing (17000+ pages of LaTeX contained in over 50000 files) during those two days of productive work on the 2018 MBP. But since I later discovered the SSD file corruption issue, I hope that I won't live to regret typesetting my writing since if any of the TeX source files were corrupted it would be nearly impossible for me to find the corruption -- i.e., I will never re-proofread all of this writing ever again.

If my third 2018 MBP has the same problems as the first two, then I suspect that nearly all 2018 MBPs have these problems. For example, say the probability of getting three 2018 MBP with these problems is 50:50, then 79.7% of all 2018 MBPs would have to have these problems. Or, from another viewpoint, the chances of me getting three 2018 MBPs in a row with errors is 1:8 if MBPs have a 50:50 chance of having these problems. I'll just have to wait and see if I get a third 2018 MBP that does not suffer these problems. And since I have found the same problems on two 2018 MBPs including one with no third-party software installed, these issues are either hardware (perhaps T2?) or Apple software (firmware) problems.

At this point I cannot trust the 2018 MBPs with my coding or writing work. On the other hand I have trusted other Macs, including 2016 MBPs, earlier MBPs, iMacs, Mac mini, Windows PCs running RedHat, SuSe, Mandriva, Ubuntu, and Raspberry Pis running Raspbian for the last 20 odd years running exactly the same software programs building the same code and typesetting the same TeX documents without issues. (See my other posts for details of my other problems.)

[Two 2.9 GHz core i9 6 CPU 12 thread 32GB DDR4 4TB SSD 15" MBPs]

Thank you very much for all of the contributions you made, and are making. I really do appreciate your work on this issue...

 

[solouki]

Thank you very much for all of the contributions you made, and are making. I really do appreciate your work on this issue...

You are very welcome ... and I thank everyone for your posts. I have been closely reading this thread (every post) since my first 2018 MBP was scheduled to be replaced, and I found the information invaluable to my own efforts at tracking down the errors on the 2018 MBPs. I appreciate everyone's work and thought I'd repay by posting descriptions of what I have found in the hopes of helping someone else.

Thanks to all,
Solouki

 

[Sapphire08]

This is a very long thread and I haven't read it all, I'm not very technical is don't really know my bridge from my kernel but
My 9 day old 2018 13" MacBook Pro 2.3ghz i5 16GB running High Sierra also wakes up an external monitor while asleep so now I disconnect it when I put it sleep.

Had some very loud 'pop's from I presume the speakers a couple of days ago, but nothing since a restart thank goodness.

I restarted it a few days in and it wouldn't fire up the OS until I chose the Mac HD as the target disk...I nearly fell off my chair I thought it had totally failed!!! But on a brand new machine - I'm concerned.
It has also restarted itself 4 times without permission but all has been good for the last 48 hours or so.

I've had many apple products and apart from 27" iMac that just died one day I've had no problems so this really concerns me??

Do we think its just software and the next update will fix it??

 

[solouki]

This is a very long thread and I haven't read it all, I'm not very technical is don't really know my bridge from my kernel but
My 9 day old 2018 13" MacBook Pro 2.3ghz i5 16GB running High Sierra also wakes up an external monitor while asleep so now I disconnect it when I put it sleep.

Had some very loud 'pop's from I presume the speakers a couple of days ago, but nothing since a restart thank goodness.

I restarted it a few days in and it wouldn't fire up the OS until I chose the Mac HD as the target disk...I nearly fell off my chair I thought it had totally failed!!! But on a brand new machine - I'm concerned.
It has also restarted itself 4 times without permission but all has been good for the last 48 hours or so.

I've had many apple products and apart from 27" iMac that just died one day I've had no problems so this really concerns me??

Do we think its just software and the next update will fix it??

In my opinion...

Now I may be completely wrong, but in my opinion, stemming from my experiences and considerable time tracking down problems on two 2018 MBPs, I believe the most likely explanation is a T2 chip (hardware) problem, with the second most likely problem being firmware code problems, and then followed by macOS kernel problems. I do not believe that these problems are related to third-party software, since they occur even when no third-party software has been installed on the 2018 MBPs. Rather, the underlying MBP problems may just be manifested when running third-party software (in other words, 3rd party software is not to blame, but it may very well demonstrate the underlying problems). Further evidence may change my mind, but for now this is what I consider are the most likely scenarios. (By the way, these are random and often intermittent problems, so they are "bear-hard" difficult to track down. They don't occur all the time, and nothing, at least in my hands, causes these problems consistently.)

If this is a hardware problem, then it might be fixable by a firmware update, and perhaps even potentially by a macOS kernel update, or both combined. For instance, if an offending T2 chip-supplied service is causing these problems, then a firmware update may be able to eliminate this service from the T2 chip and move it over to the macOS (Intel CPU). The problem is that the T2 chip has taken over so many functions of the MBP, from control of WiFi, bluetooth, touch bar, "Hey Siri", encryption/decryption of the SSD, error logging, fingerprint authorization, shutdown/secure boot, SMC, etc., that it may be difficult to impossible to simply switch off the functions of the T2 chip and move them over to the macOS running on the CPU. This may be why Apple has taken so long to "fix" these problems (it is my understanding that many of these problems originally were found on the iMac Pros last January, and apparently they have not yet been solved on the iMac Pros -- and the iMac Pros were the first Apple computers to use the T2 chips, the 2018 MBPs are the second computer to use the T2, and both have these random KP problems).

Brief descriptions FYI:
kernel = the basic code (modules, subroutines, drivers, program code) that controls and allocates the hardware resources of the computer (the RAM memory, the SSD disk, the bus to transfer data, the ports such as Thunderbolt 3, the network such as WiFi, device drivers, etc.) to different tasks, both root tasks as well as user tasks. The kernel software executes on the Intel CPU of the computer.

bridge = the kernel code (bridgeOS) that executes on the Apple T2 chip (its own processor). This T2 chip has taken over certain services from the Intel CPU and macOS, such as fingerprint authorization, WiFi, bluetooth, shutdown/secure boot, error logging, "Hey Siri", SSD encryption/decryption, SMC, etc. I'm of the opinion, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but just because the first line of the panic report says bridgeOS does not necessarily mean that it was the bridgeOS that panic-ed, it may be that the bridgeOS attempts to report all kernel panics, including those of the macOS. I personally investigated several of my KPs and found that the panic-ed thread ID lead back to "AppleSMC", implying that these panics were caused by the SMC which indeed is being run by the T2 chip, but this doesn't mean that all kernel panics are necessarily caused by the SMC or the T2 chip. (I only traced four of my KPs, but all four did lead to the AppleSMC -- perhaps all kernel panics pass through the SMC code?)

 

[iZeljko]

In my opinion...

Now I may be completely wrong, but in my opinion, stemming from my experiences and considerable time tracking down problems on two 2018 MBPs, I believe the most likely explanation is a T2 chip (hardware) problem, with the second most likely problem being firmware code problems, and then followed by macOS kernel problems. I do not believe that these problems are related to third-party software, since they occur even when no third-party software has been installed on the 2018 MBPs. Rather, the underlying MBP problems may just be manifested when running third-party software (in other words, 3rd party software is not to blame, but it may very well demonstrate the underlying problems). Further evidence may change my mind, but for now this is what I consider are the most likely scenarios. (By the way, these are random and often intermittent problems, so they are "bear-hard" difficult to track down. They don't occur all the time, and nothing, at least in my hands, causes these problems consistently.)

If this is a hardware problem, then it might be fixable by a firmware update, and perhaps even potentially by a macOS kernel update, or both combined. For instance, if an offending T2 chip-supplied service is causing these problems, then a firmware update may be able to eliminate this service from the T2 chip and move it over to the macOS (Intel CPU). The problem is that the T2 chip has taken over so many functions of the MBP, from control of WiFi, bluetooth, touch bar, "Hey Siri", encryption/decryption of the SSD, error logging, fingerprint authorization, shutdown/secure boot, SMC, etc., that it may be difficult to impossible to simply switch off the functions of the T2 chip and move them over to the macOS running on the CPU. This may be why Apple has taken so long to "fix" these problems (it is my understanding that many of these problems originally were found on the iMac Pros last January, and apparently they have not yet been solved on the iMac Pros -- and the iMac Pros were the first Apple computers to use the T2 chips, the 2018 MBPs are the second computer to use the T2, and both have these random KP problems).

Brief descriptions FYI:
kernel = the basic code (modules, subroutines, drivers, program code) that controls and allocates the hardware resources of the computer (the RAM memory, the SSD disk, the bus to transfer data, the ports such as Thunderbolt 3, the network such as WiFi, device drivers, etc.) to different tasks, both root tasks as well as user tasks. The kernel software executes on the Intel CPU of the computer.

bridge = the kernel code (bridgeOS) that executes on the Apple T2 chip (its own processor). This T2 chip has taken over certain services from the Intel CPU and macOS, such as fingerprint authorization, WiFi, bluetooth, shutdown/secure boot, error logging, "Hey Siri", SSD encryption/decryption, SMC, etc. I'm of the opinion, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but just because the first line of the panic report says bridgeOS does not necessarily mean that it was the bridgeOS that panic-ed, it may be that the bridgeOS attempts to report all kernel panics, including those of the macOS. I personally investigated several of my KPs and found that the panic-ed thread ID lead back to "AppleSMC", implying that these panics were caused by the SMC which indeed is being run by the T2 chip, but this doesn't mean that all kernel panics are necessarily caused by the SMC or the T2 chip. (I only traced four of my KPs, but all four did lead to the AppleSMC -- perhaps all kernel panics pass through the SMC code?)

Considering all your findings would it be safe to say that Current MBP with unsolved issues is a “do not buy” product?

 

[solouki]

Considering all your findings would it be safe to say that Current MBP with unsolved issues is a “do not buy” product?

Caveat Emptor...

I'll reserve my reply until after I receive and check the third 2018 MBP.

But I should preface that the answer probably depends on your use of the machine. I really enjoyed the speed of the 2018 MBP, as it built code, number crunched, and typeset LaTeX writing roughly 50% faster than the fastest of my other machines. This is partly why I was so anxious to have it work and spurred me to attempt to track down the machine's problems. It also may be that there is a "bad lot" of T2 chips or whatnot that causes these problems, and that some 2018 MBPs really do not have any of these issues. It could be that I bought CTO machines and that the standard build machines do not have these issues. It could be that it is the interaction between the Intel core i9 and the T2 processors and the core i9s are the underlying cause. There are many, many potential sources for these errors, and I don't have a clue.

In addition, some of the problems, say the WiFi connection issues, may not bother many users since most of these problems are intermittent and "fix themselves". Say your primary use was watching YouTube videos, then since these videos are typically buffered and the WiFi disconnects are short, you may not even realize that your WiFi is disconnecting. On the occasional time that the WiFi disconnect lasts longer than a minute you might also just chalk the problem up to a "slow Internet". Many of the problems I found were also related to attached devices, a LG 5K monitor, an external Apple Magic keyboard, an external Apple Magic Trackpad, T3 connected HDDs, SMB-mounted RAID0 disks, etc., so if you have none of these devices then you wouldn't see any of their errors that I found.

Some of the problems I think anyone would be concerned with, such as the SSD file corruption that I found, but if you don't code on the machine maybe the rare file corruption really wouldn't affect you too much either (unless, of course, this is part of the cause of the KPs). It could also be that my particular 2018 MBP has this file corruption problem but other 2018 MBPs don't. (Recall from my earlier post that the 3rd-party program that produced this file corruption I have been using for over two decades on multiple different machines, including Macs, under multiple different operating systems, and this is the first time I have ever seen this type of file corruption error.)

Also, I may just be the unluckiest person in the world, and received two "lemon" 2018 MBPs in a row. Who knows? Thus my caveat of waiting to check the third 2018 MBP. The probability of getting three "lemons" in a row goes down geometrically.

Good luck.

P.S. I'll post my findings on the third 2018 MBP after I've had time to use it for awhile. Unfortunately, these problems are rare, random, and intermittent, and thus are difficult to find. I basically have to use the machine for my work for many hours daily until I see an error occur, and I'll do the same on the third 2018 MBP. (Since I don't currently trust the 2018 MBPs for my work, I actually have to run the 2018 MBP "in parallel", so to speak, with a machine that I trust. The trusted machine contains my actual work, the 2018 MBP is my clone, via git and rsync -- making me roughly 50% as productive as normal. It will take time for me to come to any conclusions/recommendations/suggestions/opinions.)

 

[RumorConsumer]

Caveat Emptor...

I'll reserve my reply until after I receive and check the third 2018 MBP.

But I should preface that the answer probably depends on your use of the machine. I really enjoyed the speed of the 2018 MBP, as it built code, number crunched, and typeset LaTeX writing roughly 50% faster than the fastest of my other machines. This is partly why I was so anxious to have it work and spurred me to attempt to track down the machine's problems. It also may be that there is a "bad lot" of T2 chips or whatnot that causes these problems, and that some 2018 MBPs really do not have any of these issues. It could be that I bought CTO machines and that the standard build machines do not have these issues. It could be that it is the interaction between the Intel core i9 and the T2 processors and the core i9s are the underlying cause. There are many, many potential sources for these errors, and I don't have a clue.

In addition, some of the problems, say the WiFi connection issues, may not bother many users since most of these problems are intermittent and "fix themselves". Say your primary use was watching YouTube videos, then since these videos are typically buffered and the WiFi disconnects are short, you may not even realize that your WiFi is disconnecting. On the occasional time that the WiFi disconnect lasts longer than a minute you might also just chalk the problem up to a "slow Internet". Many of the problems I found were also related to attached devices, a LG 5K monitor, an external Apple Magic keyboard, an external Apple Magic Trackpad, T3 connected HDDs, SMB-mounted RAID0 disks, etc., so if you have none of these devices then you wouldn't see any of their errors that I found.

Some of the problems I think anyone would be concerned with, such as the SSD file corruption that I found, but if you don't code on the machine maybe the rare file corruption really wouldn't affect you too much either (unless, of course, this is part of the cause of the KPs). It could also be that my particular 2018 MBP has this file corruption problem but other 2018 MBPs don't. (Recall from my earlier post that the 3rd-party program that produced this file corruption I have been using for over two decades on multiple different machines, including Macs, under multiple different operating systems, and this is the first time I have ever seen this type of file corruption error.)

Also, I may just be the unluckiest person in the world, and received two "lemon" 2018 MBPs in a row. Who knows? Thus my caveat of waiting to check the third 2018 MBP. The probability of getting three "lemons" in a row goes down geometrically.

Good luck.

P.S. I'll post my findings on the third 2018 MBP after I've had time to use it for awhile. Unfortunately, these problems are rare, random, and intermittent, and thus are difficult to find. I basically have to use the machine for my work for many hours daily until I see an error occur, and I'll do the same on the third 2018 MBP. (Since I don't currently trust the 2018 MBPs for my work, I actually have to run the 2018 MBP "in parallel", so to speak, with a machine that I trust. The trusted machine contains my actual work, the 2018 MBP is my clone, via git and rsync -- making me roughly 50% as productive as normal. It will take time for me to come to any conclusions/recommendations/suggestions/opinions.)

Thanks for your diligence. For the record I still have a 2.9 i9 x 32gb x 1tb that is KP free and gets run hard.

 

[patwithamac]

Thanks for your diligence. For the record I still have a 2.9 i9 x 32gb x 1tb that is KP free and gets run hard.

+1
My 2.9 Ghz i9 x 32GB x 2TB has been KP free.
Going on 24 days uptime since updating to Mojave.

I've been following this thread closely, hoping Apple identifies the cause for these problems soon, and fixes it.
[doublepost=1540129092][/doublepost]@SDColorado, I recall you throwing in the towel after receiving several bad machines... but then jumping back into the game, picking up a standard build from your local Apple store. How has that latest machine been working for you?

 

[Premal212]

Thanks for your diligence. For the record I still have a 2.9 i9 x 32gb x 1tb that is KP free and gets run hard.

I'm glad it worked out for you in the end, does your IMP still have these issues after the Mojave update? Also are you having sound issues / bluetooth stuttering?

 

[solouki]

Thanks for your diligence. For the record I still have a 2.9 i9 x 32gb x 1tb that is KP free and gets run hard.

Addendum...

Cool! I'm very glad to hear this about your 2.9 i9 32GB 1TB MBP. This gives me hope for my third 2018 MBP.

Actually, I'm feeling a little sorry for the Apple engineers. They receive a MBP and it passes all of their hardware and software tests, so what do they do? They probably leave it running on their desktop along with the other dozen computers they are tasked to fix. Maybe once an hour they touch the machine, in rotation with their others. Under these circumstances it would be nearly impossible to detect these rare, random, and intermittent errors.

Both of my 2018 MBPs passed the "on machine" hardware tests without any errors -- and yet I found dozens upon dozens of errors during continuous use (my typical use, coding, actually touching the machine continuously, is roughly 18 hrs a day 7 days a week, give or take). And this reminds me of an earlier post in this thread where the poster took his/her MBP to the Apple Store and was called back a few days later to pick it up. The store hadn't done anything to the MBP since it passed their hardware tests and they hadn't seen any problems occur. When the customer picked up his/her machine, he/she opened the lid and started the laptop...almost immediately the MBP suffered a kernel panic thus demonstrating for the Apple Genius that his/her machine had problems.

Now I'm sure that Apple engineers have more sophisticated tools to test and stress the 2018 MBPs. Personally, I, for one, setup a chron job on another machine that ran an nmap attack against various ports on the 2018 MBP every five minutes all day long in an attempt to detect the WiFi connectivity issues. But who's to say than an nmap attack doesn't on its own eliminate the intermittent WiFi connection issues, or that I chose the proper ports to test? So, once again, I'm certain that Apple's engineers have more sophisticated methods and equipment for finding and fixing errors on the 2018 MBPs, but it still may be difficult even for Apple to find rare, random, and intermittent problems.

(And while I uploaded over 900 files -- 6+GB of data including pcap packet capture files taken during WiFi disconnections -- and explained in detail to the Apple Senior Advisors the nature of these problems and why they were serious, I'm not positive how much of my documentation actually landed in the hands of an Apple engineer. The Senior Advisors, who were not familiar with ssh, rsync, gpg2, nmap, wireshark, etc., may not have actually passed on my documentation to the engineers. I tried to explain to them why this documentation was precisely what the engineers would want to see, but I don't know how successful I was in my explanations. In fact, I'm sure I did a rather poor job and wasn't clear enough at all in my explanations, otherwise the following would not have occurred. At one point I was asked to take my 2018 MBP to an Apple Store and have them attach it to a WiFi router that was, and I quote, "precisely 20 feet away, no more, no less". I explained that my MBP would pass this test, that simply attaching it to another WiFi router, even one precisely 20 feet away, would not cause the rare, random, and intermittent WiFi connection issues that I had documented...the MBP would have to be in continuous use for days in order to catch these WiFi connection issues, even with the router 20 feet away. Not only that, but I explained that the nearest Apple Store to me is over 320 miles away which is at least a 6 hour drive, depending upon the traffic on I25. So this test would not only be superfluous but it would also be very difficult and expensive for me to accomplish.)

 

[RumorConsumer]

I'm glad it worked out for you in the end, does your IMP still have these issues after the Mojave update? Also are you having sound issues / bluetooth stuttering?

No problems to speak of. Had the unit since day 1 and have kept completely current on software updates... currently on Mojave.

 

[OriginalClone]

Just got my first KP on my less than 1 week old BTO 15” MBP. Was on a flight editing a video and closed it while I went to the bathroom. Came back and it asked for my password to enable Touch ID. Unlocked the computer and saw an error message. Looked at the log and saw it was a KP. Apple really needs to get their **** together. I still have my 2014 rMBP, was gonna sell to a friend this week but I may just keep it and return this new computer. I’m not paying $3100 for a lemon.

 

[Trillion]

two options, all of them are broken or all of them that were built before xx/xx/2018 are broken.
too many customers had their computers replaced again and again without any change (including me).
on my 2nd unit now and it crashes again and again...

 

[Vilfredo]

I just got a KP on the last beta of Mojave 10.14.1.

I was just looking a show on IINA. Nothing plug in.
MacBook Pro 13" 2018 bought 1 month ago.

 

[Sapphire08]

If you want to check if you've had a KP while you weren't at your computer, you can go to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ProxiedDevice-Bridge/. If you see a file panic-full-.... .ips, that was an instance of a KP associated with the BridgeOS.

Thank you for this - I can confirm I had one on the 16 and 17th Oct only? Is this good or bad news??