Any fix for the random pink screen reboots on the new M1 macs??

[Ben J.]

While I am sure pink screen panics can be caused by hardware, it is definitely not universally the case.

My own recent experience with 2020 M1 MBA which started pink screen panicking so frequently that it was nearly unusable, was solved by close scrutiny and search of the intimidating panic log that appears on the Desktop after the restart. Search for word "Panicked". I found that Creative Cloud was my culprit (see screenshot). I uninstalled and reinstalled Creative Cloud and it has been completely stable since. You can probably find past panic logs in var/tmp but you may need to unzip a sysdiagnose....not difficult. Of course your experience may not be so straightforward, and will probably be something other than CC.


View attachment 1992222

I managed to remove everything Adobe from launchdeamons/-agents so activity monitor shows no adobe processes running in the background at all. Adobe applications work fine. I crossed my fingers and hoped I'd found the cause of my 'pink polka dots' crashes.

A couple of days later, this morning, I woke up and my mac had restarted during sleep again. I searched the system log in Console for "boot" and first occurrence was at 09.36.20. All "entries" before that shows little activity and long pauses (sleep). The info later than that point in time shows alot of activity (w/"boot"-words alot), crammed into a few minutes (restart).

So, I suspect this was when the crash/restart happened. But I can't make much sense of the sys log, so I'm posting the interesting part here, and hope someone can help:

(com.apple.mdworker.shared.0D000000-0500-0000-0000-000000000000[15637]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[106]
Jul 16 09:33:19 Bens-Mac-mini-2 systemstats[86]: assertion failed: 20G415: systemstats + 413748 [4E7A4002-1505-3CAD-8606-DB8A57CF45E5]: 0x0
Jul 16 09:33:19 Bens-Mac-mini-2 syslogd[77]: ASL Sender Statistics
Jul 16 09:33:19 Bens-Mac-mini-2 systemstats[86]: assertion failed: 20G415: systemstats + 615252 [4E7A4002-1505-3CAD-8606-DB8A57CF45E5]: 0x2
Jul 16 09:34:16 Bens-Mac-mini-2 AMPDevicesAgent[656]: Entered:_AMMuxedDeviceDisconnected, mux-device:1659
Jul 16 09:34:16 Bens-Mac-mini-2 AMPDeviceDiscoveryAgent[537]: Entered:_AMMuxedDeviceDisconnected, mux-device:1659
Jul 16 09:34:16 Bens-Mac-mini-2 AMPDevicesAgent[656]: Entered:__thr_AMMuxedDeviceDisconnected, mux-device:1659
Jul 16 09:34:16 Bens-Mac-mini-2 AMPDevicesAgent[656]: tid:2917f - Mux ID not found in mapping dictionary
Jul 16 09:34:16 Bens-Mac-mini-2 AMPDeviceDiscoveryAgent[537]: Entered:__thr_AMMuxedDeviceDisconnected, mux-device:1659
Jul 16 09:34:16 Bens-Mac-mini-2 AMPDevicesAgent[656]: tid:2917f - Can't handle disconnect with invalid ecid
Jul 16 09:34:16 Bens-Mac-mini-2 AMPDeviceDiscoveryAgent[537]: tid:11aab - Mux ID not found in mapping dictionary
Jul 16 09:34:16 Bens-Mac-mini-2 AMPDeviceDiscoveryAgent[537]: tid:11aab - Can't handle disconnect with invalid ecid
Jul 16 09:35:20 Bens-Mac-mini-2 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.01000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000[15640]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[106]
Jul 16 09:36:20 localhost bootlog[0]: BOOT_TIME 1657956980 869934
Jul 16 09:36:26 localhost syslogd[77]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.cdscheduler" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
Jul 16 09:36:26 localhost syslogd[77]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.install" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
Jul 16 09:36:26 localhost syslogd[77]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.authd" sharing output destination "/var/log/asl" with ASL Module "com.apple.asl".
Output parameters from ASL Module "com.apple.asl" override any specified in ASL Module "com.apple.authd".
Jul 16 09:36:26 localhost syslogd[77]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.authd" sharing output destination "/var/log/system.log" with ASL Module "com.apple.asl".
Output parameters from ASL Module "com.apple.asl" override any specified in ASL Module "com.apple.authd".
Jul 16 09:36:26 localhost syslogd[77]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.authd" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
Jul 16 09:36:26 localhost syslogd[77]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.eventmonitor" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
Jul 16 09:36:26 localhost syslogd[77]: Configuration Notice:
ASL Module "com.apple.mail" claims selected messages.
Those messages may not appear in standard system log files or in the ASL database.
Jul 16 09:36:26 localhost syslogd[77]: Configuration Notice:

 

[Mike Boreham]

I managed to remove everything Adobe from launchdeamons/-agents so activity monitor shows no adobe processes running in the background at all. Adobe applications work fine. I crossed my fingers and hoped I'd found the cause of my 'pink polka dots' crashes.

A couple of days later, this morning, I woke up and my mac had restarted during sleep again. I searched the system log in Console for "boot" and first occurrence was at 09.36.20. All "entries" before that shows little activity and long pauses (sleep). The info later than that point in time shows alot of activity (w/"boot"-words alot), crammed into a few minutes (restart).

So, I suspect this was when the crash/restart happened. But I can't make much sense of the sys log, so I'm posting the interesting part here, and hope someone can help:

Did you try looking in the panic log for panicked or panic as my screen shot?

 

[Ben J.]

Did you try looking in the panic log for panicked or panic as my screen shot?

I've had half a dusin of these sudden restarts the last couple of weeks and I never get a log file on my desktop after. I looked for anything in Console; crashlogs, nothing; in 'logreports' I can see two processes logs with the exact time of my last crash, 09.36.20. I have no clue how to interpret them.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I've had half a dusin of these sudden restarts the last couple of weeks and I never get a log file on my desktop after. I looked for anything in Console; crashlogs, nothing; in 'logreports' I can see two processes logs with the exact time of my last crash, 09.36.20. I have no clue how to interpret them.

I always have a lot of trouble finding anything useful in Console, and my screenshot was by going direct to the panic log file which I think (can't check at mo) is in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports or possibly /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Recent/

 

[Ben J.]

I always have a lot of trouble finding anything useful in Console, and my screenshot was by going direct to the panic log file which I think (can't check at mo) is in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports or possibly /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Recent/

BINGO.
In Logs/dignosticreports I found a text document named 'panic-base-2022-07-16-093626.panic' with the timestamp 09.36.26 which corresponds to my last crash:

{"bug_type":"210","timestamp":"2022-07-16 09:36:26.00 +0200","os_version":"macOS 11.6.3 (20G415)","incident_id":"129E4CF9-4AA4-4AF9-80A8-D54BE1EB43A7"}
{
"build" : "macOS 11.6.3 (20G415)",
"product" : "Macmini9,1",
"kernel" : "Darwin Kernel Version 20.6.0: Wed Jan 12 22:22:45 PST 2022; root:xnu-7195.141.19~2\/RELEASE_ARM64_T8101",
"incident" : "129E4CF9-4AA4-4AF9-80A8-D54BE1EB43A7",
"crashReporterKey" : "C33BDB64-F198-9E32-0A84-F52BCA8DD664",
"date" : "2022-07-16 09:36:26.28 +0200",
"panicString" : "Unexpected SoC (system) watchdog reset occurred",
"panicFlags" : "0x0",
"foregroundAppHash" : "0",
"binaryImages" : []
}

"Unexpected SoC (system) watchdog reset occurred"
I guess this is like the 'clue'…
Can you make anything out of it?
Thanks for your help.

 

[Mike Boreham]

BINGO.
In Logs/dignosticreports I found a text document named 'panic-base-2022-07-16-093626.panic' with the timestamp 09.36.26 which corresponds to my last crash:


"Unexpected SoC (system) watchdog reset occurred"
I guess this is like the 'clue'…
Can you make anything out of it?
Thanks for your help.

Afraid I can't suggest anything from "Watchdog" which I think is an Apple not a third party process.

Did you see anything like the block of fine text in my screenshot?

 

[Ben J.]

Did you see anything like the block of fine text in my screenshot?

No. my last quote was all it said.

 

[Ben J.]

I googled 'apple m1 watcdog crash' and it seems this is a longlasting m1 problem yet to be resolved. Lots of complaints on this from early on. Here's a macrumors thread:

M1 Mac SOCD report detected: (AP watchdog expired)​

 

[sunny5]

Still happens.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I googled 'apple m1 watcdog crash' and it seems this is a longlasting m1 problem yet to be resolved. Lots of complaints on this from early on. Here's a macrumors thread:

M1 Mac SOCD report detected: (AP watchdog expired)​

Yes seems it is, and looking back I see I had some a while back but not for a long time.

Just noticed you are still on Big Sur. I would definitely upgrade to Monterey.

 

[Cide]

Hello!

Is there any fix for the random pink screen crash that seem to happen on almost all Macbook Air M1 2020?

My friend has this issue with latest MacOS (no external devices), and also alot of people on the internet has this issue too. This is scary!

I was going to buy the MBP 16" M1 pro, but now i think i will wait for a new MBP 16". I mean, I cant take the risk to use my budget on this and then be left on a ****** hardware-failure device that can not be prooven. I think its a error with the display cable and guessing Apple will not be able to change ALL the devices already sold.



Would love to hear what you guys think about this!?

I like Apple, but wish they tested a lot better.

View attachment 1947150

I have a great fix for you,
Its called AppleCare protection plan, And trip to the Apple Store if possible.

 

[Ben J.]

Just noticed you are still on Big Sur. I would definitely upgrade to Monterey.

I've had this Mini on the same version of Big Sur since I bought it new six months ago, and these crashes started happening only a few weeks ago. Actually, in my 'apple m1 watcdog crash' search results, I found someone who said to avoid some types of external drives and they also said to avoid USB-A docks in the USB-C ports. I remembered putting a very old usb "splitter" 1in-2out in my usb port just about the time this started. I removed it, and we'll see.

I have specific reasons for staying with Big Sur.

 

[pshufd]

I've had this Mini on the same version of Big Sur since I bought it new six months ago, and these crashes started happening only a few weeks ago. Actually, in my 'apple m1 watcdog crash' search results, I found someone who said to avoid some types of external drives and they also said to avoid USB-A docks in the USB-C ports. I remembered putting a very old usb "splitter" 1in-2out in my usb port just about the time this started. I removed it, and we'll see.

I have specific reasons for staying with Big Sur.

I know how you feel.

My M1 mini was running fine until early this year. It appears that two bugs were backported from Monterey resulting in memory leaks and a network bug I had every couple of days. I pulled a Big Sur kit from August 2021 and installed it clean and I've had neither problem since then. There can be disadvantages to not running the latest version but getting rid of those two bugs makes for a more pleasant system.

Apple keeps the old maintenance versions around for 9 months or so so grab the older ones if you need them saved.

 

[Ben J.]

I've had this Mini on the same version of Big Sur since I bought it new six months ago, and these crashes started happening only a few weeks ago. Actually, in my 'apple m1 watcdog crash' search results, I found someone who said to avoid some types of external drives and they also said to avoid USB-A docks in the USB-C ports. I remembered putting a very old usb "splitter" 1in-2out in my usb port just about the time this started. I removed it, and we'll see.

It's been six days now, I've tried to use the mac as I normally would, and not change anything substantial - and not one single incident of pink screen and hard crash with restart! The few weeks previous I had at least one every other day.

I'm 99% convinced that my problem came from using a very old USB-1.0 "splitter" in my USB-3 port. Anyone with this problem should check it. Report back if you can confirm.

 

[Ben J.]

Over ten days, and no return of the crash/restart problems.
I'm confident now, that this old USB 'splitter' was the cause of my problems. They started after I started using it, and went away after I unplugged it:

Lesson: If you suddenly start getting problems like people have described here, check your (possibly) old peripherals, and certainly ones added recently. IHTH.

 

[RichF30]

Hello!

Is there any fix for the random pink screen crash that seem to happen on almost all Macbook Air M1 2020?

My friend has this issue with latest MacOS (no external devices), and also alot of people on the internet has this issue too. This is scary!

I was going to buy the MBP 16" M1 pro, but now i think i will wait for a new MBP 16". I mean, I cant take the risk to use my budget on this and then be left on a ****** hardware-failure device that can not be prooven. I think its a error with the display cable and guessing Apple will not be able to change ALL the devices already sold.



Would love to hear what you guys think about this!?

I like Apple, but wish they tested a lot better.

View attachment 1947150

I recently setup a new M1 Max Studio and got the pink screen when waking up from sleep mode and then even after trying re-install Monterey. After a long and painful process I discovered that the culprit was my monitor -- an Asus PA32U. It -- like many others -- has an "Adaptive-Sync" setting. When I turned it off the problem went away.

 

[swealpha]

Have anyone got there macbook changed or repaired at Apple because of this pink-screen error?

I mean, how can you solve this pink-screen error. Obviously it is a big problem, nothing we can solve 100%..

We have started getting this **** 3-4 times a week.

 

[pshufd]

I have never seen this problems and we have five M1 Macs. So maybe hardware, specific models or something.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Have anyone got there macbook changed or repaired at Apple because of this pink-screen error?

I mean, how can you solve this pink-screen error. Obviously it is a big problem, nothing we can solve 100%..

We have started getting this **** 3-4 times a week.

As above I dont believe there is a single cause of the pink screen KPs....there are multiple causes. Did you try identifying your cause by the method I used in post #73 to find mine?

Note you have to find the KP Log file not the Report.