Help! Updated to macOS 10.12.4, MBP randomly shuts off

[Archaeopteryx Enthusiast]

I had this problem, too - black screen, fan spins up, keyboard lit, 5-15 seconds of that, then shutoff. I called support, talked at length, brought it to them, they replaced the battery, wiped and created a new user, and found...nothing.

I brought it home, it kept doing the thing. I took it back, they checked for anything, wiped, gave it back. They still hadn't found anything. I brought it home, it did the thing. I took it back, they did the same thing. I took it back.

I noticed a thread that was similar - not the exact problems, but seemed like my problems, and they (superstitiously, I think) decided it was a power-cord-frayed issue. I examined my two power cords (both 7 years old - Macbook Pro late 2013), and they weren't in the best shape. I replaced my power cords, and my computer has done the shutdown thing 4 times since April - used to be 0-5 times per day, 30 times per week.

I'm not sure if it was the battery replacement at the Apple Store, and it just took a while for my computer to stop freaking out about a seven year old battery, or my superstition about getting new wall worts, or if the bug was fixed with the updates (I'm current), but it only happens once a month now (crossing my fingers).

 

[Tobs56887]

@Yggdrasilbury - are you also running both the kmutil and bless command listed below? I found these were essential.

Hi.
I did all the listed steps.
As soon as I enable the csrutil or the csrutil authenticated-root again I get this message when starting the MBP:

Any ideas what I can do about it?
Or can I simple not enable the disabled protections?

Thanks in advance

 

[sclaz8]

Has anybody tried the new iOS update 11.5.2? Is it solving this bug? It is very difficult to handle with it, now worse than ever, because I realised that - don't know how - I had some malware on my Mac, and this may be due to the '[csrutil]/[csrutil authenticated-root] disabled'...

 

[haralson]

I updated from OS version 11.5.2 (with which I had no problems) to 11.6, and funnily enough not immediately, but rather 6 hours later, my random shutdown problems started (on a mid-2014 MBP MGXA2LL/A).

Luckily I came across https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/666567?page=4 where someone said that leaving a display adaptor (or pretty much anything else) plugged into their Thunderbolt port solved their problem. I tried plugging in a Thunderbolt Ethernet adaptor (with no network cable attached), and I haven't had any shutdowns since, for about 36 hours now.

 

[timelessbeing]

Wow it's the 2006 MBP defective power regulator problem all over again.

 

[bivalvegruff]

I repurposed my MBA as a HomeBridge server. The MBA sits with the lid closed, connected to power, running a server which uses maybe 1 % of the CPU. As of now, the up-time is 22 days. Running a Python script didn’t help, but this seems to work. At least I have some use for my MBA now.

 

[rlf613]

Just unload ThunderboltNHI.kext from the kernel. That will fix it.

 

[Dangitsda]

Followed the instructions but failed to perform the last step bless. Here is what I did

For me
Started in Recovery Mode
- csrutil disable
- csrutil authenticated-root disable

Reboot Started in recovery mode again

- mount -uw /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD
- cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/Extensions

- Removed AppleThunderboltNHI.kext AppleThunderboltNHI_kext.bak
rm -rf AppleThunderboltNHI.kext
rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/*

- Renamed
mv AppleThunderboltDPAdapters.kext AppleThunderboltDPAdapters.kext.bak
mv AppleThunderboltEDMService.kext AppleThunderboltEDMService.kext.bak
mv AppleThunderboltIP.kext AppleThunderboltIP.kext.bak
mv AppleThunderboltNHI.kext AppleThunderboltNHI.kext.bak
mv AppleThunderboltPCIAdapters.kext AppleThunderboltPCIAdapters.kext.bak
mv AppleThunderboltUTDM.kext AppleThunderboltUTDM.kext.bak

- kmutil install -u --force --volume-root /Volumes/your MacOS files location

Then onto the last Step

- bless --folder /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi --create-snapshot

Also Tried

- bless -folder /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/System/Library/CoreServices —bootefi --create-snapshot

Gave me the same error.

Was unable to perform the last step. Picture shown below of the error.

Would appreciate any feedback or advice!

Running on MacBook Pro Retina 15" Late 2013; MacOS 11.6 Big Sur

1st Picture shows NHI file was removed and all other Thunderbolt.kext files were renamed to .kext.bak
2nd Picture shows the bless --folder command
3rd Picture shows bless -folder

2nd Picture Error
Cant load "/Volumes/Macintosh HD//System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist"
OS Major version unrecognized

3rd picture Error
" Cant determine mount point of 'Volumes/Macintosh HD/System/Library/CoreService ' and ' '

 

[cinredman]

I ran the following commands
- Disable File Vault (if enabled)
- Reboot into Recovery Mode (CMD + R)
- csrutil disable
- reboot into recovery mode
- csrutil authenticated-root disable
- reboot into recovery mode
- mount -uw /Volumes/YourMacOSDrive
- cd /Volumes/YourMacOSDrive/System/Library/Extensions
- mv AppleThunderboltNHI.kext AppleThunderboltNHI.kept.bak (Note, while man suggest moving all AppleThunderbolt*.kept, I only did the one file
- kmutil install -u --force --volume-root /Volumes/YourMacOSDrive
- bless --folder /Volumes/YourMacOSDrive/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi --create-snapshot
- reboot

Open System Information
click "Extensions" under the "Software" group
Once list loads, look to be certain AppleThunderbolt* show as not loaded.

DO NOT re-enable csrutil or csrutil authenticated-root. I did and system wouldn't boot. So, I had to go back into recovery mode, re-install Big Sur and run the procedure again...

 

[N9YTY]

Hi all fellow sufferers!

Wow, this has been going on for a long time! I picked up a refurbished 2017 13" MacBook Pro non-Touuchbar that has this problem. I had tried all the things everyone else had tried:

* Reset PRAM
* Reset SMC
* Wipe out and internet install Big Sur
* Wipe out and internet install Monterey

Still the problem persists... Occasionally the system becomes unresponsive, loss of haptics on the trackpad, for several seconds and *sometimes* (rarely) it will just come back to life. Usually, though, it just quitely reboots itself. No error messages, nothing logged, no black screen, just reboot.

I had just about given up when I magically came across a blog elsewhere talking about the removal of the ThunderBolt Ethernet kext, and it linked here. I gave it a try and it has not rebooted since then, despite being used heavily or just sitting idle. Amazing!

I am confused, though, as a lot of these reports are for much earlier models, but I was intrigued by the few people more recently here that mentioned putting in a new SSD solved the problem. I don't want to put more money into it, but OWC/MacSales has the 480GB SSDs for about $130 now and if it would get it to a point that required no "hacks" and would survive OS updates/upgrades, I'd be glad to get it working.

How certain is that as a fix, though, because early in this thread many said that an SSD change did no good. I don't know if the OWC SSD would be better than putting in yet another Apple SSD module off eBay, but probably.

 

[cinredman]

Based on the information here, the problem is NOT the SSD; Core of problem is in faulty power chips on motherboard. (FDMF6808 to be precise. Should be replaced with newer FDMF6708)

I'm not sure how a new SSD would solve the problem of a faulty power chip. Then again, no one is quit sure how disabling the thunderbolt driver solves the problem...but, it does and my system has now been stable for 3 days, 21 hours and counting.

 

[michaelafcadio]

How certain is that as a fix, though, because early in this thread many said that an SSD change did no good. I don't know if the OWC SSD would be better than putting in yet another Apple SSD module off eBay, but probably.

I've never seen a very good explanation of what the root case of the problem is other than it appears to be hardware related. It's not even clear why any of the reported work-arounds work, including:

• disabling or removing the Thunderbolt drivers
• keeping the CPU busy in a busy-wait loop
• replacing the SSD or other hardware

I was very skeptical that spending money on an SSD upgrade for a flaky MacBook would fix the problem, as you and anyone else should also be. However, after multiple reports that this did help others, and because I was running low on disk space anyway, and I had two other work arounds that were working reliably (a Python script to keep the CPU busy, and removing the Thunderbolt driver), I decided to give an SSD upgrade a try last year.

I was shocked and happy that it worked and I never looked back. I never had to deal with this issue again, and I also had working Thunderbolt ports again. The SSD upgrade worked reliably for me, even after upgrading from Catalina to Big Sur, and it continued to work as late as last month, when the display finally gave out. :-( Unfortunately, due to chip and component shortages, the display cannot easily be fixed and a new display is just too expensive to justify. It's finally time for me to buy a new MacBook, and honestly, the new MacBook Pro M1s look fantastic. Finally, a new MacBook model worth getting since before the butterfly keyboards and Touch Bar was introduced.

Upgrading the SSD worked for me and others. However, I have no idea why and you're right to be skeptical that it will hep you. If you decide to give it a try, please help others by posting your experience here and be sure to include details of your hardware.

Good luck!

 

[cinredman]

so far, so good for my system with no noticeable impacts.
% uptime
20:16 up 5 days, 11:07, 2 users, load averages: 2.52 2.08 1.97

 

[nbnbxdnb]

I want to thank everyone on this post.
I have had my 2013 MacBook pro for many years, you can count it. The random shutdown problem started to show up since I upgraded to Big Sur for the 1st time around the beginning of 2021. It started to happen completely randomly. It could be in the middle of I typing a document. It could be during sleep... After a few more updates, I decided to revert back to Catalina. But the strange thing was that the shutdowns, while becoming less, didn’t go away completely, which is a big bummer obviously. It is also strange because I don’t remember having this problem with Catalina. At least not so often.
I tried to self-diagnose the problem from software side by keeping a log of all the changes I made to the system (what a ride when I read it now). I went back&forth between different OS (10.14/15/16) for some 5 times as part of my efforts to diagnose. The strange thing is that, the problem never went away in Catalina and Big Sur. Mojave was not plagued by this problem, although it had its own share of troubles. I just don’t have the knowledge to figure out why and how.
It was 3/4 of a year until I looked into this post carefully. I first did a try-out on Mojave by deleting ktext for thunderbolt ethernet. No major problem occurred afterwards. A few days ago, I was confident enough to upgrade to Catalina and carried out the almost same procedure. I can still call a success so far. No shutdowns at all during these few days.
I am hesitant to venture further into Big Sur, because I read, then I have to disable SIP permanently. I am not sure if I want to trade in this way. Maybe I just stay in Catalina for stability and security. Thanks again for all your investigation and solutions. You saved my old laptop, I don’t want to part with because of this problem.

 

[haralson]

I want to thank everyone on this post.
I have had my 2013 MacBook pro for many years, you can count it. The random shutdown problem started to show up since I upgraded to Big Sur for the 1st time around the beginning of 2021. It started to happen completely randomly. It could be in the middle of I typing a document. It could be during sleep... After a few more updates, I decided to revert back to Catalina. But the strange thing was that the shutdowns, while becoming less, didn’t go away completely, which is a big bummer obviously. It is also strange because I don’t remember having this problem with Catalina. At least not so often.
I tried to self-diagnose the problem from software side by keeping a log of all the changes I made to the system (what a ride when I read it now). I went back&forth between different OS (10.14/15/16) for some 5 times as part of my efforts to diagnose. The strange thing is that, the problem never went away in Catalina and Big Sur. Mojave was not plagued by this problem, although it had its own share of troubles. I just don’t have the knowledge to figure out why and how.
It was 3/4 of a year until I looked into this post carefully. I first did a try-out on Mojave by deleting ktext for thunderbolt ethernet. No major problem occurred afterwards. A few days ago, I was confident enough to upgrade to Catalina and carried out the almost same procedure. I can still call a success so far. No shutdowns at all during these few days.
I am hesitant to venture further into Big Sur, because I read, then I have to disable SIP permanently. I am not sure if I want to trade in this way. Maybe I just stay in Catalina for stability and security. Thanks again for all your investigation and solutions. You saved my old laptop, I don’t want to part with because of this problem.

Leaving a Thunderbolt Ethernet adaptor (with no network cable attached) plugged in has been a permanent solution for me on the latest version of MacOS. I would recommend that - and upgrading your OS.

More useful info at this site.dedicated to this problem:

Home | Random Shutdown on Macbook Pro

outluch.wixsite.com

 

[naguzmans]

Hi guys, I just installed Monterey (12.1) using OpenCore on my 15 inch Late 2013 MacBook Pro. There is an option in Miscellaneous Settings (Option 5) to disable Thunderbolt. It fixed the shutdown problem in just a few clicks, without the need to rename kexts, and it's update proof I believe. I recommend you to try it.

 

[nbnbxdnb]

Hi guys, I just installed Monterey (12.1) using OpenCore on my 15 inch Late 2013 MacBook Pro. There is an option in Miscellaneous Settings (Option 5) to disable Thunderbolt. It fixed the shutdown problem in just a few clicks, without the need to rename kexts, and it's update proof I believe. I recommend you to try it.

View attachment 1933521

View attachment 1933522

Sounds interesting. Could you drop some clues on where to look for the info of opencore patcher and how to apply it for the people who never heard of it before? Much appreciated?

 

[naguzmans]

Sounds interesting. Could you drop some clues on where to look for the info of opencore patcher and how to apply it for the people who never heard of it before? Much appreciated?

Sure, go to this website https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/START.html, the instructions are very clear. There are several tutorials on YouTube also, but if you have any doubts I can help you.

 

[rlf613]

Yes but then your Thunderbolt ports don't work... Deleting the NHI.kext still makes them work somehow - at least for external display.

 

[x01203]

Hoping some of the folks here who are WAY smarter than I can help as I'm all of a sudden having random shutdowns again. Has anyone had any issues since the Big Sur 11.6.2 update? I've been successfully using this fix (deleting AppleThunderbolt kexts, kmutil, bless, etc.) but since the latest update I can't get it to work.

I can either remove the kexts or move the kexts to BAK (both have worked in the past), follow the rest of the steps, boot normally, and in the /system/library/extensions folder the kexts are gone. In System Information/Software/Extensions, none of the AppleThunderbolt kexts are loaded or even appear. However, when I look in System Information/Hardware/Thunderbolt, all of the Thunderbolt information still shows, where in the past everything was blanked out since the kexts weren't loaded.

Also, despite the command in terminal to remove the cache (rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/*) my cache folder still shows up in Finder with files from several days ago. Is it possible something in Big Sur is now not allowing the cache to be deleted, or the kmutil functionality has changed somehow? Maybe I'm not getting a clean snapshot? I get no error messages through the command line process.

Edit: on the cache thing, I tried navigating in terminal to System/Library and removing the entire cache directory using rm -rf, but I got an "operation not permitted" line. Not sure if that's something new or just my ignorance at work.

Mid 2014 15" MBP if it matters.

Any thoughts? Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks!

 

[3rdparty]

Just wanted to mention that plugging in an external hard drive (or possibly a monitor) via Thunderbolt port lets me boot my 2013 15" rMBP without issue. (Without it the machine shuts down during boot up) This helps to give some time/access to fix the root of the issue, as described in previous post(s). I'm hopeful that I'll be able to find a lasting software workaround for Big Sur 11.6.3 so I don't have to keep something always connected to this machine via TB.

 

[DeltaMac]

Just wanted to mention that plugging in an external hard drive (or possibly a monitor) via Thunderbolt port lets me boot my 2013 15" rMBP without issue. (Without it the machine shuts down during boot up) This helps to give some time/access to fix the root of the issue, as described in previous post(s). I'm hopeful that I'll be able to find a lasting software workaround for Big Sur 11.6.3 so I don't have to keep something always connected to this machine via TB.

Hmm... I'm thinking that the possibility of a software solution may be a wrong direction.
Do you have an Early 2015, or a Late 2015 ?
The flash storage (SSD) uses different buses for connection.
The Early 2015 uses SATA bus, and the Late 2015 uses PCIe. The SSDs look the same, but the PCIe has improved performance, and it leaves you with different options for possible upgrade/replacement of that SSD.

What happens if you have a device connected to the TB port, allowing you to boot, then after getting to the desktop, you unplug that external device? Does your MBPro immediately crash, or simply shut down?

 

[Dangitsda1]

I experienced the same problem and went around trying to disconnect the thunderbolt port didn't work. I tried using open core to disable the thunderbolt port also it didn't work. I also paid a technician in my area to diagnose the problem and they said to change the logic board.

I was skeptical from their response because my laptop works completely fine in clamshell mode.

Got a virtual diagnosis from an Employee at Louis Rossman and they said it could be the logic board, keyboard, or trackpad. From there I bought another logic board from protechrestore which is also recommended by Louis Rossman from a video many years ago.

I changed my logic board and the problem still occurred.

Which made me narrow down my options to my keyboard or trackpad. Like I said during clamshell mode my laptop runs perfectly fine. I decided to disconnect my keyboard and keep my trackpad still connected and tried it with this method. So far for the past couple weeks my laptop has not randomly restarted or black screen.

What made my suspect my keyboard was causing my random shut downs was also because to get past the apple loading screen i would have to press random key for it to get to the login screen. I would be constantly spamming my spacebar until I can get to the login screen. If i don't constantly engage my keyboard the shutdown menu would popup telling me my computer will be shutting down even if i click cancel.

Currently just using a bluetooth keyboard and kept the trackpad connected.

Device im using is an A1398 MacBook Pro Retina 15" Late 2013 2.3 i7 16gb ram

Hope this helps! If anyone is having the same problem with me i recommend disconnecting the keyboard and plug in the charger and it should automatically turn on.

*Disconnect the battery before disconnecting anything connected to the logic board***

I don't think this random shut down occurred until i updated to macOS big sur. I have never spilled water on my keyboard and always used keyboard cover. I doubt a software update would short my power button? My laptop is 9 years old now so i wouldn't doubt the power button just failed over time.

If you want to see any easier way to disable the thunderbolt without doing all those commands Use Opencore its quite simple. I posted instructions on how to use opencore on another thread with the help of another user which can be found here:

Big Sur and AppleThunderboltNHI.kext

Hello Please can someone help me. I get through all steps unto renaming or deleting the file I just get a read only file message what am I doing wrong? I'm on osx 11.6.2 please help Thanks

forums.macrumors.com

Hope this helps everyone!

 

[briancuts]

Hi All,

Long time lurker in this forum, first time poster. My Macbook Pro started having the same issues 1.5 years ago, been running the python script successfully since then. Recently did the latest update and now my mac cant even complete turning on before crashing, both in normal mode and safe mode. Any advice??

 

[haralson]

Hi All,

Long time lurker in this forum, first time poster. My Macbook Pro started having the same issues 1.5 years ago, been running the python script successfully since then. Recently did the latest update and now my mac cant even complete turning on before crashing, both in normal mode and safe mode. Any advice??

Plug in any Thunderbolt device and try again.