Kernel panic after Sonoma installation - seems to run fine though. Any suggestions where to look now?

[cryptocat]

2018 15" Intel MacBook Pro here.

Bought it for cheap, trying to figure out if there's something wrong with it.


When I got it, I did a DFU restore right away, then a clean install of Sonoma (via Internet Recovery).

After installing, it encountered a kernel panic ("Your computer restarted because of a problem..."), but the install went through fine, it booted after restarting once more.

Installed High Sierra (via Recovery, the earliest possible OS) just fine.

Updated to Sonoma once more and after the install am greeted with this error:

After deleting the volume in disk utility, I am finally able to install again.

My first guess was a faulty drive, but DriveDX and Smart Utility don't give me any errors, SMART seems fine.



What else could cause this? Bad RAM?

Apple diagnostics can't find anything, says it's fine.

Ran Cinebench for an hour, too, nothing, everything's stable so far.

Would appreciate any suggestions, this is one weird error.

I got it for cheap because the previous owner also apparently couldn't install MacOS after wiping it, so there might be something wrong with its hardware after all. But how to diagnose that? Thanks.

 

[Fishrrman]

Connect it (using the proper USBc cable) to another (late model) Mac running Sonoma, and use Apple Configurator 2 on it.

See this page:

Revive or restore a Mac with Apple silicon using Apple Configurator

Another useful tool to get the necessary install software (and to make bootable USB drives):

Release 0.9.1 · ninxsoft/Mist

Fixed insecure HTTP URLs for certain Firmware files Thanks F1248! Fixed a bug where downloads were not being cancelled when the Escape key was being pressed Thanks F1248! Rolled back the Bootable D...

github.com

 

[chabig]

You might also run hardware diagnostics.

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

Apple Diagnostics, formerly known as Apple Hardware Test, can check your Mac for hardware issues.

support.apple.com

 

[cryptocat]

Connect it (using the proper USBc cable) to another (late model) Mac running Sonoma, and use Apple Configurator 2 on it.

See this page:

Revive or restore a Mac with Apple silicon using Apple Configurator

Another useful tool to get the necessary install software (and to make bootable USB drives):

Release 0.9.1 · ninxsoft/Mist

Fixed insecure HTTP URLs for certain Firmware files Thanks F1248! Fixed a bug where downloads were not being cancelled when the Escape key was being pressed Thanks F1248! Rolled back the Bootable D...

github.com

I ran both hardware diagnostics and did a DFU Restore via Configurator 2.


Diagostics can't seem to find anything.

Also, DxDrive can't find anything wrong with SMART, the SSD seems fine.

Been reinstalling 10.14 again, it's been sitting on my desk for hours now, running Cinebench R23 and Unigine Valley in a stress testing loop, everything's stable so far.

Before, when I updated it to Ventura and then Sonoma, it ran fine for a while, then the kernel panics started again, it got so bad that it was in a boot loop until I ran the restore again.

Weird.

What else to try? Memtest?

CPU&GPU seem stable. I'd suspect SSD or Firmware...