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Macbook Pro M1 Max restarts randomly without any errors

H

haaziq

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 9, 2022
6
2
My Macbook pro 14" M1 Max which I bought 2 months ago randomly restarts without any errors. This happens even if I'm not connected to any external devices or hubs. I have only 4 3rd party apps installed - Chrome, 1Password, Slack and VScode.

It was on Moneterey when I bought it, now it's updated to Ventura. But the issue was there in both OS.

I use 2 chrome profiles one for personal use and 1 for work.

I still couldn't figure out a pattern for these restarts. It feels random. the screen goes black and restarts immediately with the startup sound.

I gave the Mac to an Apple licensed service center and they couldn't reproduced the issue so they released the mac without doing anything.

I have resintalled the OS as well. still no luck.

Has anyone come across this issue?
 
sorry, no Mac expert, but unless the battery and external PSU are feeding the main board via the same route / connection, it could be many things with best case scenarios ranging from improperly seated connectors or easily replaceable interconnecting wires, to bad soldering points, broken PCB wiring, to failing chips.
 
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Try adding an account, admin, and see if it happens there as well, if it does almost certainly a hardware issue.
 
Willo34 said:
Try adding an account, admin, and see if it happens there as well, if it does almost certainly a hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Thanks, but I'm curious, does naming the account "admin" have any significance? how does it work?
 
maflynn said:
It sounds like a hardware issue.

If it were me, I'd contact apple and have them look at it.
Click to expand...
I gave the macbook to an Apple certified service center but they couldn't figure it out. They said they ran all sorts of tests but couldn't find any issues or even reproduce the issue (random restart). So they simply asked me to come and collect the macbook.

Is there a way for me to send this directly to apple?
 
for troubleshooting purposes, booting into Safe Mode could actually be even better, since it will only load the basic OS, without additional 3rd party services.

How to boot into Safe Mode:
  1. Shut down your Mac.
  2. Press and hold the Power button until you see the startup options. Then, select your startup disk.
  3. Press and hold the Shift key and click Continue in safe mode.
  4. Release the Shift key and log into your Mac.
 
haaziq said:
I gave the macbook to an Apple certified service center but they couldn't figure it out. They said they ran all sorts of tests but couldn't find any issues or even reproduce the issue (random restart). So they simply asked me to come and collect the macbook.

Is there a way for me to send this directly to apple?
Click to expand...
If you’re in the US, call 1-800-APL-CARE and they’ll let you know your options
 
"I use 2 chrome profiles one for personal use and 1 for work". chrome has had some issues, made a big update recently, make sure you are current. But given it is chrome, I'd uninstall it, do a clean OS install, and then redownload chrome, google drive etc - make sure all the bad code is gone

did you do power on diagnostics? That will show hardware issues
Clean install, especially kicking it up from a previous OS. Occasionally some old libraries hang around, chrome and google drive were giving me issues until recently, had to install/reinstall multiple times. Latest releases have not had that problem, though Then there is the old issue of malware that could have snuck in somewhere. The kexts architecture has a changed a lot, so bad extensions? I do a clean install with every major OS update, doesn't take that long and it is highly worth it
If chrome is hogging all your memory, you should be able to see that in activity monitor
 
MacProFCP said:

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 support.apple.com

Run the hardware test and see what you get.

Also you can try to replace the firmware.

Click to expand...
that sounds like how to revive a frozen Mac, not what he is experiencing. Firmware is checked and installed with OS updates:

How do I get firmware updates for Mac?

Firmware updates for your Mac are included when you update macOS.
support.apple.com
 
maflynn said:
It sounds like a hardware issue.

If it were me, I'd contact apple and have them look at it.
Click to expand...
Agreed.

I had a 2019 MacBook Pro that did this same thing. The fan went from off to full blast for a second then the system rebooted no matter what I was doing. Very intermittent as I could go a week or two of no problem, then it could happen several times in one day. Never could figure it out so after about 3 months of living with it I finally took it to the store. The first time, they reinstalled my OS. Of course that didn’t work, so I brought it back two weeks later. Fortunately, it occurred while the tech was running diagnostics so they kept it to repair. It worked great when I got it back…. for about 6 months, then it started acting up again.

As soon as the M1 was announced, I traded that machine in. I was fortunate in that the M1 that replaced it was a more efficient machine than my Intel MBP, and the trade in nearly covered the cost of the newer machine since it was only a year old.

Every now and then Apple grows lemons in its orchard. Sad to say, but it’s true.
 
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haaziq said:
I gave the macbook to an Apple certified service center but they couldn't figure it out. They said they ran all sorts of tests but couldn't find any issues or even reproduce the issue (random restart). So they simply asked me to come and collect the macbook.

Is there a way for me to send this directly to apple?
Click to expand...
Don't take it to an Apple certified service center (as you've learned, they are worthless). Send it to Apple. Contact Apple directly: https://support.apple.com/

They will send you a shipping box to send it to them.
 
Check the console.app for kernel panics. They're usually prepended with "panic". You can also look in the backtrace and it can sometimes tell you the last process in the stack that was running before failure which may point to an issue. Random restarts like this can be as harmless as a VPN or anti-virus software that's got kernel access or it can be a hardware issue like a GPU failure.
 
ElRojito said:
Check the console.app for kernel panics. They're usually prepended with "panic". You can also look in the backtrace and it can sometimes tell you the last process in the stack that was running before failure which may point to an issue. Random restarts like this can be as harmless as a VPN or anti-virus software that's got kernel access or it can be a hardware issue like a GPU failure.
Click to expand...
VPNs and ant-virus software do not have kernel access. And if they do (though I haven't seen any), the kernel access requires booting into security mode and lowering the Mac's security level to allow the kernel extensions to be installed and even then ... they are placed into a special place for third-party kext files. You can bypass this by disabling SIP, but disabling SIP is never a good idea. The way the ARM chips and new versions of macOS work make it very difficult for apps to cause issues like this.

It sounds like a hardware issue to me. And the simplest solution would just be to send it to Apple. Get a hold of Apple, have them send you a shipping box (which is free both ways), and have it properly fixed.
 
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