Apple Core Rot: recent Apple macOS Catalina Update Crashes Mac Pro every other night with kernel panic: “thunderbolt power on failed”

2020-08-29 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: Apple, Apple Core Rot, Apple macOS, Apple macOS Catalina, kernel panic, Mac Pro, Shameer M, Thunderbolt, Thunderbolt 3, weather events

Sloppy engineering, irresponsible and negligent quality control practices, and disdain for the needs of working pros are now the hallmark of Apple software

2019 Mac Pro kernel panic: “thunderbolt power on failed”

It’s not just this problem, it’s rainbow-beachball hangs that require me to hard-power-off the Mac Pro. <insert profanity to taste>

Along comes the recent Apple security update for macOS 10.15.6 (19G2021).

My Mac Pro now crashes with a kernel panic every other night. All Macs ought to run for months without issue (my older Macs running 24 X7 on older versions of macOS do!). Never before the update has this kernel panic been an issue, and the system configuration is the same: Apple botched things yet again.

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff7f94f3b3c5): "XHC4(MacPro7,1):thunderbolt power on failed 0xffffffff\n"
@/AppleInternal/BuildRoot/Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/IOPCIFamily/IOPCIFamily-370.141.1/IOPCIBridge.cpp:1398
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address
0xffffffd5d6cdba60 : 0xffffff801431a65d 
0xffffffd5d6cdbab0 : 0xffffff8014454a75 
0xffffffd5d6cdbaf0 : 0xffffff80144465fe 
0xffffffd5d6cdbb40 : 0xffffff80142c0a40 
0xffffffd5d6cdbb60 : 0xffffff8014319d27 
0xffffffd5d6cdbc60 : 0xffffff801431a117 
0xffffffd5d6cdbcb0 : 0xffffff8014ac1abc 
0xffffffd5d6cdbd20 : 0xffffff7f94f3b3c5 
0xffffffd5d6cdbd40 : 0xffffff7f94f22fab 
0xffffffd5d6cdbda0 : 0xffffff7f94f234ea 
0xffffffd5d6cdbdc0 : 0xffffff7f94f216d2 
0xffffffd5d6cdbe10 : 0xffffff7f94f2c023 
0xffffffd5d6cdbe30 : 0xffffff8014a137e4 
0xffffffd5d6cdbea0 : 0xffffff8014a135ea 
0xffffffd5d6cdbec0 : 0xffffff801435c605 
0xffffffd5d6cdbf40 : 0xffffff801435c131 
0xffffffd5d6cdbfa0 : 0xffffff80142c013e 
Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[DF219CC1-366A-31FC-B8ED-17C584BA2549]@0xffffff7f94f1a000->0xffffff7f94f52fff
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task
Mac OS version:
19G2021
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 19.6.0: Thu Jun 18 20:49:00 PDT 2020; root:xnu-6153.141.1~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 1D3A0F3D-D908-397B-BD16-8F48C0823A2E
Kernel slide:     0x0000000014000000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff8014200000
__HIB  text base: 0xffffff8014100000
System model name: MacPro7,1 (Mac-27AD2F918AE68F61)
System shutdown begun: NO
System uptime in nanoseconds: 373527826978039
last loaded kext at 216962633982576: >usb.!UHostBillboardDevice	1.0 (addr 0xffffff7f9594c000, size 16384)
loaded kexts:

Reader Comments

Fazal M writes:

Since the Mojave 2020-002 security update my Mac Mini started crashing every 2-3 days, with a crash dump having to do with the T2 coprocessor. Apple’s official answer: “upgrade to Catalina”, which is a non-starter. The only fix is to install Big Sur beta on another drive, which upgrades the T2 BridgeOS firmware to something less crash-prone.

Apple’s quality control has gone way beyond unacceptable, I don’t understand why you reward them by purchasing an expensive Mac Pro. My plan is to move over to Linux and keep the Mojave machine for legacy applications.

MPG: there are major factors involved for me—the pain points and cost would be great to make the switch, and I’m not persuaded that the other options are even viable, let alone free of other pain points. But yes, I despise rewarding these aholes with my business.

Shameer M writes:

I know you’ve posted extensively on Apple Core Rot over the years.  Thought you might like this one...

https://eclecticlight.co/2020/08/30/last-week-on-my-mac-is-macos-becoming-unmaintainable/

MPG: yep, with Apple it is now “it just doesn’t work”. But that started way back in 2013. What Apple is doing to professionals is contemptible.

Don’t get me started on my 2019 Mac mini, which is the biggest POS I have ever owned—it can take 10 minutes to get the display to sync, and the f'ing thing boots into password recovery mode (making ssh or Remote Access useless) without you knowing it if you can't see the screen and enter the password which turns the air blue with profanity.