Kernel panics 2020 MBA running Big Sur

[lizkat]

Well I've bumped into posts at various sites mentioning unexplained kernel panics on MBA 2020 running Big Sur, but finally have been experiencing them myself.

Mostly seeming to do with wake/sleep issues for some reason. Forced restarts abound the last week or so. I walk away for a cuppa tea and come back in ten minutes and realize I have to sign into the laptop because it restarted "due to a problem". Crash log usually cites power transition issues, but might be a spurious error since a change in mode of operation (powered or on battery) has not been in the picture when this stuff happens. It has happened after the laptop has been plugged in for hours, and also after it's not been plugged in for hours.

I am starting to get leery of opening or closing the laptop and of plugging it in or unplugging it, even if probably for no valid reason. my machine is turning me into a superstitious fraidy cat.

Disk might somehow have got corrupted so maybe I'll go for a simple reinstall of Big Sur first. Otherwise have to offload a couple apps I rarely use anyway and upgrade the OS and then get Apple involved if the panics continue.

But I know I'll have to do something. Gettin' damn tired of having to sign back into my password manager after the restarts, I'll say that much.

 

[jbailey]

Well I've bumped into posts at various sites mentioning unexplained kernel panics on MBA 2020 running Big Sur, but finally have been experiencing them myself.

Mostly seeming to do with wake/sleep issues for some reason. Forced restarts abound the last week or so. I walk away for a cuppa tea and come back in ten minutes and realize I have to sign into the laptop because it restarted "due to a problem". Crash log usually cites power transition issues, but might be a spurious error since a change in mode of operation (powered or on battery) has not been in the picture when this stuff happens. It has happened after the laptop has been plugged in for hours, and also after it's not been plugged in for hours.

I am starting to get leery of opening or closing the laptop and of plugging it in or unplugging it, even if probably for no valid reason. my machine is turning me into a superstitious fraidy cat.

Disk might somehow have got corrupted so maybe I'll go for a simple reinstall of Big Sur first. Otherwise have to offload a couple apps I rarely use anyway and upgrade the OS and then get Apple involved if the panics continue.

But I know I'll have to do something. Gettin' damn tired of having to sign back into my password manager after the restarts, I'll say that much.

The problems I've seen reported at the "other place" seem to be related to docks or monitors that act like docks. I had a couple of kernel panics with a Caldigit SOHO dock on Big Sur but I haven't had an issue with Monterey.

 

[lizkat]

The problems I've seen reported at the "other place" seem to be related to docks or monitors that act like docks. I had a couple of kernel panics with a Caldigit SOHO dock on Big Sur but I haven't had an issue with Monterey.

Yeah I saw some of those posts too. I don't have any peripherals involved at all and none of the dumps point to non-Apple software either for that matter. No esoteric setups, it's basically a browsing / mail / entertainment setup with a fair amount of routine file handling, e.g. sticking pdfs into Books and ebooks into readers and audio or video into players etc.

There was one spin log that whined about excessive delay in starting execution of a local search. I can't even replicate that one: a search for the same phrase (not a new one, so not some sort of indexing hangup; it was a certain phrase that I search for quite often bc it's quicker than navigating to the files in question) fetched up zero finds at first, and also triggered that spin log, but then later, on a second attempt, it produced expected results.

Now that one struck me like maybe a mildly corrupted volume is the culprit, but I'm not sure, and I don't think I'd find it with ordinary software. And meanwhlle I did experience a forced restart shortly after that first no-find experience, but then I only got another of that same weird crash log re an alleged power transition issue. Which leads me to wonder if the "power transition issue" is spurious as well, i.e. somehow code is just falling through to that conclusion.

So I'm going to check out my app compatibility issues again re Monterey and probably first try a reinstall of Big Sur and then just upgrade to Monterey ahead of my original intent to do so, if I still have an issue. And THEN if I'm still getting restarts or unexpected errors in the logs, time to talk to Apple, maybe ship the machine in if they can't diagnose remotely.