Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 320 posts

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#111

Post by jwalton »

bpicolo wrote: post #3
cygned wrote: post #2

Holding off buying a new MacBook Pro at the moment. It’s like issues pop up every other week and I simply cannot buy a machine that is not reliable. Also looking into a Lenovo Thinkpad w/ CentOS as an alternative, even though it would be difficult. It’s a pity.

Potentially a large part of that is just visibility into issues on account social media and distribution scale. People keep an eye on Apple hardware issues far closer than any other vendor

I have a 15" 2018 MBP, with 32g of RAM. And, while I don't care for the touchbar or the feels-like-I'm-typing-on-a-hollow-piece-of-wood keyboard, I also haven't had any kernel panics or crackly speakers or any other problems. Which is not to say I won't, but I haven't yet.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#112

Post by hajile »

sehugg wrote: post #55

I still have my 2012 MBP with the nearly-dead battery, but for daily work I'm just using a $200 Samsung Chromebook 3 with Termux. Yes, I can't run everything, and it's quite slow, but as a result I end up spotting performance problems I wouldn't otherwise.

Bought a pixelbook to replace my 2015 macbook. It's been a great experience. Crostini is great (as is having Android apps). You can now find the low-end model for $750 everywhere these days.

A little slower, but I have fast desktop machines for when I run into those kinds of tasks.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#113

Post by natch »

protomyth wrote: post #98

Some of those replies scare me. Your tweet says "MacBook Pros". Plural. I assume that means you have successfully replicated this error on other machines. Right? And I assume you did a full macOS reinstall to see if the problem went away before trumpeting to the entire world. Right? Wow, just wow. I mean, when you convince some part of your customer base that a "a full macOS reinstall" is required before you claim it…

I sort of agree that that's somewhat unreasonable to expect... but on the other hand, a full macOS reinstall is pretty easy. You can opt to preserve data and settings while doing it, too. Or do a clean install and restore from backup which is unbelievably easy as well if your time machine backups are in good shape.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#114

Post by tbrock »

whytaka wrote: post #13
tbrock wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get a ThinkPad X1 Carbon 6th gen with Arch Linux or Fedora. Forget CentOS.

Time and time again, I cannot believe people recommend a company that installed spyware in their hardware. I will never ever buy a Lenovo. It doesn't matter that it didn't affect the ThinkPad line.

I don’t use windows. There could be one for Linux but I can’t spent my life worrying about what could be. Gotta get work done eventually and I’ve got encrypted boot and data volume with secureboot.

If you have a larger tinfoil hat you can always libreboot an x220.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#115

Post by saudioger »

IMO the 2015 Macbook Pro is one of the best laptops ever made. Don't know why they went and messed that up.

I solidly regret the 2017 version. I've had one keyboard replacement already (that required the logic board to be replaced, seriously). Since then, I've already lost two keycaps. I've been ordering replacements online because they wanted me to ship it out for repair.

My 2015 Macbook is being used daily by a friend and is still in perfect shape. Worst thing that happened with that one is that I wore the letters off some of the keys.

My next laptop will probably not be a mac.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#116

Post by cpeterso »

4di wrote: post #110
swaggyBoatswain wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy a 2015 macbook pro, its the last one without any issues, superior keyboard, legacy ports as well. Smaller more compact touchpad as well The only downside is it is only thunderbolt 2, and they recently went away with external GPU support for new macOS updates. I paid $1500 for mine in practically brand new mint condition on amazon, buying a new a 2018 version was $2500 roughly for something that also had 512 GB SS…

Yeah my laptop of choice is 15" MB Pro mid-2015. Picked up 2 of them over the last couple of years from Apple's refurbished store and I think with OS X it really is still one of the best laptops out there. A little tip - you can use https://refurb-tracker.com/ to get alerts when they get in stock. TBH it's the MB Pro + OS X combo that works so well. MB Pro + Windows is definitely sub-par... lot of other great laptops…

Thanks for the tip! I reluctantly bought a 2018 MBP but returned it within a week. I thought I would have to stick with my workhorse 2012 MBP, but now I'll check out refurbished 2015s.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#117

Post by pokemongoaway »

swaggyBoatswain wrote: post #105
cygned wrote: post #2

Holding off buying a new MacBook Pro at the moment. It’s like issues pop up every other week and I simply cannot buy a machine that is not reliable. Also looking into a Lenovo Thinkpad w/ CentOS as an alternative, even though it would be difficult. It’s a pity.

Buy a 2015 macbook pro, its the last one without any issues, superior keyboard, legacy ports as well. Smaller more compact touchpad as well The only downside is it is only thunderbolt 2, and they recently went away with external GPU support for new macOS updates. I paid $1500 for mine in practically brand new mint condition on amazon, buying a new a 2018 version was $2500 roughly for something that also had 512 GB SS…

Yes buying an old model is one type of solution, but I think we should be harder on Apple as the experts we are... One must wonder how many Apple employees are making these comments on tech websites too. One should not have to buy an old, used, out-of-warranty product just to avoid idiocy. Apple obviously has not been listening to customers.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#118

Post by BuckRogers »

cygned wrote: post #2

Holding off buying a new MacBook Pro at the moment. It’s like issues pop up every other week and I simply cannot buy a machine that is not reliable. Also looking into a Lenovo Thinkpad w/ CentOS as an alternative, even though it would be difficult. It’s a pity.

I've spent a lot of time reading reviews over Lenovo, HP and Dell. Honestly, I wouldn't touch any of them. You can get good stuff from them, but they want the same money as you'd pay to Apple, and I don't believe overall any of those have the build quality Apple offers. And, these sorts of flaky issues affect them equally or more. I know that's not popular to say, but it's the truth.

Apple or Samsung is what I've come to. Of the Macbooks, I prefer the MPB13 non-touchbar, it not only misses the touchbar but also has no dGPU for increased reliability. It's just the simple sort of design that I tend to go for and it's solid. But if you don't like that, then take a look at the Samsung 9 Pro. They're available at Best Buy and have the traditional "good price per specs" PC argument going for them (I'll take build quality over specs anyday but that's just me), but reviews and teardowns all give me a ton of confidence in them. They also have the SPen and 2-in-1 capability which is a pretty nice value add. In my experience, Dell/HP/Lenovo never did figure out how to build a good laptop in 30 years, and given the latest Dell XPS reviews, they aren't going to start now. Lenovo's decline is more recent, after the IBM divestiture of course.

I'm sure no one is going to like this, everyone thinks something like a Lenovo X220 with Ubuntu is the only way to go, but I actually prefer Windows 10 to both macOS and desktop Linux (though I have a place in my heart for Linux Mint for sure and I quite liked Antergos for a rolling distro when I used it). With the Samsung 9 Pro, it's almost guaranteed to lose the SPen features if you insist on avoiding Windows not to mention harming the battery life.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#119

Post by jotm »

viraptor wrote: post #39
whytaka wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time and time again, I cannot believe people recommend a company that installed spyware in their hardware. I will never ever buy a Lenovo. It doesn't matter that it didn't affect the ThinkPad line.

Almost every larger company these days has done something bad like that. Lenovo had superfish, HP had a keylogger, Dell had its own superfish, Acer still installs search toolbars and browser hijackers, depending on how far back you want to go Sony had the BMG rootkit and a camera backdoor, ... Who are you going to get your laptop from now of you ignore all of those - especially if you're going to reinstall your OS im…

Get any laptop and clean the shit out of it, mod the BIOS if you want to. I'm still on Elitebooks (8770w), they're tanks, and Intel hasn't made noticeable improvement in CPU performance since Ivy Bridge.

Zbooks seem to continue the tradition. Dell's Precisions are great, too.

Haven't had experience with the newer Thinkpads, the design, materials and being owned by a Chinese megacorp kind of drove me away.

Re: The new MacBook Pros with T2 chips do indeed kernel panic randomly

#120

Post by radley »

saudioger wrote: post #115

IMO the 2015 Macbook Pro is one of the best laptops ever made. Don't know why they went and messed that up. I solidly regret the 2017 version. I've had one keyboard replacement already (that required the logic board to be replaced, seriously). Since then, I've already lost two keycaps. I've been ordering replacements online because they wanted me to ship it out for repair. My 2015 Macbook is being used daily by a fri…

I'm running a mid 2012 i7 MBP (bought at release) w/ 16GB & a 2TB SSD (recently upgraded from a 1TB SSD). I also have a keyboard overlay as a precaution, since I've had to replace keyboards on previous Macs due to spills or sloppy cleaning.

My 2012 is decent, but 2013 - 1015 MBPs are the best.

Post reply on HN