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MacBookProLate2013Crashes

Crashes

We have three separate MacBook Pro Late 2013s that crash regularly.

Apple support tells us to do a clean install and then slowly reinstall apps and check for the problem.

This is not acceptable.

At this point, I cannot in good faith recommend purchasing Apple laptops because of Apple Support's failure to address the problem.

That said, the issue is that it is an intermittent problem that takes a while to fail.

There are two types of crashes:

• Crashes While Plugging in to a Projector
• Crashes Upon Wake up

Update: Aug 29, 2016: It turns out that upgrading to El Capitan seemed to fix this?

Machine Description

ealmac22 Description

• Used by Edward
• EECS DB: 3C:15:C2:DB:F4:40; 0C:4D:E9:A0:81:28
• Verify: Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013
• Verify:Processor 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
• Verify:Graphics Intel Iris Pro 1024 MB
• More info about ealmac22

ealmac23 Description

• Used by Christopher
• EECS DB: 3C:15:C2:DB:F4:48 (Verified)
• Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013
• Processor 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
• Graphics Intel Iris Pro 1024 MB
• More info about ealmac23

ealmac23 is a Late 2013, which is not covered by the Apple Repair program for Video Issues

Note that this machine is a Late 2013 and thus is not covered by https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/ MacBook Pro Repair Extension Program for Video Issues.

• "About this Mac" on ealmac23 states that the Graphics/Display is an "Intel Iris Pro" and "Chipset Model: Intel Iris Pro"
• MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) - Technical Specifications says:
  • "Graphics and Video Support"
    • "Intel Iris Pro Graphics"
    • "NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M with 2GB of GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching"
    • "Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, both at millions of colors"
• However, a machine that is covered by the recall, MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013) - Technical Specifications has different chipsets:

  • "Intel HD Graphics 4000"
  • "NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching"

ealmac24 Description

• Used by Edward
• UCB EECS DB: 3C:15:C2:DC:59:D0
• Verify: Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013
• Verify:Processor 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
• Verify:Graphics Intel Iris Pro 1024 MB
• More info about ealmac24?

Crashes While Plugging in to a Projector

The problem here is that while connecting to a projector, Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013 crash.

• OS X: When your computer spontaneously restarts or displays "Your computer restarted because of a problem." (Apple)
• Kernel Panic from crashing while connecting to a projector

Crashes Upon Wake up

What happens is that the machine goes to sleep or has the case closed and then fails to wake up.

Possible solutions

• Late 2013 15 Retina MBP Crashing with Sleep Wake Failure Error suggests How to Stop OSX 10.9 Mavericks From Sleeping When Display Turns Off

Aug2016Crash? August 2016 Crash

The short summary is that the machine crashes to a black screen and pressing the caps lock key does not turn on the caps lock key light, indicating that the machine has crashed hard and the issue is not a video problem.

Most recent failure while reinstalling the OS, before account creation:

See "How to reinstall OS X" at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

1. Start OS X from Internet: Option-Command-R
2. Open Disk Utility, wipe the disk. Note that because the machine has a SSD, the "Security Option" button is not enabled. Give the partition a name
3. Choose Reinstall OS X
4. Reinstall procedure requires access to the network.
5. Upon the first reboot, it asked for access to the network and then crashed
6. After rebooting, I set up an account with no Apple account and it crashed during patching of Mavericks. The fan runs for several minutes and then shuts off.

More details:

Earlier in the day, I was able to erase the disk, reinstall the OS, upgrade from Mavericks to El Capitan and log in. Firefox was the first app I installed. It crashed almost immediately.

More symptoms:

I backed the machine up in early July and took it with me on vacation. After three weeks, this problem started. Booting into safe mode would work for up to two hours and then crash. Logging in as a different user would work for a few minutes and then crash. Logging in as myself would typically crash within a few minutes.

I restored from Time Machine and the errors continued.

I took the machine to the Santa Rosa Apple Store, Repair # R204470092 and they ran hardware tests on it for 24 hours. They were not able to replicate the problem and suggested reinstalling the OS and installing one app at a time.

About the caps lock key:

If your Mac won't turn on (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204267) says

When the failure occurs, pressing the Caps Lock key does not cause that key to light, which indicates that the problem is not the video.

Someone else wiped the disk, did a reinstall and the machine crashed while installing Acrobat.