Four times, my MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019) has had a panic and restarted while supposedly asleep (lid closed). The last time it was closed, I was still logged in when I opened it more than two hours later. Someone else reported a similar occurrence that happens only with a USB monitor connected. Another person who asked about this happening was told it may be problem with their power adapter. The last three times it happened to me, an iPhone or iPad and the power adapter were connected to USB.
I know the exact times it happened from Console and last but nothing else in console has a timestamp close to the latest crash. (Too much stuff to scroll back to yesterday’s panics.)
How do I diagnose a USB-C power adapter (Apple OEM) when it crashes the MacBook? Is there a low-cost hardware device that can do it?
EDIT: Someone observed similar behavior when VMWare was in use but I haven’t used VMWare since I retired in 2014. (And it was removed before I bought this laptop.)
UPDATE:
Since first posting the question, it has happened several more times. I don’t have a complete answer, but I did learn two things:
- What I was looking at in Console was not a listing of events but a listing of the log files created in response to those events. The most recent crash was recorded in
/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ProxiedDevice-Bridge/panic-full-2022-10-03-040602.0003.ipsbut it’s not helpful because I don’t know what most of it means. - The crashes happen often when the power adapter is connected but none has happened when it isn’t.
The weird thing is that before today, they happened less often, only when the lid was open, and were triggered by “Enter Time Machine” or by launching Photos.app. When I discovered that my Photo Library (the only one on the machine) had somehow stopped being the “System Photo Library” and fixed that, both Time Machine and Photos became usable again. But that’s when the gremlin decided to start picking on the power adapter.
So, I have changed the question (in the title and in the bold text). But maybe I should just demand a replacement from Apple before my AppleCare expires.