Mac mini constantly crashing due to kernel panic

news2kno1 wrote:

Not sure if everyone is alerted to my responses so I wanted to make sure to give you an update.

After removing the final piece of the puzzle (UAD Apollo w/ cables), my Mac Mini appears to be running smooth and stable; zero crashes.

Good work so far.

Going to continue randomly stress testing and monitoring for another day before I start looking for replacement cables and plugging things back in.

In addition to looking for a weak cable or connection. I would also consider rearranging how those external USB devices are connected to the 2018 Mac mini. Keeping in mind that the device load should be evenly distributed between the 2 USB-A ports and the 4 TB/USB-C ports. Plus note that the 4 TB/USB-C ports are split into 2 separate buses. 1 bus for ports 1&2 and 1 bus for ports 3&4.

If it does turn out to be my audio interface setup, this will end up being a HUGE learning moment for me. I didn't know and would have never assumed that a single external connection could wreak so much havoc on my computer. Insanity...

If the Audio interface is on one of the USB-A ports with other devices..? I would move it or one of the other USB-A devices on a TB/USB-C ports using a USB-C to USB-A adapter.

Hmm..

1) I've been running our 2018 Mac mini on 20GB of RAM (a 16GB OWC module and a factory 4GB Apple module) for years with no problems.

2) The Write/Read speed of your 1T internal drive is a little better than my 500GB internal drive, which is to be expected.

3) If I had to bet on something beside the logic board that is causing a problem. It would be one of your external drives.

For starters:

I would disconnect both the Samsung T9 and WD My-Book and test.

Then I would reconnect them one at a time and re-test.

den.thed’s advice is exactly what I was prepared to write about. In situations like this I’d pull back to the most basic hardware setup - keyboard, mouse, display and use the computer for email, browsing, and so forth. Nothing taxing. If everything is working out, run a game or a program that is taxing. Let the CPU lose and get hot just in case it is a heat related issue (shouldn’t be with new RAM logic board but never know). Then one by one start adding peripherals. I’d add hub by itself first - I’ve come to distrust hubs! Good and hopefully happy hunting

1) I did recently have an issue with my WD disk that disk utility couldn't repair. I ended up having to wipe it to be able to get it to work again. I use it for my time machine backups.

I would take the WD enclosure out of the picture entirely and test for a while.

I use WD's bare drives almost exclusively but I find their external enclosures to be less that satisfactory, and that is being"nice" to avoid the wrath of the Language Police.🚨 I had a very similar experience to what you describe. The WD would act up, I'd do the repairs, and a week of two later it was "deja vu all over again."

I first wiped the drive and restored it to Mac HFS+ (it was connected to an Intel iMac then) with Disk Utility. Still I had issues. Then I removed the drive from the WD enclosure and put it in an OWC enclosure. That was a 100% fix over ten years ago and, when I tested the drive and enclosure earlier this year, it still worked fine.

Post several of the Kernel Panic logs here so we can see if there are any useful tidbits in them which was not noted in the summaries within the EtreCheck report. Kernel Panic logs usually have "kernel" and/or "panic" in their file names and are located in "/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports". If none are there, then check the "Retired" subfolder.

Post several of them if available. Use the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper on the forum editing toolbar.

I am not familiar with some of those drivers/extensions, so will leave that analysis to other more knowledgeable contributors.

Ah’ OK didn’t realize that the Apollo was TB 2.

What TB 2 to TB 3 adapter are you currently using..?

What else besides the Apollo and occasionally the Samsung T9 are plugged into the other TB/USB-C ports..?

Sounds like you are on the right track as far as troubleshooting cables and adapters.

Yeah' I just realized that there were several different Apollo Twin versions.

(ThunderBolt 2, USB 3 and ThunderBolt 3)

I would also check with UA for a Software and/or Firmware update.

https://www.uaudio.com/pages/download-uad-apollo

Lastly I would do battery charging using a Wall adapter.

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner.

Yeah' I've had similar issues with external drives, were I thought erasing and formatting fixed the problem, but didn't. I even removed the drive from it's enclosure and tried it on a USB to SATA adapter without success.

Hard to say for sure, but it's starting to sounds like you have a bad cable, drive or some other USB device that is acting up.

Tell me about it. The tech department at work bought a large supply of USB hubs for teacher notebooks about 8 years ago just about the same time we rolled out an OS upgrade. It took me about a week to stop chasing software and figure out it was the hubs. Just some of them, darn it. Obviously a

manufacturing defect.