I’m getting kernel panics on Sequoia /OS 15. Anyone experience this and have a work around?
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I’m in Sonoma but I just started getting terrible performance today.
Experiencing Same Issue Related to DCP Kernel Panic From South Korea.
Already Reported Blizzard that there’s something wrong after updating to Sequoia OS 15.
and Service Representative replied that my Issue has delivered to technical department and found some similar cases in America Sites.
Hope they’ll fix it very soon. (Anyway, I eventually downgraded to Sonoma 14.7)
As Dasoo already pointed out, there is indeed a DCP related bug in macOS 15. The kernel logs show the AppleDCP driver throwing the panic but it’s possible the issue stems from an error in the DCP firmware instead. Apple seems to make modifications to both with every major macOS release. Architecturally speaking, the DCP (Display Control Processor) is directly adjacent to the GPU so the issue is almost certainly graphics related (hmm… I can’t post links for some reason but take the first result after Googling ‘asahi progress report dcp’ and see the section ‘Reverse Engineering DCP’ for more details).
Everything I’ve seen indicates this is a relatively obscure bug and I suspect it is limited to only computers with an M1 Pro/Max/Ultra (but not a base M1). So far, I’ve only had panics in SC2 Co-op games (I should probably mention I haven’t tried any commanders but Zeratul, now that I think about it). I was able to play a few missions out of the LotV campaign and run the Unit Preloader custom arcade game (which supposedly runs every unit and graphical effect) without issue. Additionally, I haven’t had any problems with WC3 or Diablo 3. To me, this indicates there’s perhaps just one specific graphical effect triggering the issue which, while I haven’t had the time to explore this myself, leaves some room for a workaround using different graphics settings.
As a kernel panic, ultimately it will be up to Apple, not Blizzard, to fix this since kernel panics are never the fault of applications or any other code being executed outside of the kernel. 3rd party drivers (aka kernel extensions) can also be at fault but in this case, the driver in question already belongs to Apple anyway.
I became aware of this issue Aug 22 when I updated to the macOS 15 beta. At first, I was able to work around the problem by further updating from the 15 beta to the 15.1 beta but it turned out to be only a temporary fix. Rather than being strictly ahead of 15, 15.1 was split off from 15 so that only the Apple Intelligence related stuff could be worked on while the rest of Sequoia’s development continued to go into 15. It wasn’t until Sequoia was officially released a couple of weeks ago that all the changes in 15 were finally merged into 15.1 and likewise, with those changes came this as of yet unresolved bug. So every release of the 15.1 beta since then (there’s been two so far) has been affected.
Unfortunately, Apple has had the opportunity to be aware of (and likewise, solve) this issue ever since I filed my first bug report Aug 22. Additionally, I’ve filed reports for every panic I’ve had since then and yet the issue remains. Now I’ll grant that Apple clearly has its focus elsewhere these days (Wall Street), but even then I’m a bit surprised this still hasn’t been fixed. As far as bugs go, it really doesn’t get any worse than a kernel panic (maybe besides filesystem corruption). And even if its impact is relatively small (assuming it only affects one program running on one processor family), given its severity, there’s no excuse for leaving this unresolved. It’s been more than six weeks since I filed my first bug report on this and I made it very clear then (and every time since) exactly how to reproduce the issue. Furthermore, there’s a period of only a few weeks that this bug could have been introduced (after 15.1 was initially split off from 15 but before Aug 22) so it really shouldn’t be that hard to isolate.
The only reason I can think of as to why Apple has failed to address this (other than willful negligence) is that they haven’t received enough reports yet for their system to deem it a priority. So please, if you haven’t already, make sure to submit the (mostly) automated report that’s generated after the computer automatically restarts from a kernel panic.
Alternately, to the extent Apple sincerely wants to improve its relationship with game developers, I could only hope a AAA game studio like Blizzard would have Apple’s full attention on this.
Finally, I expect the next 15.1 beta to be released next week so I’ll let you guys know if that changes anything.
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Wow… Thank you for your detailed explanation about this issue! @GlobalOdey
Like you said I sent several reports to Apple by using automated report and also Apple’s Feedback Section. I hope they fix this very soon…
Until then, I think staying in Sequoia will be a better choice to play SC2.
Have a great day!
Oof – from bad to worse. I updated to 15.1 beta 6 today and now I’m getting panics before I even go to load a game.
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Finally, some good news. After updating to macOS 15.1 dev beta 7, I’ve been unable to trigger any kernel panics. Crucially, in addition to a few other things, I’ve gone back through every set of circumstances that have previously caused panics for me.
It’d be nice to have any sort of sign from Apple that they’re even directly aware of the problem, like changing the resolution status on any of the 9 separate bug reports I’ve filed but at least I now have some empirical evidence to support the possibility this has in fact been resolved.
Apparently, the official release of macOS 15.1 is slated for Oct 28 but for anyone thinking the month they’ve already waited for a fix is long enough, you can upgrade to the latest public beta right now. It’s actually the exact same build as the developer beta that, so far, has worked for me only you don’t need an Apple Developer account. The only difference is that the dev beta was released yesterday and, presumably because no one’s computers blew up, Apple felt comfortable enough to release the same build as a public beta today.
To get the public beta, go to [Apple Menu]/System Settings…/Software Update/Beta Updates (click the ⓘ) then select macOS Sequoia Public Beta. After updating, you can switch it back to Off if you don’t want to continue getting beta releases; your next update will be to the official release of 15.1 as soon as it becomes available later this month.
Please, please, please if you do get a panic on the latest beta, after your computer restarts, make sure to hit Continue on the prompt you get so you can submit a report to Apple. Additionally, it’d be super-nice if you could leave a comment on this thread to let everyone else know.
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I started having this problem a few days ago. I would get a black screen, could hear the sound and would get a hard reset. I knew it had to do with firmware/gpu as it only happened during playing the game. I also changed DP cables to check.
I updated MacOS thinking that would help and then the actual kernel panic started happening. I reported it to Apple.
I repaired the game files just in case, and I thought about turning Vsync on to lock the framerate in. I played with no crashes, even performing the actions that caused the kernel panic in the first place.
Try turning VSync on in game.
I am experiencing the same issues. I am sending the error reports always, and I have tried some tips and tricks but still facing the same issue 
15.1 release, M2 Ultra Studio. Disabling VRR on all screens (say, setting to 165 hz and 144 hz) IMMEDIATELY (testing for 5 mins now…) fixed this issue. Thank you so much!
I remember this (strange things happening when VRR was enabled) being a bug in MacOS about 3 or so years ago, and I remember having to turn off VRR back then too. Thanks for posting this!
So to be clear, you disabled VRR, and that didn’t help?
I can’t even start the game. Game crashes moments after clicking “play” in launcher. Mac Studio, Sequoia 15.1.1
Right, so did you disable VRR?
I’m using a Thunderbolt Display. I’m not sure if it even supports VRR. How does one even enable VRR in Sequoia?
You don’t have the same issue as the others; we’re able to go to into Displays and disable VRR and the issue goes away.
Did you try using OpenGL and see if that fixes anything?
Unfortunately the game won’t finish launching so I can’t get into settings to set it to OpenGL
I was not having kernel panics in Sequoia until I got an M4 Pro. My old M2 Pro ran the game fine on both 15.0 and 15.1. But now I get them basically every match. It’s unplayable right now.
And can you confirm VRR is disabled / your screen has a single refresh rate?
Did you try deleting your preferences, or creating another account on your Mac and then opening SC2 there?