Mac mini constantly crashing due to kernel panic

Late-2018 Mac mini constantly crashing due to kernal panic. Little background: I'm a music producer/audio engineer so I usually have to wait a good amount of time before taking advantage of any macOS updates due to our 3rd party software. That said, this problem didn't show until after I made the decision to upgrade to macOS 15. After installing macOS 15 my computer started experiencing frequent random crashes due to kernal panics. After a week of trying to fix the issue myself, my mac mini decided to stop booting and could not find its start up disk, which meant it was time for a genius bar visit. After running diagnostics, Apple determined that my RAM was the cause of my issues. I reached out to OWC, received a warranty replacement, and installed my new RAM. I started re-building my profile and re-installing my software and when I came into my office the next day, my mac mini had crashed yet again—same issue. I went back to Apple about a week ago and this time they determined that my logic board needed to be replaced. Before I brought it in I managed to get a time machine back up of what I had already installed after the RAM replacement. When I received my computer back last Thursday with it's new logic board, I got home and reinstalled everything via my time machine back up and continued on my re-installation list. As I started doing this, you guessed it, CRASHED AGAIN DUE TO KERNAL PANIC! Low key, starting to think this may be my UAD hardware, but can't be sure.


I have no idea what to do at this point and am starting to lose my mind over here.... I have never had any issues with my mac and now suddenly it's the bane of my existence. Please help me if you can and thank you very much in advance.


***EtreCheckPro Report attached in Additional Text***

Mac mini, macOS 15.7

Posted on Nov 17, 2025 10:05 AM

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Posted on Nov 20, 2025 10:34 AM

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.

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Mac mini constantly crashing due to kernel panic

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