Diagnostic query: Unexpected kernel panic on macOS Sequoia 15.1 after waking (1794661940)

The AppleThunderboltNHI assertion often stems from a failed USB-PD contract renegotiation during wake, where the dock’s firmware presents an invalid PDO (Power Data Object) causing the NHI controller to assert. Verify the active PD contract with ioreg -r -c AppleThunderboltNHI | grep -A5 "PDO" immediately after wake; if kIOThunderboltPDInvalid appears, force a deep SMC/PD controller reset by disconnecting all power/Thunderbolt cables for 60 seconds. On Apple Silicon, this also clears the embedded controller’s stale dock topology cache that survives NVRAM resets.

The DisplayPort MST hub in your dock likely requires a firmware update addressing the DPCD 00100h link training failure that triggers AppleThunderboltNHI::handleLinkEvent panics on wake; check the vendor’s site for a .dfu payload and apply via Apple Configurator 2 in DFU mode (hold power 10s, release, hold 3s) while the dock is the only connected device. Simultaneously, capture a log collect --last 15m --output /tmp/wake_panic.log filtering for AppleThunderboltNHI and IOPCITunnelCompatible to confirm the link retraining timeout (kIOThunderboltLinkTrainingTimeout). If the dock lacks firmware updates, test with a certified TBT4/USB4 cable bypassing the dock’s internal hub to rule out PHY signal integrity degradation.