Constant Kernel Panics – userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer

[sergiorru]

Well over on the Apple Community thread, people are still searching for solutions even with Big Sur. However, seems that if you now mention Big Sur in the thread Apple is removing the message stating that it is a beta. Obviously, if Apple had fixed the issue prior to now then people would not be so desperate to be trying developer beta's. However, it seems that rather than fix the issue you address it by removing those posts commenting on the issue remaining.

Not only Big Sur stuff if you mention “beta” in a post on that forum, your post is vanished. It is a disgusting behavior of apple at that forum. I’ve installed Catalina Beta versions wondering if this annoying issue has been solved. But not.

For now, as a working around the issue, sounds to work, turn off the external monitors at night. Let’s see.

 

[cardiffmike]

I'm having the same watchdog timer issue with my Late 2014 Mac Mini running 10.15.5
(connected to a Dell monitor running at 1080p via Apple Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter - I haven't tried using HDMI/DVI connection to see if that makes a difference)

 

[smmehta]

I have 2019 MBP 16 and was facing the same issue for a while connected to an external monitor. I have been running caffeine or caffeinate -u -d -s & (run in bg) at shell level and it's been holding up for full day. I do shutdown the machine everyday and been working for over a week now. I did do a SMC reset and started using caffeine. Please try and and hope it works for you.

Side observation - Since SMC reset and running caffeine, the fan is running at a normal speed.
I am currently testing the same on 2015 MBP and it is working as well for 4+ days.

 

[ensteve]

Hi all. I can confirm I am also having the same issue with my 2019 16" MBP.

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro16,1
Processor Name: 8-Core Intel Core i9
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache:16 MB
Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled
Memory: 16 GB

 

[Luke Slymen]

2019 iMac i9 Vega Pro 48 - same problem. Crashes every time I walk away from the machine. Apple Support had me delete a bunch of old kexts and remove all of my antivirus, VPN, and virtualization software. Still crashing. I'll try running without my external monitors for a while and see what happens.

 

[Luke Slymen]

Update - Left my machine alone for 4 hours, no crash without the external monitors (usually crashes in about 15-20 minutes when idle with the external monitors). I'll update Apple and see what happens.

 

[smmehta]

Update - Left my machine alone for 4 hours, no crash without the external monitors (usually crashes in about 15-20 minutes when idle with the external monitors). I'll update Apple and see what happens.

Luke, install caffeine and use it. It works with external monitor.

 

[Svart]

got the same error, I changed from DP to HDMI and it seams to be gone.

hackintosh with 10.15.5 and 5700XT

 

[gregorskii]

Luke, install caffeine and use it. It works with external monitor.

Would like to reiterate again. This issue happens for some of us even without the system going to sleep, it crashes for me when screensharing when actively using the pc. I hope caffeine works for the OP to your comment, but it def does not for me.

 

[smmehta]

Would like to reiterate again. This issue happens for some of us even without the system going to sleep, it crashes for me when screensharing when actively using the pc. I hope caffeine works for the OP to your comment, but it def does not for me.

sorry to hear. Did you do SMC RESET? I had the same issue. In my case I did remove Mcafee enterprise security and went back one version and seems working with caffeine. I have one external monitor connected via DP.

 

[gregorskii]

sorry to hear. Did you do SMC RESET? I had the same issue. In my case I did remove Mcafee enterprise security and went back one version and seems working with caffeine. I have one external monitor connected via DP.

Yes. I have a new logic board. It’s software. Logic board was replaced for a different reason (backlight broke)

 

[polee]

This looks like a serious unresolved issue. If I had known, I would not have bought a new MacBook Pro about a week ago. I hope I do not regret this purchase big time.

 

[Luke Slymen]

System crashed again while Caffeine running. I don't think my problem has to do with sleep mode. Only way to prevent right now I've found is to not use external monitors, which is an unacceptable solution.

 

[KewlDallas]

System crashed again while Caffeine running. I don't think my problem has to do with sleep mode. Only way to prevent right now I've found is to not use external monitors, which is an unacceptable solution.

I have exactly the same issue daily...

 

[star-affinity]

Quick Note: A test with macOS 10.15.6 Beta 2 didn't solve the problem. First time, the MBP went to sleep instantly caused a kernel panic when trying to end the sleep.

Could you give beta 3 a shot perhaps?

 

[Belly-laughs]

I too have the same issue with my 16" pro. With the display resolution scaled to "more space" I would experience several shutdowns a day. Never from display sleep, though, only when working. It seems to start off with network going down, then apps become unresponsive.

What works well so far, is to have the display setting at "default", no True Tone, no night shift. 2 days up-time so far. The fan is far less active as well.

I have tried avoiding certain 3rd party applications to see if any of them is the culprit. Shutdowns happened every time Adobe Illustrator was running, with files open. It's rendering with GPU, so my guess is Apple has yet another graphics issue at hand.

I'm not sure if it means anything, but in Activity Monitor I see "WindowServer", which also becomes marked as "not responsive" prior to a crash, has even more GPU time than Blender (3D app) that I use every day.

Reluctantly getting extended Apple care with this machine, just to be on the safe side.

Edit: Never mind. Just crashed in the midst of some photoshoping. Damn, this is most annoying! Got to get into the Cmd+S habit again

 

[LoneArtificer]

I've been having this issue since my Macbook Pro 16" arrived last week and I was able to fix it today by updating to the Big Sur Beta.

I left my computer closed and connected to my two external monitors before I went out before and I have been able to come back and wake it up from my bluetooth keyboard. Previously whenever I returned to my computer after it had been left for a while and gone to sleep it would turn itself off or restart itself. Hoping this helps someone. I made an account specifically for this as there appears to be a lot of people in my boat.

I downloaded the Beta profile from a website called 'Beta Profiles'. Not sure if we can post those kinds of links here but if you google it you should find it.

 

[Kaulo]

Got the same issue.
Crazy fan at sleep, folder with the "?",not booting sometimes, freezing unpredictable, unable to work properly.
But what is new to the mentioned clues in this forum: i am on 10.15.2! Installation of 15.4 or 15.5 is not possible (only restarting not installating... and switching from suggesting me .4 to .5 randomly)

already tried everything, what works since yesterday: connected my beamer again since lockdown or enabled blutooth again ?

my ideas: since i am on 15.2, it can not be a new problem on newer updates. And i am on 15.2 since christmas, problem first time arrives in may/june. So it has to be something with a change of my behavior wich triggered i first time, something new in lockdown-time: connected my beamer first time since upgrade on catalina/more video calls with high fan speed (combi with ******** battery)/disabled blutooth first time since catalina (got many errors on console)

maybe this helps solving the puzzle

 

[FarSawreyLandscape]

Could you give beta 3 a shot perhaps?

I have just installed 10.15.6 beta 3 and it has not resolved the PowerPlay Initialize / Resume (startup/sleep wake) panic issues or the watchdog panics (random panics during normal use) on my MBP 16 5500M.

 

[KewlDallas]

Update from the issue I am having which looks to be like everyone else posting...

I brought my LandZone Dock home from work - I have three external Monitors and for the first time in a long while my 16" MacBook Pro has not Panic'ed since. Grant it, it has been less than 24 hrs - but previously it would have cratered by now.

So the real difference is using the Dock, as previously mentioned, but I am also not using any of the USB-C dongles to connect all my Peripheral devices.

Fingers crossed...

 

[Alex Beesley]

I have a Mac Pro 6,1 and have been having this issue since upgrading to Catalina. Based on these forums, it sounds like it's related to having an external display connected (which is challenging for a Mac with no internal display). I found a post in this forum https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250715149?page=20 that says to go to System Preferences > Notifications and turn ON the setting for Turn On Do Not Disturb When the screen is locked (the 3rd checkbox down). I did this and have not had a crash in several days.

I also have the trash can Mac Pro 6,1 with a Thunderbolt Display. I was getting kernel panics almost every few minutes just browsing with Safari.

I have turned on this feature and haven't had a crash for a couple of days now.

Reading this thread I was about ready to downgrade to Mojave. I was getting so frustrated with it. I thought there was a hardware problem with my machine, now it definitely appears to be an OS bug. Shame Apple can't fix it. This bug seems to be very prevalent across many different types of Mac.

But for the time being, this simple notification tweak seems to have cured mine. Thanks for the tip Schmov17

 

[star-affinity]

I also have the trash can Mac Pro 6,1 with a Thunderbolt Display. I was getting kernel panics almost every few minutes just browsing with Safari.

I have turned on this feature and haven't had a crash for a couple of days now.

Reading this thread I was about ready to downgrade to Mojave. I was getting so frustrated with it. I thought there was a hardware problem with my machine, now it definitely appears to be an OS bug. Shame Apple can't fix it. This bug seems to be very prevalent across many different types of Mac.

But for the time being, this simple notification tweak seems to have cured mine. Thanks for the tip Schmov17

If that simple check box cures this Kernel Panic I will be really amazed.
I hope it's OK that I have my doubts until proven otherwise… ?

I have just installed 10.15.6 beta 3 and it has not resolved the PowerPlay Initialize / Resume (startup/sleep wake) panic issues or the watchdog panics (random panics during normal use) on my MBP 16 5500M.

That's just sad. You get these Kernel Panics when you wake from sleep, right? I have an RX 5700 XT graphics card and have never seen any crash while using the computer in MacOS (unlike Windows 10 where it sometimes crash while in use).

 

[Dutchie91]

I installed 10.15.6 beta 3 last night.
I tested some this morning and the problems seem to have been fixed for me..

I will test some more tonight.

(MPB16", i9, 5500m 8GB)

 

[FarSawreyLandscape]

If that simple check box cures this Kernel Panic I will be really amazed.
I hope it's OK that I have my doubts until proven otherwise… ?



That's just sad. You get these Kernel Panics when you wake from sleep, right? I have an RX 5700 XT graphics card and have never seen any crash while using the computer in MacOS (unlike Windows 10 where it sometimes crash while in use).

Hi, yeah it's incredibly aggravating, even more so on this "maxed out" model which as you guys know was NOT low cost...

I get the panics :

• EVERY time when resuming from sleep after ~3 mins of sleep. This is the "PowerPlay Failed Resume" panic with associated short fan burst. I have to use Amphetamine to keep the machine awake.
• EVERY time when restarting after a formal shut down or restart (but, oddly, if the machine is auto-restarting after a sleep wake kernel panic, it does not fail to restart). This is the "PowerPlay Failed to Initialize" panic, also with associated short fan burst. In this state is will enter a continuous reboot / panic loop and the only way to get back in is via safe boot, and then a further subsequent normal restart.
• RANDOMLY during use, e.g. using outlook, changing prefs, mounting drives, using finder, etc etc (those are the ones I remember). This is the "user space watchdog timeout" panic with AMDRadeonX6100HWLibs as the last loaded kext.

I've tried all the SMC, PRAM, Clean (formatted) installs (of 10.15.5), and also the 10.16/"Big Sur" beta, external screens or no external screens, every reasonable combo of energy prefs or pmset configs... and nothing makes a difference.

I've also just tried the suggestion above to disable the DND notifications, and, no difference.

It does not seem to occur during safe boot mode, but it's not really practical to run the machine full time in that mode.

Definitely not happy. Apple recorded a support ticket a week ago, alluded to known issues with Sleep/Wake & PowerPlay, but nothing since.....

 

[Belly-laughs]

Did safe reboot, got rid of some 3rd party items (none too suspicious) in the startup folder and ran the 10.15.5 combo update. The system has been stable, no panics at all last night or today. And the computer (mbp 16" i9) is running very quiet.

Display set to highest resolution, no True Tone, no brightness adjustment.
Energy saver has graphics switching and dimming on, sleep prevention, hd sleep and power nap off.

I'm cautiously optimistic