Just wanted to throw in my experience as it may potentially help others. I have a macbook pro 16 2019 intel i9 and have been getting watchdog kernel panics for the last 2 years. It was getting increasingly worse and would happen 1-2 times daily. My current setup is with a caldigit t3+ and two external displays with the macbook in clamshell. I tried lots of solutions such as disabling login items, turbo boost, and the screensaver and at times thought they at least helped the issue. At last, I am 2 weeks without a kernel panic and my solution seems to have been to disable the indexing of my bootcamp partition. I know this won't be the case for everyone on here but hopefully, it may help someone else.
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Constant Kernel Panics – userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer
- Thread starter monstermac77
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For me, the main issue was sleepwatcher daemon. I installed it to have a program run after computer wakes but seems it didn't sit right with macOS Ventura. After completely removing the package from my system, I haven't had watchdog KP going on 7 months now.
Hope this helps someone 👍
Hope this helps someone 👍
Late to the party. Stupid me upgraded my 2014 MBP to Catalina 2 months ago and have been having Kernel Panic nearly every night when it goes to sleep, but rarely during day time when it's being used. Tried all methods, including reinstalling Mojave, fresh install back to Catalina, safe mode, new user profile, etc. Even tried ChatGPT for a possible solution and it gave me the following:
"Based on the provided kernel panic report, it appears that the issue is related to the graphics driver on your macOS Catalina system. Specifically, the error message indicates a problem with the virtual display mode change in the IOAccelLegacyDisplayMachine component, where the vendor driver returns false."
I'm not techy, but I'm assuming it's related to my Nvidia Geforce 750m driver which is not supported/updated any longer? I've tried to comb through much of the 47 pages of this conversation but can't seem to find a real solution. Anyone?
"Based on the provided kernel panic report, it appears that the issue is related to the graphics driver on your macOS Catalina system. Specifically, the error message indicates a problem with the virtual display mode change in the IOAccelLegacyDisplayMachine component, where the vendor driver returns false."
I'm not techy, but I'm assuming it's related to my Nvidia Geforce 750m driver which is not supported/updated any longer? I've tried to comb through much of the 47 pages of this conversation but can't seem to find a real solution. Anyone?
Ha! I like that you asked ChatGPT about it.
I’m sorry you’re having trouble. I don’t remmber anymore, but since moving over from Catalina to Big Sur I don’t think I ever saw the problem again. So if you’re stuck with Catalina and the graphics driver that’s there I don’t know what you can do to get around this problem.
As strange as it may seem, custom color profiles generated by DisplayCal appear to affect this issue for me.
If you have a custom profile assigned to your displays, you will need to find a way to delete the ones in ~/Library/ColorSync/Profiles or /Library/ColorSync/Profiles that are assigned to your displays. If you don't have a separate user to do this, you will need to do it from Recovery in Terminal.
If you have a custom profile assigned to your displays, you will need to find a way to delete the ones in ~/Library/ColorSync/Profiles or /Library/ColorSync/Profiles that are assigned to your displays. If you don't have a separate user to do this, you will need to do it from Recovery in Terminal.
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Just wanted to add, I too am getting this on a Mac Pro 7,1, but this started happening to me in Ventura 13.4, and so I rolled back to Monterey 12.6.6, but now it is still happening, though not as frequent. On Ventura it was literally happening back-to-back-to-back-to-back.... I was lucky to be able to even roll back to Monterey with how frequent and debilitating it was. Honestly thought either my GPU or CPU were done for...
Now on 12.6.6, it happens here and there, but it is still extremely annoying, and I wish I could figure out what is the cause. My crash log looks very similar to the OP (I posted it in THIS thread since I initially thought it was solely related to Ventura.
The only peripheral I have connected to my Mac Pro is one single monitor (I disconnected my other monitors because I thought the multi-monitor setup was the cause of it).
Also running the stock color profile, so this really makes no sense...
Now on 12.6.6, it happens here and there, but it is still extremely annoying, and I wish I could figure out what is the cause. My crash log looks very similar to the OP (I posted it in THIS thread since I initially thought it was solely related to Ventura.
The only peripheral I have connected to my Mac Pro is one single monitor (I disconnected my other monitors because I thought the multi-monitor setup was the cause of it).
Also running the stock color profile, so this really makes no sense...
Maybe the color profile thing was specific to my system... Did you try disabling the mediaanalysisd service? That got rid of about 90 percent of the crashing for me. To do so, boot into recovery mode, open terminal and execute
csrutil disable
reboot
Once you do that and boot back into your OS (not in recovery mode anymore) you can execute the following commands in terminal:
launchctl bootout gui/$UID/com.apple.mediaanalysisd
launchctl disable gui/$UID/com.apple.mediaanalysisd
launchctl bootout gui/$UID/com.apple.photoanalysisd
launchctl disable gui/$UID/com.apple.photoanalysisd
Unfortunately, if you wish to keep these disabled, you can't turn SIP back on. It will also break some functionality of the Photos app.
Thank you! I took your advice and updated to Big Sur that day and it's been trouble-free for the last 2 weeks (fingers crossed, knock on wood). Can't believe I wasted 2 months scratching my head out trying to resolve this.Ha! I like that you asked ChatGPT about it.
I’m sorry you’re having trouble. I don’t remmber anymore, but since moving over from Catalina to Big Sur I don’t think I ever saw the problem again. So if you’re stuck with Catalina and the graphics driver that’s there I don’t know what you can do to get around this problem.
I'm running into a similar problem with kernel panics, but in my case I've narrowed it down to a specific TB3 eGPU. My problem is that I can't figure out if it's a fault on the Apple side, or my eGPU.
Incidentally, I initially had this problem using Catalina, upgraded to Ventura and then dropped to Big Sur 11.7.7 and have had the same issue on all OS versions.
I'm hoping someone here can help decipher the attached crash report...
Here is my current setup:
iMac Pro 2017
3 GHz 10-Core Intel Xeon W
64 GB RAM
Radeon Pro Vega 64 16GB
OS: Big Sur 11.7.7
All four TB3 ports are in use:
It's important to note that the Blackmagic box works great (sending dual video signals to my broadcast switcher). However, after a period of time (1-2hrs), the iMac will crash. After the initial crash, it will then continually crash every ~10min.
Unplugging the TB3 cable causes all crashes to stop.
I've tried various macOS versions (clean installs), and various Blackmagic firmware versions. The crashes continue.
The computer is only used for media playback (Resolume Arena) and no other SW is installed (aside from the default set of Apple apps, which we don't use).
I know all hardware is compatible, as this is a common configuration for broadcast. I just don't know if it's a defect deep in my iMac, or in the Blackmagic box.
Incidentally, I initially had this problem using Catalina, upgraded to Ventura and then dropped to Big Sur 11.7.7 and have had the same issue on all OS versions.
I'm hoping someone here can help decipher the attached crash report...
Here is my current setup:
iMac Pro 2017
3 GHz 10-Core Intel Xeon W
64 GB RAM
Radeon Pro Vega 64 16GB
OS: Big Sur 11.7.7
All four TB3 ports are in use:
- 3 are sending to HDMI destinations
- 1 is sending to a Blackmagic Ultrastudio HD Mini (this is a capture and output device - I use it to send dual SDI signals for Key/Fill in a broadcast environment)
It's important to note that the Blackmagic box works great (sending dual video signals to my broadcast switcher). However, after a period of time (1-2hrs), the iMac will crash. After the initial crash, it will then continually crash every ~10min.
Unplugging the TB3 cable causes all crashes to stop.
I've tried various macOS versions (clean installs), and various Blackmagic firmware versions. The crashes continue.
The computer is only used for media playback (Resolume Arena) and no other SW is installed (aside from the default set of Apple apps, which we don't use).
I know all hardware is compatible, as this is a common configuration for broadcast. I just don't know if it's a defect deep in my iMac, or in the Blackmagic box.
I think I've finally found a definitive fix for this problem on my own system. I have not had a single Watchdog crash for over three months since I did this. Before they used to happen at least once a day. I'm not sure if this is an universal fix, but worth trying if you are plagued by this problem. Make sure to make a backup of your system drive before you attempt this!
What you need to do is disable HDMI audio by removing the driver completely. As far as I understand it's completely safe to do so unless you need the functionality. I'm not really sure why this particular method helps but I suspect there could be some kind of incompatibility between this driver and third party monitors. These are the steps for Monterey (you will need to redo all these below steps after a system update):
1. Reboot in recovery
2. Run Terminal app
3. csrutil disable
4. csrutil authenticated-root disable
5. Reboot in recovery again
6. mount -uw (*your system drive*)
7. delete (or rename, or move elsewhere) the kext: /System/Library/Extensions/AppleGFXHDA.kext
8. Rebuild the extensions cache:
kextcache -i /
9. Clear the rest of the caches (not sure if this step is needed or not):
rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/*
10. Run these commands:
kmutil install -u --force --volume-root /Volumes/(*your system drive*)
bless --folder /Volumes/(*your system drive*)/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi --create-snapshot
11. csrutil enable
12. csrutil authenticated-root enable
13. Reboot
Good luck and let me know if this works for anyone else!
What you need to do is disable HDMI audio by removing the driver completely. As far as I understand it's completely safe to do so unless you need the functionality. I'm not really sure why this particular method helps but I suspect there could be some kind of incompatibility between this driver and third party monitors. These are the steps for Monterey (you will need to redo all these below steps after a system update):
1. Reboot in recovery
2. Run Terminal app
3. csrutil disable
4. csrutil authenticated-root disable
5. Reboot in recovery again
6. mount -uw (*your system drive*)
7. delete (or rename, or move elsewhere) the kext: /System/Library/Extensions/AppleGFXHDA.kext
8. Rebuild the extensions cache:
kextcache -i /
9. Clear the rest of the caches (not sure if this step is needed or not):
rm -rf /System/Library/Caches/*
10. Run these commands:
kmutil install -u --force --volume-root /Volumes/(*your system drive*)
bless --folder /Volumes/(*your system drive*)/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi --create-snapshot
11. csrutil enable
12. csrutil authenticated-root enable
13. Reboot
Good luck and let me know if this works for anyone else!
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So.... I continued experiencing this, and it turned out to be the Vega II MPX module on my 7,1....
I removed it altogether and since have not gotten one single KP or crash. All I'm running now is my Gigabyte RX-6800XT.
So to all you Mac Pro owners -- check your MPX modules!
To anyone else -- it might be time to replace your GPU. (and if you're on an iMac, or Macbook, ouch!)
I removed it altogether and since have not gotten one single KP or crash. All I'm running now is my Gigabyte RX-6800XT.
So to all you Mac Pro owners -- check your MPX modules!
To anyone else -- it might be time to replace your GPU. (and if you're on an iMac, or Macbook, ouch!)
Until recently, this is what I thought I needed to do too. I had tried everything and I couldn't get rid of this issue on my iMac. Luckily the fix I described above has proven that it wasn't a hardware problem after all. It looks to me that this problem can be caused by a software/driver issue as well like in my case. There is some hope!
This might be it. My M1 Macbook was consistently crashing and rebooting while rsyncing 55k files to a network drive while using Homebrew's rsync command, v3.2.7. I replaced homebrew's command with the native command at /usr/bin/rsync, and it doesn't crash!
I haven't tried Macports yet. That's in the queue, but there is a at least one case where a Homebrew port crashes.
Edit two days later: Unfortunately, after leaving computer asleep for 1.5 days, it couldn't wake up. I'm not sure if the below fix postponed the crash or what. Oh, well. I'll have to do more testing it looks like.
Thanks very much! This pointed me in the right direction
I'm using OpenCore Legacy Patcher, and followed slightly different instructions (mostly taken from here):
(SIP is partially disabled automatically with OpenCore afaik, otherwise I would have needed to disable it first)
In terminal:
mkdir ~/livemount
diskutil list
sudo mount -o nobrowse -t apfs /dev/disk1s4 ~/livemount
Open livemount in Finder (shows up as “Macintosh HD” or w/e your system drive name is in your home folder), and use the mouse to move AppleGFXHDA.kext to Desktop (or wherever).
sudo kmutil install --volume-root ~/livemount --update-all
sudo bless --folder ~/livemount/System/Library/CoreServices --bootefi --create-snapshot
Reboot system
I've only tested the fix once (today, after leaving my computer for 4 hours), but it woke up instantly! Thanks again
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Hello there,
Very late to the party but I'm writing for a old lady friend of mine who owns a late-2013 iMac.
Not only since 2020 Apple pushed an EFI update which "killed" the ability to power on these 2013 iMacs with more than JUST ONE USB storage device (SSD, HDD, Pendrive...), which means we cannot boot the machine with let's say both the system on an external SSD and another external SSD that's used as Time Machine backup — or just a USB pendrive containing a MacOS installer and the external SSD for the system"... but now, and since that machine has been updated by myself to Ventura using OpenCore Legacy Patcher,
I tried many many MANY solutions and tricks before finding this thread. Tried amphetamine with the basic settings and it wouldn't help. It would help with the "move cursor" setting but then the monitor will never go black, no good for the planet, and for my friend who owns that iMac, because she wants the machine to go into sleep mode, and not be a frozen machine every time she comes back to use it.
I then tried what's been mentioned by someone earlier in this thread: I've rebuilt the Photos' Library by opening "Photos" with ALT+CMD.
And anyway I'm not sure reverting back to Catalina would have helped, as I read some people have these issues as well... even on 2019 machines.
This is beyond crazy. I hate the lack of response from Apple. Cause about that 2013 iMac EFI update preventing owners to have 2 USB storage devices attached when powering on the machine, there is a HUGE thread on Apple community with ZERO SOLUTIONS. Hundreds, if not thousands of people reported to issue to Apple with their Feedback program, and they never corrected this issue. This machine is now deprecated and unsupported by Apple anyway.
If anybody has anything to share about these WindowServer 120s KPs, please do. But I guess Apple doesn't care for their Intel machines anymore. Screw them.
EDIT 05 NOVEMBER: After leaving the iMac sleeping for the night, it didn't wake up. The internal hard drive (empty of data) was spinning but no response from mouse or kb. Forced shutdown + reboot, Kernel Panic: watchdog 120second blah blah blah.
Currently reverting with the Time Machine backup of September 24th with Catalina. Hoping it doesn't happen on this system. It's honestly disgusting how Apple introduces huge issues across years of machines and across years of OS versions and doesn't seem to be solving it.
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So weird. This just started happening on my Late 2013 iMac on Catalina. Error report Watchdog Timeout. Just like that. Last 2 weeks it just started. i want to use this iMac as a Homesharing media server, but it seems that it’s just getting old and it will tear up more problems going forward.
Any crashes over the last month?
I'm considering this approach on my Hack with a RadeonVII.
I've successfully disabled audio out over HDMI/DP via a SSDT, but I'm still had a freeze/crash since then.
It's not getting old. Apple is 'rusty-ing' the OS on PURPOSE so that you THINK your machine is OLD. These are not HARDWARE issues, but FULLY SOFTWARE RELATED.
None--this has completely fixed the issue for me. My computer has been rock solid for 5 months now (I use it 8h per day) so I think it's safe to say that this method works. Are you getting .GpuRestart logs with each kernel panic? In that case I really think you you should try this fix.
That's really good to hear.
Unfortuantely, I implemented your fix yesterday but have just had a panic just now.
Fairly sure I did it right: AppleGFXHDA is not loaded according to kextstat.
However, it just crashed in the same fashion as the previous times.
I've just checked DiagnosticReports folder and yes, I am getting .gpuRestart logs.
I wasn't aware of them before you asking about it though.
Here's my latest one:
.gpuRestart log - Pastebin.com
Pastebin.com is the number one paste tool since 2002. Pastebin is a website where you can store text online for a set period of time.
The last three all highlight TotalmixFX, the software with my RME BabyFacePro.
Prior to that some highlight firefox and some have no Application written in that space.
I've only been getting these crashes in the last week, since I rolled back my MOBO Bios version. The reason I did that was I had started to get freezes in audio/video software since updating the BIOS a few months ago, so I figured rolling back could get me back to a stable state.
Never had any issues on the old BIOS version so I thought I'd be ok.
(The whole reason I updated the BIOS is another story, but short version: I never wanted to and did so out of desperation when testing some new hardware).
Orlando_W can you give and update ?
last night i did this guide, also running OpenCore Legacy Patcher.
follow your instructions, before this my mac anytime it goes to sleep mode wont wake up
i left it overnight last night and it wake up fast with a keystroke after following all instrutions
just to add to it this is run on terminal while booted not on recovery mode
Edit 24hr Update : So far 24 up and running waking up from sleep no freezes
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That's exactly the same as my situation actually. Almost all of my crashes were also triggered by Totalmix.
If you open Audio Midi Setup, do you see any HDMI audio outputs listed there? If not, I guess it must be some other variable that is affecting things in your case unfortunately.
I had managed to disable DP/HDMI audio via an SSDT so no I don't have any of those outputs anymore.
Off the back of seeing TotalMix in the reports though, I did re-install the RME driver I'm using (3.28 B).
Didn't fix anything though.
Also, off the back of reading earlier in this thread, I noticed that when I was unplugging 2 of my 3 external displays, the Displays Preferences wasn't updating to show that they had been disconnected. It didn't matter whether or not I was unplugging from the display, or the GPU.
Then eventually I got one to recognise as being disconnected. I rebooted, and plugged them back in and I was getting all sorts of flashing on the monitors, and one of the displays just came up bright green and stayed that way...
So, I decided to do a re-install of Monterey 12.7.1 from Recovery Partition.
I had not done that at any point since replacing my RX 580 with the Radeon VII.
And, although it's been less than 24Hrs, I haven't had a WindowServer KP crash since!
Obviously the re-install has replaced the AppleGFXHDA kext, but since I have the SSDT disableing the HDMI outputs anyway... Well I don't know.
I also noticed some graphical improvements such as:
The splash screen animation for Cinebench 2024, while it had previously not played out smoothly, now plays smooth as intended.
I ran the GPU and CPU Multi tests on Cinebench24 and got decent scores.
I tweaked some OC and voltage settings in my BIOS after the Multi test crashed after a few minutes, and got it to stop crashing.
Anyway, I'm really hoping the re-install stays good and this is all in the past for my Hack now...
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Sorry to bump this, but I just started having this happen on my 2015 15" MBP w/ OCLP
Stock Apple SSD and a very vanilla Sonoma install
Any ideas?
Stock Apple SSD and a very vanilla Sonoma install
Any ideas?
I've recently been having these kernel panics relating to watchdogd for the last few weeks, tried reinstalling, a magnitude of settings...and got nothing....until today....
I use a 2018 MacBook pro with sonoma and a Philips external monitor, I was getting these crashes with or without the monitor and at varying times, randomly I just thought id change the resolution of the MacBook screen from 1680 x 1050 and drop it down by one to 1440 x 900.
Since doing this I've had zero crashes in the last 3 hours (when normally it would crash every 2 mins), so I suggest trying it and let us know how u get on.