iMac Pro Conundrum: iMac Pro Issues on 10.13.3 and 10.13.4

[Bryan Bowler]

Bottom Line:

Can more than one person confirm that 10.13.4 fixed the issue with the iMac Pro overheating while sleeping? I have a dilemma and need to choose between the lesser of two evils: the bugs in 10.13.3 or the newly introduced bugs in 10.13.4.

Long version:

I am running 10.13.3. Twice now, in the last 24 hours, my sleeping iMac Pro was blazing hot when I went to wake it up. The fans went to max capacity when I woke up the iMac Pro and the machine was extremely hot to touch. I seriously think touching the chassis could cause burns. This is not an isolated issue. Several others were having this issue on 10.13.3:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-pro-gets-warm-when-in-sleep-mode.2109470/

I have not had this issue up until this point. To work around this, I would simply shut down my machine when I'm done working, but unfortunately, Apple also introduced an unfixed bug on the iMac Pro when using SoftRAID, which is a piece of software absolutely critical to my workflow. The current workaround to get SoftRaid to work means that essentially, I need to keep my iMac Pro running or in sleep mode. Restarting the iMac Pro requires me to complete about 5 minutes worth of steps to prevent an endless driver install loop. Five minutes may not seem like a lot...but this my work machine and time is money. But now I can't seem to trust my iMac Pro in sleep mode for fear of it reaching temperatures of 200 degree without any fans running.

If 10.13.4 definitely fixed the heating issue while sleeping, then I think my only choice is to upgrade to 10.14.4 and accept the new bugs that were introduced with that update, which are issues with the auto-brightness and increased system crashes, especially when waking up from sleep. These issues will pose problems too, but it may be the lesser of two evils.

I hate to say this, but I am getting very frustrated with Apple. At this point, the iMac Pro is taking more time than it is saving. It is a beautiful piece of hardware, but on the software/driver/firmware side, it does not seem like it is ready for the pro market and Apple hasn't even acknowledged these issues or if a fix is on the way. Sorry for the mini-rant in this paragraph! Back to the topic at hand, has 10.13.4 fixed the overheating issue while sleeping?

 

[ElBerserko]

I am still running 10.13.3 and have not run into this issue on my 8-core iMac Pro. I don't put it to sleep however. I will just use the screen lock hotkeys (Control-Shift-Eject). Have you tried this as an alternative to sleeping?

It does continue to use about 54 watts with the screen off compared to 0 in sleep if that is of concern to you.

 

[floridaman]

Bottom Line:

Can more than one person confirm that 10.13.4 fixed the issue with the iMac Pro overheating while sleeping? I have a dilemma and need to choose between the lesser of two evils: the bugs in 10.13.3 or the newly introduced bugs in 10.13.4.

Long version:

I am running 10.13.3. Twice now, in the last 24 hours, my sleeping iMac Pro was blazing hot when I went to wake it up. The fans went to max capacity when I woke up the iMac Pro and the machine was extremely hot to touch. I seriously think touching the chassis could cause burns. This is not an isolated issue. Several others were having this issue on 10.13.3:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imac-pro-gets-warm-when-in-sleep-mode.2109470/

I have not had this issue up until this point. To work around this, I would simply shut down my machine when I'm done working, but unfortunately, Apple also introduced an unfixed bug on the iMac Pro when using SoftRAID, which is a piece of software absolutely critical to my workflow. The current workaround to get SoftRaid to work means that essentially, I need to keep my iMac Pro running or in sleep mode. Restarting the iMac Pro requires me to complete about 5 minutes worth of steps to prevent an endless driver install loop. Five minutes may not seem like a lot...but this my work machine and time is money. But now I can't seem to trust my iMac Pro in sleep mode for fear of it reaching temperatures of 200 degree without any fans running.

If 10.13.4 definitely fixed the heating issue while sleeping, then I think my only choice is to upgrade to 10.14.4 and accept the new bugs that were introduced with that update, which are issues with the auto-brightness and increased system crashes, especially when waking up from sleep. These issues will pose problems too, but it may be the lesser of two evils.

I hate to say this, but I am getting very frustrated with Apple. At this point, the iMac Pro is taking more time than it is saving. It is a beautiful piece of hardware, but on the software/driver/firmware side, it does not seem like it is ready for the pro market and Apple hasn't even acknowledged these issues or if a fix is on the way. Sorry for the mini-rant in this paragraph! Back to the topic at hand, has 10.13.4 fixed the overheating issue while sleeping?

Bryan,

I had the exact same issue with 10.13.3 installed and once I updated to 10.13.4 the fans don't spin up on high after waking the IMac from the sleep state. This part is fixed in the update. The heat issue could be another story. When I wake my Imac the temps for both CPU and GPU are around 156 degrees (not celsius). I think for a computer that is in sleep mode that is too hot. What I do know is the fans totally shut down while the machine is sleeping and I have confirmed that with IStats. Also, I have not experienced any crashes when waking my machine either. This issue could be isolated to some users but it hasn't happened to me. If you update to 10.13.4 be prepared for the auto brightness issue/issues. Even if you turn this feature off the brightness still appears to auto adjust and clearly the update has totally caused auto brightness to malfunction. Apple needs to spend more time with testing and less time with emojis. QC has really taken a dive over the past few years. If Steve Jobs was still around things would be much different today.

I know you and I have had some differences in the past and my apologies are in order for that.

 

[now i see it]

Sleep has never been 100% reliable since it was used on the first Mac decades ago. Don't use it. It's either On
or Off. No sleep.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

I am still running 10.13.3 and have not run into this issue on my 8-core iMac Pro. I don't put it to sleep however. I will just use the screen lock hotkeys (Control-Shift-Eject). Have you tried this as an alternative to sleeping?

It does continue to use about 54 watts with the screen off compared to 0 in sleep if that is of concern to you.

Thank you for the feedback. I had not experienced the "overheating issue while sleeping" issue either until just two days ago. I had been checking it every time after waking up and never had the issue, but now it happens every time it sleeps. As for leaving my machine on all the time, energy rates are sky-high where I'm at and that is not an option for me.

Bryan,

I had the exact same issue with 10.13.3 installed and once I updated to 10.13.4 the fans don't spin up on high after waking the IMac from the sleep state. This part is fixed in the update. The heat issue could be another story. When I wake my Imac the temps for both CPU and GPU are around 156 degrees (not celsius). I think for a computer that is in sleep mode that is too hot. What I do know is the fans totally shut down while the machine is sleeping and I have confirmed that with IStats. Also, I have not experienced any crashes when waking my machine either. This issue could be isolated to some users but it hasn't happened to me. If you update to 10.13.4 be prepared for the auto brightness issue/issues. Even if you turn this feature off the brightness still appears to auto adjust and clearly the update has totally caused auto brightness to malfunction. Apple needs to spend more time with testing and less time with emojis. QC has really taken a dive over the past few years. If Steve Jobs was still around things would be much different today.

I know you and I have had some differences in the past and my apologies are in order for that.

You are right. The computer should not be reaching temps of 156 degrees while sleeping. It should be at or just above room temperature. This is a real problem. I tested it again this morning with sleep and the iMac was 164 degree (F) when I woke it up. But yesterday, it was nearly 200 degrees. If this continues, it is going to kill this expensive machine quickly or possibly start a fire.

Thank you on the apology. But truth be told, I am the one that owes you an apology. I was pretty harsh on you in those threads a month or two ago and I should not have been. I was getting annoyed by someone else that was trolling and disrupting threads and my frustrations ended up bleeding over to you. I should not have done that and I want to formally and publicly apologize. I owe you a cold beverage if our paths ever cross in real life!

Sleep has never been 100% reliable since it was used on the first Mac decades ago. Don't use it. It's either On
or Off. No sleep.

In 12 years of being on the Mac platform, I've never had an issue with sleep. But I certainly do now. I've resorted to turning it off, but for reasons stated in my original post, due to the iMac Pro's bug with SoftRAID, that is a new pain point that I now have to contend with.

I'm still actively searching for a solution. If anyone else has any ideas, I'm all ears!

 

[Mac32]

FYI the crash/restart during sleep-bug is also NOT fixed in 10.13.4. I would simply stay with 10.13.3 at this point, and wait for 10.13.5.

As far as the heat issue goes, if it's connected to the T2-chip, maybe it's worth turning off its security function, and see what happens. Probably a long shot, though. You can always turn it on again later.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

FYI the crash/restart during sleep-bug is also NOT fixed in 10.13.4. I would simply stay with 10.13.3 at this point, and wait for 10.13.5.

As far as the heat issue goes, if it's connected to the T2-chip, maybe it's worth turning off its security function, and see what happens. Probably a long shot, though. You can always turn it on again later.

Thank you. I’ll try setting the security level to None and see what happens.

 

[floridaman]

You are right. The computer should not be reaching temps of 156 degrees while sleeping. It should be at or just above room temperature. This is a real problem. I tested it again this morning with sleep and the iMac was 164 degree (F) when I woke it up. But yesterday, it was nearly 200 degrees. If this continues, it is going to kill this expensive machine quickly or possibly start a fire.

Thank you on the apology. But truth be told, I am the one that owes you an apology. I was pretty harsh on you in those threads a month or two ago and I should not have been. I was getting annoyed by someone else that was trolling and disrupting threads and my frustrations ended up bleeding over to you. I should not have done that and I want to formally and publicly apologize. I owe you a cold beverage if our paths ever cross in real life!



Bryan,

I wanted to update you on the sleep issue. I let my IMac Pro sleep overnight. I left Safari open with multiple tabs open as well, Outlook was open and Word was open. When I woke the machine this morning it didn't crash as others have reported and the temp was 136 degrees which is much better than the past. Also, I don't have any external devices hooked up so this might explain why other people are experiencing the crashes. I think the issue with sleep is the fans totally shut down and if they stayed on like they do when you are using the machine there would be no excess heat issues. Too bad that Apple didn't follow these forums as they could get a lot of useful information.

The auto brightness issue seems better as well. The settings change and remain the same depending on the lighting conditions. The only thing that is still a problem is when starting the IMac, brightness is on high and exposes the backlight bleeding.

I am glad we are able to move on from the past and thanks for the apology.

 

[ThatSandWyrm]

"Only" 136º? That's still beyond ridiculous.

My iMP has been shutting down during sleep at shorter and shorter intervals. I'm attempting a network recovery to get back to 10.13.3, but I was told by the Apple rep on the phone that this may no longer "be allowed". (clenching fists)

 

[farslan]

My iMac Pro is constantly crashing and hard rebooting when I use Final Cut Pro X or Compressor to export a 4K video. This never happened before. Tried right now 5-6 times, every single time, it makes my iMac Pro to crash in the middle of the transcoding. I would be happy if there is anything I can do to fix this issue. This started to happen after the new upgrade unfortunately

 

[ThatSandWyrm]

My iMac Pro is constantly crashing and hard rebooting when I use Final Cut Pro X or Compressor to export a 4K video. This never happened before. Tried right now 5-6 times, every single time, it makes my iMac Pro to crash in the middle of the transcoding. I would be happy if there is anything I can do to fix this issue. This started to happen after the new upgrade unfortunately

So far... I’m not having the reboot issue after wiping the iMac Pro and doing a clean reinstall of 10.13.4. So far. Major PITA, but if it works I’ll be happy.

 

[floridaman]

FWIW if you work with a manager at the Apple online store they will extend the return period well beyond the normal 14 days. This only applies if you purchased directly through Apple. This means if you need to exchange the machine or you want a refund. I have a contact person at Apple and would be willing to give out the contact information. The manager I have worked with has been absolutely wonderful and has exceeded my expectations. I just need to check with him first to make sure it is okay to give out his direct number. I have mentioned the forums and the multiple complaints and maybe if enough people deal with the managers Apple will take a different approach to fix our issues. I think Applecare support is completely worthless and you will get nothing but the run around and outright lied to. There answer to everything is to take the machine to an Apple Store and they can't fix the majority of problems because they are software related. As for hardware issues they will end up doing a replacement machine since they don't know how to work on them. Trust me you will get better results with Apple online managers.

 

[RyanXM]

If someone is being told that their machine cannot be fixed because "they don't know how to work on them", it is one of two things: there isn't a Genius in the store who has passed the Qualification Test or Apple is still in an EFFA (Early Field Failure Analysis) Capture period on the iMac Pro.

Unlike the iPhone that has MILLIONS sold within the first day, it will take a bit longer for the EFFA Capture target number to be reached with the iMac Pro. Any new iPhone has an EFFA Capture open on it, but it normally only lasts a week because of the amount of phones sold.