Mac Pro (Late 2013) GPU (Driver) Issues

[nitrocan]

I installed El Capitan saturday evening, yesterday in the late evening i had a freezing again. This is the console log


Oct 13 23:40:27 Mac-Pro-di-Mauro kernel[0]: Sound assertion - 1002:aab0 FIFO error (Stream 0)

Oct 13 23:40:27 Mac-Pro-di-Mauro WindowServer[162]: Surface testing disallowed updates for 10 sequential attempts...

Oct 13 23:40:33 Mac-Pro-di-Mauro WindowServer[162]: GPU Driver appears to be hung (over 5 continuous seconds of unreadiness)

Oct 13 23:40:37 --- last message repeated 872 times ---

Oct 13 23:40:37 Mac-Pro-di-Mauro com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[3461]: [23:40:37.212] <<<< IQ-CA >>>> piqca_setUsePreQueue: (0x7ff844161a00) rejecting report of layer being serviced - IQ has not yet begun to update

Oct 13 23:40:37 Mac-Pro-di-Mauro com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[3461]: [23:40:37.212] FigAgglomeratorSetObjectForKey signalled err=-16020 (kFigStringConformerError_ParamErr) (NULL key) at /Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/CoreMedia/CoreMedia-1731.15.4/Prototypes/LegibleOutput/FigAgglomerator.c line 92

Oct 13 23:40:37 Mac-Pro-di-Mauro WindowServer[162]: GPU Driver appears to be hung (over 5 continuous seconds of unreadiness)

Oct 13 23:40:39 --- last message repeated 561 times ---



A new thing i noticed is the message 'GPU Driver appears to be hung (over 5 continuous seconds of unreadiness)' that did not appear with yosemite.

Yes I had noticed this too when I was running El Capitan beta. Also, I always used to get the Sound assertion FIFO error before the crash as well.

Just another question, what connector is everyone using to connect to their displays? I'm currently using a 3rd party miniDP -> DP cable.

 

[mauro16]

Yes I had noticed this too when I was running El Capitan beta. Also, I always used to get the Sound assertion FIFO error before the crash as well.

Just another question, what connector is everyone using to connect to their displays? I'm currently using a 3rd party miniDP -> DP cable.

i'm also using a 3rd party miniDP -> DP cable

 

[MMcCraryNJ]

.

 

[nitrocan]

I'm using an official Apple Thunderbolt cable with an LG 34UM95-P Thunderbolt monitor

There goes my theory lol, is it a TB2 or TB1 cable?

Also just to be sure, are you running into the exact problem mentioned in this thread?

 

[MMcCraryNJ]

.

 

[voyager77]

Just another question, what connector is everyone using to connect to their displays? I'm currently using a 3rd party miniDP -> DP cable.

Official apple thunderbolt to dvi connector.
I also used the same connector made by Hama, same problem.
Both connectors work fine on my macbook pro.

 

[Zarniwoop]

So it is purely software problem.. or could it be, that there's not enough thermal paste on top of GPU and some times the chip just hangs? Has anyone checked that out?

 

[mauro16]

i'm also using a 3rd party miniDP -> DP cable

actually, currently i am using a 3rd party miniDP -> DP cable with dell U2713HM monitor, formerly (with yosemite) i was using a LG 34UC87M-B monitor with apple TB to TB cable (and i still got freezings). Earlier i also used an ordinary 22" monitor connected on the hdmi port and even so i got the freezings .... .

 

[nitrocan]

There goes my theory lol, is it a TB2 or TB1 cable?

actually, currently i am using a 3rd party miniDP -> DP cable with dell U2713HM monitor, formerly (with yosemite) i was using a LG 34UC87M-B monitor with apple TB to TB cable (and i still got freezings). Earlier i also used an ordinary 22" monitor connected on the hdmi port and even so i got the freezings .... .

Even over HDMI? Oh boy.

 

[axantas]

Even over HDMI? Oh boy.

Objection, your honor
I initially used a 1920x1080 monitor, connected via HDMI and did not get any crashes or freezes. I would have returned the nMP immediately if I would have encountered problems like these. Switched to the Dell p2415q, and then it started with screen flicker and - you know...

 

[Timboum]

Here, i use a HDMI cable and have freezes. I think that unfortunately, it is not the cable, or monitors... but the nMP.

I think it's an electric problem. Anyone have freezes with only Keyboard en monitor plugged?

 

[koyoot]

So in all, it turns out that while having connected monitor to HDMI port, there is absolutely no hangs of computer?

 

[poematik13]

I've had issues similar to everybody else and I've been running my monitor off of HDMI the whole time.

 

[koyoot]

This is ridiculous, IMO.

Its complete lottery: if you will get, or not the crashes. Unbelievable. I wanted to jump ship with nMP and HDMI 1440p monitor. But you guys just completely knocked me out of it.

Apple, do something with the reliability issues. Its your responsibility.

 

[axantas]

This is ridiculous, IMO.

Its complete lottery: if you will get, or not the crashes. Unbelievable. I wanted to jump ship with nMP and HDMI 1440p monitor. But you guys just completely knocked me out of it.

Apple, do something with the reliability issues. Its your responsibility.

Apple will not read this here, but i hope, they analyze our crash reports and finally find a solution. Reading about what Apple did "repair", they actually really seem to be clueless. You are right, it is not reproducible at all it can happen in any situation. But: If you really want one - give it a try and test it or just swap it under warranty.
In general it really is a gorgeous computer...

 

[koyoot]

The hope that it gives is the fact, that most reports are coming from people having Thunderbolt connected monitors, and "HDMI port crashes" is margin of those events.

 

[koyoot]

Sorry for post after post, but this is important question.

Guys, does those crashes appear when you do heavy stuff, like video editing, or gaming?

 

[bax2003]

Sorry for post after post, but this is important question.

Guys, does those crashes appear when you do heavy stuff, like video editing, or gaming?

No. Random. Video, rendering, browsing, finder windows management, mission control, just itunes....to me, it happened once while exiting pictures screensaver...

 

[axantas]

No. Random. Video, rendering, browsing, finder windows management, mission control, just itunes....to me, it happened once while exiting pictures screensaver...

Not here as well. At the contrary. I NEVER managed to crash it by doing heavy stuff (preferably all at once...). It renders videos, plays an entire orchestra in Logic Pro X and does not even get noisy....
It happens without an apparent reason. The only vague coincidence: It can happen, when I play a video in VLC for example or browse heavily overloaded multimedia sites. But this is not reproducible as well.

... it crashes, when it starts raining in Madagascar - i guess

 

[Timboum]

No. Random. Video, rendering, browsing, finder windows management, mission control, just itunes....to me, it happened once while exiting pictures screensaver...

Exactly the same thing for me.

 

[voyager77]

Sorry for post after post, but this is important question.

Guys, does those crashes appear when you do heavy stuff, like video editing, or gaming?

It's not always heavy loads that crashes it. I can run it pretty hot, and it keeps going fine, so i doubt it's a thermal problem.

A very loose estimate of things that cause the crashes:

Aperture : 1
Safari : 5
Dungeons and dragons (aka a game): 15
Second life (aka a game to) : 40
Hitman pro, Thomb raider: 10 (those crashes were only early on, none after a few osx updates.)

Other apps that i use a lot, but for which i haven't seen a crash yet: Imovie, DaVinci Resolve, Autopano, Handbrake and a bunch of other ones that put a lot less stress on the system.

 

[koyoot]

This is getting even more ridiculous than I thought...

 

[Redneck1089]

This is getting even more ridiculous than I thought...

While I sympathize with peoples' problems with the computer here, I bought a nMP in August and haven't had any trouble. I've used it with a whole host of displays too with varying connectors.

The screens I've used with it and haven't run into any problems are:
- Apple 30" Cinema Display with official Apple DVI-to-Displayport adapter.
- Apple 27" Cinema Display with display port (not the Thunderbolt model)
- Wacom Cintiq 12wx with third party DVI-to-Displayport adapter.
- Acer G277HU 27" LED Monitor via HDMI


Hopefully I don't run into any issues in the future as the machine ages. Anyways, I'm keep my eye on this thread.

 

[bax2003]

Not here as well. At the contrary. I NEVER managed to crash it by doing heavy stuff (preferably all at once...). It renders videos, plays an entire orchestra in Logic Pro X and does not even get noisy....
It happens without an apparent reason. The only vague coincidence: It can happen, when I play a video in VLC for example or browse heavily overloaded multimedia sites. But this is not reproducible as well.

... it crashes, when it starts raining in Madagascar - i guess

Here is one while converting video in Adobe Media Encoder....somehow there are missing letters in Application name in this LOG....

 

[poematik13]

Sorry for post after post, but this is important question.

Guys, does those crashes appear when you do heavy stuff, like video editing, or gaming?

yes.