Mac Pro (Late 2013) GPU (Driver) Issues

[julik_tar]

About to pick my MP with an OOW GPU-B replaced. I will make sure to torture it to death in the 90 days post-repair warranty period. And requisite parts for a PC build on order.

So far this sets me back about 460e (failed "diagnosed and not reproduced" at the VAR and the OOW repair part+labor at Apple proper). We shall see.
[doublepost=1491264886][/doublepost]

A sad 'MacPro' hexed to the core.

No, it's an nVidia 1080 Ti icon replicated at 8K res.

 

[AidenShaw]

A sad 'MacPro' hexed to the core.

OK Photoshoppers - challenge.

Show us the 2017 "Sad Mac".

At least 24-bit color and 8-bit alpha.

 

[Idolum]

OK Photoshoppers - challenge.

Show us the 2017 "Sad Mac".

At least 24-bit color and 8-bit alpha.

 

[Idolum]

Well it's official the current wonderfully designed MacPro will get some unspecified minor updates soon and will be replaced with an all newly re-designed modular system within a year to two. I am sure I will get many years of continued joy out of my current and favorite MacPro of all time - albeit with an older OS X:

"Apple also suggested that the "trash can" design of the current Mac Pro has restricted its ability to truly upgrade it."

https://www.macrumors.com/2017/04/04/apple-updates-mac-pro-and-more/
[doublepost=1491320078][/doublepost]Here are some more details. It looks like the D300 has been retired in the low end MacPro and a new D800 is introduced in the high end MacPro. Not much else has changed. Should we call this the bax2003 mod?

http://daringfireball.net/2017/04/the_mac_pro_lives

 

[Idolum]

The new D800 seems to be a typo in the original story. At least so far Apple's store only lists the D500 and D700 as the two exclusive 'new' options.

 

[bax2003]

No more D300 option, I wonder why....

BTW, mine is still a big question mark...maybe complete replacement.
2 months, 5 days and counting....

 

[beerstine]

I literally just got my replacement on a 6 core D500 today for a machine that Apple could not fix after it started freezing and then refused to boot up at all (this was under El Capitan). The Apple Store finally ordered a replacement after replacing both video cards and cables, the logic board, and was unable to get a replacement SSD through their supply chain after waiting for two weeks. The whole exercise took nearly a month and in the end, nobody will admit to what was wrong with the original machine and why it couldn't be fixed.

Just as I'm getting my new machine, I find out that Apple's admitting the failure of the current Mac Pro design and drops the value of my configuration $1000. Thanks for killing my resale value Apple.

 

[ManuelGomes]

Will the "new" nMPs come with Sierra on it? Working properly?

 

[julik_tar]

Got my trashcan back, OOW repair GPU-B replaced. They also updated it to 10.12.4. Observations:

- There was previously a menubar-sized block of corrupted texture after login during boot. This is now gone.
- There was a chunk of corrupted texture being rendered in the Mosaic screensaver. That is gone as well.
- I have run the machine with Mosaic and other screensavers for 6 days, and also started a full-screen OpenGL-heavy game yesterday. So far - no GPU unreadiness. Will be carefully monitoring.

Since I can't allow this crap to be happening again I've meanwhile assembled a Skylake hackintosh with a 980Ti which alreayd works - just need a couple' more bits and bobs to get Thunderbolt devices running.

 

[Idolum]

Got my trashcan back, OOW repair GPU-B replaced...Since I can't allow this crap to be happening again I've meanwhile assembled a Skylake hackintosh with a 980Ti which alreayd works - just need a couple' more bits and bobs to get Thunderbolt devices running.

I have my doubts whether a 'hackintosh' will run as reliable as my 'backintosh' but you can certainly make them look similar:

 

[julik_tar]

Oh nonono this time I'm going for an actual Boring Box that Fits Alot Of Stuff and Can Be Ventilated Forcibly. And fits a Big Dam' Heatsink and a Whole Lotta Drives. And has a Power Supply That Can Power A GPU With Two Connectors And Enough Watts (tm)(R)

 

[poematik13]

10.12.4 updates the EFI driver for the mac pro. It is highly recommended that everybody in this thread with issues updates to it, if possible.

 

[magic carpet]

10.12.4 updates the EFI driver for the mac pro. It is highly recommended that everybody in this thread with issues updates to it, if possible.

...about time I would say.

 

[poematik13]

...about time I would say.

There's been several of these updates in the past, but 10.12.4 seems to be the most stable now. It also adds a 4K boot screen, which, I will say too that it's "about time". That should have been included in 2014.

 

[voyager77]

10.12.4 updates the EFI driver for the mac pro. It is highly recommended that everybody in this thread with issues updates to it, if possible.

Did others who upgraded to this version also notice the loss of the apple logo on the startup screen and a considerable delay before the screen even comes up?

 

[julik_tar]

So - first crash but a really weird one. Looks like I didn't get logged out but the machine restarted instead. I think it has to do with the OS update which now does something else on this GPU unreadiness thing. I'm saying "rebooted" because there was blinking on the IO illumination when it happened. But when I was scanning the logs I couldn't find a crash log and couldn't find a clear restart marker - since so much stuff gets restarted on login and spams the logs. Will monitor some more.

 

[voyager77]

What you had was probably a full system freeze and crash.
Screen totaly freezes for a few seconds, not even mouse moves and followed by a system restart including lighting up the panel.
There's nothing in the log, because the system was so frozen it couldn't write anything to it. It's basically the same as if you were to hardboot it by holding down the on button.

 

[axantas]

Did others who upgraded to this version also notice the loss of the apple logo on the startup screen and a considerable delay before the screen even comes up?

Yes, same problem here. No more picture until login-screen with a DELL p2415q Thunderbolt monitor IF in monitor setup MST is off. Secondary MST on (only half the possible refresh-rate) shows the usual startup pictures. I don't mind about the missing apple while starting up, but what's really annoying, you do not see the boot menu anymore (with ALT pressed) What are they thinking they are doing there at Apple? Too busy to weave the spring-collection of their watch bands... ??

 

[Idolum]

This customization might be a viable solution for the GPU issues while also making the discontinued MacPro D300 more powerful than any currently available Mac:

 

[julik_tar]

There's nothing in the log, because the system was so frozen it couldn't write anything to it. It's basically the same as if you were to hardboot it by holding down the on button.

Complete system freeze with no crashlog. This is going to be troubleshootable for sure :-(

 

[AidenShaw]

Complete system freeze with no crashlog. This is going to be troubleshootable for sure :-(

But at least Apple fixed the "GPU restart" problem.

 

[voyager77]

But at least Apple fixed the "GPU restart" problem.

Where? When?

Please let someone inform my mac pro about this so it won't have GPU restarts anymore.

 

[AidenShaw]

But at least Apple fixed the "GPU restart" problem.

...by turning it into a hard freeze.

</joke>

So the restarts are still happening?

 

[julik_tar]

I can't say. It looks like they _arent_ for me, but I havent done hardcore GL work yet - just had this one odd crash - and the machine has been on 24/7 since I brought it in.

Completely OT - on the hackintosh I assembled with nVidia's own drivers I also get GPU restarts now (channel timeout). I think the concept of a working fast GPU + OSX has become unpossible.

 

[axantas]

you don't have to do "hardcore GL", julik_tar. Just sitting in front of your running MacPro is enough to make it crash. On the contrary. I never ever had crashes due to anything "hardcore". I run huge orchestras in Logic Pro without any problem. The reason for a crash can be the simple attempt to close the last Finder window before shutting down...