Mac Pro (Late 2013) GPU (Driver) Issues

[Riwam]

I must have received over 4 years ago a very unusual nMP since I do not recall freezes during all that time, using it for light routine work and not for a living.
The only kind of "glitch" I have ever noticed is made of some very bright strikes when starting Bootcamp Windows 10.
However I have them also in my old MB 4.1 when starting Windows, so I assume that Macs do not manage to start Windows in a perfect way.
This is good, since unfortunately my Apple Care has finished long ago and it would be very difficult for me (being retired) to pay for Apple repairs
Ed

 

[swithdrawn]

I must have received over 4 years ago a very unusual nMP since I do not recall freezes during all that time, using it for light routine work and not for a living.

Ed

I also know several people (all with D500's...) that don't have this issue, so it certainly doesn't affect every nMP. But it's clear there's a very real issue with a large amount of them that goes well beyond normal failure rate.

 

[swithdrawn]

Anyone running 10.14 developer beta 4? This build seems pretty stable, I've had the trashcan chewing through LuxMark openCL GPU stress tests every night and no crashes yet. But of course, doesn't mean anything...

 

[Ghafoor]

.. But of course, doesn't mean anything...

You are right, maybe it doesn't mean anything...
I haven't had a freeze for 3 weeks after the update to 10.13.6 and since the day before yesterday one to 2 freezes per day without changes to the system (??)

 

[Ghasak]

[Possible solution]
Dear members of Mac Rumors,
This is my first post here, and I hope I will not disappoint anyone with my attempt to fix this issue with Mac Pro.
I have purchased Mac Pro late 2013 recently, and I exhibited the similar issue with the switching display GPU driver issue. I tried several fixes posted in this thread here, none of them were able to fix the problem.
I hope you will find this fix working for you, as it turns out it's entirely working for me. Now it is almost one month has been passed without any freezing since I used to have three times a day/freezes.
The solution is so simple to be applied. I have no credit for it, except I was digging for this error for a while and I approached it from a different perspective. I am not expert in fixing mac or programming apps that can fix any hardware issues. So, go to this website:
https://gfx.io/switching.html
download the app called "gfxCardStatus" by Cody Krieger (all the credits goes to this guy). Then install it to your mac pro.
Go to the icon in the Menu bar up. The Icon is the letter "i", and click this one to use the option
- "Dynamic switching" which is an alias for the built-in automatic graphics switching feature in OSX.
Now I think there is so many testing to get for you guys before we announce its a general solution for this issue so we can sleep happy after.
I am looking forward to hearing from you guys, and I wish the best to all of you.
again, this solution is not presented anywhere else, and its working for me 100%. be careful, everytime you will restart your computer you need to click the icon again and hits "dynamic switching".
my intention with this solution is to share a positive deed to others who suffer from such a problem since we all have been abanded by Apple company. I want to ask you a favor which is, if this solution is working for you then please share with us here your experience so others can get to know it's working.
Good luck and I hope you will find this solution working for you.
If you need further information, please let me know here so I can share with you my thorough analysis on this issue and what I think is the main reason causing such hardware issue.

 

[boli]

Since my last post I've been trying to reproduce the Kernel Panics with a fresh macOS using a combination of both James259's and Kris Kelvin's tipps.
At first I was unable to for about a week. For a more realistic test, I then enabled FileVault as well, because I have this enabled on all my machines.

Not sure if it was chance, but since doing that I've had 2 KPs, about one per day.

To summarize, the setup was:

• Fresh install of macOS 10.13.6
• One User account with dummy password
• FileVault enabled
• My Dell UP2715K 5K Display (for work I use a secondary UHD display in addition to this, but I'm using that with my temporary replacement iMac)
• Some random keyboard and mouse (not what I usually use, because I'm using those still )
• Safari with two Windows: One with 48 hour youtube video, a second with a WebGL Demo (make sure to dismiss no microphone warning)

This is awesome, and the machine is going back to Apple tonight.

To refresh your memory of this particular Mac Pro: Apple replaced both video cards recently, but not the main board. I'm hoping that if they can reproduce the issue they may find a working solution.
[doublepost=1533732626][/doublepost]

https://gfx.io/switching.html
- "Dynamic switching" which is an alias for the built-in automatic graphics switching feature in OSX.

Intriguing. I won't be able to try this before my MP is going back to Apple repair.

I wonder though: what does Dynamic Switching actually do in a Mac Pro? The website only lists MacBook Pros as compatible, and it's years old. I won't be looking at the source code, but it's there if someone wants to.
My thoughts: Xeons don't have built-in processor graphics, unlike their more mainstream CPUs (6700K for example), so is there some kind of switching between the two discrete GPUs that such an application could influence?
I faintly remember something like that by default one GPU is dedicated for graphics, while the other GPU is reserved for GPU-computing (OpenCL etc.), but this may be outdated or plain wrong.

 

[netkas]

10.13.6, nothing changed

found this in dmesg, after ssh-in into locked machine

--> GPU register 106f4 read failed.

--> GPU register 106f4 read failed.

 

[Ghasak]

10.13.6, nothing changed

found this in dmesg, after ssh-in into locked machine

--> GPU register 106f4 read failed.

--> GPU register 106f4 read failed.

Have you tried the “Dynamic switching” solution?

 

[Ghafoor]

Hi Ghasak,

I tried the “Dynamic switching” solution. Unfortunately I just had a freeze anyway

 

[Ghasak]

Hi Ghasak,

I tried the “Dynamic switching” solution. Unfortunately, I just had a freeze anyway

Sorry to hear that, I am not certain this app will fix anything, but for me, I think its working until now. also, I have ignored my HDMI port completely and I bought three Active adaptors (TP2 to DVI, VGA, HDMI for each). be sure to buy the active ones if you decide these configurations. So maybe ignoring the HDMI port is the key?! I don't know!!
I am using three monitors connected to my D300 FirePro MacPro. OSX 10.13.6

 

[TrashCanMan]

I'm going to pipe in on this thread. Hopefully this adds more signal than noise, and I also want to start accounting for what works and what doesn’t.

I bought a baseline model: 4 core, D300s, 256 GB. The goal was to update it and run data intensive task. It was sold by Apple Refurb Spring, 2018.

It froze like crazy from the day of purchase. Freezes were always the same: spinning beach ball of death, everything freezes but the cursor, and a hard reset is required (save for SSHing in and poking around). It seemingly happens at will during anything mildly intense--multiple tabs or PDFs for instance.

1/4 of the time it produces a coherent crash log. When we snag crash reports and send them to Apple (do it religiously), they’re always about GPU drivers.

Nothing seems to help: maxing out RAM, clean installs, booting from externals, new monitors. Resetting PRAM and SMC resets do nothing. Unplugging the monitor during hangups seldom fixes things.

I walked through things with Apple Customer Support, and was able to show the error to an Apple technician who had remoted in.

The Genius Bar send it off, replaced one of the GPUs and its bus bar. Though as soon as I booted it up, the problem is still there.


ALSO: Ghasak, I'll give it a whirl and let you know. None of the fixes on the forum have worked yet, so anything's worth a try. Have you tried using the new MacOS betas?

 

[ibscas]

I wanted to add my $0.02 to this awesome thread. This issue has been frustrating me for years, so much so that I gave up my MP and moved to a MBP for my daily use. As it turns out my MBP had to go back to Apple for a warranty issue so I'm back on my MP and having this issue repeatedly.

Like so many others it's the same KP and the same resolution: SSH and reboot or unplug the displayport and plug it back in.

However, I have been able to mitigate this issue to a very large degree. When I went to using the MBP I ended up making the MP a server and it was locking up consistently. I would open a remote session (no monitors or usb attached AT ALL and then an HDMI loopback plug) and it would be totally locked but working 100%. I had noticed in doing this that my VMWare windows were open but when they were minimized that this kernel panic never happened.

Until using this as a workstation again my solution was to have an automator running an AppleScript to minimize all windows every hour (in case I had remoted in to look at one of my VMWare Fusion's that were running and forgot to minimize it). Once I implemented that changed I can say that I have not had the lock up once.

Now this isn't practical for a workstation but it's just another thing to add to the thread.

Fortunately I already have an eGPU on order because the MBP video system sucks pretty bad (system pegged, fans going 100% constantly when doing any heavy video work, and this is with the discreet Radeon dual card system) so this isn't as much of an issue for me. However, after reading this thread and seeing that this has zero chance of ever being fully resolved I can say that this system is going up on eBay the day I get my laptop back because I just have no use for such garbage.

I could throw an eGPU on it but at $550 for the one I'm putting on my laptop that's an investment into a hunk of crap Mac that just isn't worthwhile. At least it's something I can use on my next MBP. I'm better off running my VMWare Fusion systems on a spare Mac Mini.
[doublepost=1533920008][/doublepost]Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm trying running my MP fan at high and doing some things that have been causing the kernel panic, I'll report back on those results when I have them. I don't know that this is an overheating issue but I can say unequivocally that every time I have had to go unplug the displayport that the Mac is as hot as a firecracker. I'm also trying the gfxCardStatus set to Dynamic Switching at the moment as well just to see if the high fan and that help at all because it's just so frustrating having to use this thing again.

Fingers crossed that my MBP is FedEx'd back to me by Monday or Tuesday!

 

[krakman]

I could throw an eGPU on it but at $550 for the one I'm putting on my laptop that's an investment into a hunk of crap Mac that just isn't worthwhile. At least it's something I can use on my next MBP. I'm better off running my VMWare Fusion systems on a spare Mac Mini.

I believe it has been reported elsewhere in this thread that a nMP + eGPU works very well with no reported freezes.

There is also a nice script which enables eGPU over Thunderbolt 2 available on egpu.io

 

[ibscas]

I believe it has been reported elsewhere in this thread that a nMP + eGPU works very well with no reported freezes.

There is also a nice script which enables eGPU over Thunderbolt 2 available on egpu.io

Yes, I read that - however since this nMP is really only filling in until my MBP comes in I probably won’t need to go that route. Again, for $550 it’s an expensive fix for something that shouldn’t be a problem.

Curious, though, has anyone tried this in boot camp instead? Same problems? Since it’s Apple’s drivers making the video card work I assume that it is the same, unless the issue is due to a Mac OS feature. I was thinking of loading up Windows 10 on an SSD just to see what happens.

This is all because.... my test failed, having my fan run at 100% and use the egfx app didn’t do the trick . I can, however, say that my Mac Pro is nice and cool as a result of running the fan on high!

 

[cantlep]

Hi All, I've been following this thread for a while. I'm also have the same issue on my MacPro. I've got the D700s in mine and have had this issue for a few years...although I forget when it actually started. Like ibscas, I am running VMware on mine (Fusion). In my kernel panic report, I see this - BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WindowServer. So it could well be an issue. I'm also (from today) running gfxCardStatus to see if this helps.

Thanks to all who've contributed to this thread.

 

[netkas]

my trick of disabling acceleration (in this case it's only opencl) on secondary card still helps me a lot to minimize amount of freezes.

 

[ibscas]

Like ibscas.... I'm also (from today) running gfxCardStatus to see if this helps.

Thanks to all who've contributed to this thread.

FYI, that didn't do anything helpful for me. I did that in addition to running a utility to max the internal fan and all that happened was that my computer ran much cooler, but the kernel panic still happened. Right now I'm loading up Windows 10 Boot Camp on an external SSD to see what happens under Windows.

 

[ibscas]

Here is an update on my Windows test: it works fine. I have a couple things that will cause the panic every single time in Mac OS, those same heavy graphics tests work perfectly under boot camp. In fact after you install the boot camp drivers the Apple Update app will find newer drivers that work very well under Windows 10. It was actually kind of luxurious working on this computer in Windows because the graphics were never a worry and the machine never got hot. But then again, I had to work in Windows and it reminded me of the many reasons why I chose to mostly only use Windows under a Virtual machine on Mac .

It also shows that Apple has the ability to fix this driver but has chosen not to.

This test is somewhat anecdotal and not as comprehensive as it could be and I don't know if I'll be able to test it that thoroughly to know for certain that my results are correct but every single time I did this test in Mac I locked up and now it does not.

 

[mr1098]

After going through the GPU defect in my late '11 MBP, I cannot believe I'm dealing with this again -- first KP since I got this thing led me directly here.

I volunteer to be lead plaintiff in the class action suit.

 

[Kris Kelvin]

I volunteer to be lead plaintiff in the class action suit.

Would gladly join you if I was in the US and didn't have tinkered with my MacPro6,1.

 

[Levv]

Hello Everyone,
Who of you tried Mojave?
Last Post about Mojave was on jul 9.
Was just wondering if there was any news

 

[swithdrawn]

Hello Everyone,
Who of you tried Mojave?
Last Post about Mojave was on jul 9.
Was just wondering if there was any news

Yup, I haven't had a KP since 10.14 developer beta 4. I'm now on beta 7. Been using it every day often heavy use/video editing/transcoding. NOT SAYING ANYTHING [[wood knocking intensifies]] but there you have it.

 

[unvs]

Mine was stable for a while, but is now back to crashing again. I noticed that when it "freezes", if I pull out the power cord from my Dell monitor, the computer instantly reboots with a kernel panic.

What monitors are you guys using with your nMP?

 

[boli]

What monitors are you guys using with your nMP?

Dell UP2715K (old 5K display connected with two DisplayPort 1.2 cables) as main display, and some Dell 24" UHD (30 Hz only in portrait orientation, because portrait is not available when MST is on).

 

[OverZealous]

I've got 4 Dell monitors, all 24" 1920x1200. (Two each U2413 and U2415.)

When the failure occurs, disconnecting the thunderbolt/displayport cable from any monitor is enough to trigger the reboot. (I don't think you need to kill the power—though that might be better since those thunderbolt ports are kinda crap.)

Ever since performing the Eugy84 hack from a few pages back, I'm still in this weird state where it doesn't crash nearly as often (though it still has definitely crashed a few times).

I'm not tracking my usage in any way, so I can't say for sure that my usage patterns has or hasn't changed, but if it has, it would have to be something weird.