MP 7,1 w5700x Owners Running External Sound Devices?

[choreo]

Is anyone running w5700x GPU and having occasional kernel panics?

I have had (2) 2019 Mac Pros purchased in 2020 - both configured with w5700x GPUs (identical specs). Both have had occasional kernel panics from the beginning which runs in spurts. Sometimes an incremental OS update will seem to stop the panics for a while (I am still on the latest version of Monterey). 95% of the panics occur during or waking from sleep.

I recently installed Sleep Aid a couple weeks ago to help diagnose the source as the kernel panics during sleep were coming 3-4 times a day! Since then I have been playing with various settings which did not solve the issue with little success and Sleep Aid would report "WORST - No Sleep".

Four days ago I tried something that I did not think would have any effect (out of desperation) - I switched my sound output from my ASD Monitor speakers to the internal Mac Pro speaker and since then not one crash (so far)! For four days Sleep Aid has reported "GREAT - Perfect Sleep No Wakes"!

Thinking back I have ALWAYS run some form of external speakers on both Mac Pros (and always had sleep issues and crashes), but I never would have guessed that connecting external speakers could be a source; however, I did notice that on those rare occasions that a kernel panic occurred during a work session, I would "hear" usually 3-4 rhythmic static sounds coming from the speakers before the auto-restart.

Will see how long this fix lasts and report back.

 

[Bigwaff]

ASD firmware updates are delivered through OS updates. You are two ASD firmware updates behind because you are on Monterey... assuming you installed all the ASD firmware updates available on Monterey.

What’s new in firmware updates for Apple Studio Display - Apple Support

Learn about changes and features included in the firmware updates for your display.

support.apple.com

 

[mattspace]

Is anyone running w5700x GPU and having occasional kernel panics?

I have had (2) 2019 Mac Pros purchased in 2020 - both configured with w5700x GPUs (identical specs). Both have had occasional kernel panics from the beginning which runs in spurts. Sometimes an incremental OS update will seem to stop the panics for a while (I am still on the latest version of Monterrey). 95% of the panics occur during or waking from sleep.

I recently installed Sleep Aid a couple weeks ago to help diagnose the source as the kernel panics during sleep were coming 3-4 times a day! Since then I have been playing with various settings which did not solve the issue with little success and Sleep Aid would report "WORST - No Sleep".

Four days ago I tried something that I did not think would have any effect (out of desperation) - I switched my sound output from my ASD Monitor speakers to the internal Mac Pro speaker and since then not one crash (so far)! For four days Sleep Aid has reported "GREAT - Perfect Sleep No Wakes"!

Thinking back I have ALWAYS run some form of external speakers on both Mac Pros (and always had sleep issues and crashes), but I never would have guessed that connecting external speakers could be a source; however, I did notice that on those rare occasions that a kernel panic occurred during a work session, I would "hear" usually 3-4 rhythmic static sounds coming from the speakers before the auto-restart.

Will see how long this fix lasts and report back.

Dual W5700X, audio out is to an old Harmon-Kardon Soundstocks II (the first version with standard 3.5mm audio input).

Mac (IO Card USB) -> USB Hub -> USB to Benq display -> USB-A -> USB-C adapter -> Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adapter -> speakers.

Works fine.

I'd be taking troubleshooting in the direction od eliminating all Thunderbolt devices from your setup. Only because, when I had my USB hub connected via an Apple TB3/Type-C - USB-A, it became really unreliable over sleep / wake cycles. I think Thunderbolt is a fundamentally broken technology, that is inherently unstable.

Thogh, I did recently have cause to reboot my system as the USB bus became unstable - my speakers would lose sound output (while internal speaker functioned fine), plugging and replugging would fix it, but my USB mouse became all jumpy, which made slow precision moves difficult. Switching off inertial acceleration solved it, and after a reboot the problem was gone, and audio returned to stability.

 

[mattspace]

ASD firmware updates are delivered through OS updates. You are two ASD firmware updates behind because you are on Monterey... assuming you installed all the ASD firmware updates available on Monterey.

What’s new in firmware updates for Apple Studio Display - Apple Support

Learn about changes and features included in the firmware updates for your display.

support.apple.com

Yeah, If I was using one of those displays (which I wouldn't), I'd have a boot partition set up with whatever was the current OS, just to do monitor updates...

 

[choreo]

ASD firmware updates are delivered through OS updates. You are two ASD firmware updates behind because you are on Monterey... assuming you installed all the ASD firmware updates available on Monterey.

What’s new in firmware updates for Apple Studio Display - Apple Support

Learn about changes and features included in the firmware updates for your display.

support.apple.com

That "might" address the ASD issue, but I have only had the ASD for a year. I was having the same identical looking short string kernel panics going back to July 2020 when I had Z960 speakers attached via two different TB3 hubs over time - in fact that was the sole reason Apple sent me a new replacement Mac Pro - they could not explain the panics. The new replacement started having panics the second day!

The only constant was I have always had external speakers selected as an output source. I had the Z960 speakers connected to my older 2012 Mac Pro for 8 years and never had a crash. However the 2012 had no TB and it had built-in optical audio out.