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Witch Author

Level 1

8 points

NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception!

I have the error above on the intel iMac 24" when running Second Life.

Error lines from syslog can be:

avalon-3 kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! status = 0xffff info32 = 0x3 = Fifo: Unknown Method Error
avalon-3 kernel[0]: 0000000b

and

avalon-3 kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! status = 0xffff info32 = 0x6 = Fifo: Parse Error
Feb 23 01:53:22 avalon-3 kernel[0]: 0000000b

If this happens SL is going to freeze up and die

Hardware failure?
OSX bug?
Application bug?

iMac 24" Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.6), NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT

Posted on Feb 22, 2009 5:22 PM

457 replies

JontyLP

Level 1

0 points

Mar 22, 2011 11:53 PM in response to jasx86

How annoying... I was thinking of upping to 10.6.7 and won't be doing so now! *EPIC FAIL* Who thought the day would come when Microsoft would release drivers that work better than the drivers supplied by Mac (for a different platform as well).

What seems strange to me though is that there must be several thousand users out there with similar hardware who would presumably be experiencing the same issue?

Mar 23, 2011 7:11 PM in response to Witch

So should I not update to 10.6.7 until there is something to fix this. I just experienced the flickering issue!

jasx

Level 1

0 points

Mar 23, 2011 11:57 PM in response to fastmacbookpro

Not saying anyone should not upgrade, way I see it you don't have anything to lose, it's already broken right?

Also, testing something new here, not aimed at software drivers, will post back if successful.

JontyLP

Level 1

0 points

Mar 25, 2011 2:35 AM in response to jasx

Good luck JasX. Let us know how you get on - it's a bummer this doesn't work. I've seen in other forums that people tried to roll back to the 10.6.3 Geforce Kernel Extensions with success, but I tried that and it didn't work (made sure that the permissions were set correctly). Machine booted, but screen just went blue, couldn't log in 😟

jasx86

Level 1

0 points

Mar 25, 2011 12:32 PM in response to JontyLP

Your screen went blue/blank at the login screen because you didn't replace the OpenGL framework which corresponds with 10.6.3 graphic kexts, the OpenGL.framework is located inside: /System/Library/Frameworks/

I've already tested with 10.6.3, 10.6.4 kexts, it does not "cure" the problem.

shimatta

Level 1

5 points

Mar 26, 2011 12:44 AM in response to jasx86

Can you test with 10.6.2 kexts? Somehow I have a feeling that the issue started after the 10.6.3 update. I don't have the kexts so can't test without a fresh install.

Mar 26, 2011 7:39 AM in response to Witch

My vga/cpu was overclocked, so I return to the default settings and no more crashes, so,
Mac OS X it's sensible to overclocking.

Mar 27, 2011 4:28 PM in response to Witch

I'm experiencing exclusively channel timeouts on wake-from-sleep on my MacBook Pro ... and I only get them when I'm booted up with a 64-bit kernel. Didn't see anything here about who was experiencing this in conjunction with 32 or 64-bit mode.

-p.ter

Apr 2, 2011 3:16 AM in response to Witch

I have this problem too... multiple entries such as the following in kernel.log when playing WoW, followed by various degrees of lock-up:

Apr 2 11:11:27 iMac kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error
Apr 2 11:11:27 iMac kernel[0]: 0000006e
Apr 2 11:11:27 iMac kernel[0]: 00200000 00008297 00000474 00000100
Apr 2 11:11:27 iMac kernel[0]: 0000047e 000015f0 05be05be 0000000c
Apr 2 11:11:27 iMac kernel[0]: 00000000 00000000 01fffc01
Apr 2 11:11:27 iMac kernel[0]: 00000100 00000000
Apr 2 11:11:47 iMac kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!

It's about time Apple & NVidia sorted this out!

Apr 2, 2011 2:29 PM in response to bobcole

Upgraded to 10.6.7 and had this problem for the first time ever. I have also recently updated to firefox 4 and am using flash square (64bit beta) so that may be a problem as well. But according to the kernel panic log the cause of it was apple's own DVD player.

I had firefox 4 open with gmail, tokbox, and other tabs. I tried to open a new window in firefox and then the screen began flickering. I could not force quit anything and was forced to do a hard restart.

This is maybe only the 2nd or 3rd time I've had a kernel panic / forced restart for the life of my laptop (~4 years).

console message follows (repeated >200 times):
4/2/11 2:06:28 PM kernel NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error
4/2/11 2:06:28 PM kernel 0000006e
4/2/11 2:06:28 PM kernel 00100000 0000502d 00000472 00000000
4/2/11 2:06:28 PM kernel 0000047a 00000218 00100010 0000000a
4/2/11 2:06:28 PM kernel 00000000 00000000 00000000
4/2/11 2:06:28 PM kernel 00000000 00000004
4/2/11 2:06:28 PM kernel NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error

Message was edited by: majormajormajor

ash9445

Level 1

0 points

Apr 6, 2011 11:55 PM in response to majormajormajor

This happened to me this afternoon. I've had this Macbook Pro for almost 2 years now, and this is the first kernel panic I've experienced.

Immediately after updating to 10.6.7 I was experiencing major WiFi issues, had to completely erase the .plist that contained all my network passwords, so this just puts icing on the "I Should've Downgraded" cake.

I also upgraded to Firefox 4, but it wasn't running at the time of the panic. Google Chrome was, though. I wonder if it was related?

Went to the console, this was repeated about 8 times, but it probably would've gone for longer if I hadn't forced a hard reset via the power button.

4/6/11 8:00:45 PM kernel NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error
4/6/11 8:00:45 PM kernel 0000006e
4/6/11 8:00:45 PM kernel 00200000 00008397 00000474 00000040
4/6/11 8:00:45 PM kernel 0000047e 00001408 00000001 00000048
4/6/11 8:00:45 PM kernel 00000000 00000000 01100013
4/6/11 8:00:45 PM kernel 00000040 00000000

REALLY hope Apple releases a fix soon, this is a problem that makes me nervous, especially as my Macbook is out of warranty :/

benoît

Level 1

0 points

May 10, 2011 2:46 AM in response to Witch

Adding myself to the list.

Have a MacBookPro for two years now, have been trying to view a video in full screen on the web recently, and it all began: flickering, then freezing. At that time, I pressed the power button and rebooted did not got more trouble for few days. This morning, it was frozen, fan at full power, only the power button helped. I had to start it over and over again four time to finally get to my desktop, did a few web search, and got flickering again. Then I realize that because it only is a graphic issue, if you press the power button then enter, it will gracefully shut itself down (at least it did this morning).

This all began because of Flash, I'm pretty sure.

Reading all (ok, not all) those stuff, I think temperature damaged the connection between the graphic chipset and the motherboard. Thus, I strongly beleive this is a hardware issue. No driver will fix this. I have an outdated TimeMachine backup (**** always happen when your backup are out of sync 😉) that I can try to put back this evening. I don't believe this will fix anything.

This remind me of an overheating troubles I read once on Instructable. Ok, this one goes about a PS3 or an XBOX, but the theory is the same. Overheating causes the connection to losen themselves, creating random software issue. As stated in the link below, there is a known way to fix this, called oven re-flow. I won't do it to my MacBookPro. Neither am I suggesting you to do so.

This is my contribution to this really annoying trouble. It looks like fan control prevent it to hapen so frequently, which would confirm my temperature theory. Some MacBook Pro have two graphic chipset, just switching to the intel one should also remove the trouble (use gfxCardStatus).

JontyLP

Level 1

0 points

Jun 9, 2011 9:40 PM in response to ash9445

Hey guys

Sho, so it's been months (years) since this was logged and Apple aren't doing anything about it. For a product that's priced at the higher end of the market, one would expect the drivers to work. Been following this and a number of other threads and've been forced to use the gfxCardStatus application using the Intel on board graphics controller. When swtiching to the dedicated NVIDIA driver, *EPIC FAIL*, the following is logged in the console repeatedly, and the screen becomes corrupted requiring a hard reset:

6/10/11 8:20:14 AM kernel NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error

6/10/11 8:20:14 AM kernel 0000006e

6/10/11 8:20:14 AM kernel 00200000 00008597 00000474 00000010

6/10/11 8:20:14 AM kernel 0000047e 000015e0 00000000 0000000a

6/10/11 8:20:14 AM kernel 00000000 00000000 00000603

6/10/11 8:20:14 AM kernel 00000010 00000000

PC specs:

Model: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MackBrook Pro 6.2

Mac OS x 10.6.7

Processor: 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory: 4GB 1067MHz DDR3

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT330M

I've tried nearly everything I can think of to fix this issue bar taking it in to replace the controller. Has anybody come right other than using the gfxCardStatus application?

Cheers,

LouisHH

Level 1

0 points

Jun 10, 2011 3:08 AM in response to JontyLP

For about 6 months, I am having the same problem with my iMac6,1 Core2Duo 2,16 GHz and the

NVIDIAGeForce 7300 GT

Typ: GPU

Bus: PCIe

PCIe-Lane-Breite:x16

VRAM (gesamt):128 MB

Hersteller:NVIDIA (0x10de)

Geräte-ID:0x0395

Versions-ID:0x00a1

ROM-Version:3021

I get these console messages pointing to NVDIA, weird puzzle patterns on the screen, leftovers from closed windows, frequent freezing (once every 30 mins or so) and an awful slow-down of the performance.

I have tried all sorts of tricks, e.g. using Fan Control to increase the speed of the fans after someone suggested that it might have to do with overheating. Now a GeniusBar guy at the local Apple store suggested resetting the PRAM by applying Alt-cmd-P-R during start - I have done that yesterday (24h ago) and while I keep getting console messages like

NVDA(OpenGL):Channel exception! exception type = 0x6 =Fifo: Parse Error

NVDA(OpenGL):Channelexception! exception type = 0xd =GR: SW Notify Error

I did not get a single freeze and experienced an improved performance.

I have absolutely no idea why this works and will keep you posted on the outcome over the next couple of days, but I suggest trying it out and posting the results.

Greetings from Hamburg/Germany

JontyLP

Level 1

0 points

Jun 11, 2011 11:48 AM in response to LouisHH

Hi guys

Tried clearing clearing the PRAM on boot as per Louis' recommendation. Unfortunately that didn't do the business and the problem remains when running the laptop in discreet mode (i.e. with the NVIDIA graphics controller). Managed to crash the machine after 2 minutes...

Took my MacBook Pro to the Apple Service Centre today. The service centres locally (Dubai) are refusing to look at it as it was bought from an unauthorised dealer in Dubai - oh JOY! In a bid to curb unauthorised merchants flogging Apple laptops, the authorised centres refuse to service or even look at an Apple product (even if the consumer is willing to pay cash for the privilege) that hasn't been bought from an authorised reseller. It's a pity this short sightedness affects the consumer and not the merchant who has already made the sale...

I'm going to try swapping out the RAM, but I don't believe this is the issue. Somebody in a previous post tried this and apparently it worked though I'm sceptical.

Will keep you all posted.

NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception!