Q: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception!

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.

Hi guys,

I posted a while back about my MacMini issues, at the time I was able to reproduce the freeze on demand so I was able to identify the reason for the freeze.

In my case once the internal temperature reached 60°C the freeze occurred.Using Fan Control I was able to make sure this did not happen and I have not had a single freeze since (was several times a day before!!)

In the meantime I also installed W7 on this Mac, and I got similar issues in Windows, around 60°C I got black flashes, and error messages from the system about the graphics card.

I then started using a fan control program on Windows, and again did not get any freeze after this.

Now to the bad news, as I expected, things are getting worse, since last week, now when the internal temperature reaches 45°C the freezes are back. (Note: we are approaching summer and temperatures are rising 26°C -30°C everyday.)

I am thinking a faulty hardware that’s getting worse and worse. Anyway I think I am on my way to the Apple Center, hopefully I still have 3 months warranty on the machine and I won’t have problems demonstrating the problem on either OSX or W7.

Unfortunately, it does not solve the problem. However, in my case, resetting the PRAM at every start seems to a less frequent occurrence of the problem, and the machine is recovering from the freezes more often so that no re-start is necessary. However the console message

NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0x6 = Fifo: Parse Error 00000069 keeps piling up by the second.

Any news from the Apple service?

Over the past two days I've been experiencing the exact same error messages, flickering, followed by complete freezing.

I'm running 10.6.7 with an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS on a 2008 iMac.

I tried all the suggestions I could in this thread but nothing made any difference, I just couldn't keep the iMac running for more than 20 minutes before it would crash... HOWEVER! I think I've solved it (fingers crossed), by simply unplugging the secondary monitor (Dell), and it's been fine now for the past 8 hours.

So, if you have an external monitor connected, try unplugging it, rebooting and see what happens, could be as simple as that.

Why exactly this problem only started happening for me yesterday I have no idea, but for now I'm leaving the external monitor disconnected.

Nope, they're refusing to look at it in the UAE. I tried changing the RAM (I didn't think it would help) and this didn't resolve the issue... I'm going to keep pushing the Apple guys here in the UAE and will see if I can get more movement on this. Hopefully they don't need to change the logic board... ARRRRG. Other people have tried in this forum unsuccessfully....

Hello,

I also have these problems with my Macbook Pro (Mid 2010). Before there was another problem with the nvidia chip and apple changed my logic board. Now I have these "NVDAOpenGL: Channel exception" problems...

I hope there will be no more problems with Lion, otherwise I have to go to the Apple Store again...

I don't think Lion will fix this - in fact, I'm quite certain it won't. I stand corrected, but I don't think a massive overhaul of the driver sets was done, they'd just build on top of what's there.

Tried a complete re-install from 10.6.6 (completely cleared the PC HD) and updated to 10.6.8 using the Combo Pack. Things looked good for a bit, but the problem re-surfaced where the following gets logged repeadedly - the only solution is to restart the machine:

28/06/2011 22:26:41    kernel    NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error

28/06/2011 22:26:41    kernel    0000006e

28/06/2011 22:26:41    kernel    00200000 00008597 00000474 00000040

28/06/2011 22:26:41    kernel    0000047e 000015e0 00000000 0000000a

28/06/2011 22:26:41    kernel    00000000 00000000 00000002

28/06/2011 22:26:41    kernel    00000040 00000000

I'll try and get down to the Apple store again to fight with somebody. I don't think replacing the Logic board will help. The only thing I don't understand is that if it were a driver issue, everybody with MacBook Pro 2010 (6,2 models) would be having this issue? It only seems to happen when the NVIDIA Geforce GT330M is active. When the Intel HD graphics card is active, no issue. It's not a context switching issue either because using the gfxCardStatus application and forcing it to Discrete only results in the above after about 5-10 minutes.

I kinda solved this problem on my old iMac (iMac6,1, C2D, 2.33GHz, NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT) :-)

Basically what I need to do to avoid the infamous NVDA error on my iMac is to keep its temperature under 40°C (~100°F).

I'm actually using smcFanControl very effectively since a couple of years. Under "normal" room temperature (min 20°C max 25°C) keeping the fans at 30% minimum speed does the job. This speed setting doesn't even turns the iMac noisy.

Hope this helps.

Rocco

Has anybody with this problem installed Lion? Does it fix the problem?

I did and the installation doesn't fix the problem.

As far as I saw the problem got worse on my iMac, and that's quite reasonable since the new OS makes more and better use of the GPU...that gets hotter :-)

Rocco

Just to mention I got this problem solved by Apple without cost from my side. Im my case, it felt under the conditions for the TS2377. Which means:

• MacBook Pro
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT

For those of you not in this case, it might still be interesting to see if the reason on this TS (higher than normal failure rate for some of their graphics processors due to a packaging defect) could apply for your computer. And then maybe argue with Apple about getting the same treatment ...

I wish you all the best of luck whith getting your problem solved !

Ben

Unfortunatly, getting the logic board replaced, where the graphics resides, doesn't solve these errors (for me or anyone else it seems). It has everything to do with software/firmware and not hardware. People have had their GPU replaced multiple times and it still doesn't solve it. I have the same GPU as you do and Apple replaced mine and it doesn't make a difference.

I'm using a late 2010 Core i7 2.8G CTO MBP 17" w/8G RAM and 512GB SSD, all Apple-installed.

Since installing Lion, this has happened to me two out of 5 times attempting to run the game Killing Floor via Steam.

The first time there was no sign of anything happening in the Console.  It happened again just now and this time I got pages of this in the console:

Jul 31 14:39:10  kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0x6 = Fifo: Parse Error

Jul 31 14:39:30  kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!

Jul 31 14:39:30  kernel[0]: 00000069

I have automatic graphics switching turned off, always.

In both cases I got the typical symptoms described here.  Often a sound loop, the cursor remains on the screen but is useless, and nothing in the universe will give me back control except a hard shut down and restart.

Interestingly I spend quite a lot of time booted into Windows XP and playing a vast amount of games there, and I have never, not once in 9 months ever had Windows lock up in this manner on this same machine.  I also push it as hard as it can go when gaming under Windows.   So, this would strongly suggest to me that this is somehow a software error.  I just don't fully understand how a mere software error could crash the system so hard that it can't even record it in the console and has to be forced down.

Me too.

Mid 2010 i7 15" MBP, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD all Apple installed.

Again, my MBP was a pleasure to work with until I installed the Mac OS X Lion upgrade. Since then I have had multiple issues:

Kernel Panics requiring a full reboot

Apps failing to launch leaving a bouncing icon in the dock

TC backups that seem to want to perform a daily backup that is one fifth of the total HD

And now this issue:

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

Came onto the forum to see if anybody else was suffering, it appears I'm not alone.

My MBP has started to completely lockup during the prolonged TC backups now, requiring a full reboot. I remember when Unix was a safe pair of hands, now it's just as flaky as Windows 98!

I'm not sure why this is happening, I've not read all the posts yet, but I hope the issue is resolved soon. So far I am not impressed by Mac OS X Lion. It's turned a good thing bad...

Lion caused the problem for me. My system was running fine before I installed the upgrade.