Since installing Catalina yesterday, multiple crashes from userspace watchdog timeout

I had mulitple monitors, google, chrome, outlook, and Time Machine. Co worker has same setup except he doesn't run time machine and he has not experienced the issue. I'm wondering If Time Machine is the culprit?

I have starting having kernel panics after the last update to Catalina. I'm on a Macbook Pro (retina, 15inch, Mid 2015), running 10.15.1 (19B77a). The panics seem to happen when I'm away from my machine. I have had a couple of system freezes while actively using the machine, which required a reboot, but I had chrome open with a lot of tabs, so I attributed that to Chrome.

When the panics happen, there are no external devices connected.

I have seen this one several times (note, I do not have a USB card reader)

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff801ca279d7): "com_apple_driver_AppleUSBCardReaderInterfaceNub::setPowerState(0xffffff805488dc00

and then this morning I saw:

panic(cpu 6 caller 0xffffff7f8b6edad5): userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer in 140 seconds

which led me to this post.

As I type this, I see the notification that there is an update waiting, so I will be installing that in a few minutes, and I will try to remember to come back here with an update after.

Also having this issue.

OSX Catalina 10.15.1 (19B88)

Mac Pro (Late 2013)

3.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5

32 GB 1866 MHz DDR3

AMD FirePro D300 2 GB

I'm running 3 monitors and crashes constantly since upgrading to Catalina; Mojave worked perfectly.

Have done a complete wipe. Re-partitioned. Re-installed OSX Catalina. New username. SMC Reset. And all other suggestions in this app. I do not have Time Machine or Chrome installed.

Crashes seem to be happening when the screensaver tries to put the monitors to sleep. The "Spin Report" says:

Reason: (1 monitored services unresponsive): checkin with service: com.apple.WindowServer returned not alive with context: unresponsive work processor(s): WindowServer main thread 90 seconds since last successful checkin, 250 total successsful checkins since loa

In the process WindowServer at /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SkyLight.framework/Resources/WindowServer I see:

"(blocked by turnstile with priority 92 waiting for ScreenSaverEngine [858] thread 0x49b1) 1-10"

Relevant part of log attached.

I just upgraded to 10.15.1 have CalDigit with 2 external 4k monitors. Get up walk away for a few minutes, crashes. If I wait long enough I come back to a login screen requiring password after a restart. If I catch it this is the progression: Cursor is unable to click anything. Cursor Freezes. Fan spins up hard. Restarts.

Happening very frequently since 10.15 upgrade. I will try putting it to sleep on purpose until this is fixed. Very frustrated with support as I know they know something is up yet they try to run you through all the boilerplate diagnosis to figure out the "user caused" issue. How about stop putting out crap software. RIP Jobs I know you're turning in your grave right now.

I have had this in my iMac 2017, retina 5k, 3.4 GHz. No attachments except printer which is off and external Bose speaker which i have connected for years. This crashes started soon after Catalina (currently 10.15.1). My wife notes it 2-3 times per week when waking the computer in the morning, first thing. Called apple. They suggested safe mode reboot. Still happens. Suggested reinstalling macOS. Have not done that yet. They then suggested that it could be hardware?. Annoying.

here are 2 samples of the reports in the last week:

panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff7f858ecad5): userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer in 140 seconds

service: com.apple.logd, total successful checkins since wake (140 seconds ago): 15, last successful checkin: 0 seconds ago

service: com.apple.WindowServer, total successful checkins since wake (140 seconds ago): 1, last successful checkin: 140 seconds ago

Backtrace (CPU 2), Frame : Return Address

...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff7f8ea6cad5): userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer in 140 seconds

service: com.apple.logd, total successful checkins since wake (140 seconds ago): 15, last successful checkin: 0 seconds ago

service: com.apple.WindowServer, total successful checkins since wake (140 seconds ago): 1, last successful checkin: 140 seconds ago

Backtrace (CPU 2), Frame : Return Address

...

I have a Late 2014 MacBook Air without an external monitor, keyboard, mouse, or anything else. Just plain vanilla. I get this same panic every time I shutdown. It started when I upgraded to Catalina 10.15.1 from Mojave 10.14.6. I have gone through every application listed in the System Information and have removed all apps that are 32 bit or 32/64 bit. Still fails on shutdown with the spinning white lined circle for several minutes. The provides a message that something happened and the system automatically restarts. I have reset the SMC, started up in safe mode, reviewed the admin id (the only id I have on the system). For me, there is some fundamental issue unrelated to extra monitors, etc.

The memory you have in your machine - is it something that came with the default configuration from Apple or did you add some memory at a later point.?

Hypothesis - Its not proven yet but it might be a bad memory stick, so I am polling others that have the same problem ( I have it too error, except its CPU #2.) to see if they have configured the memory with after purchase memory.

My 2017 iMac does have some additional 3rd party Ram memory that I installed when I bought it. However I have never had problems until updating to Catalina.

I was also wondering about this and tempted to take it out. Any luck with that?

If I manually put my computer to sleep it does not crash overnight. If I leave it on and let it go to sleep it crashes every night.

I'm not sure how this could be related to memory. Could be related to screen saver. I'm assuming that Time Machine runs while the machine is in sleep mode. Maybe not.

I've noticed more by now.

My iMac 27 has crashed a lot less since I took off my external screen. However, it sometimes reacts extremely slowly when TimeMachine backup is running.

On MacBook Pro I have no crashes at all with parallels 14 and the same external screen on Catalina. TimeMachine is not used here.

Maybe the problem comes from TimeMachine on an external hard disk? I have a normal USB 3.1 Western Digital 3TB disk. Maybe conflicts between TimeMachine and Parallels or Windows files?

One more note, the memory in my iMac is 32 gig, but the factory installed memory was 8 gig. There was a hypothesis that the after market memory might have been the problem, but I think we can safely conclude that the after market memory is OK. Its a Catalina OS problem that is being resolved as we speak.

iMac Pro w/ 10.15.1 installed, crashed just like this when computer was under heavy load (CPU, disk), thanks to about 5 or 6 Windows 10 VMs (Fusion 11.5.1) decided to run a Windows 10 update...

And, yes, I have 2 x external Apple Cinema displays connected to this computer at all times.

I'll get back to you with more information:

Tests over many more hours on both devices:

1st MacBook Pro Late 2017, 8GB RAM, with or without external monitor 4K, no TimeMachine: no crashes on Parallels 14, Windows 10.

2. iMac 27 Late 2015, 16GB RAM, without external monitor 4K, with TimeMachine:

no crashes on Parallels 15, Windows 10.

3. iMac 27 Late 2015, 16GB RAM, with 4K External Monitor, with TimeMachine:

Time and again crashes at irregular intervals on Parallels 15, Windows 10.

In my opinion it can only be due to the external monitor in connection with iMac 27 and Parallels 15. Monitor is connected via DVI. Could still try to connect it via HDMI, just like MacBook Pro does.

Update: first crash in more than 24 hours.

Once again the report stated the WindowServer not checking in in more than 120 seconds.

The crash started with the screen becoming a dog's breakfast: the windows were diced and shifted, and did not agree with the actual boundaries of the monitor anymore.

My monitor is a basic 23-inch (1920 x 1080) on display port. Nothing like 4K.

On the grounds that the frequency of the crashes went down dramatically after updating to 10.15.2, it looks like Apple fixed the major issue (with regards to a clean install of Catalina). However there may be compounding bugs that result in a similar visual effect.

Keep sending your reports and describing your configuration and cleanliness of your Catalina install as precisely as possible.

It happens for me if I let my Mac Pro go to sleep. If I manually put it to sleep it doesn't happen. Something there. Never happens while I'm using it. Maybe a race condition. Could be running utility tasks, but I turned off Time Machine and it still happened. Defrag while sleeping?

Also, I have two monitors, so that is in common with others, but that could also be a coincidence. Maybe it isn't getting the communication right with the two monitors.

It would be great if there was some kind of grid where each person who has this problem can check off items in their setup and we can lock down the parameters. Find commonalities, reduce noise.