Since installing Catalina yesterday, multiple crashes from userspace watchdog timeout

I've been having this issue since October last year when I got my most expensive Macbook Pro 16' 2019. Been through multiple system patches - 10.15.2, 10.15.3, 10.15.4 - still waiting for Apple to get this problem fixed. I tried to reply this page or another one has similar issue reported and got deleted for various reasons.

I am wondering now if Apple is going to fix this or not.

I had everything in Notifcations / Turn on Do Not Disturb except "when the screen is locked" checked. I checked it and have gone 48 hours without a crash which is a record.

I'm on macOS 10.15.4 (19E287). MacPro 6,1

I had everything in Notifcations / Turn on Do Not Disturb except "when the screen is locked" checked. I checked it and have gone 48 hours without a crash which is a record.

[Link Edited by Moderator]

I solved! it was enough to start the PC and press cmd+R and keep it pressed until a screen appears to reinstall the operating system. I chose to reinstall it, and it was the correct choice, I have not lost any data, simply reinstalled the OS from the beginning. After 45 minutes the OS is back to 100% operational, it restarts and shuts down regularly, I don't tell you how happy I feel! try it too. i follow this instruction:

<< (Restart, while holding Command-R)

If you can, run Disk Utility, and try a Repair Disk.

If that completes with no problems found, Quit Disk Utility, which will return you to the recovery menu.

Then, you will likely want to Reinstall OS X. It will use your internet

connection to download the system, then will continue with the

reinstall. You won't lose your own files and apps, but the reinstall

will simply reinstall the system in place.

Assuming your boot drive is still good, that should fix your kernel panic issue. >>

Link: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/panic-cpu-2-caller-error.1961380/

16" MBP 10.15.4. So I no longer crash on wake from sleep with external monitors. Progress! However, I'll come into the room while the laptop is asleep attached to monitors and the fan is blasting and pouring out heat as if it were rendering a video.

Back to using Amphetamine so I don't burn out the computer

Doing all I describe in my previous message does nothing. The iMac demonstrates kernel panics even in Safe Mode or Recovery Mode.

I eliminated the USB drive from the equation by trying the same tar (or restic) operation of the Pictures folder, and still after a few hours - again EVEN IN RECOVERY MODE through the terminal - the kernel panic occurs with the same message.

I have now reinstalled the OS within Recovery Mode (Command-R, so still just Catalina) and I'm trying my backup again so I can downgrade to a different Mac OS release (which requires a total wipe of the drive, which is the reason I must get the backup to work first).

I picked up a late 2013 MacPro for a good deal, and I guess I know why now too..

I'm constantly getting these "no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer" crashes. I first thought it was me pushing the GPU too hard as after one of these I opened up the cylinder and it was insanely hot. I installed Macs Fan Control and set the thing to 100% fan which sure helped with the temperature, but the crashes still happen. It doesn't matter if I'm simply using a browser, staring at the desktop or even loading Kerbal Space Program it'll crash out hard.

Is this some Catalina thing? I'm already missing 32bit applications, did other things break hopelessly in this release??

Dears, I have the same problem since the update of 10.15.4

panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff7f99bdcad5): userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer in 120 seconds

I have tried to reinstall completely the MacOS, disconnect all peripherals, deactivate fusion drive, but also with a new installation the problem remain without any software installed.

The computer crashes continuously !!!

I have a iMac 21.5" 4K late 2015

I have not the possibility to downgrade with a previous version of Catalina.

This is anything but a “little inconvenience.” My iMac has been made so unstable by Catalina that it is completely unusable. I can’t do anything on it. It is totally unresponsive to user input and then panics. Don’t give me the hardware excuses either as it was rock solid in Mojave (I rebooted it about once every 3-4 months) and it still is totally stable in Windows 10 and Linux. This is a complete and total fail by Apple. They need to own it, apologize for it, and fix it! This reminds me of the first time I left Apple because of a horrible OS build (system 9). Please don’t make me go back to the dark side, Apple. But if your OS makes my computer a paperweight, do O have any choice?

Catalina was stable for quite a while. 15.4 seems to be the update that broke it. The computer is so unresponsive now that I can’t even access any peripherals to see if I still have my bootable backup. I usually delete them after a new OS proves stable for 3 months. In the past, every OS update in the system X era has made my computers faster and more stable. Until now. From what I’ve read on threads, you can’t use time machine to downgrade from Catalina without a lot of data loss. Is that not the case?

Nothing is perfect, but my computing experience has been suck to miserable since December 2019 when I upgraded. I am reluctant to bite the bullet an do a clean install because I understand the work involved getting me whole again. I tarted down this path (clean install) today and saw that the problem is still widespread and not fully understood. I am embarking on that path today. Not with Catalina, but Mojavie.

... not to mention the increase in my profanity... :^(

[Edited by Moderator]

WindowServer kernel panic appears to be mitigated by preventing Catalina from idling the external devices. I found that even if I disabled all power nap/sleep, etc and have the laptop plugged in this issue will always occur after stepping away from the computer & happens just as the external monitors switch to low-power /idle mode. I tried different brands of monitors (BenQ, Asus, Dell) and all of them result in a kernel panic when MacOS sends a signal that the computer is idle and they switch to low-power mode.

By opening Terminal.app & running the following command I'm able to prevent the system from idling and causing a kernel panic:

caffeinate -u -d

"-u" tells the system to act like there is an active user & "-d" also prevents displays from sleeping. You can still activate your screensaver when you step away by setting up hot corners.

At least this can buy some time until a fix is made available by Apple or you can back it up & send in for support.

First, I recommend clearing SMC/VRAM after each update. As they are messing with drivers (probably) this needs to be done. After this is done, there were some "panics" left, but I could avoid "most" of them (now it is about "just" one every 2-3 days) by modifying some configuration settings:

1) In "energy saver", I disabled "enable power nap while..." (both in 'battery' and in 'power adapter') and "prevent computer from sleeping automatically when he display is off"

2) In "notifications", I disabled 'allow alls from everyone' and 'allow repeated calls' under "When do not disturb is on"

(2) is because I found that do not disturb was activated when the display is sleeping and in that case, receiving, e.g. a mail or whatsapp notification, usually produced a panic.

I agree that catalina is SERIOUSLY compromised: I bought a new computer thinking that my old good pal, a macbook pro from late 2013 was the cause of so many panics, to see that my new macbook pro experiences just the same problems. However, this configuration seems to be "good enough" to at least be productive.

My hypotheses is that the problem is really deep and it has to do with memory buffers affecting at least hard disks and video memory, so extensive use of disk transfers (e.g. photos uploads, time-machine long backups) and memory transfers (e.g. handling many different desktops in multi-display configurations, long - >100GB - Word documents) fails to reset some watchdog. Hope they solve everything soon.

Hi All

(Mac Pro Late 2013, D300 Graphics, 4k Displayport screen, Latest OSX)

To feedback to the last two posts;

@apple-support-today > caffeinate -u -d

Didn't help. Even running it as sudo didnt

@jmsunico > Disable power nap & call notifications

Didn't help.

Just cleared SMC/VRAM (again), disconnected everything disconnect-able leaving screen on displayport, keyboard on usb and mouse on keyboard's usb. Caffeinate running.

Lets just say that it hasn't improved and this is now the second time I'm typing this post. 35 mins since last forced reboot. Mail/Excel/Safari open + usual background junk on toolbar.

@jmsunico > My hypotheses is that the problem is really deep and it has to do with memory buffers affecting at least hard disks and video memory

On the whole I would agree. As frequency of hangs is certainly higher when working with video (play/edit). However the hang just now was while typing the previous version of this reply. Mail was open to get the thread link, Excel because it recovered the spreadsheet I was working on, terminal to caffeinate and safari to type here ... not exactly a busy system.

The only way I could avoid the watchdog timeout crash was to keep a Quicktime movie looping in the background. (I tried all sorts of other things from flashing RAM to keeping terminal open but nothing worked.) However when I plugged in an eGPU, the problem went away. Certainly this is not an ideal solution, but it works (and I have speedier graphics).

FYI I'm running OS 10.15.4 on a 2018 15" Touch Bar MacBook with 32 GB of RAM Pro Vega 20 with a One World Computing eGPU containing a Radeon RX 5700 XT.