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MacBook Pro 16" cursor intermittent freezes when having NON-HDCP-Compliant external monitor connected

The cursor intermittent freezes every 2~5 seconds whenever I plug in a non-HDCP-compliant monitor (or if I add something in the display chain to make the HDCP handshake fail on HDCP-compliant monitor)



For macOS Catalina 10.15 ~ 10.15.6, the below logs can be found from Console.app


/System/Library/Extensions/AMDRadeonX6000Framebuffer.kext/Contents/MacOS/AMDRadeonX6000Framebuffer

[3:0:0] [HDCP:2] runEvent() !!! Action is stall currentTime: 52039607731903, nextTime: 52039807727419, crtc: 2!


Whenever the log appears, the cursor will be freeze temporarily.




Interestingly, after macOS Catalina 10.15.6 Supplemental Update, this "HDCP stall" log disappeared, but the cursor freezing still exists.


(I have 2 MBP 16", one with the Supplemental Update, one without to verify this behavior)


This does not happen on all other MacBook Pro (any year), Mac Pro 2013 (AMD FirePro D300), Mac Pro 2019 (Radeon Pro Vega II).

I'm 100% sure it is related to the MBP 16" Radeon 5500M specifically.


p.s. Resetting NVRAM, PRAM, user account won't work, I have 2 MBP16" + tons of MacBook to verify this kernel issue.



For HDCP-compliant devices but having handshake issue, replugging HDMI can force re-handshake and sometimes it can fix this problem, but my workflow consists of non-HDCP-compliant devices


Same problem from this post:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250956075


Also same problem:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-stutters-every-2-seconds-when-an-external-monitor-is-plugged-in.2241071/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mbp16-mouse-stutter-with-external-display.2228049/

https://iphoneteile.com/290527/New-MacBook-Pro-16-mouse-pointer-intermittent-freezes-when-having-external-monitor-connected/


Thank you.

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 5, 2020 4:26 PM

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MacBook Pro 16" cursor intermittent freezes when having NON-HDCP-Compliant external monitor connected

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