User profile for user: scoof
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Screen freezes on brand new Mac Studio

Hello,


I'm a happy owner of a brand new Mac Studio. I have a weird issue that has happened to me a few times.


I have a dual screen setup. While doing CPU/Gpu intensive tasks or while gaming, I had the screen I was working on just freeze, but I could still hear the app I was working on still respond. Like in a game I could hear my character or whatever happened in the game or in premiere pro, I could just play/stop the footage I was editing. It happened 5 or 6 times already and it can happen on either screen.


At first i rebooted the system to make it work again until I noticed that I could just unplug the hdmi cable of my monitor and plug it back to get everything working again. I got no error message or anything. It happened a few times on both my monitors (not the same brand / model and they have different resolutions if that's helpful)


Anyone have a clue of what's happening, or how to fix it? I know it's a new system and I expected some glitches but it's a pretty bothersome bug especially while gaming..


FYI the system is up do date.


Thank you

Mac Studio, macOS 12.3

Posted on Mar 27, 2022 9:17 AM

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User profile for user: scoof
scoof Author
User level: Level 1
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Posted on Apr 1, 2022 4:02 PM

Ok well, I tested it with my dell hub with displaylink and the problem was gone but since displaylink wasn't really reliable I got a cheap USB C to display port adapter on amazon and it now works as it should. So apparently, my issue was caused by the adapter for one of my displays and for the other, 1440p through hdmi didn't go well either because both screens had the issue.


So for reference, if anyone encounters anything similar, my current working setup is 1080p through hdmi on the Mac Studio's hdmi 2.0 port and 1440p through a display port cable on a usb C adapter.


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User profile for user: scoof
scoof Author
User level: Level 1
20 points

Apr 1, 2022 4:02 PM in response to scoof

Ok well, I tested it with my dell hub with displaylink and the problem was gone but since displaylink wasn't really reliable I got a cheap USB C to display port adapter on amazon and it now works as it should. So apparently, my issue was caused by the adapter for one of my displays and for the other, 1440p through hdmi didn't go well either because both screens had the issue.


So for reference, if anyone encounters anything similar, my current working setup is 1080p through hdmi on the Mac Studio's hdmi 2.0 port and 1440p through a display port cable on a usb C adapter.


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User profile for user: scoof
scoof Author
User level: Level 1
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Apr 26, 2022 5:48 AM in response to scoof

So I can confirm that I don't have any issue when only one screen is plugged in. I can also say I found somewhat of a workaround using a displaylink solution for my second display, while using displaylink it works, no freeze at all.


But it's far from ideal, displaylink can't provide a HDCP secure link which means I will have issues displaying HD content from several streaming services and that's only if I disable hardware acceleration or else I just get a black screen, but the worst part is that displaylink uses a ton of ressources (and I mean a TON), if I'm streaming something it eats almost 40% of the mac studio's cpu usage and around 30% just sitting there doing nothing besides showing a web page.


So it would be a good thing if apple could look at the problem closely and find a solution, I know I'm not the only one with this problem and this is the kind of problem I never had using windows or linux...

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User profile for user: Grant Bennet-Alder
Grant Bennet-Alder
User level: Level 10
140,225 points

Apr 26, 2022 7:11 AM in response to scoof

Etrecheck reports are pre-laundered of any personally-identifiable information, so they are "safe" for posting here. (Even the names you gave your drives are obscured in the post-able report.)


Sometimes readers can spot issues they have encountered before, and provide additional advice.


Using EtreCheck to Troubleshoot Potential… - Apple Community


.

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User profile for user: scoof
scoof Author
User level: Level 1
20 points

May 18, 2022 1:49 AM in response to TihomirKar

yeah it happens a lot in wow, there are 2 ways to prevent the issues for me. Unplug one of my screens or turn vsync on. Issue with vsync is that the performance drops a lot, some zones are lagging badly at around 30fps, whereas without it, i'm 100+ fps in the same zone.


Yesterday I did get the issue with only one screen plugged in though for the first time. I'll consider this a one time issue for now, but I'm a bit concerned...


There are multple reports on wow forums on the matter. But I know it's not just a wow problem since I had the issue on other games and while editing in premiere pro...

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User profile for user: Yungyyyy
Yungyyyy
User level: Level 1
20 points

Jul 12, 2022 11:04 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I uninstalled CleanMyMac, but Folx bit torrent software does not affect the Mac Studio M1's performance at all.


After installing the certain Monterey version five days ago, the crashing stopped immediately and hasn't happened once since.


However, my framerates were lower than expected, and gameplay was a tad bit choppy. I did a full erase and reinstall, then tested my frames per second in-game after installing each app. Most of the third-party software did not impact performance.


Issues/Apps that caused drops in FPS were:

  • Cheatsheet (Displays hotkeys for every app)
    • Drop in ~10 FPS
  • Softraid (Maintains RAID volumes)
    • Using Apple RAID instead with DriveDx for monitoring
    • Drop in ~10 FPS
  • Second external monitor (Extended display)
    • Disconnected second monitor
    • Drop in ~10 FPS
    • Slightly stuttery gameplay


Clearly, macOS on the Mac Studio M1 has issues with multiple monitors at this time, and some software isn't optimized correctly. Both monitors are connected directly through 32.4 Gbps Thunderbolt 4/3 Compatible USB-C to DisplayPort 1.4 cables. Even with an HDMI to HDMI cable, crashing and FPS drops occurred.

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User profile for user: Grant Bennet-Alder
Grant Bennet-Alder
User level: Level 10
140,225 points

Mar 27, 2022 11:14 AM in response to scoof

<< One screen is a Samsung S27D850T (1440p display) and the other is a Lenovo L27i-28 (1080p) >>


What I was fishing for is if you were running 4K or higher displays that exceed HDMI's ability to send your data.


HDMI cables you want for HDMI-only Monitors (higher resolutions than 720p TV sets) are marked as Certified with an anti-counterfeiting tag and are labeled:


"Premium High Speed HDMI cable" or that + "with Ethernet"  --OR--


"Ultra High Speed HDMI cable" or that + "48G"


Cables with No Certification tags are good for your standard 720p TV set, and not much more.


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User profile for user: Grant Bennet-Alder
Grant Bennet-Alder
User level: Level 10
140,225 points

Apr 26, 2022 8:01 AM in response to scoof

You have drives that are SSD drives, but do not have TRIM enabled (for third-party drives). This can cause them to be unbelievably slow, and bring your entire system to a crawl.


You should enable TRIM for third party drives with this Terminal Command:


sudo trimforce enable


this article provides additional appropriate discussion:


https://www.lifewire.com › enable-trim-for-ssd-in-os-x-yosemite-2260789


.

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User profile for user: Grant Bennet-Alder
Grant Bennet-Alder
User level: Level 10
140,225 points

Apr 26, 2022 8:06 AM in response to scoof

You have not followed the suggested methods for:


Share-ing and posting the EtreCheckPro report for posting on the forums. The author of Etrecheck speaks French and has great directions in French inside the App and on their web site. your report comes through triple-spaced with wonky substitutions of accented characters, making it very difficult to read.


Eanbling "Full Disk Access", to obtain additional information about any panics, slowdowns or other issue that may appear in logs.

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Screen freezes on brand new Mac Studio

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