Macbook Pro crashes when connected to external display with HDMI

I bought a Thunderbolt mini dock and its completely sorted the problem. And i now even have 2 monitors connected. So both monitor HDMIs go to the mini dock and thunderbolt USB C to Macbook Pro. I think its some issue with HDMI going direct to the Mac and it crashing the Mac, and getting panic alerts etc. Been using it like this for weeks now and no more problems at all.

Apple repair centre said i needed a replacement motherboard for about €800-1000 (even though no faults found with their diagnostics). Instead €100 on the mini dock has solved the issue

I opened a new thread reporting my current situation here: MacBook Pro freeze and restarts when conn… - Apple Community

MacBook Pro (M1 14" 2021, macOS Sonoma 14.5 on Apple Care) freeze and restarts when connected with an external monitor while playing a video.

• On any connection and port (USB-C and HDMI)
• On any I monitor (LG, Samsung and a brand new Apple Studio Display)
• With any cable (tested 3x different functioning cables)

Also, Touch ID stops working to wake up after sleep.

I've been waiting for more than 3 months since my first support ticket without a solution from Apple Support among many open support cases, chats, telephone calls, emails and visits to the main Apple Service Center on the city.

Me and Apple Support made several tests, data capture of crash reports, they changed the logic board to no avail.

I requested the product change and they asked me to keep waiting.

I'm not waiting anymore. I want the immediate product change.

So, I've been doing some mesearch and discovered it seems to be related to Bluetooth devices (No idea why!), but a slight movement of the mouse whilst connected via HDMI causes it to crash, although I can't replicate it every single time I noticed it always happens instantly after touching the Bluetooth mouse.

Doesn't crash when I don't use the Bluetooth devices

Hi there,

I had the same problem. I switched off the Bluetooth connection and it works well. I connected HDMI via hub and works flawlessly. I hope it helps. Thanks

I seem to have found a solution! (in my case)

I have connected 2 external screens on my 2021 Macbook Pro M1 Pro 16 inch, 1 via HDMI and 1 via a USB-C adapter. I always thought my Macbook should have been open to use it and can't be closed. Then I checked the Battery preferences and clicked " Options " at the bottom, the second slider allows you to keep your Macbook closed and not have it go in sleep mode. The last 3 hours with full use of VLC, Youtube in different browsers had no problem at all!!

Hope this helps for some people.

This worked for me!

Turn off mirroring, and use extended display.

I tried to connect through USB-C on a brand new Apple Studio Display and happened the same bug.

I looked into the crash reports and they indicate that the WindowServer process crashed due to being blocked by IOFence. IOFence, as far as I know, is a mechanism used to synchronize access to resources between the CPU and GPU. In both reports, the WindowServer process, which manages the graphical interface on macOS, encountered a situation where it was waiting for GPU resources that were being held by another process. This could be related to a bug in the GPU driver or an issue with resource management between the CPU and GPU.

The local technical assistance changed the logic board but it still

did not solved the problem.

I’m waiting for their response to that. It’s been such a burden to work with videos like this.

If its helpful to anyone, I wasn't using any bluetooth devices, but had bluetooth on and experienced the same problem. Since turning bluetooth off my computer hasn't crashed while attached to an external monitor via HDMI since.

We need to isolate:

1. Is it the frequency of the monitor that the graphics chip is failing with

2.Is it the cable's ability to manage the frequency of the monitor that is creating a problem

3.Is it the some independent item on the laptop that is causing the crash

One thing you can do is run Apple hardware diagnostics to see if there is a detectable hardware problem:

Use Apple Diagnostics to test your Mac - Apple Support

If there isn't, continue to isolate the laptop, cable, and monitor until you find out what combination of conditions yields the crash.

If you have ruled out Energy Saver, bad cables (I find the Insignia cables from Best Buy are really poorly manufactured), optimizing software, and third party display drivers such as Steam as a possible culprit, then I would run the hardware diagnostic.

If you aren't Frazerm00 please start a new topic thread, and identify what you have ruled out.

I was griping about this 6 months ago and after I bad mouthed Apple here I started getting calls from some Apple tech rep trying to get me to duplicate the problem. Murphy was onboard and I could never duplicate it when on the phone. At the time I was not clear that it was an HDMI issue. I have not been using HDMI for about 5 months, but I started again after getting a new projector. Right away as soon as I send the audio signal to the projector the audio starts reverbing and then the screen freezes just about every time, very reliably. Apparently Apple knows this is a major issue but apparently they are unable to fix it.

You can try using a different app (not Quicktime or VLC). I have yet to experiment with this.

On reddit most people say that if you turn off mirroring it fixes the problem.

https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/166xzw7/mac_freezes_on_hdmi/

Unfortunately unless you bring up a case # with AppleCare, or Apple Authorized Service Provider, it is unlikely Apple will take as much notice. I've been here for 20 years, and seen issues reported at length on Apple Support Communities which never got addressed. So please try to reproduce it for Apple when contacting AppleCare or authorized service providers.

Some things to keep in mind quality hardware to connect HDMI makes a difference:

I've found Insignia cables, not as good as Belkin and TripLite.

I've worked in an environment where USB-C docking stations were tested extensively on 600 Macs, and the best ones were by SIIG and SMK.

If you have a Mac with a USB-C charger, the docking stations that provide 100W PD USB-C work better than those that do not offer a wattage.

If you have a thunderbolt capable display, make sure to use the cables with the lightning bolt on the cable connector to connect the Mac to the display for best video output.

One thing I would like to add, clamshell mode of laptops has difficulty remaining stable overnight with external displays. Some of these machines don't ventilate as well when used in clamshell mode all the time. You can always dim the display with the display controls on the F-keys.

It is a good idea to leave the machine on overnight in screen saver, as optimization routines generally run by Mac OS happen late at night. Energy Saver can delay the running of those routines. I've had to when I forget to switch to non-clamshell overnight and shut down my machine, force reboot it to get back attention of the computer. I have 2015 MacBook Pro 13". So this is straight HDMI and mini-Displayport to HDMI.

Some of these issues with HDMI may be related to the way the system handles updates, and audio frequencies:

Use the Audio Midi Setup utility to adjust audio to 16bit 44.1 kHz. Short of your audio device having more than two speakers, that's the maximum audio you will have. Digital audio interface support resets to a higher audio frequency on many system updates, and the Audio Midi Setup utility needs to be fixed for those to the stated frequency bitrate to avoid issues.

Try to reduce the external display Refresh rate

Turn off mirroring, and use extended display.

Please update post with results.