Frequent Panic NVRM[0/1:0:0]: Read Error 0x00000100

The crash occurs far less frequently in 10.6.8. I recall it happening before updating to Lion, but have not had it happen again after restoring back to a 10.6.8 time machine backup.

On Lion I could not keep the system up for more than a few hours, and activities such as downloading a file in Google Chrome caused a 100% reproducible crash.

My specs: Mid-2010 I7, 2.66 GHz.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 512 MB

Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)

Device ID: 0x0a29

Revision ID: 0x00a2

ROM Revision: 3560

gMux Version: 1.9.21

Displays:

Color LCD:

Resolution: 1680 x 1050

Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)

Main Display: Yes

Mirror: Off

Online: Yes

Built-In: Yes

Display Connector:

Status: No Display Connected

10.6.8

NVRM crashes: 11, 12, 18, 23, 24 July

10.7 installed on 26th

NVRM crashes: 26 (x2), 27 (x4) July

By that reckoning I'll have x8 today. While not entirely blamable on Lion, I can't help but notice the drastic increase in these panics since Lion install.

I can't reproduce the crash, unfortunately. Last night, the machine ran idle overnight, playing music, and did not crash. This morning, I've been at it 3 hours and it's ok.

Feels like Russian roulette. Or rather "iRussian Roulette".

I never updated to 10.6.8, went straight to Lion. I had no kernal panics at all previous to that.

I thought the problem was due to Chrome and stopped using it, but the panics persisted. Then I thought it was related to Adobe products and Java, so I stopped using them. Still had panics. I have not been able to find any singular software-related app or activity that causes a panic. Indeed, sometimes they occur right after a re-start and nothing is up and running, yet.

It is only occuring on my mid-2010 MBP 2.66MHz i7 machine. I have Lion running on an older computer, and a friend is running Lion on a brand new MBP and neither of those is experiencing any problems of this nature.

Since this seems to be intimately related to video card subcomponent, is there a cpu/video/ram thrasher that can try to force the crash?

I've ran Apple hardware diagnostics (D at boot), and no errors were found with the shorter test. I'll run the extended test tonight.

Strangely enough, the TechTools app on Apple Care disk crashes immediately upon starting Video RAM test, though it does indicate that it has not been tested with Lion.

I'm reminded of why I never upgraded to the first release of a major branch of an OS. It's like being sent out into space with no space suit and only a bag of air.

BTW, thinking the NVRM crash might be mitigated by lowering the temperature, I'm running smcFanControl at full tilt (6000 rpm both fans). Given that the panics are intermittent, I'm not sure cranking on the fans is helping.

iStat Menu indicates GPU 57C, GPU die 57, GPU proximity 51C, with CPU at 60-65C.

You stated; "I can't help but notice the drastic increase in these panics since Lion install."

It has been my experience supporting computer since 1981 that upgrading the operating system on a computer with problems only make the problem worst. Any problems on a computer should be repaired first prior to the upgrade.

As a co-worker used to say; "Do an operating system upgrade is like doing brain surgery on yourself. Doing it on a computer with problems is like doing brain surgery on yourself when drunk."

Allan

I've used computers since roughly that time too. It's been my experience that a certain number of crashes and unexplained (or, at least, caused by sufficiently complex interplay of subcomponents as to be unexplanable) errors is common and expected. Especially if the software state is every-changing through the hope-for-the-best "software update" bullet.

I didn't think much of the NVRM errors - and perhaps I should have - and went ahead with the Lion upgrade. A part of me wanted it to just friggin' work. I realize now that neither PCs or Apples just work - it's a myth. A good one, though.

This s*it has gotten too complex.

Allan, I'm not arguing with your claim 🙂 Except perhaps in the case where the upgrade fixes the problem 😮

Simply proposing that the "broken" state is many times indistinguishable from normal background errors, crashes and glitches. While these can be, in principle fixed, they are frequently unfixable due to the complexity of the software state. While I love tinkering, I need to get things done. Sometimes getting things done means installing new software and pushing ahead, before veryfing that nothing is broken.

When is a computer broken? When it doesn't turn on - yes. When it crashes every week - maybe. When it crashes every month - probably not.

Things are made worse by the integrated components on a laptop. It's much more work to replace individual components, or impossible since you can't get most of the stuff off-the-shelf.

I just swapped the logic board on one of these machines today. Apple was trying to blame software because of the crash log, it was the same as those posted here. The problem would occur when the graphics were being stressed, like games and the iTunes visualizer.

The machine would go black and the hard drive and fans would continue to run, it had to be forced off and would start right back up. All tests that Apple has for external use passed and no software, RAM or hard drive changes would affect it.

After swapping the logic board the machine runs fine. The video processor is the same as the old board.

Device ID: 0x0a29

Revision ID: 0x00a2

ROM Revision: 3560

gMux Version: 1.9.21

If you are having this issue I would get a new board.

Frank,

changing the board will not necessarily do the trick - as written earlier i already had it changed twice, without solving the problem. Thinking back, I can say that it all started with the upgrade to OSX 10.6.7.

I just tried the workaround that Bill Kunz named in an earlier post: switch to the internal graphics using gfxCardStatus. I havn't had any crashes since (and finally get some real work done with this poor computer).

jan

I've got this problem as well, and just had a horrible time at the Apple store dealing with it. They wanted to do a fresh Lion install and see if that resolved the problem.

Given this thread, and the fact that all the kernel panics happen in driver code, that clearly wouldn't have helped, and instead just wasted more of my time.

I'm going to try gfxCardStatus and/or go back to Snow Leopard until Apple fixes this. What a horrible bug to ship in Lion, they should be ashamed.

Hi Mike,

that's the point: The fresh install has been tried over and over again without yielding any results whatsoever. Apple wastes our time and energy. This is so draining it really p***es me off ... And yet they say "they have to do it". There are dozens of people now with the same problem - how many 100 or 1000s do we have to be in order to make Apple find a solution for us?

I've tried gfxCardStatus but it always switches to Discrete even if I set Integrated as an option.

I'm driving an external monitor with the macbook in clamshell mode. Is this there reason why the discrete mode is forced?

man experienced another of this: (forgot to switch gfx to integrated mode and boom instant panic as soon as i hit a page with rich media)

Interval Since Last Panic Report: 143396 sec

Panics Since Last Report: 5

Anonymous UUID: E299F35F-3658-46C6-A6AC-5DD89C239E4D

Fri Jul 29 11:19:40 2011

panic(cpu 0 caller 0xffffff7f8094b2bf): NVRM[0/1:0:0]: Read Error 0x00000100: CFG 0xffffffff 0xffffffff 0xffffffff, BAR0 0xc0000000 0xffffff80a05e8000 0x0a5480a2, D0, P3/4

Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address

0xffffff807ce632b0 : 0xffffff8000220702

0xffffff807ce63330 : 0xffffff7f8094b2bf

0xffffff807ce633c0 : 0xffffff7f80a3b3fc

0xffffff807ce63410 : 0xffffff7f80a3b4bc

0xffffff807ce63470 : 0xffffff7f80ce5749

0xffffff807ce635b0 : 0xffffff7f80a5a519

0xffffff807ce635e0 : 0xffffff7f80954c4a

0xffffff807ce63690 : 0xffffff7f8095054c

0xffffff807ce63880 : 0xffffff7f80952151

0xffffff807ce63960 : 0xffffff7f8184b008

0xffffff807ce639a0 : 0xffffff7f81859e06

0xffffff807ce639c0 : 0xffffff7f818756d4

0xffffff807ce63a00 : 0xffffff7f81875739

0xffffff807ce63a40 : 0xffffff7f8185dc51

0xffffff807ce63a90 : 0xffffff7f81815753

0xffffff807ce63b10 : 0xffffff7f818141c4

0xffffff807ce63b40 : 0xffffff7f81819bfd

0xffffff807ce63b70 : 0xffffff80006524ad

0xffffff807ce63be0 : 0xffffff800065284c

0xffffff807ce63c40 : 0xffffff8000652ff0

0xffffff807ce63d80 : 0xffffff80002a3738

0xffffff807ce63e80 : 0xffffff8000222ff6

0xffffff807ce63eb0 : 0xffffff8000214829

0xffffff807ce63f10 : 0xffffff800021bb58

0xffffff807ce63f70 : 0xffffff80002ae380

0xffffff807ce63fb0 : 0xffffff80002d83a3

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.NVDAResman(7.0.2)[7E65ECA2-D3A1-35F8-B845-C975FB531E7E]@0xffffff7f808 eb000->0xffffff7f80bc1fff

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6.5)[95ABB490-3AB5-3D5E-9C21-67089A9AE6A1]@0xffff ff7f80877000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(2.3)[E99C8907-946D-3F1A-A261-4C0F2D5D0451]@0xffff ff7f808d9000

dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(2.3)[897EB322-FD55-36D7-A68E-9E9C3

Model: MacBookPro6,2, BootROM MBP61.0057.B0C, 2 processors, Intel Core i7, 2.66 GHz, 4 GB, SMC 1.58f15

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M, PCIe, 512 MB

Graphics: Intel HD Graphics, Intel HD Graphics, Built-In, 288 MB

Memory Module: BANK 0/DIMM0, 2 GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz, 0x80AD, 0x484D54313235533654465238432D47372020

Memory Module: BANK 1/DIMM0, 2 GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz, 0x80AD, 0x484D54313235533654465238432D47372020

AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x93), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.100.98.75.6)

Bluetooth: Version 2.5.0f17, 2 service, 12 devices, 1 incoming serial ports

Network Service: Ethernet, Ethernet, en0

Serial ATA Device: Hitachi HTS545050B9SA02, 500.11 GB

Serial ATA Device: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-898

USB Device: hub_device, 0x0424 (SMSC), 0x2514, 0xfa100000 / 2

USB Device: Internal Memory Card Reader, apple_vendor_id, 0x8403, 0xfa130000 / 5

USB Device: BRCM2070 Hub, 0x0a5c (Broadcom Corp.), 0x4500, 0xfa110000 / 4

USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, apple_vendor_id, 0x8218, 0xfa113000 / 8

USB Device: Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad, apple_vendor_id, 0x0236, 0xfa120000 / 3

USB Device: hub_device, 0x0424 (SMSC), 0x2514, 0xfd100000 / 2

USB Device: Apple Optical USB Mouse, apple_vendor_id, 0x0304, 0xfd130000 / 5

USB Device: IR Receiver, apple_vendor_id, 0x8242, 0xfd120000 / 4

USB Device: Built-in iSight, apple_vendor_id, 0x8507, 0xfd110000 / 3

just when I thought the SMC reset fixed it for me - bamm - I got two panic shortly one after the other

I worked the whole day without a problem on my external monitor - now back to intel graphics and no external monitor :-(

hope there is a fix for this soon - otherwise I am gonna try that system board replacement

makes me think it is somehow temperature related? after it comes back after the panic iStats show temperature > 95° celsius