Mac Pro "GPU Debug Info Start" with ATI Radeon HD 5770

Question

Mac Pro "GPU Debug Info Start" with ATI Radeon HD 5770

Hello,

I own a Mac Pro (mid-2010) for about 10 months now. Everything was working great from the start, but recently the Mac display froze twice.

First freeze occured on 2011/09/01, the second freeze occured on 2011/10/21.

Symptoms are well known, I guess: screen freezes, only the mouse cursor can move (even the clock stops). Nothing can be done about that:

- you can connect to the Mac via ssh but even the `sudo reboot` won't reboot the box

- osascript won't work (as a soft "appleish" way to close applications and reboot).

The only way to reboot is to push the power button of the Mac Pro.

Kernel log seem to put the blame on the GPU:

Sep 1 23:39:49 cassandre kernel[0]: ** Device in slot: SLOT-1 **

Sep 1 23:39:49 cassandre kernel[0]: ** GPU Debug Info Start **

Sep 1 23:39:49 cassandre kernel[0]: 0x000068b8

Sep 1 23:39:49 cassandre kernel[0]: 0x0000008f

...

Sep 1 23:40:06 cassandre kernel[0]: 0x00000000

Sep 1 23:40:15: --- last message repeated 16 times ---

Sep 1 23:40:06 cassandre kernel[0]: ** GPU Debug Info End **

and:

Oct 21 22:47:16 cassandre kernel[0]: ** Device in slot: SLOT-1 **

Oct 21 22:47:16 cassandre kernel[0]: ** GPU Debug Info Start **

Oct 21 22:47:16 cassandre kernel[0]: 0x000068b8

Oct 21 22:47:16 cassandre kernel[0]: 0x0000008f

...

Oct 21 22:47:43: --- last message repeated 383 times ---

Oct 21 22:47:33 cassandre kernel[0]: 0x00000000

Oct 21 22:47:43: --- last message repeated 15 times ---

Oct 21 22:47:33 cassandre kernel[0]: ** GPU Debug Info End **

Oct 21 22:47:43 cassandre kernel[0]: ** Device in slot: SLOT-1 **

Oct 21 22:47:43 cassandre kernel[0]: ** GPU Debug Info Start **

Oct 21 22:47:43 cassandre kernel[0]: 0x000068b8

Oct 21 22:47:43 cassandre kernel[0]: 0x0000008f

...

Oct 21 22:48:11: --- last message repeated 383 times ---

Oct 21 22:48:00 cassandre kernel[0]: 0x00000000

Oct 21 22:48:11: --- last message repeated 15 times ---

Oct 21 22:48:00 cassandre kernel[0]: ** GPU Debug Info End **

Oct 21 22:48:11 cassandre kernel[0]: ** Device in slot: SLOT-1 **

Oct 21 22:48:11 cassandre kernel[0]: ** GPU Debug Info Start **

Oct 21 22:48:11 cassandre kernel[0]: 0x000068b8

...

Oct 21 22:48:24 cassandre kernel[0]: 0xffffffff

Oct 21 22:48:28: --- last message repeated 383 times ---

Oct 21 22:48:28 cassandre kernel[0]: 0x00000000

Oct 21 22:48:28: --- last message repeated 15 times ---

Oct 21 22:48:28 cassandre kernel[0]: ** GPU Debug Info End **

Oct 21 23:07:59 cassandre kernel[0]: Kext loading now disabled.

Oct 21 23:07:59 cassandre kernel[0]: Kext unloading now disabled.

Oct 21 23:07:59 cassandre kernel[0]: Kext autounloading now disabled.

Oct 21 23:07:59 cassandre kernel[0]: Kernel requests now disabled.

Oct 21 23:08:09 cassandre kernel[0]: ** Device in slot: SLOT-1 **

Oct 21 23:08:09 cassandre kernel[0]: ** GPU Debug Info Start **

Oct 21 23:08:09 cassandre kernel[0]: 0x000068b8

...

This Mac Pro has a pretty good uptime (max 50 days, average ~16.5 days, stats collected from mid feb 2011 to now). I reboot only because of software updates and GPU bugs. I'm running 10.6 with every updates.

The warranty covers this Mac Pro until mid-january. Do I need to ask for a replacement of the GPU (ATI Radeon HD 5770)?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 12 GB RAM / ATI Radeon HD 5770

Posted on Oct 22, 2011 4:25 AM

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Answer 1

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Oct 22, 2011 9:52 AM in response to Patrick Proniewski

Try the common first attempts to "fix" like smc and pram reset and in this case maybe reseating the card and blowing the dust out. Also might try running the Apple Hardware Test.

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Answer 2

Oct 22, 2011 3:23 PM in response to X423424X

Thank you, I'll try the resets. But I don't believe the dust is a problem. This Mac survived a pretty hot summer, full time up, without any trouble. Nevertheless, I've blown the dust out just after hard rebooting the Mac.

I wonder if it could be related to a driver update, may be installed during the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update 1.0 that I've installed on 2011/08/20.

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Answer 3

Nov 5, 2011 11:31 AM in response to Patrick Proniewski

I'm getting the same exact symptoms on a 2007 iMac7,1 with an ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT that's running Lion.

11/4/11 1:43:26.000 PM kernel ** Device in slot: SLOT--1 **

11/4/11 1:43:26.000 PM kernel ** GPU Debug Info Start **

11/4/11 1:43:26.000 PM kernel 0x000094c8

11/4/11 1:43:26.000 PM kernel 0x000000d6

11/4/11 1:43:26.000 PM kernel 0x00000001

11/4/11 1:43:26.000 PM kernel 0x00000018

11/4/11 1:43:26.000 PM kernel 0x0000d062

11/4/11 1:43:26.000 PM kernel 0x00000001

This continues indefinitely

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Answer 4

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Nov 5, 2011 12:26 PM in response to Patrick Proniewski

Heat weakens, ages, stresses. And may show up later.

Any MacPro, run SmcFancontrol 2.2+ @ 1000 rpm and see how it goes (multiple profiles for different rpms).

Maybe that imac is suffering from heat, too? but it isn't a workstation or workstation graphic card.

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Answer 5

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Nov 5, 2011 12:44 PM in response to Patrick Proniewski

I wonder if it could be related to a driver update, may be installed during the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Supplemental Update 1.0 that I've installed on 2011/08/20.

I can't comment on that since my 2010 mac pro is running 10.6.5, not 10.6.8.

I suppose, when out of ideas, and still under warantee, let apple deal with it. For the amount paid for these machines you might as well take advantage of the warantee.

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Answer 6

Nov 6, 2011 1:35 PM in response to The hatter

Unfortunattely it's very hard to tell if faster fans would help or not. The problem occured only twice in 10 mounths. And with almost 2 mounths between them, that's almost impossible to make systematic tests: how long should I wait to know if a corrective action is effective or not?

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Answer 7

Nov 6, 2011 1:39 PM in response to X423424X

Using the warranty is an option. But I need my Mac on a daily basis... I could also buy an apple care and wait longer. It's almost the same price as a new ATI Radeon HD 5770 from Apple, and it covers all the hardware.

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Answer 8

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Nov 7, 2011 1:35 AM in response to Patrick Proniewski

by using Hardware or Temperature Monitor, or iStatPro to insure that your sensor readings and temps are normal!

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Answer 9

May 27, 2012 8:09 PM in response to Patrick Proniewski

Patrick, I am having the same issue but with Lion. Did you resolve this issue?

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Answer 10

Jun 3, 2012 3:09 AM in response to RajMIrage

RajMIrage,

I can't find a solution for this problem. It happens only a couple of time a year, so whatever I try, I can't check it's solved. Temperature monitoring is useless, and the issue itself doesn't seems related to temperature.

I've bought an Apple Care, so I'm "covered".

If I remember correctly, I've only had one similar freeze since my previous post here.

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Answer 11

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Jun 3, 2012 5:33 AM in response to Patrick Proniewski

I would always regardless change the minimum default fan speed to 900 rpm. The default is too low for FBDIMMs to stay cool enough.

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Answer 12

Jun 3, 2012 4:07 PM in response to Patrick Proniewski

Pat, I tried rolling back OS X to Lion 10.7.3 and that didnt help. I installed the same card on a windows 7 PC and it displayed the same behaviour(graphics curruption and then crash) even with that setup. I then concluded that there is an issue with the card itself. So i installed a GTX 560 Ti on my 2010 Mac Pro and things have been very smooth from then on. Even the temp inside my Mac Pro (Northbridge) dropped from 77 degree C to 66 degree C after i replaced 5770 with 560 Ti eventhough 560 Ti has a more powerfull GPU. The only issue now is that since the 560 Ti is a generic card not tailored for a Mac and hence it does not have EFI, i will get a blank screen till OS X boots and passes the EFI boot stage. But i can live with that for now.

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Answer 13

Jun 4, 2012 1:27 PM in response to RajMIrage

RajMIrage,

Thank you for the tip. Trying another card could be a solution. But mine does not display graphic corruptions, only a freeze of the screen (but the mouse cursor still moves along with the mouse). I'm affraid I won't be able to validate any hypothesis regarding this behaviour.

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Answer 14

Jul 8, 2012 2:47 AM in response to Patrick Proniewski

Oops. It did it again.

I was testing Linux Mint, into a VMware Fusion VM, trying to read a youtube video inside firefox (inside linux, inside Fusion, on top of Mac OS X 10.6.8) when my ATI card crashed.

I'm going to ask Apple Support for a replacement card as soon as the support web interface works. ("We're sorry, our systems are currently unavailable", haha.)

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Answer 15

Sep 10, 2012 8:42 AM in response to Patrick Proniewski

I got the error today for many times:

10.09.12 17:27:15,000 kernel: ** Device in slot: SLOT--1 **

10.09.12 17:27:15,000 kernel: ** GPU Debug Info Start **

10.09.12 17:27:15,000 kernel: 0x00006741

10.09.12 17:27:15,000 kernel: 0x0000008f

.

Systems Software is up to date. When it occures, everything looks scrambled like this and the system freezes:

think it's the gpu, i check the technic guy's tomorrow.

I let you know

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