Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

iMac crashes (black screen) while playing Diablo 3

Hi,

I've bought my iMac 27" i5 quad 2.7GHz 8GB in January. It's been working fine, being used mostly for some gaming and desktop apps.

2 months ago I started playing Diablo 3, and started having problems after the first update. Basically, I can play for some time (ranging from 10 minutes to 1 hour) and after a while the computer screen just goes completely black, the last fragments of sound start to play in a loop (about .2 to .5 second) and the computer is completely unresponsive. The only course of action is to force it to shut down by pressing the power button for a few seconds. After that, it's not possible to restart the computer right away, I need to wait for a few minutes before it can start. It even happened once that it started to play the startup chime and stopped midway, shutting down all by itself.


A similar problem also happened once or twice, when the computer was simply sleeping and it became impossible to wake it up, I had to shut it down and start it up again.


I've explained the problem to Apple and even took my computer to the store for checkup. However, after they ran some tests they said everything was fine and didn't want to replace any component (it would have been the motherboard or the graphics card). All they could tell me was that I should reinstall the whole system (Lion, up-to-date).


I might do that. However, tonight I tried again to play while monitoring the various thermometers and fan speeds, played in windowed mode so I could see the curves, and set up the computer to take a screenshot every second (AFAIK the monitoring app I'm using doesn't keep logs) so I could replay everything. I got my usual crash after about half an hour. What the screenshots showed is that the various temperatures raised, which probably isn't a big surprise. However, they also show that about 3 minutes before the crash the CPU fan, which had been very stable so far, started to speed up very regularly. While it didn't reach any abnormal speed, it's still weird to see how it began so suddenly and so shortly before the crash.


User uploaded file

As one can see from the values in the monitoring windows, the temperatures don't seem to me to be scandalous, but I may not be a good judge. Before I start reinstalling everything, I was wondering whether someone might have experienced a similar issue (couldn't find much about it on the web) or if perhaps these "symptoms" may be meaningful to someone?


I'm grateful for any advice!


Pagod

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jul 10, 2012 6:54 PM

Reply
11 replies

Jul 11, 2012 4:45 AM in response to BDAqua

Done that, and the guys at the Apple Store too, plus some more tests. Everything looks fine. What do you make of the fan that seems to go slightly mad at the end?


Well, they said if the problem persists after I've reinstalled the whole system then they'll just replace the motherboard and graphics card without further questions. Hope it doesn't come to that though, it's a pain dragging the iMac down to the store...

Jul 13, 2012 5:10 PM in response to pagod_

So here's how it looks now. It's actually weird because I was playing in windowed mode when I got the readings above, but basically now I have set the hardware monitor to warn me whenever the speed of the CPU fan exceeds 1100 rpm. When I'm in fullscreen mode in D3, that usually happens after about 15-30 minutes. Then, if I keep playing in fullscreen, the computer crashes (black screen) after just 2-3 minutes. If however I return to windowed mode when the alarm sounds, then the fan's acceleration slows down gradually and eventually even its speed will go down, and the computer doesn't seem to crash then. I may not have been playing long enough yet to be sure but fullscreen/window does seem to have an impact, and changing back to window apparently reduces the load on the fan. Interestingly, the fan of the optical drive also spins up after a while although no disk is inserted...


Back for more as soon as I find time to play :-)

Jul 14, 2012 12:26 PM in response to BDAqua

The fans may not be the cause of the problem but it's definitely related. Now I'm running the hardware monitor every time I play D3 and it always warns me that the CPU fans is spinning up shortly before the crash, which may then occur within seconds or at most 2-3 minutes when I stay in fullscreen. I can't remember experiencing a crash after I went back to windowed mode after the alarm, but I also haven't pushed it much. Also, the temperatures reported really don't look awful at all, nothing exceeds 80°C, there's no sudden surge.


Interestingly, the computer actually keeps running after the screen goes black (but D3 is definitely out), and only when I press cmd-alt-esc does the whole system go completely down (looping sound).


I've checked the logs and couldn't find anything really significant, then again I may not know what to look for. The only suspicious entries at more or less exactly the time of the crash (although I can't tell whether it's when D3 crashes, or the whole computer) are the following in kernel.log:

12-07-14 2:57:48.000 PM kernel: ** Device in slot: SLOT--1 **

12-07-14 2:57:48.000 PM kernel: ** GPU Debug Info Start **

12-07-14 2:57:48.000 PM kernel: 0x00006740

This is followed by 544 lines similar to the last one with various hex addresses over five seconds, although after line 436 only 0x00000000's are reported. The line just after that is at the time when I restart the computer and says

Jul 14 15:00:36 localhost kernel[0]: PMAP: PCID enabled

system.log doesn't report anything in this time frame, there's no crash report for D3 in CrashReporter... Is there anything else I could check?

Sep 19, 2012 10:34 AM in response to ArnMi

I'm using Temperature Monitor.

However, there was no proof that the fan speed was actually related to the problem. As I said, what was decisive was when I could reproduce the problem at the Apple Store, playing D3 for 30 minutes and eventually crashing the iMac. Then they changed the graphic card and I haven't had any issue ever since.

HTH

Sep 19, 2012 10:45 AM in response to pagod_

Good to know,


I have the exact same symptoms you described on a late 2009 27" Imac. Random black screen crashes with sound loopholin'; I can force the crashes really fast (1-2mins) if I play Diablo3. It also crashes during boot when I reboot quickly after a crash. Otherwise, it crashes randomly 5min-30min depending on how heavily I'm using graphics card.


My Imac is no longer under warranty though, I wonder if i can fix this myself. I've looked at some guides on how to replace the graphics card, it looks kinda complex but I'm confindent I can do it. Toughest part will probably be to actually find a compatible gfx card.


Thanks again for sharing your experience 🙂

iMac crashes (black screen) while playing Diablo 3

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.