late 2013 Mac Pro freezes constantly - GPU Hang

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Level 1

1 points

late 2013 Mac Pro freezes constantly - GPU Hang

I've been having a very consistently recurring problem with my brand new Mac Pro freezing. I am unable to predictably reproduce the problem, unfortunately, which makes it hard to solve or troubleshot from the get go. Basically every time I boot up I get a full freeze of the machine anywhere from within the first 10 minutes to an hour of boot up... somewhere in that window usually. Whatever applications are open will freeze, including system OS and usually only the mouse will be able to move but I will not be able to click on anything or Force Quit or restart. My only option is to hard reboot by holding down the power button for several seconds.

It doesn't seem to be isolated to occurring with any one application being open. I use my computer primarily for audio recording and editing. I use Avid Pro Tools HD 11.2. It's a version of their software supported to run on Mavericks 10.9.3 which is what I am running. I use it with their HD Native Thunderbolt hardware. Other than a few drivers installed to run audio and MIDI interfaces connected to the machine, I don't have much else installed on the computer yet. I do have a few 3rd party audio plugins installed, however, these problems were occurring before I installed much of anything on the machine.

I've checked Console each time I have the freeze ups and scroll to the log at the time it occurred. Almost every time without fail I get basically the following message in the Console log:

7/7/14 7:40:24.000 PM kernel[0]: [6:0:0] GPU HangState 0x00000000, HangFlags 0x00000004: IndividualEngineHang 0, NonEngineBlockHang 0, FenceNotRetired 1, PerEngineReset 0, FullAsicReset 1

7/7/14 7:40:24.000 PM kernel[0]: ** GPU ASIC Log Start **

7/7/14 7:40:24.000 PM kernel[0]: : 0x00006810 : 0x000000e3 : 0x00000001 : 0x00000018 : 0x0000a060 : 0x00000001 : 0x00000001 : 0x00006810

7/7/14 7:40:24.000 PM kernel[0]: : 0x00000001 : 0x00000015 : 0x00000000 : 0x00000001 : 0x00000047 : 0x00005009 : 0x00000001 : 0x00000058

.... a whole bunch of kernel panic spew, and then...

7/7/14 7:40:25.000 PM kernel[0]: ** GPU ASIC Log End **

7/7/14 7:40:25.000 PM kernel[0]: 0x000001f5 : 0x00000000 : 0x00000000 : 0x00000000

7/7/14 7:40:25.000 PM kernel[0]: : 0x00000000 : 0xc0036900 : 0x00000204 : 0x00000000 : 0x00080244 : 0x0000043f : 0xc0016900 : 0x00000208

... more spew logs, and then finally...

7/7/14 7:40:25.000 PM kernel[0]: : ** GPU Debug Info End **

7/7/14 7:40:25.000 PM kernel[0]: ------------------------

7/7/14 7:40:25.000 PM kernel[0]: GPURestartReportEnd

7/7/14 7:40:25.000 PM kernel[0]: Trying restart GPU ...

It's almost always saying something about a "GPU Hang" at the time of freeze up. I don't know much about what the possible problem could be but some initial research led me to believe it was graphics card related. I thought that because I was running two monitors perhaps the connections there were fouling up somehow. I am running two identical monitors simultaneously. One runs off a regular HDMI cable. The other was via a 3rd party Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter. I thought perhaps the non-Apple branded adapter I was using could be the culprit? The Apple Store (of course) agreed and sold me the Apple DVI to mini DisplayPort adapter. I swapped it out but it did not solve my issue. Still having the freezes. Sometimes after the freeze happens I'll also get a pop up warning that my external hard drive connected via USB was ejected improperly, even though I hadn't touched anything?? The whole thing goes haywire.

It's been doing this for a few months now. I've contacted Apple Care and spent an hour on the phone with them which resulted in making an appointment at a local Apple Store with a Genius. This was after they recommended that I reset both the SMC and the PRAM on the machine, neither of which solved the issue either. I took the machine in and they kept it for 48 hours to do a full stress test to see if they could determine the issue. No problems were found. They gave me the computer back and could not reproduce my problem.

The problem still exists. So that's why I'm writing on here, out of desperation because I have a brand new Mac Pro, under warranty, that is essentially useless. I have a follow up call into Apple Care to see what my next steps are but I haven't gotten a call back.

The only next steps I can imagine are to possibly update to Mavericks 10.9.4 to see if that might help even though Pro Tools is not yet supported by that OSX version yet. Or do a full clean re-install of OSX and all software on the computer (yikes!).

Or Apple needs to swap me a new machine. This is unacceptable.

Anyone else having this issue??

Here are specs on the machine:

Mac Pro (late 2013, 6.1)

Processor 3.5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5

Memory 32 GB 1867 MHz DDR3 ECC

Graphics AMD FirePro D300 2048 MB

Software OS X 10.9.3 (13D65)

Boot ROM Version: MP61.0116.B04

SMC Version (system): 2.20f18

Posted on Jul 8, 2014 12:02 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Jul 8, 2014 8:50 AM in response to Fleadomexp

It's defective. If you bought the product in the U.S. directly from Apple (not from a reseller), you have 14 days from the date of delivery in which to exchange or return it for a refund. In other countries, the return policy may be different. If you bought from a reseller, its return policy applies.

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Answer 2

Fleadomexp Author

Level 1

1 points

Jul 8, 2014 1:57 PM in response to Fleadomexp

Hi Linc, thanks for your response. I am out of the 14 day exchange/return window. I received the Mac Pro at the very end of February. It was purchased directly from Apple though and is still definitely under warranty. Shall I let my AppleCare representative know that it's likely that my machine is defective? I'd like to expedite a solution since this has taken some time to get to the bottom of. Not sure what my options are at this point but I can't use the machine for much of anything.

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Answer 3

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Jul 8, 2014 2:04 PM in response to Fleadomexp

Call Apple or better yet

- Make an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store.

Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar

Maybe sure you say what yo did to troubleshoot the problem

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Answer 4

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Jul 8, 2014 2:16 PM in response to Fleadomexp

If you have AppleCare, you can call, but they'll just tell you to bring it in. They will probably repair the machine rather than replacing it, so there will be a delay, but I have no idea how long.

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Answer 5

Jul 8, 2014 10:34 PM in response to Linc Davis

Hello Linc Davis,

How exactly are you sure the problem reported to start this thread is from defective hardware? I am not doubting your diagnosis, I am trying to determine whether it applies to my situation as well.

Any information you can provide will be much appreciated.

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Answer 6

Fleadomexp Author

Level 1

1 points

Oct 7, 2014 11:45 AM in response to Fleadomexp

Update for anyone interested: I took my Mac Pro (6.1 trash can) back into Apple a while back and after much stress testing they were finally able to see what I was talking about and as a result replaced both graphics cards in my machine. It seemed to help for a little bit.. but then.... again.... freeze ups started happening again. I am REALLY frustrated. Again, hard to predictably reproduce them... but I am now running 10.9.4 (the latest OSX patch Avid Pro Tools, my main software, supports) and they are still happening. Still getting similar "GPU Hang" messages in Console preceded pretty consistently by a "Sound assertion" message. I understand this sound assertion message has nothing to do with an actual sound error though? Not sure what to make of all this. Not sure what other steps I can try... perhaps other than a full wipe of my machine and reinstall everything from a Time Machine backup? Or maybe install everything from scratch? Ugh. I suppose I can take it back into the Apple Store... but it will be my 3rd trip and not feeling very confident that they'll be able to resolve it. This is starting to get ridiculous.

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Answer 7

Myrkr17

Level 1

0 points

Dec 9, 2014 2:55 PM in response to Fleadomexp

HI Fleadomexp,

Thanks for sharing!

Hope your problems got resolved in the meantime?

I experience the same issue with my brand new late mac pro (6.1, 6 core, D500, osx yosemite) hooked up to two dell u2412m displays (displayport - mini displayport).

Should be fine, however constant glitches at startup and total freeze/crash within 5 minutes all the time.

Apple guy on the phone suspected a graphics card issue because it also glitched hooked on to one monitor during special 'alt' startup (my mouse left a white pixel-trail all over). So I took it to Apple today for checking and hopefully resolving.

My trashcan did work steady with only one monitor connected, but still minor glitching at startup logo.

And as a video-editor I'm really depending on a steady 3 display set-up.

So a very frustrating thing to deal with, especially when remplacing the graphics card did not do the trick like in your case.

Will get back on mine as soon as Apple gets in touch.

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Answer 8

Gulliver

Level 7

25,720 points

Mar 25, 2015 2:44 AM in response to Fleadomexp

Same problem here:

System Info:

Modellname: Mac Pro

Modell-Identifizierung: MacPro6,1

Prozessortyp: 8-Core Intel Xeon E5

Prozessorgeschwindigkeit: 3 GHz

Anzahl der Prozessoren: 1

Gesamtanzahl der Kerne: 8

L2-Cache (pro Kern): 256 KB

L3-Cache: 25 MB

Speicher: 16 GB

Boot-ROM-Version: MP61.0116.B11

SMC-Version (System): 2.20f18

Wed Mar 25 10:30:47 2015

Event: GPU Reset

Data/Time: Wed Mar 25 10:30:47 2015

Application:

Path:

OS Version: Mac OS X Version 10.10.2 (Build 14C1514)

Graphics Hardware: AMD FirePro D300

Signature: 2e

Report Data:

GPURestartReportStart

------------------------

[03] AccelChannel: DMA0

Currently pending command from UnknownCtx

PendingCommandTimestamp: 0x00016404, TotalDWords: 0x00000009, GART Offset=0x0000000085fd0000, stamp_idx=3, estamp=0x00016404

PendingCommandStart:

PendingCommandEnd

------------------------

[03] DMA0HWChannel: Enabled: Not Idle

IndirectCommandSize: 0x00000040, LastReadTimestamp: 0x00016403, NextSubmitTimestamp: 0x00016407

------------------------

[00] HWRing: Enabled

RingSizeInDwords: 0x0800, FreeSpace: 0x0757, Head: 0x000000d8, LastSubmitPosition: 0x00000180, Tail: 0x00000180

RB[0]_RPTR: 0x00000360, RB[0]_WPTR: 0x00000600

HWRingDumpStart: