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Recurring error: A graphics problem has been detected.

All of a sudden I'm now getting:


A graphics problem has been detected. Click "Report" to submit report...

[Ignore] [Report]


And if I click any of the choices it comes right back pretty soon.

(It's less annoying just leaving the error message there.)


This is on a MBP 15" Retina late 2013 running latest Yosemite OS X 10.10.

This model switches graphics card/GPU when running on battery.


I've tried both safe booting and ran disk check and permissions check from Recovery.


It all started when the display server/loginwindow or something froze. I could move the mouse pointer around, but nothing registered with clicking mouse/touchpad or keyboard.


It happened after/when I plugged in an external screen with the mini-dp/thunderbolt-to-DVI adapter.

(Which have never been a problem before ...)


Any hints as to what may be the problem? Hardware or software?

(I'm aware that Yosemite is still beta, but I assume it's still OK to ask. Couldn't find the dedicated error reporting tool anymore.)

MacBook Pro with Retina display, Other OS, Yosemite 10.10

Posted on Oct 14, 2014 6:22 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 14, 2014 7:50 AM

I also tried booting into Diagnostics and some other stuff.

Then I tried creating a new user, and found that the error was user specific.

So I logged back into my user and found all the files named

Kernel_<datestamp>_<computername>.gpuRestart

in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports. And I just moved away those files, and the error popup disappeared ...


Case solved, I guess. 🙂

131 replies

Jan 3, 2015 3:00 PM in response to Flaxion

While I know this may not pertain to everyone, I had this happening on my Mac Pro (Early 2014) and none of the "solutions" mentioned in this thread worked for me. I was able to detemine itw as software not hardware, since booting from another disk with Yosemite did not produce the error.


Aftr exentsive trouble shooting I determined it was an extension I had installed ( left over from Mountain Lion/Mvaericks) It was called Kick Start and was desigend to "kickstart" all my widegets, after removeal I have not had the error re-occur

Hope this might help someone else.

Jan 4, 2015 12:45 PM in response to Flaxion

It happened to me again (this was the third time in total). Didn't do much but browsing - only two tabs open. The power cord was plugged in and there was no change in power consumption (like switching to the battery).


I better follow Apple's instructions to get this thing to an approved Apple reseller, so they can have a look at it..

Jan 6, 2015 11:28 AM in response to Ricc83

I don't think the error is really a "kernal panic" error, but rather interaction with the graphics card and OS (this is not to say that it couldn't be a HW graphics card problem for other users) , anyways it's been about 10 days and a half dozen restarts ( to continue testing) and I have not had it re-occur, if it does I will be sure to update my post.

Jan 6, 2015 11:32 AM in response to John Readwin1

I had this error now 3 times. over a period of 1-2 months. Not sure what to think... Apple Helpline told me to bring it in for Diagnostic, and they think it could be a, very likely, be a hardware defect.


Maybe Apple is holding back because it is a hardware problem and trying to figure out how to best solve it instead of recalling all laptops?


I have a mid 2014 Apple Mac Book Pro Retina.

Jan 19, 2015 10:25 AM in response to Flaxion

so this error happeneed again last night, so I kept it frozen and turned on and delivered to my local apple authorized service provider (same as first time), so they could see and experience the error themselves. i have never seen a technician looked so blank before. he also said he didn't know what to do. I also called Apple support and asked them to just take my now 1 month macbook pro in. but they won't do that directly because it's over 14 days of age. sigh... I also found a pixel error in the screen, and some days ago when browsing the top of the screen became pink ehen loading a page in the safari browser.

Jan 20, 2015 8:48 AM in response to mickalford

Deleting all crash logs didnt help for me (mac mini 2012 as media server, connected to yamaha receiver via HDMI) 😟

Panic error and reboot happen almost every day at night when I dont use my mac! Such an annoying issue with this Yosemite..


Also I have an error in logs every few seconds:

Jan 20 19:23:19 al04.local ReportGPURestart[60099]: gpurestart_header:  gpurestart_message
Jan 20 19:23:19 al04 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.ReportGPURestart[60099]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1
Jan 20 19:23:19 al04 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.ReportGPURestart): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.


What could it be?

Jan 21, 2015 4:11 PM in response to flips01

I encountered the same problem on a brand new IMAC RETINA (after 1 week) and right now on a 2 year old MACBOOK PRO retina (nvidia) both running the latest yosemite. since neither share the same graphic cards nor other hardware, it must be a system problem. since there is no possibility to switch off automatic graphic card switching on an imac, this solution seems to be not accurate.


i also found other threads on the web where people playing video games encounter the same error.


in both cases I had to reboot the mac instantly. which is VERY UNSETTLING! i did not have any major system crashes in many years and now this is happening on 2 different macs.

Recurring error: A graphics problem has been detected.

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