yosemite graphics problem on macbook

My only desire at this point is if the noise about these issues is loud enough Apple will at least offer a store credit equal to what many of us have paid to have new graphics cards installed.

Thanks for the tip. Seems like a good extension and so far it's working ok. Google Earth was crashing immediately in FF and now it's working. I will keep stress-testing different options with it.

Thanks.

Chris

For anyone still experiencing crashing/rebooting in Yosemite, try disabling Handoff in System Preferences/General. Worked miraculously for me. Not only fixed the rebooting, but has also fixed my flaky WiFi connectivity problem, whereby I would lose WiFi connection 20-30 times a day. Since disabling Handoff, I haven't crashed once (in 4 days straight - was previously crashing several times a day).

I am afraid your "solution" doesn't apply to this issue. Some of us cannot even have this feature available on their systems (Bluetooth hardware).

I've done another clean install of Yosemite. Problem persists and it gets easily triggered when attached to an external display (Thunderbolt in my case).

It is a software issue, so far on my old Mavericks install everything goes fine.

This time doing a fast user switch didn't fix it, but rather I had to disconnect the external monitor. I then kept using it with the built in display, and kept it switched to discrete graphic card by having Photoshop CC 2014 open persistently. The system didn't lag anymore on graphic transitions (Mission control, launchpad, etc.), and everything was fine.

Honestly...at this point I am absolutely fed up with Apple's BS. Every so-called update seems to f*&k things up and none of their crap works with any of it's other crap. Yosemite is an absolute joke and I'm sorry but I have to vent. I've been holding my tongue for too many years and I can't take their garbage anymore. Video Server doesn't work (App Store app). Home Sharing doesn't work (Apple). Can't mirror to ATV2P (Apple product). Can't use MPlayerX (App Store app).

The interface is ugly and hard on the eyes. Nothing works as it should and too many bugs. I waited until today to do the update and apparently I should have never done it. The reason I waited is because I feared this would happen.

Apple you lost a customer... And for god sake, fix your s&*t so these poor people don't to put with it any longer. Seriously, enough is enough.

Could you run Etrecheck and post the results. Your problem may be the result of something other than Yosemite.

Kindly run EtreCheck and post the results too, you might have some other problem. EtreCheck was developed by a very respected user on this forum and is available for free. Just blank out your personal particulars.

Are you experiencing graphic lags, or bad glitches as for what we are talking about here in this topic? Or do you just have problems with third party applications not fully working?

Here's my Etrecheck report:

Problem description:

System regularly freezes, crashes and reboots

EtreCheck version: 2.1.5 (108)

Report generated 18 December 2014 10:06:35 GMT

Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Click the [Adware] links for help removing adware.

Hardware Information: ℹ️

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) (Verified)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro10,1

1 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4-core

8 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Video Information: ℹ️

Intel HD Graphics 4000

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M - VRAM: 1024 MB

Thunderbolt Display 2560 x 1440

System Software: ℹ️

OS X 10.10.2 (14C81f) - Uptime: 1:23:45

Disk Information: ℹ️

APPLE SSD SM256E disk0 : (251 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB

Internal SSD (disk1) / : 249.78 GB (211.16 GB free)

Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked

Core Storage: disk0s2 250.14 GB Online

SanDisk SSD U100 128GB disk2 : (128.04 GB)

EFI (disk2s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

External SSD (disk2s2) /Volumes/External SSD : 127.69 GB (34.18 GB free)

USB Information: ℹ️

Seagate Backup+ SL 1 TB

EFI (disk3s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

External HD 1 (disk3s2) /Volumes/External HD 1 : 999.86 GB (403.85 GB free)

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Canon CanoScan

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. ML-1860 Series

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Display)

Apple Inc. Apple Thunderbolt Display

Apple Inc. Display Audio

Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Apple Inc. Thunderbolt Display

LaCie Rugged mini

Gatekeeper: ℹ️

Mac App Store and identified developers

Kernel Extensions: ℹ️

/Applications/Parallels Desktop.app

[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.hypervisor (10.1.1 28614 - SDK 10.7) [Support]

[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.netbridge (10.1.1 28614 - SDK 10.7) [Support]

[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.usbconnect (10.1.1 28614 - SDK 10.7) [Support]

[not loaded] com.parallels.kext.vnic (10.1.1 28614 - SDK 10.7) [Support]

Launch Agents: ℹ️

[running] com.webex.pluginagent.plist [Support]

Launch Daemons: ℹ️

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Support]

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist [Support]

User Login Items: ℹ️

gfxCardStatus Application (/Applications/gfxCardStatus.app)

iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Fantastical Application (/Applications/Fantastical.app)

Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

MeetingJoinPlugin: Version: Unknown - SDK 10.6 [Support]

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

Flash Player: Version: 16.0.0.235 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.4.7 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10

User internet Plug-ins: ℹ️

WebEx64: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.6 [Support]

Safari Extensions: ℹ️

Open in Internet Explorer [Installed]

3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️

Flash Player [Support]

Time Machine: ℹ️

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️

4% WindowServer

2% cloudd

1% fontd

0% Safari

0% networkd

Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️

155 MB Safari

137 MB mds_stores

137 MB Mail

120 MB ocspd

112 MB Finder

Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️

3.46 GB Free RAM

3.03 GB Active RAM

1.07 GB Inactive RAM

1.02 GB Wired RAM

1.61 GB Page-ins

0 B Page-outs

Diagnostics Information: ℹ️

Dec 18, 2014, 08:43:25 AM Self test - passed

Dec 16, 2014, 04:44:15 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/lsregister_2014-12-16-164415_[redacted].crash

My experience sounds similar to yours - problem is most often triggered when connecting to Thunderbolt display (although it has happened a few times when not connected to the external monitor, but much less often). My 'solution' of disabling Handoff, sure enough and as you suggested, was apparently a coincidence - I'm back to square one now.

Out of curiosity, do you have Parallels installed? someone on another forum suggested a theory that Parallels was the cause. I thought not, because my issues happen when Parallels is not running, but I just ran this "Etrecheck" tool and it seems that there are Parallels 'kernel extensions' lurking in the background. I installed Parallels around the same time (just after) Yosemite, hence the suspicion.

But I've had so many false ideas on this - blaming everything from Dropbox to OneDrive to Fantastical to Safari extensions to Handoff to Office to Continuity to Flash - that pointing the finger at Parallels may just be wishful thinking. I keep hoping that it will turn out to be as simple as just removing one piece of software!

Also, after a clean install, did your problems come back immediately? I got almost a whole week, with no crashes, after a full reinstall of OS X - then it all began happening again. Relevant? Maybe just another coincidence.

I'd ran AHT, the extensive test and everything appears to be fine with the hardware.

My OS X Yosemite install is a clean one.

The graphic lags lags when connected to the Thunderbolt Display using it in clamshell mode. I thought it was a problem related with the discrete graphic card, but if I disconnect the computer from the external display and use an application which triggers the discrete graphic card (as Photoshop CC 2014) everything is fine with graphic transitions being smooth and working fine.

I've also noticed that right after having applied this procedure Guide: How to solve Yosemite memory leaks and CPU usage to fix disk permissions, reset SMC & PRAM the system has worked fine for a few days when used in clamshell mode connected to the Thunderbolt Display, without any graphic lag in transitions and no glitches.

Let me stress the point this is a clean fresh install of Yosemite, while on my old "messy" Mavericks I don't have these problems.

I can run that etrecheck and post stuff that I already know is launched at login as well as other infos that I already checked myself to troubleshoot this issue, but I am afraid it won't help this much.

One more thing: on my Yosemite install I don't even have installed Adobe Flash player, Adobe Air, Java and I don't have Apache server running. While on the old Mavericks system I had all these things up and running plus other stuff.

I don't have Parallels installed, nor I'll ever install anything which might run something coming from Microsoft on my system. I am a purist on this extent, being convinced that Microsoft shouldn't even still exists nowadays, as well as it shouldn't have born in first instance. I know sometimes I might sound a little radical… 🙂

I haven't even installed anything from Google, as Google Drive and Sketchup.

My sensation is that there is something wrong going on with discrete graphic card drivers in Yosemite.

After having done once again the procedure to repair disk permissions and reset SMC & PRAM that I linked in my previous answer

Now the lagging on graphics is gone when connected to the Thunderbolt Display in clamshell mode.

What I'm repeatedly noticing is that, whenever I have to fix disk permissions, I'll always get these that were wrong on displaypolicyd both user and group ownership to 244 instead of 0

The good part in all of this is that since I've done again the clean install of Yosemite I've only experienced those bad glitches (like a disturbed analog TV) one time, and after having having done that procedure the first time it didn't happen again.

Trust that you have done this from the Recovery Partition preferably, and not from inside the system itself. Of course the steps involved means booting into the Recovery Partition, and from in there launch the Terminal and afterwards the reset utility for the different users, including the System Administration.

You have a lot of things connected. I would start of by having the Mac clean, thus disconnect all the peripheral items (hard and software), easier to do the hardware first, and see then what the Mac is doing. Then Run EtreCheck again, and see if there are other pointers.

If all is normal, and the Mac stable, then it is time to put the peripherals back one by one. Test thoroughly before committing to reconnect the next peripheral.

Tell us what it is doing

Also would like to see the crash report, just the essential part to see why it crashed