New Mac Pro - A graphics problem has been detected

It cant be the same problem as in the Mac Pro, as we dont have a battery saving feature obviously.

When researching the issue, I came across implications that this was a known issue and was being worked on, but I can't find them now. Here's a link that discusses what I'm reporting and offers interesting background:

http://www.macnn.com/articles/14/11/04/several.support.threads.discussing.issue. related.to.gpu.switching/

Note that here, they say "<the issues were> ... brought to the forefront by the graphic enhancements in Yosemite over

Mavericks". So this would explain, if true, why older machines are only now seeing this issue.

I'm working on 2 MacBook pros with this issue at the moment. With one, I turned off the GPU switch feature and we haven't seen a single lockup or crash since (was happening multiple times a day initially). On the second one, problem only occurred a couple of times, but after the second, it became totally dead (would not power up). I was able to finally get it to power up, and first thing I did was turn off GPU switching, and was able to use the machine again. I then called Apple Support. They had me turn GPU switching back on and then had me reset the SMC (ctrl-shift-option-power), and then wanted me to reset pram ... but we never got that far. The machine is currently bricked, and I need to take it to my local 'genius bar' for review. When I press 'power', 'nothing' happens visually but - in a quiet room, I can hear a fan kick in and stay on permanently, and eventually machine is a little warm to the touch. If I press/hold power for about 5-10 secs, fan stops. Not bad for two 1-year-old $2,500 machines!

Yes and no ... it is feasible that they could still do some switching between on-CPU and external GPU on a desktop for various reasons, is it not? In today's 'green' world, saving power and reducing heat generation are still attractive actions. For me, as a silence freak, I like my desktops to be as quiet as possible so I appreciate all the steps that can be taken to minimize unnecessary power consumption/heat generation as this reduces fan noise.

But I would agree, you presumably don't get that option in any user-visible control applet.

The Xeon processors in the Mac Pro do not have integrated graphics like the Intel Core processors in MacBooks. There is no "automated graphics switching" energy saver option in the Mac Pro. Also, the GPUs in the Mac Pro are from AMD while the ones in the retina MacBook Pro are Nvidia, so completely different drivers. The only action that has been shown to conclusively solve this problem with Mac Pros when it starts happening regularly is the replacement of the video cards.

I took my early MacPro in to the Apple store and after 4 days there was told my hardware was fine and to manually reinstall applications. I did it only for a few of the ones that I use most and the problem is still there. In fact, it has given me the error daily and three days it did it twice. Not happy, every time this happens I have to restart and launch all my apps again. Takes quite a while. Interestingly, everything freezes but the sound.

So I don't have a Mac Pro, but a Macbook Pro. But here's what I've managed to figure out regarding this (not a solution)

I use my Macbook Pro for doing live visuals at concerts & raves, so it is a fairly GPU intensive thing. This error is happening for people with Yosemite 10.10.1 and when you "stress" the card. Instead of dropping framerate, it locks up and the error pops up freezing the entire computer. Except it actually doesn't freeze your computer, just the GPU. If you have iTunes, or other programs open that send/recieve control data (I use Ableton Live with MIDI controllers) you can still "run" the program while the computer is frozen. It's just the GPU that is crashing. Tho i'm still unsure why I can freely move my mouse around while it's frozen, clicks do not register until about 5 minutes later tho.

I have had my Logic Board replaced, twice, wiped the hard-drive, re-installed OS X fresh, re-installed all my programs, just copied my project I had backed up. The visuals program I've been running is pretty complex. If I start a new project instead of trying to load the really complex set I built, it runs fine. but if I start adding multiple layers of HD video I get the error. People say turning the "automatic graphics switching" off worked for them. but the thing is, my gfx card changes to dedicated GPU as soon as I open my visuals software. It will not run on the internal. This is 100% a software issue at this point. When I repair disk permissions after I reboot there is ALWAYS an entry for a GPURestartReporter

multiple gpurestart kernel crash logs. from this happening overtime.

I still don't have a solution, but maybe this information will sort of someway help?

steps to recreate this: run VDMX (demo is free, full use, just can't save) at http://www.vidvox.net

quick tutorial explaining the interface & how to use the program VDMX: The Interface Explained & Getting Started
Grab a few HD video loops from around the web (free vj clips - beeple - the work of mike winkelmann (cinema ...)
Re-encode them into HAP codec (this offloads the rendering to the GPU instead of taxing your CPU). more info here: Presenting Hap, a family of open-source GPU accelerated ...
Add a few layers and load clips so you have multiple HD videos playing on top of each other....until crash!

I should lastly mention that I usually have an external display hooked up, which loads the graphics card more, but I can replicate the error without.
I also had to disable all Quartz Composer effects as this immediately crashed the GPU, Quartz has been messed up since Mavericks for a lot of Visual Artists on newer Mac's

Just saw this message, in conjunction with another symptom:

My 2014 Mac Pro has had a periodic black login screen problem ever since Yosemite: once in a while, I will switch to the login screen and it's just black; no cursor. I can't do anything and must force restart.

Today the same thing happened on waking the display (the Mac was already awake at the login screen). First I did see the login screen briefly. Then the Dell 4k display went back to sleep--a separate (pre-Yosemite) Mac Pro issue entirely; so as often happens, I had to attach a different display in order to see the login screen and either use my Mac or reboot; and that made the Dell awake too. But both screens showed pure black. Caps-lock still toggled the light.

I force restarted, and after logging in I got the "graphics problem has been detected" dialog.

I'm thinking the black screens are related in some way--maybe the same error, but in those cases I'm unable to see the message?

I think they are related if not the same. I get both, but the black screen I get only when I go back to work in the morning and the machines was sleep during the night. A black screen sometimes gives you the Graphics error message when you reboot, but other times it does not. Yesterday I had a black screen and it took me three times to have it reboot, was scary. I certainly hope Apple finds a solution. They did not replace my graphics card and told to me to manually reinstall things which did not help.

Update on my issue - Apple support scheduled me at a local 'Genius Bar'. They ran diagnostics, all of which passed, but luckily for me, the unit would still not power on so they sent it off for repair. Got it back today. The unit now has a new baseplate, new screen, new logic board, with my original SSD - so no data loss. I asked if replacing the 'logic board' included the GPU, they said it did. So far it powers up ok and 'works'. I'm going to leave the 'automatic graphics switching' on for now. This is on a 'MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)'.

Does anyone know how to check the internals - could they have replaced my 18 month old MacBook with an updated IO board, with newer processor/GPU, or do they have an infinite supply of 'older' model internals to use in situations like this? I would guess it would come down to physical logistics as much as anything - if the form-factor of the boards are the same, and power requirements, etc, then they could give me an upgraded motherboard.

The one issue I have is - even with almost nothing running, and 'Activity monitor' showing an idle of about 99.5% most of the time, there is an audible fan on. The room I'm in is quiet, and the ambient temp is about 66 degrees - not hot. So this tells me the fan is always going to be running, if it's on when absolutely nothing is going on with the machine and it's not even warm to the touch? This is quite disappointing to me as a 'noise freak'. Maybe the fan runs all the time but it should be silent? Maybe they salvaged the fan from my old logic board ...? Anyone know what the deal is here?

Ok so this will hopefully be my last entry on this thread.

My computer stopped doing the GPU restarts but it started locking up entirely with no response at all. I had to remove power and restart.

After it did this 5 times in a weekend I took it to a Simply Mac store (an Apple Authorized Specialist) near me.

They ran repeated hardware tests on it with no results. The tech said the people at Apple told him that the GPU restart issue was not a hardware issue and was not anything to worry about. (maybe a software issue they plan to resolve with an update?)

So... I got the unit back and decided to do a clean install and a ground up rebuild of my home folder.

After working with it for a week now I have not had any issues. It resolved the lockups, GPU restarts, and finder window ghosting (I posted this in a separate thread). https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/506147040 My work iMac has this ghosting problem and runs really slow since upgrading to Yosemite. I plan to rebuild that computer next.

So, my final recommendation is this:

When switching to new hardware, especially if it is significantly different from your old hardware, do NOT restore or migrate. Do a clean install and rebuild from a new user home folder. And it isn't a bad idea (albeit a PITA) every time you upgrade to a new version of OSX.

Happy Tuesday!

I have not had any Graphics Detected error since the last OSX update

I noticed that there was a double restart with the last OS update which often indicates that there is a firmware update included. Nothing published about this though so its only a guess but it might be significant. (I had a couple of graphics failures soon after I received my late 2013 mac Pro 4-core D300 last November - with Yosemite but have not had any recurrences since).

Geoff.

Yes, there was a firmware update. I checked in System Report and it was updated.

Out of interest where exactly did you find the Firmware version update information? I don't see anything in System Information. Does it confirm that it involved graphics drivers?

Geoff.

This still lists the last version

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518

and tells you how to find the installed version