iMac Crashing: GPU NVIDIA GTX 680 MX 2048 MB Failing?

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Level 1

8 points

iMac Crashing: GPU NVIDIA GTX 680 MX 2048 MB Failing?

Hi,

I am recently experiencing frequent OS system crashes and CUDA recognition issues which I think are related to my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2048 MB on a late-2012 iMac running OS X Yosemite V.10.10.1 and a 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 processor.

After updated my OS to Yosemite on Friday, yesterday I updated the CUDA driver to 6.0. After one of these crashes, this driver update is no longer recognized and Adobe Media Encoder and After Effects is no longer able to recognize the CUDA for rendering purposes. If I re-install CUDA 6.0 it functions again, but after another crash is again gone.

The display will periodically freeze in place and then crash to black. The main menu bar at the top of screen is frequently turning for legible labels to gibberish. This "gibberish" issue did not begin until after the original CUDA update yesterday, but I have been experiencing the display-freeze then crash periodically each working day for over a week now.

Perhaps this is simply related to CUDA v.6.0? I believe I need a minimum of CUDA driver 5.0. Has that version of the driver proven to be more stable?

Do these appear to be symptoms related purely to the GPU or does this indicate a separate problem with my iMac hardware?

Thank you for any assistance or advice.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1), 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7

Posted on Jan 27, 2015 8:21 AM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Jan 27, 2015 10:58 AM in response to libsimpso

If you suspect that CUDA is causing instability, remove it and see whether there's an improvement.

To remove CUDA, triple-click anywhere in the first line below on this page to select it:

/Library/Frameworks/CUDA.framework
/Library/LaunchAgents/com.nvidia.CUDASoftwareUpdate.plist
/Library/PreferencePanes/CUDA Preferences.prefPane
/System/Library/Extensions/CUDA.kext
/System/Library/StartupItems/CUDA
/usr/local/cuda

Right-click or control-click the line and select

Services ▹ Reveal in Finder (or just Reveal)

from the contextual menu.* A folder should open with an item selected. Move the selected item to the Trash. You may be prompted for your administrator login password. Continue with the remaining lines. Some of the items may be absent, in which case you'll get a message that the file couldn't be found. After moving all the above items to the Trash, restart the computer and empty the Trash. Don't try to empty the Trash until you have restarted.

If you haven't already done so, back up all data before making any changes.

*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. In the Finder, select

Go ▹ Go to Folder...

from the menu bar and paste into the box that opens by pressing command-V. You won't see what you pasted because a line break is included. Press return.

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