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Constant Crashing

Just recently my Mac Pro (late 2013 model) has started to crash. A lot. Just rebooted for the fourth time today.


I'm doing all kinds of different things, trolling the network in Chrome, running Blender, looking at email in Outlook, and suddenly I get a beach ball. Starts with whatever app I'm in, but within a few seconds, the entire system is beach balling, and nothing works. I've waited hours, but it never comes back. Only solution is the power button and a hard reboot.


I'm running OSX 10.10.3 (Yosemite) with the very latest updates. Pretty basic Mac Pro, USB keyboard, trackpad. Only thing really exotic is two 30" cinema displays connected via the Apple Dual-Link DVI adapters.


It started about a month ago, but it seems to be getting worse and worse. As I noted today it's just gotten ridiculous. Suggestions?

MacPro

Posted on Apr 19, 2015 11:21 AM

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10 replies

Apr 19, 2015 11:43 AM in response to lllaass

OK, thanks for the help. Here's what I've found in trolling the console logs. It seems to be associated with a GPU crash, and an attempt to restart the GPU. Not 100% of the time, but three of the last four have a huge GPU ASIC dumps right beforehand. And my DiagnosticReports directory is filled with kernel gpurestart dumps right around the time of these.


Interestingly, when I first got this Mac Pro, I would get these occasional messages "a graphics problem has occurred" messages, the machine hiccuped, and then continued. Since several OS updates have happened, those have stopped, and apparently been replaced with this beach balling behavior.


So, what now? Does someone want these dumps?

Apr 20, 2015 5:49 AM in response to clwill00

Have you followed suggestions? Mine would be a clean install on freshly erased drive, don't install or use Chrome for awhile and see how it goes.


The time to address this was month(s) ago when it first happened and when you had a good stable system image backup/clone that you could use to restore from, and start investigating and troubleshooting then (Safe Boot, Recovery Mode, Etrecheck, etc) and good use of Carbon Copy Cloner and a clean install.

Apr 20, 2015 7:02 AM in response to lllaass

I have disconnected my USB hub, which has an optical drive and a USB stick in it, and will see how it does. It has, of course, not crashed since I posted this, with or without the hub. The AHT runs clean.


Thanks Hatter, for the wonderful suggestion of jumping back in a time machine and addressing this problem months ago. I'll be contacting Dr. Who later today.


Does Apple or anyone care about the GPU restarts I'm getting? Is there some place to report/send those -- where someone would care?

Apr 20, 2015 7:36 AM in response to clwill00

It is nice of you to think about the whole picture for all Users, but Apple is a BIG company, and there is no obvious place to send those reports unless you have access to Developer Tech Support, National Account Support, or Education Support representatives.


The alternative for everyone else is to think about yourself, not everybody, and take your computer and your printed logs to the genius bar of an Apple-owned store (if you have an appointment, evaluation is free), or contact telephone support if you still have coverage (otherwise there may be a fee).


Anything that can be reproduced can be fixed. It may not be fixed in the most clever way you could imagine, but they will provide service part replacements until the problems go away, or escalate unsolvable problems from there into Engineering.


What they will NOT do is provide support for third-party Hardware or Software. So you need to be running a system free of third-party kernel extensions, and no third-party anti-Virus. They are also likely to ask you early on to do a clean Install onto a blank drive.

Apr 20, 2015 7:28 AM in response to clwill00

My point is if you think you are out of the woods, grab CCC and use it, and if you are not yet, do a clean install and image that while stable just in case you want to.


You might have had a clone or restore image or had ability and even tried using TimeMachine, no need for a phone booth, and just not mentioned in your posts. We don't know.


Like buying insurance after the car is totaled? Or buying power backup after the storm, better prepared next time.

Constant Crashing

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