mac pro late 2013 freezes with spinning wheel

Hi Mauro

I experiencing exactly the same issues. I have a AMD FirePro300 based MacPro and actually this graphic card seems not to be included in Apple's MacPro repair program. Today I brought my Mac Pro to an Apple Store and they will do some stress tests. I don't use 4k Monitor either. I use a Dell U2410 with HDMI to DIV cable. Using the same cable attached to a minidisplay port to hdmi adapter with my MacBook Pro never caused any problem.

I'm affraid no freezing will show up during the tests at Apple and after reading your long thread I'm getting a little nervous about the possible outcome.

Any progress on your side with this matter?

Regards

Thank you for updating us all on your progress so far. Hopefully you won't have any further issues. I'm now looking forward to get an answer form Apple's Genius Bar. I will post an update asap.

Regards

Hi All,

Yesterday I received my second repaired MacPro and the problem seem to be fixed. At first they couldn't reproduce the problem, so I explained how to reproduce the problem (sending them a video) by running the screensaver only for a day or two and it would freeze. They tried to stress test the GPU which wouldn't reproduce the problem. This time they replaced 2 D300's because after replacing the first the problem wasn't solved. So I had to pay for 2 new D300's 😟

I hope Apple will recognise this issue one time so I can get my money back, because it took me a year to find a way to reproduce the problem.

I have still 1 MacPro left to get fixed (this one freezes a lot less than the other 2, but it shouldn't happen at all)

Hi Slokkie and rest

Thank you for keeping us updated. My Mac Pro is now, since last Thursday, at Apple but I had now news since. I haven't followed your thread so close, but the fact that you had to pay Apple for getting the defect hardware replaced is terrible. I bought mine last year about end of May, so my 1 year warranty period is about to expire soon. I asked Apple what would happen in the event of a longer troubleshooting period that could eventually take over 2 months from now to reproduce the problem in order to get it fixed at no cost. The answer was that even after the warranty period, they would replace any factory defect hardware at no cost. Wasn't this your case? A friend of mine got his MacBook Pro mother board replaced at no charge after the warranty period.

Hopefully Apple will fix my Mac Pro but in case they won't, because of not being able to reproduce the freezing problem, would it be possible for you to send me/us your video or detailed instruction on how to reproduce it?

I will update you all on my experience as soon as I get news from Apple.

Thank you

Hi albertouch

The reason why I need to pay, it is because being out of warranty for a long time. They were bought in may 2014, but it took me until Dec 2015 to create a way to reproduce the problem.

I think you have a newer Mac Pro with maybe a similar problem.

My way to reproduce this freeze is simple. Just turn off power settings to sleep the computer and start screensaver after 1 minute and let the Mac Pro running the screensaver until the GUI freeze with spinning beachball. At my side it would take between 20 mins and approx 2,5 days

Unplug the monitor cables and connect again will unfreeze the Mac so you can save your files, but it will be very slow until a reboot.

A video of the freeze you can see at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20357413/MACPRO_FREEZE_UNPLUG_VIDEOCABLE.MOV

Hi Slokkie

Fortunately I got a phone call on Saturday from Apple to tell me that both AMD D300 had to be replaced due to stress testing failures. I picked it up yesterday and until now everything seems to work just fine. I hope this helps other people to get their AMD D300 replaced. Thank you for your answer and for sharing with us your experience.

Looking forward now to use this machine and enjoy it as long as i enjoyed my good old Mac Pro 1.1

Have a nice day! 😉

The "GPU appears to be hung" issue has been happening more frequently on my late 2013 (actually, early 2016) Mac Pro (including the first time I tried to enter this post), along with possibly related problems. For example, I got a screen full of horizontal lines the other day until I rebooted. And today I got some console messages that said:

DumpGPURestart: com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.crashreporter.writereport.gpuRestart, and I found a number of files in

/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports with names like: Kernel_2016-04-13-180931_My-Mac_pro.gpuRestart, and entries like:

GPU HangFlags 0x00000005: AsicHangState 0x00000005, AsicResetRequirement 0x00000001

IndividualEngineHang: 1

NonEngineBlockHang : 0

FenceNotRetired : 1

PerEngineReset : 1

FullAsicReset : 0

HangEngineBitmap : 0x0000000e

Hung Engines Detected by Cail: GRAPHICS COMPUTE0 COMPUTE1

Not sure exactly what that means. Since the Genius Bar wants to keep my machine for a week or so, I'll try letting a certified Apple repair shop do a same-day test, order the GPU card(s), and swap them out a few days later. At least that's what I hope will happen.

Hi all,

I've been using a 4-Core, D300 Mac Pro for several months, and have been having this issue from the beginning. It has been to the Apple Store for repairs twice. The first time they replaced one or both of the GPUs, to no avail. My systems guy brought it back today and said they didn't do anything because they, you guessed it, "couldn't reproduce the issue."

My setup is a little different than all yours, as I'm a software dev doing work mostly in Atom and Visual Studio running a Parallels VM. I know Parallels is an example of an "invasive extension," (a very unhelpful bit of troubleshooting advice, I might add), but this machine should absolutely be able to handle that sort of software.

I'm experiencing all the same freezing symptoms here, and have tried many of the listed solutions.

I'm fed up, my systems guy is fed up, and I'm ready to simply give up on this machine. A pretty piece of garbage, it is.

Hi Pfhortune

What happens during the freeze, can you move the mouse cursor?If so try also to disconnect your video cables, wait 30 secs and plug them in again and wait a few minutes.

If the machine will unfreeze again you have my problem (videocard defect).

The system doesn't need to get forced to heavy duty to get a freeze, just let a screensaver run for a few days and it will freeze (this is my way to reproduce the problem) Apple normally will try some heavy duty apps to force a quick freeze (because they want quick results)

I convinced my Apple Genius Bar to do the easy screensaver test and they were finally able to reproduce the problem.

regards

As mentioned above, my Late 2013 Mac Pro was getting daily freezes with rainbow ball, and console messages that said "GPU Driver appears to be hung." I gave up on the Genius Bar, which wanted to keep it for days, and took it to ComputerCare in Santa Clara, CA.

They said the problem was actually not the GPU(s), but the CPU Riser Card. They said they've seen this problem before.

They diagnosed it on Thursday and replaced the card today. I haven't had any freezes since they diagnosed it, so maybe reseating the card fixed the problem, I don't know. I ran the screensaver in the most graphically intensive mode for a few hours this afternoon, with no problems yet. So I'm hoping it's fixed.

No, it looks like it wasn't the CPU Riser Card - I just got another "GPU Driver appears to be hung" freeze.

Hi

Sorry to hear that. You most probably have the same kind of GPU issue as almost all of us. I would suggest you to let them keep the machine for as many days as they need to reproduce the problem. In my case they had to keep my mac for 7 days. Busy easter season days was aleged. I suppose in normal cirumstances it shouldn't take more than a couple of days. They said they stressed the machine until they could reproduce the freezing problem. First they had to replace one card and then they realized they kept on having the same issue, so second card had to be replaced too. I haven't had any freezing problems since replacement took place. Hope you get your problme sorted. It's annoying and i know in some circumstances it could be huge headake to lose your working tool for 1 week, but in my case it was worth waiting to get it properly sorted and for free.

Regards

Hi all

Unfortunately after having both AMD 300 cards replaced, today my Mac freezed again exactly the same way it used to. Again system log says: Apr 27 21:23:29 Mac-Pro-2013-de-Alberto WindowServer[203]: GPU Driver appears to be hung (over 5 continuous seconds of unreadiness)

I'm tired of this Mac. I don't know if i can ask for a refund, but at this stage it's the only thing i wan't, get my money back and buy something worth the nearly 3.700€ I paid for this defect machine. I read som meany complaints about this Mac that I have to think seriously about getting a different machine. Totally lost about what to look for in case I get a refund. Very disapointed.