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mauro16 Author

Level 1

15 points

mac pro late 2013 freezes with spinning wheel

i bought a mac pro (late 2013) 50 days ago, os is yosemite 10.10.3. I often get the spinning wheel of death and the mac freezes, i.e. it doesn't react to mouse click or keyboard. it happens on average 1 time a day. When it happens i have to restart the machine by pressing the computer's power button.

I have already contacted apple support by phone, i have made many reset operations under their control, but nothing changed.

After the restart, when i examine the console log the last message before the reboot is often the following one

windowserver: surface testing disallowed updates for 10 sequential attempts

By searching this message on google i found that the problem might be related with the energy saving settings, i.e. it happens when the mac wakes from sleep. So i changed those settings to prevent the mac going on stop state, and today the problem did not happen, but i'm not sure what wil happen tomorrow ... so i'm looking for information/advice about this kind of problem.

Mac Pro (Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on May 16, 2015 12:19 PM

213 replies

Sep 10, 2015 1:05 PM in response to mauro16

I am also having this issue, how ever when I use VNC to remote in to it; the screen saver is frozen and the time tells me how long it has been in that state. so that tells me that the system isn't locked up entirely, I can also from the first login prompt (required for VNC to remote to OS X) I get a prompt to login as guest or my account and at the bottom I get options to restart and shutdown. today instead of clicking reboot i clicked guest and I was back-in (as guest), it all seemed functional. last night I was watching the keynote and it beach-balled on me, i hit the power button once to put it to sleep waited a couple of minutes and pressed it again to wake it and the video took off where it locked up.

I think it is the graphic card(s) resetting them selves (unsuccessfully) for some reason or another. When I had a custom build PC I had a radeon 5650 that would reset it self when operating condition became unfavorable. (heat mainly) but it wouldn't reset the whole computer so you didn't lose your work or in my case progression through a game. I have put my hand over the vent and it isnt all that warm and i have placed it on a small box to give it more breating room then it has had and the issue still presists.

Sep 21, 2015 3:37 PM in response to mauro16

I got the same problem here. Spinning wheel and no reaction on any mouse click.

The strange thing is, until some weeks ago, I always got a GPU hang and a message like this:

16.06.15 22:54:36,000 kernel[0]: ** GPU ASIC Log Start **

16.06.15 22:54:36,000 kernel[0]: : 0x00006810 : 0x000000e3 : 0x00000001 : 0x00000018 : 0x0000a060 : 0x00000001 : 0x00000001 : 0x00006810

16.06.15 22:54:36,000 kernel[0]: : 0x00000001 : 0x00000015 : 0x00000000 : 0x00000001 : 0x00000047 : 0x00005009 : 0x00000001 : 0x00000058

...

16.06.15 22:54:28,000 kernel[0]: ** GPU ASIC Log End **

Now (maybe since 10.10.5?), it's always this one:

22.09.15 00:10:34,000 kernel[0]: Sound assertion - 1002:aab0 FIFO error (Stream 1)

The hang occurs round about every 2 days, sometimes 2 times a day, sometimes not for a whole week.

I do not run ProTools here, but Logic among other Music software. Also, I have Sibelius (Avid, like Pro Tools). My Sound Interface is an UAD Apollo. I have plenty of USB Devices: SDDs, HDDs, Dongles (iLok, eLicenser) etc, as well as 3 Samsung SyncMaster displays, one connected via Dual-Link DVI Adaptor, two connected via HDMI (1x native, 1x Thunderbolt-HDMI-Adaptor).

I brought my MacPro to an Apple Dealer and they send it to Apple, without any result.

I will try the workaround with setting up sleep mode, but I don't expect this working for me as a longterm solution. Maybe El Capitan will resolve the problem - hopefully.

Sep 24, 2015 4:50 AM in response to Timo Bader

I found out that 10.10.0 to 10.10.2 is working without any problem and 10.10.3 to 10.10.5 is causing freezes.

After the monitor is un and reconnected it´s working again but very slooooow.

B.t.w. I have a 4 core 6.1 with D300 video card.

Sep 24, 2015 1:16 PM in response to Wolfgang E

Hi Wolfgang,

I had the problems already in Mavericks (10.9.) and also from the very beginning, means when I installed a fresh new system. I remember to just have started configuring mail, iCloud etc. when it happened the first time. The only external thing I had attached to my MacPro was a Samsung SyncMaster SA850 via Apple's DualLink DVI Adapter.

In Mavericks, I could wait for 2-3 minutes to get the Mac back working, since I installed Yosemite (10.10.3 I think) the computer remains inoperable.

It's really a hard one and it's a pity that they could not detect any malfunction on my device.

Anybody else having this issue using a DualLink Adapter (this one: http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MB571LL/A/mini-displayport-to-dual-link-dvi-ad apter)?

mauro16 Author

Level 1

15 points

Sep 24, 2015 1:48 PM in response to Timo Bader

I haven't tried your adapter but i have tried many others. Lately i was using a 34 inches lg monitor with apple TB to TB adapter, and the freezing occurred. Earlier I was using a dell monitor with mini DP to DP adapter and the freezing occurred. I also tried other monitors and other adapters and the freezing occurred.

In this thread

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-late-2013-gpu-driver-issues.1860297/

many other users report similar problems and share their experience

Sep 24, 2015 4:23 PM in response to Timo Bader

Yes it's true the problem was present since OSX Mavericks but the difference was that show only an dialog box error "GPU has stopped work" or similar, and then system continues to work normally. instead after the Yosemite upgrade, now there is spinning wheel and mac frozen.

In my opinion there is not a problem of adapter or displays, etc. because my Mac is connected only to an Apple thunderbolt Display.

Let me know what you think about it.

Max

Sep 24, 2015 11:50 PM in response to Timo Bader

Yes I´m using the Apple dual link adapter also with a 30" cinema display.

Right now I´m testing another display with HDMI connector.

I will see...

Sep 25, 2015 3:01 AM in response to Wolfgang E

Frozen again.

Now I try with a lower resolution.

Sep 28, 2015 10:07 AM in response to Wolfgang E

Update: after setting the sleep option to about 45 minutes for the system to into low power mode I have not had the issue. I wake it and log in and can use it as normal without issue. When I am done I just let it go back to sleep. I don’t think the time actually matters, just letting it power down forces the video card drives to halt and reload is what is keeping it going.

Sep 28, 2015 10:20 AM in response to NeuroReaction

Where I can find this type of settings?

In Preferences I have find only the voice regarding the "Monitor", and not something about Low Power mode or similar.

Can you help me?

Max

Sep 28, 2015 11:13 AM in response to maxcarella

I couldn't remote in as I don't have wake on LAN turned on. I found this video though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af1cCkifPQA

Oct 1, 2015 10:16 AM in response to NeuroReaction

Seriously hope that apple will do something with this issue. I have approximately 10 units of this Mac Pro, randomly this error will occur to these Mac pro.

I wonder whether El Capitan will solve this issue.

xrisca

Level 1

0 points

Oct 1, 2015 2:10 PM in response to mauro16

I have the same issue with my MacPro, late 2013 Model. Like everyone else, mine freeze once or twice a day or sometimes after a day or two. At one point it freeze every time the back-up runs, when I disconnect the the external back-up (Lacie thunderbolt) that issues is gone, but the the regular freeze is still there. I really hope apple will do something to solve this issue. By the way, mine freeze inconsistent, sometimes when I'm working in Photoshop and Illustrator, but mostly when I'm browsing, specially on Youtube site.

Oct 2, 2015 1:30 PM in response to xrisca

Again, freezing today. I tried the energy saving trick from above (setting it to 3 minutes), but this did not work here. The computer fell asleep though, and I could even "wake" it up, but it kept frozen. Means, the display got dark and when I moved the mouse, the screen came back, but I could still not click on anything

In console, I got this time the well known GPU hangs:

02.10.15 22:12:29,253 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.DumpGPURestart) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

02.10.15 22:12:29,603 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.imfoundation.IMRemoteURLConnectionAgent) The _DirtyJetsamMemoryLimit key is not available on this platform.

02.10.15 22:12:35,000 kernel[0]: ** GPU ASIC Log Start **

02.10.15 22:12:35,000 kernel[0]: : 0x00006810 : 0x000000e3 : 0x00000001 : 0x00000018 : 0x0000a060 : 0x00000001 : 0x00000001 : 0x00006810

02.10.15 22:12:35,000 kernel[0]: : 0x00000001 : 0x00000015 : 0x00000000 : 0x00000001 : 0x00000047 : 0x00005009 : 0x00000001 : 0x00000058

02.10.15 22:12:35,000 kernel[0]: : 0x00000012 : 0x00000001 : 0x00000055 : 0x00000000 : 0x00000001 : 0x0000004a : 0x0000106b : 0x00000001

[very long list...]

02.10.15 22:12:36,000 kernel[0]: : 0x00000000 : 0x00000000 : 0x00000000 : 0x00000000 : 0x00000000 : 0x00000000 : 0x00000000 : 0x00000000

02.10.15 22:12:36,000 kernel[0]: : 0x00000000 : 0x00000000

02.10.15 22:12:36,000 kernel[0]: ** GPU ASIC Log End **

Pretty annoying... :-(

sbrino

Level 1

0 points

Oct 2, 2015 2:58 PM in response to mauro16

Hello everyone.

I read the whole discussion and I have the same Mauro's issue.

I bought the mac pro in february 2015 and the problems started after the installation of Yosemite. For months I've tried to solve this problem but I have not found any solution. I have been several times at the Apple Retail Store (Genius Bar), but after many hardware test It was not found anything. I'm really angry because I spent a lot of money to buy this mac instead it is like using a Windows PC that always crashes.

Yesterday I tried to install OS X El Capitan 10.11, but after 2hours (I was just browsing on Safari) I had the same issue ( Spinning Wheel)

This is my configuration 😉

Mac Pro (late 2013)

-3.7 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5

-16 GB DDR3 1866 MHz

-AMD FirePro D300 2048MB

-Apple Keyboard

-Apple Magic Mouse

-Eizo display CX271 27 inches, 2560x1440 resolution (attached to the Thunderbolt port using Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable)

I hope to find a solution together 😀

mac pro late 2013 freezes with spinning wheel