Unrecoverable system hangs when accessing website

Same identical problem here: Mac Mini late 2009, 10.11.6 (the latest OS X this mac can run) but different website (globaltv.ca).

To me it sounds like a bug with the nvidia driver or a concurrence of bugs.

Same problem here. Just started today. Reproducible from a clean boot. Mine seems to occur after typing into the amazon search text box... I get about one word typed before it locks up. Cursor moves intermittently, but screen never repaints. Occasional screen flicker.

Yosemite 10.10.4

Safari 8.0.7

MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009)

Hi,

I'm seeing the exact same issues reported by ericln67 on my system.

When trying to access amazon.com using Safari the screen will get all scrambled and the whole system will hang.

I also did some testing and found that both Safari (Version 7.1.7 (9537.85.16.12) and Firefox (version 40.0) will crash when a specific ad, present on amazon's website, appears on the screen.

My first thought was that the problem would be related to a recent flash update that I did.

Because of that, I uninstalled the flash plugin from my system but the problem persisted.

I also tried updating to Yosemite but the problem still persisted.

The only solution I found, so far, is to use Chrome to access the site.

As far as I know, chrome is using a different engine from Safari and Firefox and that might be the reason for that browser to be working while the other two are crashing.

In summary, for my system, the same issue is happening on Safari and Firefox regardless of the OS in use (Mavericks or Yosemite).

For the record I'm on a 13-inch Mid 2009 MacBook Pro.

The relevant selection of my logs, while running Firefox and Safari on OSX 10.9.5, are below:

Firefox just before the crash:

8/6/15 11:05:14.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(Video): Channel exception! exception type = 0x23 = Video Engine Error (MSPDEC Error)

8/6/15 11:05:24.044 PM plugin-container[517]: VADriver: Channel timeout (client), ch = 3

8/6/15 11:05:52.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(Video): Channel timeout!

8/6/15 11:05:52.049 PM plugin-container[517]: VADriver: Channel timeout (kernel), ch = 3

8/6/15 11:06:10.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0x8 = DMA Engine Error (FIFO Error 8)

8/6/15 11:06:12.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(Video): Channel timeout!

8/6/15 11:06:14.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(Video): Channel exception! exception type = 0x24 = Video Engine Error (MSPPP Error)

8/6/15 11:06:14.000 PM kernel[0]: IOVendorGLContext::ReportGPURestart

8/6/15 11:06:14.090 PM WindowServer[102]: disable_update_timeout: UI updates were forcibly disabled by application "Console" for over 1.00 seconds. Server has re-enabled them.

8/6/15 11:06:14.100 PM WindowServer[102]: common_reenable_update: UI updates were finally reenabled by application "Console" after 22.05 seconds (server forcibly re-enabled them after 22.04 seconds)

8/6/15 11:06:15.151 PM WindowServer[102]: CGXGetConnectionProperty: Invalid connection 45583

Safari, just before the crash:

8/6/15 10:15:52.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(Video): Channel exception! exception type = 0x23 = Video Engine Error (MSPDEC Error)

8/6/15 10:15:52.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(Video): Channel exception! exception type = 0x23 = Video Engine Error (MSPDEC Error)

8/6/15 10:15:52.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(Video): Channel exception! exception type = 0x23 = Video Engine Error (MSPDEC Error)

8/6/15 10:16:02.076 PM com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[386]: VADriver: Channel timeout (client), ch = 3

8/6/15 10:16:30.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(Video): Channel timeout!

8/6/15 10:16:30.086 PM com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[386]: VADriver: Channel timeout (kernel), ch = 3

8/6/15 10:16:31.000 PM kernel[0]: process com.apple.WebKit[386] caught causing excessive wakeups. EXC_RESOURCE supressed due to audio playback

8/6/15 10:16:36.000 PM kernel[0]: process WindowServer[98] caught causing excessive wakeups. EXC_RESOURCE supressed due to audio playback

8/6/15 10:16:39.474 PM com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[386]: VADriver: Channel timeout (client), ch = 3

8/6/15 10:16:44.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0x8 = DMA Engine Error (FIFO Error 8)

8/6/15 10:16:50.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!

8/6/15 10:17:18.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(Video): Channel timeout!

8/6/15 10:17:18.000 PM kernel[0]: IOVendorGLContext::ReportGPURestart

8/6/15 10:17:38.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!

8/6/15 10:17:58.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!

8/6/15 10:17:58.121 PM WindowServer[98]: disable_update_timeout: UI updates were forcibly disabled by application "Console" for over 1.00 seconds. Server has re-enabled them.

8/6/15 10:18:06.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(Video): Channel exception! exception type = 0x23 = Video Engine Error (MSPDEC Error)

8/6/15 10:18:47.000 PM bootlog[0]: BOOT_TIME 1438910327 0

My father called me with the same issue running Mountain Lion (10.8) and Safari 6.1.1. Same thing on my Mac running Mavericks (10.9) and Safari 7.1.7.

It seems to be something with the banner on the front page. We both get a corrupt image as one of the banners and then things hang.

If you bypass the front page (say, by Googling a product, going to that page, and then going from there) it seems that the rest of Amazon works. So it seems the banner is the culprit. Also, if you turn off Javascript the front page works without crashing.

It does look like Amazon is aware of the issue.

Looks like this is the culprit: http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/Gateway/Takeovers/Animated-3000px-nol ogo_3._V313575568_.mp4

I can download that file with Chrome. If I use Safari to open it, kaboom.

Doesn't bother my 2012 mac Mini.

Crash happens the same when I'm using the 9600 GT or 9400 M gpus.

adding that MP4 to my AdBlockPlus filter list lets me safely view the Amazon.com site.

I just tried to add the MP4 link to AdBlock and it said the URL was invalid and couldn’t be found. Perhaps that means Amazon has fixed things?

Try it and find out. 🙂

I'm pretty sure it is still active. I crashed my mac a half dozen times in the last hour experimenting to find out the source.

I added a filter for just the filename: Animated-3000px-nol ogo_3._V313575568_.mp4

I hope that Apple takes note of this problem and coordinates with Amazon to eliminate within Safari the effects of what I think we all agree is a problem situation. Just removing the problem from the Amazon site would still allow anyone with malicious intent to spread the same or a similar construct through any number of Internet sites and cause users everywhere no end of grief.

Again, the real problem may be in the constructs or lack of limitations of instructions in HTML5 (?). I remember uncovering a situation long ago where decrementing a "1" in a register by 1 resulted in setting the register to negative zero (all ones), and then treating that as a positive number – in a 30-bit-word machine. Think of taking your last penny out of a bank account that you wanted to close and then being told a month later that you are a millionaire, and owed income taxes on all that money.

2015.08.18 Well, it's back again. Amazon has a newly designed entry page, but this one has another of those cycling picture ads which is doing the same freeze thing. I'm getting around it by setting the URL for my Top Sites page thumbnail to go to Amazon entry to <https://smile.amazon.com/gp/css/homepage.html/ref=nav_youraccount_ya>. That bypasses the normal Amazon entry page that Google will take you to, The cited URL takes you to the "Your Accounts" page, and also takes a pittance of any order you place with Amazon and donates it to charity (no additional cost to you). Note that it doesn't reveal your account information.

Same issue here on Amazon, but was detected in Firefox 40.0.2 (latest available today) before I even tried Safari 8.0.8. Firefox and Safari use different rendering engines so Safari can't be the (only) culprit, but it could be a system service shared by those browsers.

In reading through the above reports, I notice several common threads:

• 2009-era computers. (I have a Macmini 3,1 from early 2009.)
• Nvidia 9400 and 9600 series video chipsets. (I also see NVDA items in my Console messages.)
• Mac OS X 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion), 10.9.5 (Mavericks), or 10.10.5 (Yosemite)

In regards to the timing of this emerging issue, note that Apple released an update for all three OS's above on August 13. Among the release notes (About the OS X Yosemite v10.10.5 Update - Apple Support), notice that it "Fixes an issue in QuickTime Player that prevented playback of Windows Media files". QuickTime is a Mac system service, in addition to being an application, so in summary it seems logical that:

• The Mac OS X 10.x.5 update broke, rather than fixed, Windows Media playback for those with an Nvidia 9x00 series video chipsets.
• The solution might be an Nvideo 9x00 series driver update from Apple, working with Nvidia.

Why not directly from Nvidia? Because these were custom chipsets made for Apple, and I'm sure the two companies worked together on the drivers. I would NOT recommend installing Nvidia's public drivers, as you could seriously interfere with normal display, which is much more risky and disruptive than attempting to restore the display of a specific mp4 on Amazon's site.

I don't know how to mark that your post of 18 August helped me, but it did. Thanks for the update and I'm keeping my fingers crossed on getting a solution.

Kiloweson - you raise some valid points about it being tied to an older graphics processor. Can anyone confirm that newer/different graphic processors don’t have the issue?