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Mac Pro Randomly Restarts

Bit of an odd issue but with increasing frequency, my Mac Pro (2008) with 10.11 has been doing a kind of random restart. While using the computer, the screen will go black for about 1 second and then immediately show the login screen. I'll have to log in again, and all programs will have to be reloaded, with all work being lost. No screen comes up indicating that there was a fault or any other issue. The restart will happen without warning, and is not a full restart of the computer, just almost like a force logout of the system.


1) What would cause 10.11 to "restart" like this? Is it typically a software or hardware issue?

2) I've tried checking the logs, but haven't found anything consistent between occurrences, and the dump from the computer starting up makes pinpointing the exact time (or line) or error pretty difficult. Is there anything to look for in the logs to indicate a reset or fault that I can search for?

Mac Pro (Early 2008), OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Oct 13, 2015 9:59 AM

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10 replies

Oct 13, 2015 10:05 AM in response to camhabib

Note the time of the next freeze/problem. After rebooting open the Console app in Finder>Applications>Utilities and look for log entries at the time of the freeze/problem. Post suspicious ones here.

Also, install a temp and fan speed monitoring app to see if that helps determine cause.

I use the free Macs Fan Control

Could be memory problems since with time the memory in the 2006-2008 Mac Pros tend to fail from heating.

Oct 13, 2015 4:20 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you both for your input.


A few notes. I can dump the log output here but it's several hundred lines long at the time of "restart" and none of the messages look terribly suspicious. There is no boot time stamp, as the computer never shuts down and loads up, making it rather difficult to pinpoint exactly when the error occurs. The memory is all relatively new (within the last year or so), and I've already run a check on it for any errors. I have a temp monitor already in place, but I doubt it's that, since as I mentioned, it isn't a hard restart, just more a "logout."

Oct 13, 2015 5:32 PM in response to camhabib

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Step 1

For this step, the title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

SYSTEM LOG QUERIES All Messages

from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

View Show Log List

from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Enter the name of the crashed application or process. For example, if coreaudiod crashed, you would enter "coreaudiod" (without the quotes.)

Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Select the messages from the time of the last crash, if any. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Step 2

In the Console window, select

DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION System Diagnostic Reports

(not Diagnostic and Usage Messages) from the log list on the left. There is a disclosure triangle to the left of the list item. If the triangle is pointing to the right, click it so that it points down. You'll see a list of crash reports. The name of each report starts with the name of the process, and ends with ".crash". Select the most recent report related to the process in question. The contents of the report will appear on the right. Use copy and paste to post the entire contents—the text, not a screenshot.

I know the report is long, maybe several hundred lines. Please post all of it anyway.

If you don't see any reports listed, but you know there was a crash, you may have chosen Diagnostic and Usage Messages from the log list. Choose DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION instead.

In the interest of privacy, I suggest that, before posting, you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.)

Please don’t post other kinds of diagnostic report—they're very long and rarely helpful.

When you post the log extract or the crash report, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.

Oct 30, 2015 9:28 PM in response to camhabib

By any chance are you using multiple displays with multiple video cards and OS X 10.11? If so there is another thread that discusses this still unresolved problem. See: Mac Pro keeps logging out since El Capitan The logoff problem occurs when you use multiple video displays on more than one video card on older Mac Pros running El Capitan. I hope this at least provides you with some additional information about the problem.

Dec 7, 2016 3:34 PM in response to Linc Davis

If I may, my problem is very similar. May I post the log messages around the restart time? Hoping this will be enough.


Thanks in advance


Rick
early 2008 mac pro
os x 10.11

Random restarts while in use and restarts instead of waking up from sleep.


=====================


07/12/2016 23:15:16.000 kernel[0]: Google Chrome He[641] triggered unnest of range 0x7fff93600000->0x7fff93800000 of DYLD shared region in VM map 0xb3f709c11a6bda0f. While not abnormal for debuggers, this increases system memory footprint until the target exits.

07/12/2016 23:15:54.000 kernel[0]: Google Chrome He[645] triggered unnest of range 0x7fff93600000->0x7fff93800000 of DYLD shared region in VM map 0xb3f709c11a6bd537. While not abnormal for debuggers, this increases system memory footprint until the target exits.

07/12/2016 23:16:01.000 kernel[0]: Google Chrome He[646] triggered unnest of range 0x7fff93600000->0x7fff93800000 of DYLD shared region in VM map 0xb3f709c11877181f. While not abnormal for debuggers, this increases system memory footprint until the target exits.

07/12/2016 23:16:03.752 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.sec.faxdb) Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 300 seconds.

07/12/2016 23:18:24.000 bootlog[0]: BOOT_TIME 1481152704 0

07/12/2016 23:18:25.000 syslogd[47]: Configuration Notice:

ASL Module "com.apple.AccountPolicyHelper" claims selected messages.

Mac Pro Randomly Restarts

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