Want to highlight a helpful answer? Upvote!

Did someone help you, or did an answer or User Tip resolve your issue? Upvote by selecting the upvote arrow. Your feedback helps others! Learn more about when to upvote >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Mac Pro locks up, Watchdog Timeout Spin report?

Hi. I have a mac pro, 2009, running el Cap 10.11.1. It just locked up while scrolling in Safari. Mouse still worked and pointed, but no other functionality. Had to do hard restart. This has been happening to me since the Yosemite update, but I was hoping El Cap would have solved it. I guess not. It seems to be entirely random. It will lock up every couple of days, but work perfectly all the rest of the time. Always on Safari though. Fans will speed up as soon as it locks up.

THIS TIME, i noticed when going through the logs that I have three consecutive logs for userspace_watchdog_timeout.spin at the exact time the lockup occurred. All three generated in a 30 second window and you can see the fan rpms going up in each one.

But I can't figure out anything in those logs that is useful, or what to look for. Its a lot lot lot of lines so I don't want to just dump it in here unless invited by someone who will look at it. I don't even know if these watchdog logs are relevant. This is the SYSTEM.LOG for the last 2 minutes before I shut down. The mac stopped responding at 14:11, and a "watchdog" event is going on.

Oct 22 14:09:48 JaviersGiantBrain WindowServer[180]: _CGXRemoveWindowFromWindowMovementGroup: window 0x38 is not attached to window 0x53

Oct 22 14:09:49 JaviersGiantBrain WindowServer[180]: _CGXRemoveWindowFromWindowMovementGroup: window 0x38 is not attached to window 0x53

Oct 22 14:10:08 --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Oct 22 14:10:08 JaviersGiantBrain com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[908]: [14:10:08.602] FigAgglomeratorSetObjectForKey signalled err=-16020 (kFigStringConformerError_ParamErr) (NULL key) at /Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/CoreMedia/CoreMedia-1731.15.20/Prototypes /LegibleOutput/FigAgglomerator.c line 92

Oct 22 14:10:11 JaviersGiantBrain WindowServer[180]: _CGXRemoveWindowFromWindowMovementGroup: window 0x38 is not attached to window 0x53

Oct 22 14:10:25 --- last message repeated 2 times ---

Oct 22 14:10:25 JaviersGiantBrain com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[908]: [14:10:25.591] FigAgglomeratorSetObjectForKey signalled err=-16020 (kFigStringConformerError_ParamErr) (NULL key) at /Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/CoreMedia/CoreMedia-1731.15.20/Prototypes /LegibleOutput/FigAgglomerator.c line 92

Oct 22 14:10:40 JaviersGiantBrain com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[908]: [14:10:40.927] <<<< Boss >>>> figPlaybackBossPrerollCompleted: unexpected preroll-complete notification

Oct 22 14:10:41 JaviersGiantBrain com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[908]: [14:10:41.026] FigAgglomeratorSetObjectForKey signalled err=-16020 (kFigStringConformerError_ParamErr) (NULL key) at /Library/Caches/com.apple.xbs/Sources/CoreMedia/CoreMedia-1731.15.20/Prototypes /LegibleOutput/FigAgglomerator.c line 92

Oct 22 14:10:41 JaviersGiantBrain com.apple.WebKit.WebContent[908]: [14:10:41.820] <<<< IQ-CA >>>> piqca_setUsePreQueue: (0x7fc71c3a9e00) rejecting report of layer being serviced - IQ has not yet begun to update

Oct 22 14:11:14 JaviersGiantBrain watchdogd[219]: [watchdog_daemon] @(_wd_daemon_service_thread) - service (com.apple.WindowServer) reported as unresponsive

Oct 22 14:11:15 JaviersGiantBrain syslogd[49]: ASL Sender Statistics

Oct 22 14:11:25 JaviersGiantBrain spindump[410]: Saved userspace_watchdog_timeout.spin report for WindowServer version ??? (???) to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/WindowServer_2015-10-22-141125_JaviersGiantBrai n.userspace_watchdog_timeout.spin

Oct 22 14:11:25 JaviersGiantBrain watchdogd[219]: [watchdog_daemon] @(__wd_service_report_unresponsive_block_invoke) - spindump gathered for (com.apple.WindowServer) at (/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/WindowServer_2015-10-22-141125_JaviersGiantBra in.userspace_watchdog_timeout.spin)

Oct 22 14:11:40 JaviersGiantBrain watchdogd[219]: [watchdog_daemon] @(_wd_daemon_service_thread) - service (com.apple.WindowServer) reported as unresponsive

Oct 22 14:11:43 JaviersGiantBrain spindump[410]: Saved userspace_watchdog_timeout.spin report for WindowServer version ??? (???) to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/WindowServer_2015-10-22-141143_JaviersGiantBrai n.userspace_watchdog_timeout.spin

Oct 22 14:11:43 JaviersGiantBrain watchdogd[219]: [watchdog_daemon] @(__wd_service_report_unresponsive_block_invoke) - spindump gathered for (com.apple.WindowServer) at (/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/WindowServer_2015-10-22-141143_JaviersGiantBra in.userspace_watchdog_timeout.spin)

Oct 22 14:12:05 JaviersGiantBrain watchdogd[219]: [watchdog_daemon] @(_wd_daemon_service_thread) - service (com.apple.WindowServer) reported as unresponsive

Oct 22 14:12:08 JaviersGiantBrain spindump[410]: Saved userspace_watchdog_timeout.spin report for WindowServer version ??? (???) to /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/WindowServer_2015-10-22-141208_JaviersGiantBrai n.userspace_watchdog_timeout.spin

Oct 22 14:12:08 JaviersGiantBrain watchdogd[219]: [watchdog_daemon] @(__wd_service_report_unresponsive_block_invoke) - spindump gathered for (com.apple.WindowServer) at (/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/WindowServer_2015-10-22-141208_JaviersGiantBra in.userspace_watchdog_timeout.spin)

Oct 22 14:12:30 JaviersGiantBrain watchdogd[219]: [watchdog_daemon] @(_wd_daemon_service_thread) - service (com.apple.WindowServer) reported as unresponsive

Oct 22 14:13:20 --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Oct 22 14:13:20 JaviersGiantBrain watchdogd[219]: [watchdog_daemon] @(_wd_daemon_service_thread) - service (com.apple.WindowServer) reported as unresponsive

Oct 22 14:14:10 --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Oct 22 14:14:10 JaviersGiantBrain watchdogd[219]: [watchdog_daemon] @(_wd_daemon_service_thread) - service (com.apple.WindowServer) reported as unresponsive

Can anyone see something in this? Should I post the watchdog system report or a section of it?

Please don't ask me to disable extensions or purge caches or any of that, I have done all the normal steps ad nauseum and still get these random freezes. I'm starting to maintain a log of everything i do and open apps and whatnot but no obvious link thus far. Thanks for any help.

Mac Pro (Early 2009), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Oct 22, 2015 1:26 PM

51 replies

Oct 15, 2016 6:56 AM in response to Eric Bryant

An update on my situation. I replaced my video card with a flashed Nvidia GeForce 780 and the problem is completely solved. As I've read in many other threads, it's a video card incompatibility issue with the stock card.

Oct 31, 2016 6:41 AM in response to Javier Bonafont

Hi,

I've got the same issue since I upgraded to macOS Sierra. Never had this before. I've got an iMac late 2009 with ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 Mo.

I won't deny the possibility of a hardware issue but:

- considering I had not any freezing before macOS Sierra upgrade

- considering I have not any freezing using (as currently) Chrome

I do consider that this issue is a software issue. Safari is to be considered as bugged since it doesn't work properly with officially supported hardware. I wish Apple engineers could take a little bit care of "old" macs when they declare an update as compatible with those machines...

Nov 4, 2016 1:22 PM in response to Javier Bonafont

Hi every body.

When running Safari and Console side by side, I noticed a strong activity from Parental Control, even if I was on my account and without any Parental Control. I then decided to remove ANY parental control on ANY Mac at home. As a matter of fact, I had noticed that even if I removed it from my Mac, I still had Parental Control activity until I removed it from all three Macs at home.

Since then, activity on Console is more quiet and I've used Safari for Three days without any crash.

By the way, I have to point out that I also disabled Guest users on all machines. I do not know if there is any link with that, but I did it since Parental Control is activated by default with Guest user enabled and french interface seems to be bugged (guest is disabled when option is of but still active under Parental Control... weird things like this).

I'll keep you informed. So far, so good.

Nick

Nov 5, 2016 5:48 AM in response to danykaffee

Hi again,

Back with Chrome. I've just had a crash. Safari was open in the background...

😠

Nov 12, 2016 2:34 AM in response to Javier Bonafont

Hello,

I've had a crash again yesterday. Safari was not running. Chrome was running in the background but the crash happened while I was searching something in iTunes (Apple Music in fact). I'm really disappointed. As a matter of fact, I would say that crashes come faster when using Safari, but I really do not know what is the real issue then (could not find relevant explanation in logs).

Nov 13, 2016 3:58 AM in response to Javier Bonafont

Hi,

Since I was really upset with those crashes and had the feeling that Apple did not care about it, I installed back El Capitan... not so easy and still "happy" to notice that :

- time machine backup is not usable with El Capitan

- Photos library out from Sierra is not usable with El Capitan

So, do not forget to manually backup everything and, if you have enough space, backup your photos with iCloud.

I still did not connect neither my iPhone nor my iPad to iTunes, but I think it will be another piece of fun...

Best regards!

Mac Pro locks up, Watchdog Timeout Spin report?