Preview crashes the mac while resizing images

be sure and let us know what Apple Support says = good luck!

I have the same issue. Same OSX on a MacBookPro mid 2010. Recently I had my motherboard replaced for a problem to the graphic card. I had this issue before the replacement - together with other issues - and thought it was because of the graphic card, but just today I had the same crash with the new motherboard.

OS X El Captain (10.11.3) Mac Book Pro 15-inch mid 2010

I'd take the machine to your nearest Apple Genius Bar and reproduce the issue while there. They'll diagnose the problem for free if you're out of warranty and let you know what should be done. Filing a bug report is fine, but does nothing for your issue in the near future.

This can be one of two things: either a hardware problem with the graphics card, or - more likely - a software issue in code that uses the gpu.

I am going to *guess* that there may be not enough VRAM available and there a bug in code that does not deal with that situation correctly.

Your mac seems to be a 15" macbook pro. Does it have two gpus in it (the integrated intel gpu and a discrete amd or nvidia one?)

If you don't know, you can easily find out: hold down option key and in the Apple menu choose "System Information", then click on Graphics/Displays.

If you have two gpus you may alleviate or avoid the problem by forcing the use of one over the other. Let us know.

l.aluffi wrote:

@Luis Sequeira1

It seems to be a software failure related to the integrated graphic card. It started after the last update, if I remind well the last time I resized an image.

I used gfxCardStatus to force the use of integrated GPU first, and the discrete after. It happens only with the integrated. I've already updated the support staff with this information.

I hope that the sys diagnose I took the very moment the screen was purple, along with my informations, will point them in the right direction.

@Babowa

Actually I can't travel a lot, apart going to work, because health problems and I can't afford any extra physical effort. By the way, thru times, online bug report personnel showed a great competence with the few cases I filed and they never let me down. Guys up there always do a great job.

p.s. This post also implies a temporary workaround: use gfxCardStatus or open some app like photos to force the discrete graphic card to fire up.

I am glad that you are closing in on the problem and at least have a viable workaround.

It seems that my suspicions were correct.

I would just like to point out that you can force the use of the discrete GPU explicitly in System Preferences->Energy Saver,

by UNchecking the box that says "Automatic Graphics Switching".

(If it were the other way around, needing to force the use of the integrated GPU, I believe GfxCardStatus would have been the only solution)

Tanks for the post, unchecking the box on automatic switching the gpu in the energy saver preferences solves the issue, at least for me. Let's hope that Apple will address and solve it better in the next software update.