iMac Pro restarting because of a problem?

Don't mean to be a wet blanket, but I've ALWAYS had my power settings this way, and still was experiencing the 210 Bug. I still don't know yet exactly what the problem is. Perhaps it is systemic and there's a software/hardware defect still lose. Sure hope I don't have to replace my iMac Pro, again!

John

Ocean City, NJ

High Sierra v10.13.4 (17E199) on a new (late 2017) iMac Pro, 3.2 HGz Intel Xeon W, 1Tb SSD (APFS)

Well, I hope for your sake that you are on to something.

In my case, I could have sworn the culprit was either Sophos or Code42 (Malware & Remote backup apps) running in the background, as, when I totally uninstalled both of these I had no more freeze/crashes, for . . . 2 days anyway. Although I did notice a slight uptick in performance, I now realize these apps were not (at least totally) responsible for all of the bug issues we are having on our iMac Pros.

The ONE thing that does seem to have worked, in my case, now going on three weeks I think, is installation of the very most recent (released a few weeks ago) 10.13.4 "Security Update" from Apple. I've got my fingers crossed.

Eventually, I'll reinstall, one at a time the Sophos app and the Code42 app to "prove" what's really going on.

Hang in there, and please keep the feedback coming. We're all in the same boat. Still could be a hardware/firmware/Software issue. Who knows.

ARE YOU RUNNING BUILD 17E202 or something else? I remember a while back there were "special" builds just for iMac Pros. This may be one of them, that works!

John

Ocean City, NJ

High Sierra v10.13.4 (17E199) on a new (late 2017) iMac Pro, 3.2 HGz Intel Xeon W, 1Tb SSD (APFS)

INvisibleART,

Interesting. Hang in there.

I was to the point of doing a "tear-down" to replug the memory cards, etc. However, the teardown process is destructive and would clearly invalidate my AppleCare contract. The display is "glued" to the backbox using special double-sided tape. Interesting though: iMac Pro Teardown - YouTube

Please keep us updated.

John

inVISIBLEart 😮

. . . thank you so very much for getting this escalated to engineering! 🙂

You have succeeded to getting Apple's attention on this issue and now the world is watching to see how tech support responds.

I've got (a few) some Mac Pros, iMac Pros, etc. so I'm VERY interested in seeing how Apple responds to these issues which can no longer go ignored.

We thank you.

All the best,

John

The Freeze/Crash/Restart [FCR] saga continues.

Interesting history of the photo of my home-office. Actually, I'm on my new iMac Pro (the one in the middle with the keyboard) only because my heretofore primary mission-critical machine is the one now on the left side of the picture with the double screens was rendered useless, so I just use it basically as a monitor for the stock market. It's an original early Mac Pro, SSD, loaded with memory. Was doing perfectly fine, UNTIL, I went to do the upgrade from Sierra to HIGH Sierra when all h**l broke lose. Thank God I had numerous redundant full clone external backups because during and after the process of the upgrade on the Mac Pro the system went entirely off the rails. Not to make any excuses for Apple, but in their defense my gut feeling is that I had one of the first Mac Pro Tubes off the assembly line with the earliest hardware configuration, albeit it did have an SSD, which went through many corrections and upgrades over the term of its life, which I understand is now over until at least 2019 when the new and improved Mac Pro will be launched.

Long story short, nothing on the MP worked after the upgrade. The upgraded MP limped in pain just to get to the new HS desktop, then went totally goofy. Flashing screens, freezes, hangs, crashes, total chaos. I went through a few days of agony with Tech Support (who honestly did their best) which went nowhere. Having done the upgrade I was now stuck in APFS-file-format land with no easy path back to restore to LOW Sierra (which was stable) from my external clones. During the restore, I blew up (it actually started smoking) an external SSD clone drive, and then destroyed yet another spinning external clone drive! God. Unbelievable. As a last resort, ended up having to reformat the SSD back to HFS and to an on-line restore of the prior OS. After literally days of tinkering with the restore I finally realized the machine had been rendered unusable as it was not stable, hence the emergency replacement purchase of the next best thing, my new iMac Pro. So that's the story of how I ended up with an iMac Pro. Would have bought a new MP if they were available, but won't be until next year, if then.

So, you are not alone. We are all watching to see how Apple responds to our systemic freeze/crash/restart (FCR) issues on our iMac Pros. I'm hoping Apple's tech support can pin down the problem to a particular production "lot" via serial numbers, after identifying the problem if indeed it's the hardware, which it certainly would appear to be. Then again, who knows. Let's give APPLE A CHANCE and see how they respond to your case ticket next week.

Hang in there!

All the best,

John

Ocean City, NJ

From 2001, another FCP setup . . . .

Hi INvisibleART,

Thank you for keeping us posted on your trouble ticket. Let's give Apple the benefit of the doubt, that they are obviously aware there's a problem with some or all iMac Pros, and they realize it's got nothing to do with any peripherals or third-party software as posted here even a virgin iMac Pro out of the box is experiencing the Freeze/Crash/ReStarts, and that engineering is working feverishly to resolve this. It's in their best interests to push this issue to the very front of the line in terms of priority.

In Apple's defense, and please don't mistake my kindness for weakness, I should mention that although I have not yet contacted Apple (and I have AppleCare) about this issue, that an Apple representative called me out of the blue on the phone and emailed me with the following message: "I'm reaching out to you on behalf of Apple who would like us to gather additional details/data about the issue you've reported to Apple Discussions." I didn't have the opportunity to talk as I was busy on another call, but they left a voicemail message, as well as emailing me.

Now this is the Apple I "remember." Going the extra distance. The Culture. The Experience.

I've been sooooooo loyal to Apple for decades now, evangelizing for Apple all along the way, with total purchases probably nearing 6 figures, and fully embedded into the Apple "experience" in every way. I am an Apple user because I have always trusted them to do the right thing and to always resolve any issue I've ever had to my complete satisfaction.

So, THIS IS A REALLY REALLY BIG DEAL to me (and obviously everyone else).

At least Apple has acknowledge there is a real problem here (potentially monumental in terms of recalls, refunds, compensation, PR, etc.), and I'm still betting they'll get to the bottom of this. They simply have to. They know that once reference to this issue gets into the "wild" the press will incinerate them. So, as much as my blood is boiling, and as is everyone's, I will remain gracious with Apple for a "reasonable" time, whatever that might mean.

I've lost time and money over this. Everyone affected has as well.

Let's wait until Tuesday for Apple to explain themselves and what their policy will be. I'm counting on a victory, but this would be a total deal-breaker for me if not, sorry to say.

All the best,

John Hay

Ocean City, NJ

INvisibleART,

I think you really hit the nail on the head in saying "It would break my heart to see Apple descent into mediocrity."

Beyond fixing these vexing issues on our iMac Pros, my greater interest is in Apple's overall response and in their attitude.

I can deal with the truth, no matter how bad it may end up being. I'm ready and open to any explanation provided and expect to be treated with dignity and fairness in a timely manner. That's all.

If I were Apple right now I think I'd be working 24/7 throwing all available resources at this before it all ends up in the press. A delay over the weekend waiting for a response from Apple is disheartening but not the end of the world. Tuesday we will know more.

Until then, I remain a loyal Apple customer. I think they will figure this out, and I hope they are quick to respond.

John

Thank you INvisibleART for keeping us all updated.

This is great news. Let's hope the engineers find the problem and can come up with a fix.

I'm desperately ready to start loving Apple again.

All the best,

John

Ocean City, NJ

High Sierra v10.13.4 (17E199) on a new (late 2017) iMac Pro, 3.2 HGz Intel Xeon W, 1Tb SSD (APFS)

Besides the Vega64-card potential problem, my system information indicates that on my entry-level iMac Pro the graphic's card is a Vega56 as indicated in the below screen shot. Not certain of the significance of this, but hope this information might provide more insight into what's going on.

John

GREAT IDEA, the Data Capture that is.

I will participate as needed, although, to be honest, after UNinstalling Code42 and Sophos and installing the last Supplemental update in 10.13.4 (now I'm running 10.13.15) I've had no ReStarts.

I was having a little buggyness with my keyboard input, but it's a third party. Now swapping it out for and older one that I know worked fine, so we'll see. To be fair however, I have too many input devices running simultaneously. A wired keyboard, a wired trackpad, a wired Wacom Pro tablet, and a BT mouse! Oh boy! But I use them all.

High Sierra v10.13.5 (17F77) on a new (late 2017) iMac Pro, 3.2 HGz Intel Xeon W, 1Tb SSD (APFS)

John

I disabled all of the except the first one which prevents the computer from automatically sleeping when the screen is off.

So, the computer hasn't restarted on its own when sleeping since Wednesday. While exporting 4K video with the Apple Care representative watching worked, today I exported a new 4K video and it restarted again. So these settings only fix the sleep issue.

DustyRo,

Okay, well that's kind of what I was wondering myself, but then how can I explain that the machine both restarted automatically and did not log me in? In sys prefs I have it set NOT to restart and in addition to log me in AUTOMATICALLY.

On the other hand, is this exactly what others are experiencing?

By that, I mean if I were to unplug the 120 volt power to the machine, then plug it back in, it would not automatically restart. Also, if I do power down manually, then reboot, I am automatically logged in.

I suppose I can agree with your conclusion if I accept that seeing the login screen is part of the Random Restart is part of the dysfunction. I certainly can understand your point. I just seem to remember that when I was experiencing the RR's months ago, the machine would shut down, but it would not restart. Now I'm wondering if there are two distinct issues going on here, or more likely I'm now just experiencing what everyone else is for the first time. I dread it's the latter. Would you agree, even given my prefs settings?

John

Been about a week now, after having nightly RR's on a regular basis, then switching my two USB-Dongle-Thunderbolt dongles (presumably back their previous ports before I had unplugged them all) and still now not having ANY RR's.

Truth is stranger than fiction, but just mentioning this on the odd chance it might work for someone else.

The two ports in question are labeled #5 and #6. They are two of the USBc iMac Pro ports to which I have connected Thunderbolt dongles going to my external TM hard drive and external backup drive. Everything runs 24/7.

I just today labeled the ports (kind of a mess job, I admit, but no one sees it) and their associated cables so that I never get them out of working order ever again.

Again, I have absolutely no idea whatsoever why my solution is working for me, but conceptually can imagine that within the deep workings of the low-level code there are certainly hardcoded ID's for each port, and for each peripheral and somehow everything is back to being stable without any RR's. Maybe just luck? Hard to imagine.

John

ljs10,

Very interesting, somewhat similar to my postings and photo a few weeks back re swapping out my USB ports.

In either or both of our scenarios however, I'd lay odds that the general ongoing Random Restart issue is probably unrelated to your specific, and my specific hardware coincidences. Nonetheless, this could be a clue and we much appreciate the update and something for us all to keep in mind.

Of course the worst place to be, is stuck with two entirely unrelated issues occurring simultaneously but you don't or are unaware that's the case.

I have finally, after numerous troubleshooting experiences, resolved to take exacting step-by-stop notes on anything and everything that I change, add, delete, configure, with dates and times as a log to refer back to. It's well worth it in the end for that one time you look back and have that "ah-ha" moment you otherwise would never have remembered. So I'm all for keeping handwritten or computer logs. Just a thought, as your journey proceeds.

Try simply a new "cable" and see what happens. Over time corrosion, entropy, dust, rust, eventually get the best of us.

Hang in there and keep us updated. Thank you.

John

Ocean City, NJ

MacOS Mojave V 10.14 on iMac Pro (2017)

.

Hey there, sorry to hear about the trouble, it's frustrating most of all because Apple won't say or commit to anything. They've told me it's a hardware problem and replaced the Mac and the problem re-occurs, so at this unless they admit to a serious production problem it's more likely to be software.

I'd try the following;

1) Run diagnostics (How to use Apple Diagnostics on your Mac - Apple Support), and if it passes it should give you a level of comfort that it's not your unit, and

2) I can't find it here but someone had said to turn off the Secure Boot feature (About Secure Boot - Apple Support), not counting my chickens yet, but no restarts after 5 days so far. Before that I'd gone almost three weeks between restarts so can't confirm this is a fix yet.

Good Luck,

Martin/Happy