Safari Tab overview Graphics issue iMac Late 2015

Hi guys,

I've quite a weird bug on Safari. Whenever i use the tab overview button to view my open tabs, it sends the screen into haywire mode. My iMac's display starts flickering like a madman.. on some kind of stoner trip. Please check my uploaded video iMac Flicker issue - YouTube. Its happen before maybe once a week, till last week where it happens every day, till last monday where it happened five times a day. I need to restart my iMac to clear the graphics glitch.

Although it seems like a hardware issue, it only happens with safari.. version 1.1.2 Stress test on the gpu or cpu don't trigger it, it does seem occur more often when the machine is under the load..
Running Safarie Technology preview.. no issues with the tab overview button
Haven't found anyone recently with a similar issue
Eventually after the flickering starts, machine becomes unstable and has hanged during restarts..

So is this just a weird bug in Safari??? or is something up with my Mac?

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.6), AMD Radeon R9 M380 2048MB

Posted on Sep 7, 2018 1:58 AM

Top-ranking reply

Eric Root

Level 10

685,251 points

Posted on Sep 7, 2018 6:46 AM

Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later. Please post if this worked or not.

Isolating an issue by using another user account

If the problem is still there, try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer or by using the developer’s uninstall instructions. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don't do them all at once. Please post if this worked or not.

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If it works in the Safe Mode, try running this program when booted normally and then copy and paste the output in a reply. The program was created by Etresoft, a frequent contributor. Please use copy and paste as screen shots can be hard to read. Click “Share Report” button in the toolbar, select “Copy to Clipboard” and then paste into a reply. This will show what is running on your computer. No personal information is shown. You can run the report for free at least once, but if you run it several times, at some point it will ask you to pay a license fee.

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17 replies

zuiko

Level 1

4 points

Oct 27, 2018 7:11 AM in response to sandurz

I'm seeing the exact same problem as well now that I've upgraded to Mojave (10.14). Never had a problem before and it only happens with the built-in display. If Safari is running on the second external monitor it works fine. When the problem occurs the console continually logs VT-d errors so it sounds like a driver problem:

vtd[0] fault: device 1:0:0 reason 0x6 R:0xab212000

For me it happens with both the standard version of Safari (12.0) and the tech preview.

iMac 2015 Retina 5K AMD Radeon R9 M390 2048MB macOS Mojave (10.14)

Sebdude Author

Level 1

13 points

Dec 16, 2018 5:36 AM in response to zuiko

Hi guys, just an update from my side. Three months later and the issue is still not fixed or resolved. I've had my iMac sent in for service, they replaced the screen, but the issue still occurs. It got even more interesting when I had the same issue occur on different machine (a loaner for when my machine was in service), it also had the issue. It just had slightly difference graphics card, but in the same line. The issue does not occur on my Macbook Pro 15" 2018 model. I also don't have 5k screen on which I could test it..

It seems as if not a lot people are having issues with these models, it just us power users to stress safari out to the limit i guess.

Anyway, below small summary of the steps I tried to alleviate the issue.. to no avail...

New user account (Follow Eric's advice); iMac starts flickering
Clean reinstall of OS X High Sierra: Flickering does not occur!
Update to latest version of High Sierra: iMac starts flickering
Install of OS X Mojave: Flickering occurs as well, but even more nasty as under High Sierra (screen blacks out and machine is useless)

I've narrow down the issue to Safari 12.x and R380 series Graphic cards. It occurs with the R9 M380 2gb and R9 M395 4gb. It doesn't occur with Safari 11.x under High Sierra! So its quite unlikely its a hardware issue.. because then it wouldn't happen on that other machine.

Anyway, I've made a 2 page document with screenshots and even link to youtube video in which i did my best to describe the problem as best as I can, and, probably most important, how to trigger the issue..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bylusy5pyzoq3fr/iMac%20Flickering%20issuev7.pdf?dl=0

Hopefully, apple is willing to take a look at the issue. Best solution so far is to just no use the tab overview button, or Google Chrome. The problem is, I really love that overview function.. that's why Safari is (was) my favorite browser..

Thanks guys!

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Safari Tab overview Graphics issue iMac Late 2015