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Apple Releases iMac Graphics Update to Fix JPEG Freezing Issue on OS X Yosemite

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Apr 12, 2001
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Apple today released an iMac Graphics Update for users of the more recent iMacs, fixing an issue that caused the computers to freeze up after viewing very large JPEG Files.

Affected iMacs include the late 2014 27-inch Retina iMac, the late 2013 21.5-inch iMac, and the late 2013 27-inch iMac.

imacgraphicsupdate-800x414.jpg
Apple has also released an accompanying support document that describes the issue in more detail, suggesting the problem occurs when opening a large JPEG image in Finder or Preview on OS X Yosemite 10.10.3.
If you're using using OS X Yosemite v10.10.3 and one of the following iMac models, viewing certain very large JPEG (.jpg) images in the Finder or Preview can cause your iMac to briefly stop responding, display a black screen, and restart to a message that your computer restarted because of a problem.
Click to expand...
People who own one of these three iMacs are encouraged to update their machines right away to fix the bug.

Article Link: Apple Releases iMac Graphics Update to Fix JPEG Freezing Issue on OS X Yosemite
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/04/23/apple-releases-imac-graphics-update/
I'm not seeing the option to update on my 5k iMac. It may be due to the fact I'm running the 10.10.4 beta however...
 
Can a software engineer explain how viewing certain large JPEGs could cause a kernel panic?
 
goodcow said:
Can a software engineer explain how viewing certain large JPEGs could cause a kernel panic?
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It's the kernel process that tells the authorities which jpegs you're looking at. ;)

----------

Seriously though.. It would be good to know what apple includes in its regression tests.

We can work out that WiFi certainly isn't.
 
I'm surprised Apple didn't just disable JPEG functionality. After all, they are pretty old and primitive.

The audacity of something as primitive as a JPEG to bring down such a noble and stable OS as Yosemite...
 
goodcow said:
Can a software engineer explain how viewing certain large JPEGs could cause a kernel panic?
Click to expand...

My guess is that there was a bug in the hardware acceleration code that displayed it. That stuff is pretty low level, and if it gets screwed up, it could do stuff like that. Maybe the chips in those newer machines were more sensitive to errors than the older ones.

I had this happen to me a few times. It almost felt like I was using windows again...
 
I've been having an issue with my 5k iMac where I come back from over night (I leave it on all the time) and there's just a solid black screen. But the computer is still responsive (at least the keyboard caps light works and I can always ssh into it).

I have to restart it from secure shell, and then when it reboots the system log mentions a lot of GPU restarts and such. Hopefully this fixes it (though it did only seem to happen if i was away from the computer for a while. Maybe I kept viewing big jpegs before calling it a night :)
 
Uh, Preview has been ridiculously slow to render any kind of image on all Macs since Mavericks. They've gotta fix that too.
 
estorstenson said:
My guess is that there was a bug in the hardware acceleration code that displayed it. That stuff is pretty low level, and if it gets screwed up, it could do stuff like that. Maybe the chips in those newer machines were more sensitive to errors than the older ones.

I had this happen to me a few times. It almost felt like I was using windows again...
Click to expand...

So they were shipping alpha quality code ...
 
AlecZ said:
Uh, Preview has been ridiculously slow to render any kind of image on all Macs since Mavericks. They've gotta fix that too.
Click to expand...

Really? I'm not sensing this on my MBP mid 2010 or my unsupported MacBook early 2008 (both had Yosemite and before Mavericks). Preview opens all files within 1-3 sec for me.
 
AnsonX10 said:
The audacity of something as primitive as a JPEG to bring down such a noble and stable OS as Yosemite...
Click to expand...

JPEG are non-executable files. It's not their fault the program handling them are blowing up.

In somewhat related news:
https://www.rsaconference.com/event...little-jpeg-that-could-hack-your-organization

In this awareness session, Marcus Murray will demonstrate a live hack where he uses a specially crafted JPEG picture to circumvent the security mechanisms of a modern Microsoft Windows server 2012R2 Web Server. He will also use this foothold to leverage elevated privileges to expand influence over the entire network and compromise a Windows Server 2012 R2 Domain Controller.
Click to expand...

The attack vector is how the server is handling the JPEG's EXIF-data.
 
"Affected iMacs include the late 2014 27-inch Retina iMac, the late 2013 21.5-inch iMac, and the late 2013 27-inch iMac."

What a tragic end for these iMacs - we should hold a wake.
 
star-affinity said:
Works well and stable for me overall on three different computers. One of them is a Hackintosh even ...
Click to expand...

We have two 2013 iMac's (Top spec, and max ram) and a pair of 2009 iMac's (also top spec at the time, maxed ram). Three of them run like champs except one of the 2013 machines. We can't figure it out to save our lives. It crashes, freezes all the time, but mostly using Adobe Media Encoder.

We've swapped ram, had the Hard drive replaced, wiped the machine clean and started fresh numerous times, and it just crashes all the time. Of course the console logs only show Adobe problems so Apple won't take it anymore under apple care. It's not their problem since the crashes all come from Adobe software apparently. I think it must have something to do with the GPU since AME uses GPGPU stuff for encoding. Apple's Hardware test shows no problems though.
The other (identical) machine has run flawlessly with the exact same hardware setup since day one. (as do the 2009 machines).

tl;dr Machines can be flakey for no reason. Just because yours it buggy doesn't mean they all are, or vise versa.
 
TMRJIJ said:
Really? I'm not sensing this on my MBP mid 2010 or my unsupported MacBook early 2008 (both had Yosemite and before Mavericks). Preview opens all files within 1-3 sec for me.
Click to expand...

1-3 seconds is pretty slow compared to in SL, when it was instantaneous. Also forgot to mention that it lags heavily whenever I open the image adjustment window.
 
AlecZ said:
1-3 seconds is pretty slow compared to in SL, when it was instantaneous. Also forgot to mention that it lags heavily whenever I open the image adjustment window.
Click to expand...

I had to wait about the same when I had SL but it was longer in Lion and Leopard for me. PDFs over 100 mb froze a little in 10.10.2 for me as well when using the adjustment window.
 
Tokenfreak said:
I'm not seeing an update available for my iMac either.
Click to expand...

Me neither. Is this only applying to certain GPUs? I have late 2013 iMAc with IRIS PRO graphics. My app store updates show only the supplemental update for stuff that captures video, an iMovie update, and some recent updates to Pages, Keynote, etc.. Is there a reason my computer isn't detecting this graphics patch?
 
CIA said:
We have two 2013 iMac's (Top spec, and max ram) and a pair of 2009 iMac's (also top spec at the time, maxed ram). Three of them run like champs except one of the 2013 machines. We can't figure it out to save our lives. It crashes, freezes all the time, but mostly using Adobe Media Encoder.

We've swapped ram, had the Hard drive replaced, wiped the machine clean and started fresh numerous times, and it just crashes all the time. Of course the console logs only show Adobe problems so Apple won't take it anymore under apple care. It's not their problem since the crashes all come from Adobe software apparently. I think it must have something to do with the GPU since AME uses GPGPU stuff for encoding. Apple's Hardware test shows no problems though.
The other (identical) machine has run flawlessly with the exact same hardware setup since day one. (as do the 2009 machines).

tl;dr Machines can be flakey for no reason. Just because yours it buggy doesn't mean they all are, or vise versa.
Click to expand...

I fully agree with that last paragraph. But it also doesn't have to be an issue with OS X. Even if you have done all the hardware swaps there might still be an issue with hardware that triggers the issue. But of course it can be OS X too, it's difficult to know in that case. I'm just saying that I have a hard time thinking that Yosemite is as bad as some people seem to think, not by trying it themselves, but rather by their impression reading about it on the internet.

For most usage scenarios I think it works well (as long as your hardware is fine of course).
 
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