MBP 16 Freezing Issue with External Display - Seems It's Solved with Latest OS Update

[cherishzm]

Just wanted to share this with you guys to help if there's someone else having the same issue.

I've had this strange but consistent issue with a base MBP 16 completely freezing - only when it's connected to an external display since I bought it three months ago. It's my only computer I use at work and home and at work I have a single USB C hub (made by VAVA) always plugged into the MBP which has a few of USB devices, ethernet, microSD card and HDMI for a Dell 27" monitor. The USB C hub was used with my old 2017 MBP 15 and there was no issue with the USB C hub when used with the old MBP.

Since the purchase, MBP 16 would randomly freeze, sometimes multiple times a day. It's completely frozen sometimes and other times I can move a mouse cursor but clicks wouldn't do anything so I had to hard restart it every time it freezes. But, when I use it at home without an external display, it never freezes so I believe it was related to the graphics card dynamic switching. Tried to use it with graphics card switching disabled it but it would still freeze so it could be a faulty graphics chip I thought. I reached out to Apple support and I was told to bring it to Apple Store (when it was still open) or send it it for diagnostics/repair but since it's my only computer I couldn't send it in.

I've been just dealing with it with a hard restart few times a day but with the most recent mac OS update installed, it seems the freezing issue is solved. However, I do feel the Macbook slowing down from time to time instead of freezing completely. I don't know what updates have been made but so far haven't had the freezing issue come back after few days of installing the update.

 

[WickedPorter]

I have this issue about 3-4 times a week. Fans are low, load seems OK. Mouse cursor moves just fine, but clicking on anything in the UI will often take several seconds before it registers ... and eventually the machine will completely freeze and reboot with a user watchdog timeout kernel panic. All is fine after a reboot.

I'm having this issue with the latest 10.15.4 release. Are you on a beta?

 

[malkovich87]

Mine just routinely kernel panics when it goes to sleep if I have Power Nap on.

 

[cherishzm]

I have this issue about 3-4 times a week. Fans are low, load seems OK. Mouse cursor moves just fine, but clicking on anything in the UI will often take several seconds before it registers ... and eventually the machine will completely freeze and reboot with a user watchdog timeout kernel panic. All is fine after a reboot.

I'm having this issue with the latest 10.15.4 release. Are you on a beta?

I'm on the official latest 10.15.4 release. Are you having the freeze issue with an external display as well?

 

[WickedPorter]

I'm on the official latest 10.15.4 release. Are you having the freeze issue with an external display as well?

Yes - I've only had it while using external display(s). That said, I haven't used my MacBook without external displays for a while (being stuck at home and all). I also use a Razer Core X eGPU with a Radeon 5700XT for both external displays, connected with an active thunderbolt cable.

 

[Steve Gilcrest]

I resolved this with AppleCare support by unchecking: Prevent computer from sleeping when display is off and unchecking Enable Power Nap while plugged into a power adapter in the Energy Saver Panel in System Preferences.
Should be resolved in 10.15.5.
No problems since.

 

[malkovich87]

I resolved this with AppleCare support by unchecking: Prevent computer from sleeping when display is off and unchecking Enable Power Nap while plugged into a power adapter in the Energy Saver Panel in System Preferences.
Should be resolved in 10.15.5.
No problems since.

Same here - unchecking "Power Nap" already fixed it for me. It sleeps and wakes up without a problem now. Looking forward to 10.15.5, though.

 

[WickedPorter]

Just happened again today. Power nap is unchecked, and this UI issue occurs when I'm using the machine normally, not with a wake from sleep or sleep issue... I've had the sleep crash issue as well and disabling power nap has solved that particular case for me.

For this particular issue (which I think is what this thread is mostly referring to): I'm going through my normal morning routine, checking e-mail, some web sites, etc. The mouse works fine/never lags, but UI elements suddenly start lagging up until the point where nothing I click on registers, then the machine eventually panics and reboots:

panic(cpu 8 caller 0xffffff7f85fa0ad5): userspace watchdog timeout: no successful checkins from com.apple.WindowServer in 120 seconds

I know that error is quite common and tied to a few other different scenarios. I've tried multiple SMC resets and NVRAM resets, maintenance/cleaning with EtreCheck and Onyx. No help.

Hoping 10.5.5 fixes most/all of these crashing and instability issues. It's getting pretty annoying.

 

[cherishzm]

I'm happy to report the freezing issue didn't occur so far after the update.

For clarification, the specific issue I had with freezing is limited to only when an external display is connected - Never had a freezing issue when used without an external display.

For reference, power nap was checked always.

 

[CMMChris]

Still not fixed in 10.15.5. Regarding Navi/RDNA GPU based Apple products here is a bug report template you can use if you have the freeze / panic issue after sleep:

Issue:
Ever since Navi/RDNA support in macOS started there are issues with freezing UI followed by a kernel panic after waking from sleep. This happens with all Navi10 and Navi14 GPUs. In my case I reproduce it with {YOUR PRODUCT}. MacBook Pro 16" is affected as well. Also Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X is affected. The issue has been reported since day one of Navi support yet Apple never did something about it. This starts to become hilarious. The only improvement regarding the issue is that since 10.15.4 it doesn't happen with every sleep / wake cycle but randomly now. Issue has still not been fixed in 10.15.5.

How the issue looks:
After waking from sleep and running a process using hardware accelerated video decoding / encoding, the UI will freeze for a couple of seconds, then starts working again, then freezes again, and so on. The mouse can still be moved but the UI is non-responsive. Eventually, after waiting for long enough, a kernel panic occurs and the machine reboots.

How to reproduce:
1. Use any Navi10 or Navi14 graphics card inside a Mac Pro 2019, eGPU case or use a MacBook Pro 16.
2. Open Video Proc or any other app utilizing hardware video acceleration (e.g. Safari playing Youtube, exporting with FCPX / iMovie).
3. Run the video acceleration test in Video Proc, start playing a H.264 / H.265 video in Safari or export a H.264 / H.265 file from FCPX / iMovie.
4. Put the machine to sleep.
5. Wake it again and re-test video acceleration.
6. If machine doesn't freeze, repeat the cycle from step 4.
7. Repeat this until the UI starts freezing / video acceleration stops working.
8. Eventually the machine will kernel panic after several minutes.

Affected products:
- Any MacBook Pro 16"
- Any Mac Pro with aftermarket Navi10 or Navi14 GPU
- Any Mac Pro with Radeon Pro W5700X
- Any Mac with a Navi10 or Navi14 GPU attached via Thunderbolt
- Any Hackintosh with a Navi10 or Navi14 GPU

Issue present since:
- 10.15.1 Beta 2 - introduction of Navi / RDNA support (issue triggered with EVERY sleep / wake cycle)
- 10.15.2
- 10.15.3
- 10.15.4 (from here on issue not appearing with every sleep / wake cycle but randomly instead)
- 10.15.5 (kernel panic not guaranteed to happen anymore, but the UI freezes are still an issue and video acceleration stops working when freezes do happen)

Maybe it will put some pressure on Apple if more people start to complain through their feedback assistant.