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Very strange graphical failures on new MBP

therealseebs

therealseebs

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 14, 2010
1,057
312
New MBP (non-Retina 2012), 10.8.2. Machine is boring and normal for nearly everything, but if I try to run Minecraft... Well, that's totally normal too. Unless I try to go fullscreen, whereupon everything dies. Any attempt to transition to fullscreen appears to basically permanently kill the machine. It's still on. I can ssh in. If I put a DVD in, Apple DVD Player starts running. But the screen is never updated again. Once, I actually got Minecraft running fullscreen. Then I hit the key to turn it back (F11; yes, I have function keys set to actually be Fx instead of having their magic effects), and... no graphical updates ever again for any reason. Machine's otherwise fine. Cannot be rebooted; an attempt to reboot causes it to get partway through the reboot process, far enough along that I can't watch the logs anymore, and then... Nothing. Except jet-engine level fan noise. For at least five minutes.

Looking at the logs:
Dec 5 23:32:00 leptop reboot[648]: rebooted by seebs
Dec 5 23:32:00 leptop reboot[648]: BOOT_TIME: 1354771920 318866
Dec 5 23:32:00 leptop ntpd[94]: ntpd exiting on signal 15
Dec 5 23:39:36 localhost bootlog[0]: BOOT_TIME 1354772376 0
Dec 5 23:39:37 localhost kernel[0]: PMAP: PCID enabled

So, basically, nothing at all recorded as happening from when ntpd exited to when, about 5-6 minutes later, I gave up and pushed the button.

Apple Hardware Test says the machine is just fine, except it occasionally yields an SATA error (which Apple says is meaningless):
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4356

There are some graphics-related messages in the logs back around when Minecraft was running:

Dec 5 23:24:10 leptop kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!
Dec 5 23:24:10 leptop kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error

Unfortunately, I can't find much about these other than assertions that they became really common for a lot of hackintosh users around 10.8.2. That's seeming unlikely to be relevant to my MBP.

So, Apple Hardware Test finds nothing, nothing I can find on the Internet relates to behavior like this... Haven't got a lot of ideas.
 
Have you thought about Minecraft being the culprit, seems to me Minecraft has problems with going into fullscreen and you should contact Minecraft about this, don't blame it on Apple.
Have you tried another game and go fullscreen, if that game acts normal Minecraft is the problem.
Reason is, you say everything is normal except when using Minecraft.
 
Have you upgraded anything on your MBP? What size and model is it? Is Java up to date?

I've run MineCraft full screen without any issues on my 13" mid-2009(aside from the fact that it is slow if the view distance is set high).
 
justperry said:
Have you thought about Minecraft being the culprit, seems to me Minecraft has problems with going into fullscreen and you should contact Minecraft about this, don't blame it on Apple.
Click to expand...

1. Of course I have. But it worked flawlessly on the previous machine.
2. If ANY user program, no matter what it does or who wrote it or what it is trying to do, can freeze the machine so that it can't reboot, then the operating system has a serious bug, or there is a hardware fault.

Look, if Minecraft froze, and killing Minecraft brought the display back? Yeah, that'd be Minecraft's problem.

But if anything, ever is capable of freezing the screen so that the machine cannot regain control of the display? That's a serious bug. Unless it's a hardware flaw.

Have you tried another game and go fullscreen, if that game acts normal Minecraft is the problem.
Reason is, you say everything is normal except when using Minecraft.
Click to expand...

I don't have a lot of games on here, and Minecraft's the only one that's using OpenGL.

UPDATE: Downloaded Marathon (now freeware). Runs fine, no problems. Also Minecraft runs fine as long as I don't try to move it fullscreen.



----------
T5BRICK said:
Have you upgraded anything on your MBP? What size and model is it? Is Java up to date?

I've run MineCraft full screen without any issues on my 13" mid-2009(aside from the fact that it is slow if the view distance is set high).
Click to expand...

The deal is: Until yesterday afternoon, I was running an October 2011 MBP with 10.7.5. Now I'm running a June 2012 MBP with 10.8.2. So the entire computer is new except for the hard drive, and the operating system is a new update. Java was freshly installed after the upgrade. 15" MBP, 1680x1050 antiglare screen.

And yes, Minecraft was fine fullscreen on the same drive.

And since people will ask: I found many, many, many, MANY sources, including Apple, asserting that it was absolutely not necessary to do a clean install for 10.8. Also, since the drive is the only SSD this large I have, a clean install would be an ENORMOUS amount of work and uncomfortably high level of risk, which is why I am hoping to avoid it. Actually, the next step over, if I can't find something else, will be to do a clean install of OS X on an external drive, and load Minecraft on that, and see whether it works better.

Oh-hoh! More looking in logs:

Dec 6 02:09:57 leptop JavaApplicationStub[1158]: Make pbuffer: 854 x 480
Dec 6 02:09:57 leptop JavaApplicationStub[1158]: invalid drawable
Dec 6 02:10:15 leptop kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0x1f = Fifo: MMU Error
Dec 6 02:10:15 leptop kernel[0]: IOVendorGLContext::ReportGPURestart
Dec 6 02:10:15 leptop kernel[0]: 00000069
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop WindowServer[83]: CGXMuxCapture: Starting
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop WindowServer[83]: CGXMuxCapture: Acquired
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop WindowServer[83]: Display 0x28d9b2c1 captured by conn 0x1c413
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop kernel[0]: 0000006e
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop kernel[0]: 00200000 0000a097 00000000 00000000
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop kernel[0]: 00000000 0000130c 00000203 0000001e
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop kernel[0]: 00000000 00000000 00000000
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop kernel[0]: 00000000 00000000

Looks to me as though the GPU is resetting for some reason under load. I am not sure how confident I should be that the apple hardware test would catch something like this.
 
Last edited:
Sigh

Greetings therealseebs,

Just registered this account in order to tell you that we are on the same boat. Recently I have encountered lots of freeze screen when click the maximize-window button in Minecraft. Yes most of time it will cause the entire game freeze. After reboot I found those "NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!" lines in the Console. Also this problem occurs when sometime I maximize other app window in the OS (such as to fullscreen a flash and javascript based video player in some website). By the way the freeze also sometime happens when goes back to normal view from the full screen mode

It seems like it only occurs in the macbook models with discrete nvidia graphic card. For now my solution for the problem is to install the beta version of 10.8.3 (12D38) in my MBP with retina display. It updates the nvidia driver and might do some help in unknowing ways. If you need any other information to help you analyzing the problem please let me know.
 
canning911 said:
Greetings therealseebs,

Just registered this account in order to tell you that we are on the same boat. Recently I have encountered lots of freeze screen when click the maximize-window button in Minecraft. Yes most of time it will cause the entire game freeze. After reboot I found those "NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!" lines in the Console. Also this problem occurs when sometime I maximize other app window in the OS (such as to fullscreen a flash and javascript based video player in some website). By the way the freeze also sometime happens when goes back to normal view from the full screen mode

It seems like it only occurs in the macbook models with discrete nvidia graphic card. For now my solution for the problem is to install the beta version of 10.8.3 (12D38) in my MBP with retina display. It updates the nvidia driver and might do some help in unknowing ways. If you need any other information to help you analyzing the problem please let me know.
Click to expand...

Looking back, it looks like this has come and gone a few times.

Things I've done:

* Update the lightweight java gaming library used by Minecraft
* Run all the automation stuff from OnyX
* Update to Java 7u9
* Whine

So far, not much effect, although now the system seems to be more likely to eventually recover. Also! If I switch between fullscreen and not-fullscreen when I'm just at the settings menu, not in-game, it seems to work most of the time.

So it looks to me as though there is some pathological interaction wherein the nVidia drivers are causing the GPU to reset, and then not figuring out that it has reset.

It may be relevant: I am running the Mac in clamshell mode with an external display, so it can't switch to integrated video -- the integrated video can't drive that output, I believe. (At least, when I ask it to go to integrated video, it refuses.)
 
therealseebs said:
Oh-hoh! More looking in logs:

Dec 6 02:09:57 leptop JavaApplicationStub[1158]: Make pbuffer: 854 x 480
Dec 6 02:09:57 leptop JavaApplicationStub[1158]: invalid drawable
Dec 6 02:10:15 leptop kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0x1f = Fifo: MMU Error
Dec 6 02:10:15 leptop kernel[0]: IOVendorGLContext::ReportGPURestart
Dec 6 02:10:15 leptop kernel[0]: 00000069
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop WindowServer[83]: CGXMuxCapture: Starting
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop WindowServer[83]: CGXMuxCapture: Acquired
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop WindowServer[83]: Display 0x28d9b2c1 captured by conn 0x1c413
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop kernel[0]: 0000006e
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop kernel[0]: 00200000 0000a097 00000000 00000000
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop kernel[0]: 00000000 0000130c 00000203 0000001e
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop kernel[0]: 00000000 00000000 00000000
Dec 6 02:10:34 leptop kernel[0]: 00000000 00000000

Looks to me as though the GPU is resetting for some reason under load. I am not sure how confident I should be that the apple hardware test would catch something like this.
Click to expand...


Could be Java, just before the GPU resets you get the invalid drawable.
Now, I am not an expert but this could be the problem.

Before you said that a program should not bring the system to a halt, I agree here but it used to be that way before OS X, a program crashes and the whole System halted.
This is still happening although rare, I still say Minecraaft is the problem, together with something else, that something else could be Java for instance, or some conflict in your User Account.
Did I say to try this in another User account, if not try it there.
Edit: I didn't so try
 
therealseebs said:
Looking back, it looks like this has come and gone a few times.

Things I've done:

* Update the lightweight java gaming library used by Minecraft
* Run all the automation stuff from OnyX
* Update to Java 7u9
* Whine

So far, not much effect, although now the system seems to be more likely to eventually recover. Also! If I switch between fullscreen and not-fullscreen when I'm just at the settings menu, not in-game, it seems to work most of the time.

So it looks to me as though there is some pathological interaction wherein the nVidia drivers are causing the GPU to reset, and then not figuring out that it has reset.

It may be relevant: I am running the Mac in clamshell mode with an external display, so it can't switch to integrated video -- the integrated video can't drive that output, I believe. (At least, when I ask it to go to integrated video, it refuses.)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the fast reply. I just did a fresh test on Minecraft with the new nvidia driver. Guess what...

Yes the game halted and caused a system crash. Sighed, and rebooted the computer. Found the nvda channel timeout lines. Reinstall minecraft does not help in anyway. Both of us have a defective graphic card? Probably not (at least I hope so..). Forcing to use the integrated graphics (in my case HD4000) will not cause the problem. And I can confirm that to maximize the game in the settings view will be fine with the discrete graphic card.

Now I will try to reinstall Java and let's see if there is any progress. Gosh this problem really drives me nuts tonight.
 
b0fh666 said:
minecraft runs on Java? meh
Click to expand...

Well, the likely alternative would have been that Minecraft ran on Windows, so I'm okay with that.

I don't have any other Java-based OpenGL games, though.

It does look like it's an nVidia driver bug that only Minecraft (or Java) is hitting, but other threads on the same nVidia error messages exist, and it looks like the nVidia drivers are fairly prone to this failure mode, causing "freezes" where a machine is fine for ssh but unresponsive visually.
 
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