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Mac Pro Late 2013 Freezing at Screensaver

  • July 29, 2016
  • 7 replies
  • 36 views
R
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Hi all,

We have been having an ongoing issue with several Late 2013 Mac Pros where they will freeze when the screensaver is active. Thus we have to hard reboot. We thought that it might have been a 10.10 comparability issue but we find that it is still happening in 10.11.x. This is a computer lab environment and it does not seem to be happening on all the machines. When I checked the console logs nothing seems out of the ordinary. I have also tried different screensavers to see if that might help. Has anyone else had this kinda issue on the Mac Pros?

    7 replies

    stevewood
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    • stevewood
    • Hall of Fame
    • July 29, 2016

    @roethelbc we have seen this and other freezing issues on the MacPro. Typically when this happens I've seen entries in system.log that indicate a video driver issue. If the end user waits the machine typically comes back. The wait can be anywhere from a few minutes to 10 or 15 minutes. I've run GSX diagnostics against the machines that have exhibited this behavior, and they all pass diags.

    These are Late 2013 MP with the standard video cards (AMD FirePro D500) and 32GB ram in the machines:

    AMD FirePro D500:

    Chipset Model: AMD FirePro D500 Type: GPU Bus: PCIe Slot: Slot-1 PCIe Lane Width: x16 VRAM (Total): 3072 MB Vendor: ATI (0x1002) Device ID: 0x679e Revision ID: 0x0000 ROM Revision: 113-C3861J-687 gMux Version: 4.0.11 [3.2.8] EFI Driver Version: 01.00.687

    I have seen posts online indicating these machines have been known to have video card problems that cause issues like what I've seen. I, unfortunately, have not had time to try to get the video cards replaced on these machines. If I get a chance I'll dig up the console log that I'm using as evidence.

    M
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    • monogrant
    • Contributor
    • July 29, 2016

    We had an issue with our 2013 Mac Pros suddenly powering off instead of going to sleep at their designated timeout. Apple replaced two of them, came on site and replaced some daughter/riser card if I remember on another when the issue returned. These were both day one orders and first batch 2013 Mac Pros. Not sure if it's related, but in our case Apple was able to replace/repair the units.

    R
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    • roethelbc
    • Author
    • Contributor
    • July 29, 2016

    @stevewood , I was thinking that it was a video card issue. I will try and pull the logs on them to see. Our issue is since it is a lab environment it can be hours or days before it is noticed. I might just have to start putting GSX work orders to see if I can just get the cards replaced.

    G
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    • gachowski
    • Honored Contributor
    • July 29, 2016

    FYI

    https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

    S
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    • Scott_Solomon
    • New Contributor
    • July 29, 2016

    I was seeing similar issues after deploying jamf to approximately 50 Macs. I started digging around the forums and found several articles referencing conflicting settings in two or more configuration profiles. I checked my config profiles, and found I had set Screen Timeout options in more than one profile -- I modified the profiles so that the screen timeout was being set by a single profile -- no Macs have locked up since when coming out of sleep.

    donmontalvo
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    • donmontalvo
    • Hall of Fame
    • July 30, 2016

    At a previous gig we had three Mac Pro 2013s that had the problem, and the usual steps didn't help.

    How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac
    Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac

    We took note of the video card ID before opening an AppleCare ticket, and found afterwards the video cards were replaced. In hindsight I think GSX might have included a note on the replacements.

    --https://donmontalvo.com
    donmontalvo
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    • donmontalvo
    • Hall of Fame
    • July 30, 2016

    @ssolomon Apple lists Restrictions payloads as exclusive.

    Payload interaction

    Maybe it's time to start lambasting Apple:

    • Need more usable way of perusing installed Configuration Profiles
    • Need more usable way to manage composite scenarios

    We opened an AppleCare Enterprise Support ticket a while back and were giving the above link.

    Don

    --https://donmontalvo.com
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