"NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception!" error

Hi there ! I've a 650 Ti working great (I only needed to install CUDA drivers and nvidia drivers which can be found there : http://www.nvidia.com/object/macosx-304.00.05f02-driver.html), but I often get the following error, after at least 30 minutes of use :
"
29/11/12 17:52:25,000 kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error
29/11/12 17:52:45,000 kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel timeout!
29/11/12 17:52:45,000 kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error
29/11/12 17:52:45,000 kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0x20 = PBDMA Error
"
The system locks up, but strangely I can still move the mouse…

I've looked for any solution to solve the problem, but unfortunately I couldn't find one…
Furthermore, this issue doesn't seem to be related to OpenGL as I successfully ran "OpenGL Extensions Viewer 4.0" tests, for OpenGL versions 1.1 to 2.1 (but maybe I misunderstood somthing ?)…
Also, I've checked the permissions with Disk Utility, and I got various warnings on kext related to the graphics card, such as :
"
Autorisations différentes sur « System/Library/Extensions/GeForce.kext/Contents/Info.plist » ; attendu -rw-r--r-- , actuellement : -rwxr-xr-x .
Autorisations différentes sur « System/Library/Extensions/GeForceGA.plugin/Contents/Info.plist » ; attendu -rw-r--r-- , actuellement : -rwxr-xr-x .
Autorisations différentes sur « System/Library/Extensions/GeForceGLDriver.bundle/Contents/Info.plist » ; attendu -rw-r--r-- , actuellement : -rwxr-xr-x .
Autorisations différentes sur « System/Library/Extensions/GeForceVADriver.bundle/Contents/Info.plist » ; attendu -rw-r--r-- , actuellement : -rwxr-xr-x .
" (in French, sorry… for those who do not speak French at all, read : "Permissions differ on « … » ; should be … instead of : …")

Do you have any ideas, or even better, do you know how to solve this issue ? Many thanks in advance !

EDIT: actually the error may be related to OpenGL, as, often, I get the error while using Safari (I won't be surprised if it was related to WebGL…)

Did you ever find a fix?

I haven't had a channel exception in quite some time using graphicsenabler=no, just for the record.

No, not solved yet I've tried many things but none of them solved this issue yet… I'm waiting for 10.8.3, hoping it will solve it (some real Macs have this error too…)

It looks like some sort of error with Mountain Lion as people with apple hardware and nvidia chipsets are having the same issues......

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1916253?start=0&tstart=0

Just chiming in... I am getting the same error:

kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error

I'm running the following specs:

Main Board: GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 (U1h) // this is the UEFI firmware
CPU: i5-2500K // not overclocked
GPU: Zotac GeForce 640 // runs brilliantly under Linux Mint 14 (cinnamon) with up to 500 FPS in Minecraft!
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB // on two 4GB sticks
OS: Mountain Lion 10.8.2

The only game I play is Minecraft, and I regularly get channel exception errors during a gaming session, but it is unpredictable as to when the error shows up. I can log in by ssh and kill Minecraft to regain control of the computer.

Sometimes I get the error in the OS itself, the screen will get corrupted and I'll lose control of the computer, but that is truly infrequent.

I have tried removing the AGPM kext, but that didn't help, so I restored it.
I have tried installing the latest nVidia Quadro 4000 driver, but that hasn't helped, so I'll restore the Apple provided one.

One user on the Apple Forums (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1916253?start=435&tstart=0) has posted that his solution was to completely remove all kexts starting with NV or GeF.

That sounds drastic, but I'm willing to try it. For now, I simply reboot into Linux whenever I want to play Minecraft.

jeffmikels said:

Just chiming in... I am getting the same error:

kernel[0]: NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = GR: SW Notify Error

I'm running the following specs:

Main Board: GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 (U1h) // this is the UEFI firmware
CPU: i5-2500K // not overclocked
GPU: Zotac GeForce 640 // runs brilliantly under Linux Mint 14 (cinnamon) with up to 500 FPS in Minecraft!
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB // on two 4GB sticks
OS: Mountain Lion 10.8.2

The only game I play is Minecraft, and I regularly get channel exception errors during a gaming session, but it is unpredictable as to when the error shows up. I can log in by ssh and kill Minecraft to regain control of the computer.

Sometimes I get the error in the OS itself, the screen will get corrupted and I'll lose control of the computer, but that is truly infrequent.

I have tried removing the AGPM kext, but that didn't help, so I restored it.
I have tried installing the latest nVidia Quadro 4000 driver, but that hasn't helped, so I'll restore the Apple provided one.

One user on the Apple Forums (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1916253?start=435&tstart=0) has posted that his solution was to completely remove all kexts starting with NV or GeF.

That sounds drastic, but I'm willing to try it. For now, I simply reboot into Linux whenever I want to play Minecraft.

Click to expand...

I just had the this fault, I was trying MacMini6,2 SMBIOS and got this trying to watch a video using Safari. Never had it before using MacPro5,1 SMBIOS. Try using the MacPro5,1 SMBIOS, just remember to delete AppleTyMCEDriver.kext from S/L/E before restarting.

Still having this error using MacPro5,1 SMBIOS… :/

Digging up this old thread because I started having quite the same issue ("NVDA(OpenGL): Channel exception! exception type = 0xd = Graphics Engine Error (GR Error 5)" only when using Safari 9.1.3 — I'm on OS 10.9.5).
It started a week ago while building my website out of a Bootstrap/JQuery template: previewing in Firefox or Chrome was smooth while Safari made the display freeze except for the mouse — sometimes having artefacts like a dying graphic card (but only in Safari's window).
From my inquiries:
1) it happens also to real Macs
2) some say it might be Flash: NO! I haven't Flash NPAPI installed
3) some say the card is dying: well, I don't believe, otherwise it would do it with other apps — I've tested Cinebench with no issue
4) thanks to Safari's console I've found errors saying it could not find a few ".map" files on the web such as bootstrap.min.css.map: turns out it was commented lines at the end of some files (.css and .js) that only Safari interpreted as actual commands! ("/*# sourceMappingURL=bootstrap.min.css.map */")
=> canceling those lines greatly improves the time it takes for the NVDA(OpenGL) message to appear in the Console... but it eventually appeared after playing a lot with the navigation bar of my website — I'm writing this before trying to shake it to the point where it crashes, if it does...
5) some say it's an OpenGL issue and I'm quite convinced, but the solutions they offer (removing NVidia and GeForce kexts, or booting with GraphicsEnabler=no) are not what I want...

Conclusion: I think this is connected with some NVidia cards and OpenGL and I'm quite concerned about having built a website that can potentially crash people's computers... I wouldn't have imagined this was actually possible! But as every other website works ok on Safari, I can't see any other possibility.

EDIT: I narrowed the issue and I'm sure it's actually an overload of the pair OpenGL/NVidia card. In my case, it was due to the presence on the page of 9 huge gif images that it wasn't fast enough to render! (still can't believe it...) I just converted them to png and all is smooth now. So my advice to anyone facing this issue is to look to what they're using that can cause intensive graphic/video related — although, if it's a game or an app, there's probably not much to do about it... If it's only with Safari, check if it crashes only on specific pages (and use Firefox or Chromium instead :-D ).