Random Freezes/Kernel Panics -Guessing it's the Graphic card

[PooyaNabei]

Hi guys, The new mac I built is giving me random freezes, and I can't figure out what it is... . I got Gigabyte Z68x-UD4-B3, i7 2600K, GTS 450 with 16 Gigs of Ram and running 10.6.8.
I know my graphic card is a trouble maker but with my old machine ( same graphic card ) I just ran a VLC video in the background and it was all fine... but now when i'm running it, I still get a random freeze but they are different... Before I used to get a "legit" Kernel panic with "you need to restart this computer" message popping.... but now... it just freezes, mouse and everything stops working... Do you guys have any ideas how I can nail this down?
Is it the graphic card still and with SB processor and 10.6.8 the KP is just a different animal?!

PLEASE HELP!
Thanks so much.

 

[Cowgurt]

I am having this same issue. I'm running 10.6.8 on Gigabyte Ga-H76M-D2-B3, i5-2400, nVidia GeForce GT430, with 4GB of RAM. Most all the time it freezes up for me when I'm putting the card under stress (like running 720p video or hulu), but for some reason it has also crashed before when only playing 360p on youtube, and once or twice when just working on the desktop. Oddly enough it has never crashed while playing Minecraft.

I'm beginning to think it's due to temps getting too high, but I can't seem to get istat menus to display the gpu temp. I'm looking into it. I'll post any findings...

 

[PooyaNabei]

Hmm, yeah I think it's a temp issue too...It mostly occurs to me when I'm encoding videos... But I'm trying iTunes with a visualizer in the background... And not getting it the pass 24hrs.... Im hoping it would get fixed with lion.... Let me know if you found a solution please.... Thanks so much

 

[Cowgurt]

I looked around for quite a while and deep into another thread (which I'll dig up the link to later since it's really late on my end) I found another possibility which seems like another likely cause. First off, I'm no genius in this area, I don't know a ton about hardware, but others were saying that GPUs have a sort of sleep state (I'm guessing like that of which you can configure in system preferences>energy saver for hard drive), and like how many people have issues waking up from sleep states our graphics cards are not waking up once they go to sleep. So when their activity reaches a certain low they go to sleep and... that's the end of it until we restart.

The easiest solution that people seem to have found so far is just leaving a video looping in the background to keep their GPU from going to sleep. I imagine that you've also found this theory on why nVidia's are causing random freezes if you've been running visualizer.

It's good to hear that your machine has been running smoothly for so long, but I'll still keep looking for a more... elegant fix (for lack of a better phrase). Plus it still confuses me why if the freeze is caused by too much inactivity why I would be getting it when running GPU intensive videos on youtube. Maybe it's the flash on youtube (youtube uses flash, right?) and Apple really does have good reason to be waging war. Maybe I'll give Newgrounds a go later, see how long I last in the flash portal.

Also, I have heard some talk of fixes in Lion. I can only hope they're true.

 

[materox]

I have the exact same problem and i'M LOOKING FOR a fix since so long. I havent follow the forum for a about two months now and I'm guessing the fermi freexe is still there right?. What I'm wondering is, if I leave a vlc video or Itunes running but at the same time i open some application in fullscreen,like final cut will I still get the freeze or not?

 

[PooyaNabei]

On my old system I never got a freeze when I was running a VLC video ( minimized ) but now with my i7 2600 I'm getting freezes even when I'm leaving a VLC on. I'm tying itunes now.. and haven't gotten a freeze for the past 24hrs.. full screen final shouldn't be a problem... .

 

[materox]

thank you I will try!

 

[maxmizer]

nvidia 450 gts don't work, freeze and KP, change the video card with another, esample: ATI 5770...

 

[materox]

I can't change my video card.I use mac just for few thing and I need nvidia in windows, Maybe they will fix it with lion....

 

[Thireus]

Read my topic regarding Fermi cards and OpenGL/OpenCL benches, and you will know what to do about freezes and KP issues.