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Subject: Re: [AE] Mac kernel panics (continued)
From: Chris Bobotis <chris@mettle.com>
In-Reply-To: <list-4646424@media-motion.tv>
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 2012 17:55:27 -0500
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Message-Id: <80F227AA-4382-436B-B69E-C9A6317F5D57@mettle.com>
References: <list-4646424@media-motion.tv>
To: "After Effects Mail List" <AE-List@media-motion.tv>

Curious... is openGL On or Off in your AE prefs? Which Quadro card? OS =
version?

Chris
mettle.com


On 2012-03-05, at 5:47 PM, Chris Zwar wrote:

> Just picking up an older thread...
>=20
> Basically I'm working in a studio that has a load of identically =
specc'd Macs, presumably all purchased at the same time.  They all have =
nVidia Quadro FX cards in them and they all kernel panic regularly.
>=20
> Software / OS and Cuda drivers are up to date.  The problem seems to =
lie with the nVidia cards.  The only noticable thing is that they very =
rarely panic during the day, but mostly overnight when rendering on the =
farm.  This suggests it may be a heat issue, as the air conditioning =
goes off at 6pm and it's pretty warm in the office by 9am.  However the =
problem also seems to lie with GPU enabled software, including optical =
flares and sapphire (and even the screen saver) so it might not be heat =
after all.  As noted in my original post (way down below) simply =
applying the optical flares effect to a solid can prompt a kernel panic.
>=20
> The fact the problem affects so many Macs (about 10) suggests it isn't =
an individual case of faulty ram or even a dodgy graphics card.  =
Software updates haven't helped.
>=20
> Any other suggestions?
>=20
>=20
> -Chris
>=20
>=20
> Thanks for both your help.
>=20
> I've downloaded the latest CUDA driver (which I didn't have) and am =
looking forward to seeing if it makes a difference.
>=20
> I do always uncheck the GPU option for optical flares (and any other =
plugin that gives the option) however there's always the crossed fingers =
and silent prayer the first time that OF is applied to a layer and then =
seeing how quickly you can tick the box! It's annoying that it's such a =
gorgeous and popular effect, it's not uncommon for it to have been =
applied hundreds of times in a single large project, and if the project =
is causing kernel panics then then you have to go through and find the =
solitary instance that still has the GPU option enabled... (the PT =
effect search script is pure gold...)
>=20
> Judging from the number of machines effected it does seem like an =
issue with nVidia drivers somewhere...
>=20
>=20
> -Chris
>=20
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Curtis [mailto:jpcurtis@me.com]
> Sent: Thursday, December 1, 2011 03:11 PM
> To: 'After Effects Mail List'
> Subject: Re: [AE] Mac Kernel panics
>=20
> I swear by Disk Warrior, which I run immediately after every Kernel =
Panic. It seems to vanquish them for a long while. Then for good =
measure, I run Applejack AUTO before commencing work again.
>=20
> I've only had about four KPs on my MacPro3,1 since buying it in 2008. =
They seem to have been more related to a RAID controller than GPU, but I =
only say that because the KPs mostly have occurred within a few days of =
either installing new PCI cards or drivers.
>=20
> BTW, Optical Flares (latest rev) will crash AE 100% of the time with =
my newish Quadro 4000 when the "use GPU" box is checked. It works fine =
as long as that box is unchecked. Perhaps you could try unchecking the =
box to see if that helps things.
>=20
>=20
> On Nov 30, 2011, at 6:25 PM, Chris Zwar wrote:
>=20
>> I'm working on a Mac Pro with an nVidia 4500 Quadro FX card. I =
probably get about 1 kernel panic a day, which seems to be caused by =
open GL or GPU accelleration. The crash reports all point to After =
Effects as the cause of the panic, but it's only GPU plugins that cause =
a panic. There's a bunch of macs here with similar specs and they all =
seem to suffer from the same problem- if it was just mine I'd suspect =
faulty hardware. It's not uncommon to arrive in the morning and find =
half the machines on the render farm have kernel panicked.
>>=20
>> I originally thought it was just the 'optical flares' plugin (we have =
the latest version), but it seems that any plugin that utilises the =
graphics card has a chance of bringing the machine down, possibly =
including sapphire.
>>=20
>> I have open GL turned off in AE, have all the latest software =
updates, and I avoid open GL / GPU acceleration where I can. But are =
there any other suggestions to fix this?
>>=20
>> -Chris
>>=20
>>=20
>>=20
>> +---End of message---+
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>=20
>=20
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>=20
>=20
>=20
>=20
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Cheers,
Chris
Mettle.com
Skype: Mettlecom