Hey gang, if anyone is struggling with the same issue, maybe this or YOU can help me/us...
TL;DR: My Mac Studio shuts off in the middle of a session when I interact with the Kontakt 7 window across display monitors specifically with Logic Pro X open. I may have found the cause, but I don't know for 100% certainty.
I'm having a very strange issue I've been trying to troubleshoot and maybe you guys have some insight...
The details: Before I describe what's happening, here's my gear:
- Mac Studio (2023) - M2 Ultra, 64GB RAM, 1TB SSD (Sonoma 14.4)
- Audio Interface - Audient EVO 16 (latest firmware and software)
- LPX - 10.8.1
- Native Access Version - 3.9.1
- Kontakt 7 Version - 7.8.1
- Primary Display Monitor: LG 34WN80C-B
- Secondary External Display Monitor: AOC - C27G2Z
There is a kernel panic that happens when I am in an LPX session with Kontakt 7 loaded in as an instrument plugin (channel strip). I open the plug-in window to reveal Kontakt 7 (like I normally do), and then once I start shifting the window around (by normal assumed behavior of clicking+dragging it around), the Mac Studio freezes for about a couple seconds and then POOF- the whole computer shuts down and reboots. Sometimes (honestly pretty often), I don't even have to drag the Kontakt 7 window, instead, I'll just open it up like normal and it will cause the same kernel panic.
- Upon re-entering the desktop, I get the huge report log that I've attached to this in plain text format.
I'm not sure exactly what's causing the issue because when I try to repeat this behavior using different methods, it doesn't happen. It seems to happen when I'm in the DAW. I pinged ChatGPT to read the report and it mentioned the issue is with:
- "The panic log you've provided indicates that your computer experienced a kernel panic, specifically with an error related to "DCPEXT1 PANIC - program_swap: Async Swap request landing on unsupported platform. Force panic." This message suggests that there was an issue with a swap operation on a platform that doesn't support it, causing the system to forcibly panic and shut down."
And then I found out (upon further research), that DCP panic is a Display Co-Processer Graphics Processor panic. So, I've been trying various things:
- Reset NVRAM (not sure how useful this is on an Apple Sillicon)
- Booting Safe Mode
- Updating Drivers
- Swapping out HDMI cable that goes to secondary monitor.
Those last two ^^ are the kicker I think. I've been seeing a positive change by grabbing a newer, sexier HDMI and plugging it in the secondary display monitor and then back to my Mac Studio again; it's the best results I've had so far. If and when it causes the kernel panic again, I'll come back on and edit this post and let you guys know that the new HDMI cable didn't make a difference, LOL.
And unfortunately, I cannot install a macOS driver from the manufacturer of my display monitor because well, they don't exist; AOC doesn't seem to have one. I even messaged them (and had to wait a ridiculously long time to hear from them) all for them to tell me it doesn't exist, lol.
Anyway, has anyone else experienced this behavior before on a Mac Studio? If you have, what did you do to mitigate/solve the problem? Also, what IS the actual problem? Anyone know if this is related to Native Instruments products at all? I can't seem to replicate this with any other plugin, just Kontakt 7.
