System Crash with Kontakt 8 on Mac mini Pro (Potential Display Conflict)

Mr Blackbird · May 6

Hello,

I'm experiencing a serious and recurring issue with Kontakt 8 on my Mac mini Pro (Apple Silicon). Each time I load a Kontakt 8 instance in Logic Pro X, my entire system crashes and I’m forced to perform a hard reboot. This happens even when using a completely empty Logic session.

My setup:

Mac mini Pro – Apple Silicon
macOS Sequoia 15.1
Logic Pro X – version 11.1.2
Kontakt 8 – version 8.3.0
UAD Apollo Twin (Thunderbolt) – version 1.2.2.524

What I’ve tested:

Opened Logic and Kontakt in Rosetta mode – crash still occurs
Opened Kontakt in standalone mode – no crash
Opened Kontakt 8 in an empty Logic session – system crash
- The Kontakt 8 interface partially opens (instruments not loading), followed by a complete freeze of the user interface, requiring a forced restart
Same issue with Kontakt 7
No issues with Kontakt or Kontakt 5

Additional testing:
After extensive troubleshooting — including connecting/disconnecting the Apollo Twin, external backup drives, and my USB hub — the issue still persists. Even when only the Mac mini is connected to a single external drive (SanDisk USB-C 2TB, APFS formatted), which hosts the Native Instruments libraries (installed strictly following NI’s guidelines), the crash continues. This suggests the issue is not related to external peripherals.

Important observation:
I recently discovered that this issue does not occur when I use an older ASUS monitor (approximately 10 years old). However, it consistently crashes when I use my Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 S49DG934SU monitor. This leads me to believe the problem could be related to GPU/display driver compatibility or resolution/refresh rate conflicts when Kontakt 8 is launched within Logic.

This issue is critical to my workflow, and I’ve been unable to find any solution online. Could you please assist or escalate this case to the appropriate technical team?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Best regards,

Mr. Blackbird