VDMX destroys Macbook Pro M3?

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I was working in VDMX 9.9.0.2, adjusting a composition mode (selectign Overlay in the menu), when suddenly selecting that mode, the screen (all screens on the system) blinked bright purple for a 1/10 of second, then all went black, and then the computer restarted. WTF. I think thats the first “restart the system” crash I ever had on Apple silicon. And the first time I had a crash selecting a composition mode.

“Your computer has restarted because of a problem”. Okay. The system then continues to reopen all windows and applications, that means reloading VDMX. And as soon as VDMX starts loading / icon bounces in the dock, the screen (all screens) blinks bright purple AGAIN, and the system restarts, AGAIN.

This happens in a cycle I can’t stop, the system restarts, it automatically reloads VDMX after the “your computer restarted because” error message, immediately after bouncing VDMX in the dock the screens blink again and system crashes hard and reboots. Clearly VDMX makes it go haywire.I try to stop this with Cmd-Opt-Escape and kill VDMX as soon as it is launched, but I never manage to manually stop it or quit it before the system crashes hard.

After four of these loops, before I even get to consider killing the system manually at login and do a safe mode, it again crashes as usual but then never comes back on. The system simply won’t turn on, ever again. It is completely dead.

All of this happens in a timespan of maybe 3-4 minutes.

No hacks or tricks or safe modes or holding the power button or various key combos, nothing, it. is. completely. dead. It does not charge, the light of the magsafe doesn’t even turn on when cable inserted, tested multiple adapters, whom work fine on other systems.

Apple Support: Yep it dead. Find a store and bring it in for repair.

WTF! Did VDMX actually just brick a six month old, 7000 EUR Macbook Pro M3 Max??? Is this even possible? I normally wouldn’t think an app could destroy a system, but in this situation… it very clearly crashed while doing a VDMX operation, and the system was then very clearly crashing hard repeatedly whenever VDMX was launched, and eventually it crashed so hard it never ever came back on???

This is the most cruellest glitch effect ever! !!! ! !

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That would be pretty wild if VDMX could do that. If your computer isn’t booting, then it may need Apple’s Configurator 2 running on a separate machine to get it back up and running again.

If you can get the computer back up, send a bug report from the built in help menu and there should be logs in the console that detail what happened before the crashes.

With the computer and OS being so new, it’s hard to say if its an Apple issue or not.

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Agreed! I also think it’s unheard of that an app can take down a system, my logical-reasonable-technician-self guesstimates that something-something video hardware was already bad quality or bad soldered and slowly unraveling inside the system, and on that exact same millisecond moment as me clicking a menu in VDMX, it collapsed, and then that collapse led to VDMX unable to launch and the collapse took down the whole system within a few minutes, due to a faulty hardware part. I think the motherboard is dead (or something similar that controls the whole system).

However my creative-intuitive-artist mind clearly saw actions from one single app, three times in three minutes, totally nuking everything and insta-rebooting a system and on the fourth time it never came back on!

The system is completely bricked. The DFU revival does not work unforetunately, the only sign of life in that process is the charging light changings from orange to green on the 10 second and 3 second key combo switches, but the system does not turn on and will not be recognized by other machines. (I’m on a production this week but will have some time this weekend to try again.)

Apple acknowledges it is dead, wants it in for service repair, but my nearest store is hours away, I can’t loose the time, I’m working on older backup systems. I’ll deal with this over Easter, I’m on deadlines. I would also dearly like to send you the crash reports from this, especially that first one changing composition mode so I’ll ask them please at least save the SSD!

What a catastrophe! I’m gonna sell a kidney and get another Macbook Pro so I always have two.

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If you have Applecare on this, they should ship it for free.

Maybe the M3 Macs have hardware issues (quality control)? https://www.reddit.com/r/macbookpro/comments/1b4zt9s/new_macbook_pro_m3_max_dying/

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can you boot in safe mode to avoid vdmx starting?

Start up your Mac with Apple silicon in safe mode

  1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu > Shut Down.Wait for your Mac to shut down completely. A Mac is completely shut down when the screen is black and any lights (including in the Touch Bar) are off.
  2. Press and hold the power button on your Mac until “Loading startup options” appears.
  3. Select a volume.
  4. Press and hold the Shift key, then click Continue in Safe Mode.The computer restarts automatically. When the login window appears, you should see “Safe Boot” in the menu bar.
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I just got the “repaired” Macbook Pro back from the repair center last week (that took a month!!). The repair and replacement of parts was covered by Apple. The repair center confirmed it was completely utterly dead and bricked and they replaced pretty much everything inside of it.

The motherboard (logic board) had been replaced and that includes the soldered-on SSD, so I got a brand new system where all previous data was gone, including crash reports. I did expect this and I did ask the repair center if they please could take out the crash reports from the SSD, but they didn’t do this.

I also chatted with the repair people if they saw a lot of these problems with these M3 Maxes, but they said, no, they don’t see anything more than usual repairs for this system, so I must have been unlucky.

I’m right now working on audio for this month (which doesn’t tax the system as much) but next heavy visuals and VDMX period will be June, so then the system will be put through the same process where it crashed last time. Let’s see how that goes!

PS I still have both kidneys.

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It’s unlikely that VDMX had anything to do with this. Apple has built in limitations to protect hardware (unless it was user modified, like overclocking with windows / linux machines). Otherwise, Davinci Resolve, After Effects, Unity, Unreal, TouchDesigner, Max, etc. would all pose a hardware threat, as all of them can quickly push a machine to it’s limit (multiple times over). It sounds like you just got a bad machine out of the gate. (Not uncommon for apple these days, remember the first M1 macbooks had massive screen issues, the 64GB M1 Max had memory issues (caused a lot of crashes, not scene on the 8GB, 16GB, & 32GB macs). Eventually most of these were fixed with a OSX update, or a warranty repair by Apple.

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I agree and to clear up any suspicion, I don’t think VDMX “broke” it or blame any software at all, I think you’re right that the system already had a physical problem, it was waiting to happen, and my usage plus a specific moment of VDMX triggered a fault waiting to happen. (But I was very spooked with the system dying so dramatically! )

What I am still worried about is if this problem was a singular fluke, or if it is something problematic waiting to happen with ALL of the M3 Maxes… like you mention, we’ve been throough nonsene like that many times before.

Case closed and crossing fingers it was a rare fluke.

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Hi,
i wanted to comment on this because a similar thing happened to me, but on a 14” M1 Max 32gb machine and while using VUO and VDMX.

I got graphics glitches and the whole system turned unresponsive while i was working in the Vuo Editor on ffgl plugs. VDMX was only running in the background. After a few seconds of unresponsiveness i was able to force-quit apps but the system was still glitching out having mouse hangs. i finally could hit System Restart…

But it never came back on. It seemed completely bricked and unresponsive. No key combination worked. Luckily i had quick access to a second Mac and could do the DFU revive. It updated firmware but never fully finished the DFU revive process. The system came back on though and is running fine now.

No idea what caused this, but i can say that latest firmware and os updates run very stable on my end.
Hopefully these were rare flukes as you say, and these issues are fixed for good…

Anyway, great to hear you still have your kidneys! :grinning:

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@bennoH, blaming or shaming @GMM isn’t helpful, and another user has already flagged this post as inappropriate.

You’re making some big conclusions based on limited information. I recommend refraining from this negative behavior. Let’s keep the forums a place for open sharing and learning, not for insults or belittlement.

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