Skip to content

Video Codec Test Failure

Hi Ben,

I just purchased a new M4 Mac mini, and suspect it has a hardware issue as I am getting Kernel Panics daily. SecuritySpy 6.7 is the only major application running on it with 5 cameras, so it's not heavily loaded. In testing various theories, I ran your Video Codec Test twice and each time it failed with an Error: threads failed to complete; test invalid, at Run 15 (see attached). I believe the results were uploaded to you.

My question is, do you think this is an indication of a MacOS software bug, or a possible hardware failure? I reinstalled MacOS Sequoia 15.2 but it didn't change the results. Any other suggestions?

Thanks.

Ron


Comments

  • Hi Ron,

    Regarding the "threads failed to complete" error: this isn't a problem with your specific Mac - it's something we have seen on several of these machines now. It manifests as video encoder instances failing to close after heavy use of the encoder. It's clearly a macOS bug. We filed a bug report on this with Apple a few months ago, along with a demonstration project that clearly shows the issue, but we haven't heard back. It's disappointing how bad Apple are about responding to bug reports from developers. I hope they will fix this soon, but it's out of our hands at the moment. In most cases it shouldn't affect SecuritySpy, as it is triggered by an encoding load that is higher than SecuritySpy would be causing in normal circumstances. This won't be the reason for your kernel panics.

    As for the kernel panic, these can happen for a variety of different reasons, and we'll need the panic log to diagnose what's happening in your case. When this next occurs, you will see a message that your Mac restarted "because of a problem" - click the "Report" button in that message, copy-paste the text into a new TextEdit document, email it to us, and we'll be able to advise you further.

    The most common cause of kernel panics we see in Apple Silicon Macs are issues with the built-in Ethernet interface. Check the top line of the panic log to see if it mentions "lan-1gb", which refers to the Ethernet port, like this:

    panic(cpu 8 caller 0xfffffe003db7fa2c): "apcie[2:lan-1gb]::handleCompletionTimeoutInterrupt: completion timeout...

    This means that the built-in Ethernet interface stopped responding, which caused the panic. We have seen this issue on Apple Silicon Macs for at least the last year or so, and as yet the only solution we know of is to swap from the built-in Ethernet interface to using a USB-to-Ethernet adaptor. This is an easy and inexpensive solution that will fix this specific problem. But if your panic log is different from then then it's another issue.

  • Thank you so much for your insight, Ben. Indeed, my panic(s) are being caused by the Ethernet interface you mentioned:

    panic(cpu 8 ......(apcie[2:lan-1gb]::handleCompletionTimeoutInterrupt:)

    As my Mac Mini is brand new, I was a bit worried about a possible initial hardware problem - they've packed a very powerful computer in a 5" x 5" box!

    All the best for 2025!

  • In that case, I would suggest obtaining a USB-to-Ethernet adaptor and using this instead of the Mac's built-in Ethernet port (Anker and UGREEN seem to have the best reviews - around $10 on Amazon). It's annoying to have to do this, but it will prevent the problem. I agree - the new M4 Mac minis are fantastic machines, it's a pity about these issues but I hope Apple will fix them at some point!

  • Helped me a lot, reading this. I will get myself an adaptor. But I had an additional issue after these panic calls. The M4 Mini rebooted and both SecuritySpy and Indigo started up. Indigo works fine after such a reboot, thanks to a programmed reset. But the camera’s won’t come online. I have to switch of the access approval to the local network and switch it on again. After this, the camera’s are back. Any suggestions about this?

    Regards

Sign In or Register to comment.