macOS High Sierra: parts of the UI not rendering

[EagleEYErus]

• VSCode Version: 1.16.1
• OS Version: macOS High Sierra 10.13

Steps to Reproduce:

Interface crashes when I open a file in the project folder tree.

Reproduces without extensions: Not Tested

[isidorn]

Can you reproduce this with vscode insiders? https://code.visualstudio.com/Insiders/

[EagleEYErus]

@isidorn I will try, but I have not yet understood the sequence of steps to cause the crash. This happens randomly.

[isidorn]

@EagleEYErus without the sequence of steps there is not much we can do

[chasegiunta]

I’ve also recently had this begin happening after update to High Sierra, though it’s not specific to opening a file in tree. Completely random. It also appears to happen on other electron apps (Slack) though I haven’t been able to track down an electron issue for it anywhere yet.

[chasegiunta]

@EagleEYErus are you using an external monitor by chance? Is it high dpi?

[bpasero]

@chasegiunta does it make a difference if you run "code --disable-gpu" from the command line?

[elijnzaad]

I've experienced similar problems since upgrading to High Sierra. After a while the screen goes to a screen like EagleEYErus's. The after a minute or so it gradually comes back to life. I am using a MacBook Pro with a 4K external monitor, but I've experienced the same problems while not using the monitor.

Running "open Visual\ Studio\ Code.app --args --disable-gpu" from the terminal seems to have fixed the problem. It is running trouble-free for about an hour now.

[bpasero]

@EagleEYErus @elijnzaad does it run any better with our insiders build (NOT using --disable-gpu): http://code.visualstudio.com/Download#insiders

[elijnzaad]

No, it doesn't. Although I'm not sure I actually got the insiders build. I did follow your link, but the 'about' still shows 1.16.1.

[bpasero]

@elijnzaad sorry, bad link: https://code.visualstudio.com/insiders/

[elijnzaad]

I'm sorry, but the insiders build does have the same problem as the production build. It didn't take me more than 2 minutes. The screenshot shows the first thing I did, which is adjusting the user settings.

[EagleEYErus]

@chasegiunta I did not use external monitors at the time the error was received. The first time a bug appeared on the MacOS High Sierra on the MacBook Air 13' 2013. For one development session, UI crashed several times. Then I ran into this problem yesterday on my iMac 27' late 2013. Then I tried to cause the error intentionally, but I did not find the sequence of steps, although it arose again when I changed the application window, but when I tried to repeat these actions nothing happened. I do not remember exactly, but the discord also seemed to give out this crash.

[EagleEYErus]

@elijnzaad UI after the crash was restored only once otherwise I had to restart the application

[EagleEYErus]

@elijnzaad Don't you have extensions for the insider version?

[bpasero]

@EagleEYErus @elijnzaad does this only reproduce on external monitor or also on the macbook pro screen? for external monitor, are they 4k/5k monitors?

[elijnzaad]

@EagleEYErus I actually hadn't done anything in the insider build. I downloaded it, started it and selected Preferences -> User settings from the menu. That's all, no extensions.

[EagleEYErus]

@bpasero I did not use external monitors during the crash, and, as I wrote above, the maximum resolution of all the devices I use is 2560x1440

The first time a bug appeared on the MacOS High Sierra on the MacBook Air 13' 2013. For one development session, UI crashed several times. Then I ran into this problem yesterday on my iMac 27' late 2013.

[elijnzaad]

@bpasero I did use a Philips BDM4037U 4K external monitor. I'm currently running VSCode Insider without the external monitor on a MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1 GB Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB. So far no problems yet.

[bpasero]

@EagleEYErus on what device are you seeing this currently?

@elijnzaad and this is without using --disable-gpu right?

[EagleEYErus]

@bpasero This screenshot I made on iMac 27-inch (2560 x 1440) late 2013 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M 2 ГБ

[elijnzaad]

@bpasero Yes, I'm running VSCode Insider without --disable-gpu and without the external monitor. No problems yet.

[EagleEYErus]

@bpasero Again, this error occurred a few hours ago on iMac, UI crashed when I changed tab and recovered in a few seconds.

[bpasero]

@EagleEYErus so this issue goes away after some second back to a functional UI, is that true?

[EagleEYErus]

@bpasero Last time, yes, but not always.

[bpasero]

Can someone capture a video when this happens and attach it? I would just like to understand how this surfaces.

[EagleEYErus]

@bpasero I found an excerpt from my stream (music plays loudly) https://clips.twitch.tv/AbnegateEndearingAnisePRChase

[chasegiunta]

If it's relevant for graphic driver issues, using MBPro Retina (Late 2013) NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB / Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB. High Sierra - using a High DPI external display, but happens on both screens.

Does go away after some 2-30 seconds. Typically hovering the mouse over the UI helps after some time. Hiding / Minimizing the window and bringing back has no effect in resolving.

Just started today but will report back if I continue to see the issue when running with --disable-gpu.

[bpasero]

@EagleEYErus thanks. It looks awfully like https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/25934 which was fixed by a Chrome fix we took in where the GPU buffer was running out of memory.

Does it help to set "editor.disableTranslate3d": true ?

[bpasero]

@EagleEYErus @chasegiunta @elijnzaad here are a couple of things to try out to see if it improves the situation:

• run code --disable-gpu-rasterization
• run code --disable-mac-overlays
• run code --force_integrated_gpu

[elijnzaad]

@bpasero VSCode 1.16.1 with "editor.disableTranslate3d": true is running fine for an hour now (on the 40-inch Philips monitor).

[elijnzaad]

@bpasero Would you like us to try out the flags one-by-one to see which one does the trick?

[bpasero]

@elijnzaad yeah that would be nice. Thanks for doing this.

[EagleEYErus]

@bpasero Is it normal that the VSCode says that the property editor.disableTranslate3d was not found: "Unknown configuration setting"

[bpasero]

@EagleEYErus sorry for that, I forgot that we took out the setting disableTranslate3d some releases ago. Still, the test with the other command line flags would be interesting to do.

[EagleEYErus]

@bpasero Well, I'll try now with the flag code --disable-gpu-rasterization. After restarting the VSCode, does the app start without flags in normal mode?

[bpasero]

@EagleEYErus no unfortunately not, these flags need to be provided on startup. I fear there would not even be a simple way for us to make this configurable via settings...

[elijnzaad]

@bpasero code 1.16.1 --disable-gpu-rasterization runs fine so far. Will now try --disable-mac-overlays

[EagleEYErus]

@bpasero worked with the flag --disable-gpu-rasterization for about an hour and a half, everything worked well too. Will try code --force_integrated_gpu

[elijnzaad]

@bpasero code 1.16.1 -disable-mac-overlays does run without the major blackouts, but it is more sluggish and sometimes it makes the windows flicker. This is not my favourite option so far. Will now try --force_integrated_gpu (I presume you do mean underscore characters there)

[EagleEYErus]

@bpasero code --force_integrated_gpu start and immediately crash

[elijnzaad]

@bpasero Confirmed. --force_integrated_gpu causes problems on my system as well.

[bpasero]

@EagleEYErus @elijnzaad and whats the exact hardware this is on (e.g. which hardware model and year?). Maybe this issue only shows up for very specific GPUs.

I am now also on high sierra and so far have not seen any issues.

[elijnzaad]

@bpasero
Laptop: MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), Processor 2,6 GHz Intel Core i7, Memory 16Gb RAM 1600 Mhz DDR3, Graphics NVIDIA GeForcte GT 650M 1 GB, Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536Mb

Monitor: 2017 Philips BDM4037U 40-inch 4K, running at 30Ghz connected via HDMI

[EagleEYErus]

@bpasero iMac: iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), Processor 3,4 GHz Intel Core i5, Memory 16Gb 1600 MHz DDR3, Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 775M 2Gb

MacBook: MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013), Processor 1,3 GHz Intel Core i5, Memory 4Gb 1600 MHz DDR3, Graphics Intel HD Graphics 5000 1536Mb

On both computers, I encountered a crash

[chasegiunta]

Macbook Pro (Retina, Late 2013) Processor 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 Memory 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB, Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

Late to the replies here, but as the others have echoed, it doesn't occur with --disable-gpu . Will attempt the other flags today.

[elijnzaad]

@bpasero VSCode 1.16.1 seems to be running fine without any flags on my iMac 5K 27inch late 2014, 4Ghz Intel Core i7, 32Gb 1600MHz DDR3, AMD Radeon R9 M290X 2GB. So perhaps you are right in thinking that it is hardware related.

[bpasero]

At first I was thinking it could be the integrated GPU on the Macs, but given https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/35527#issuecomment-334469117 on an iMac where afaik there is only a single GPU, this theory seems wrong.

GPUs:

• Integrated: Intel HD Graphics 4000, Intel HD Graphics 5000, Intel Iris Pro 5200
• Discrete:  Nvidia Geforce GT 650M, Nvidia Geforce GTX 775M, Nvidia Geforce GTX 750M

So far the only pattern I can see that it happens with Macs before 2014'ish.

[EagleEYErus]

@bpasero I don't know if this information will be useful, but I just got exactly the same problem in the discord

[chasegiunta]

I also experience it in Slack (another Electron app).

[EagleEYErus]

@chasegiunta can there be an error in the electron?