5,1 Mac Pro dead after High Sierra

[macmesser]

Im running high sierra on a 4,1. Mine has been firmware flashed to a 5,1 and also had the firmware upgrade that is required to run high sierra.

I am also running High Sierra on a flashed to 5,1 Mac Pro which received the firmware upgrade as well. All seems well with High Sierra. I did need to attempt the firmware upgrade several times before it took, perhaps due to corruption in NVRAM that was fixed with installation. I probably should have reset NVRAM first thing before trying anything else. Suggest the OP try resetting NVRAM, then flashing to 5,1, then installing firmware upgrade, then installing High Sierra, when he's able to restart.
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Before you do a clean install of High Sierra get rid of that garbage OWC SSD and replace it with a Samsung 850 EVO or PRO, or even better a HyperX Predator PCIe.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00V01C6M8/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

That OWC SSD is likely your problem.
Do a clean install on the new SSD (save the old OWC to recover data from) and my guess is you’ll be set.

As others have said, you have a 5,1 and it is an excellent Mac. Do not write it off!

I am using an OWC SSD 250GB boot drive with a similar Mac Pro and have had no problems that I know of which were due to the SSD. I did have to flash the drive quite a while back but don't remember exactly when. The procedure was simple OWC support supplied the necessary files.

 

[fiatlux]

I had a similar issue after the "supplemental" update (build 17A405) arrived - black screen but also endless reboot loop.

In my case it turned out to be a conflict between the nVidia web driver and the update. Since I had no way of booting I could not uninstall the web driver and had to resort to a clean install (the first one in 10y... not a bad idea after all )

Since you've an AMD card, the nVidia web driver is unlikely to be the culprit.

I would proceed this way: reset PRAM/NVRAM, remove all disks with valuable data, and try a clean install on an empty disk, booting from a DVD or USB install disk of MacOS.

 

[SoTex]

I picked up a cheap ATI 4870 to pop in and see if my GPU was burnt out from the excessive reboots. I did that swap today and was able to get the monitor to come on, although it had severe horizontal streaking and flickering. The machine functioned enough that I was able to copy everything off of the startup disc (The OWC SSD) onto a traditional hard drive to preserve that data. I then attempted to restart with Command R to wipe the SSD and do a clean install. Now, I once again get no graphics output to my monitor. To reiterate, I am positive this monitor is not the issue as I can turn around and plug it into a MBP with no issues. Also, all who speculated that I did in fact have a 5,1 were correct. I confirmed that while I had it up and running, and I do have High Sierra 10.13.1 installed.

Any ideas on how to work a clean install without a working graphics output?

 

[JulianBoolean]

Before you do a clean install of High Sierra get rid of that garbage OWC SSD and replace it with a Samsung 850 EVO or PRO, or even better a HyperX Predator PCIe.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00V01C6M8/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

That OWC SSD is likely your problem.
Do a clean install on the new SSD (save the old OWC to recover data from) and my guess is you’ll be set.

As others have said, you have a 5,1 and it is an excellent Mac. Do not write it off!

Hi Squuiid,

Wondering why an OWC SSD is "garbage" compared to a Samsung 850 EVO or Pro? Also, I'm curious if there's something superior about the HyperX Predator PCIe compared to an OWC PCIe Accelsior E2 PCIe?

Not asking to defend any brand loyalty tribalism. Just curious as to what advancements have emerged since I purchased my OWC PCie SSD 3-4 years ago. Also hoping to avoid potential hazards when transitioning from Sierra to HS.

Thanks

 

[h9826790]

Hi Squuiid,

Wondering why an OWC SSD is "garbage" compared to a Samsung 850 EVO or Pro? Also, I'm curious if there's something superior about the HyperX Predator PCIe compared to an OWC PCIe Accelsior E2 PCIe?

Not asking to defend any brand loyalty tribalism. Just curious as to what advancements have emerged since I purchased my OWC PCie SSD 3-4 years ago. Also hoping to avoid potential hazards when transitioning from Sierra to HS.

Thanks

If comparing their spec on their own official web page.

HyperX Predator vs Accelsior E2 (both 960GB)

Real PCIe Gen2 x4 vs SATA (via PCIe Gen2 x2)
Marvell controller vs Problematic SandForce controller
SMART vs No SMART support
TRIM vs No TRIM support
~1350MB/s vs ~680MB/s (Sequential read speed on Mac Pro)
160,000 IOPS vs 100,000 IOPS
work 100% OOTB vs driver required (otherwise, sleep won't work)
No limit in Windows vs only one can be installed in Windows

 

[JulianBoolean]

@h9826790 Thanks for the info, much appreciated. I'll keep the Hyper Predator in mind as a replacement if my OWC PCIe SSD ever becomes problematic or dies on me.
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...It was happily chugging along with no issues running El Capitan until two weeks ago. Two weeks ago we had to update Photoshop to the newest version which required an OS update. After downloading High Sierra ...

Hi SoTex, So many great responses here by folks much more knowledgeable than I. But I'm stuck on your fork in the road where the troubles began. The most current version Of Photoshop was issued in Oct 2017, it's the 19.0 release, and will read " Adobe Photoshop CC 2018" upon loading. Photoshop CC 2018 will run on High Sierra, Sierra, and El Cap.

• System requirements | October 2017 (19.0) release of Photoshop CC

Applies to: Photoshop Photoshop CC
Last Published: December 6, 2017

System requirements | October 2017 (19.0) release of Photoshop CC

• Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support
  
• macOS version 10.13 (High Sierra), macOS version 10.12 (Sierra), or Mac OS X version 10.11 (El Capitan)
  
• 2 GB or more of RAM (8 GB recommended)
• 4 GB or more of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system)
• 1024 x 768 display (1280x800 recommended) with 16-bit color and 512 MB or more of dedicated VRAM; 2 GB is recommended*
• OpenGL 2.0-capable system
• Internet connection and registration are necessary for required software activation, membership validation, and access to online services.**

 

[Squuiid]

Hi Squuiid,

Wondering why an OWC SSD is "garbage" compared to a Samsung 850 EVO or Pro? Also, I'm curious if there's something superior about the HyperX Predator PCIe compared to an OWC PCIe Accelsior E2 PCIe?

Not asking to defend any brand loyalty tribalism. Just curious as to what advancements have emerged since I purchased my OWC PCie SSD 3-4 years ago. Also hoping to avoid potential hazards when transitioning from Sierra to HS.

Thanks

As H98 has laid out very clearly, OWC is inferior in every way possible.
My main issue with OWC SSDs is that they use Sandforce controllers which are just not fit for purpose. If you’re dealing with compressed media, such as video, then you will see very poor write speeds.
Overall they’re just an unreliable mess IMO.

 

[JulianBoolean]

As H98 has laid out very clearly, OWC is inferior in every way possible.
My main issue with OWC SSDs is that they use Sandforce controllers which are just not fit for purpose. If you’re dealing with compressed media, such as video, then you will see very poor speeds.
Overall they’re just an unreliable mess IMO.

Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it. I don't do video work, which is likely why the OWC PCIE SSD seems fine to me. None of my CGI apps or photoshop really use/acess my boot drive. Photoshop will use it as a scratch disk after RAM tops out, and if I set the application prefs that way.

 

[DearthnVader]

I picked up a cheap ATI 4870 to pop in and see if my GPU was burnt out from the excessive reboots. I did that swap today and was able to get the monitor to come on, although it had severe horizontal streaking and flickering. The machine functioned enough that I was able to copy everything off of the startup disc (The OWC SSD) onto a traditional hard drive to preserve that data. I then attempted to restart with Command R to wipe the SSD and do a clean install. Now, I once again get no graphics output to my monitor. To reiterate, I am positive this monitor is not the issue as I can turn around and plug it into a MBP with no issues. Also, all who speculated that I did in fact have a 5,1 were correct. I confirmed that while I had it up and running, and I do have High Sierra 10.13.1 installed.

Any ideas on how to work a clean install without a working graphics output?

Did you try and reset the NVRam/PRam?

Command+Option+P+R when you power on the Mac, hold it until you hear three chimes.

After that, if you still get no video, start unplugging drives, and anything else that can be unplugged to see if you have a piece of hardware that has failed.

I'd say try and boot holding the Option key to get to the Apple Boot Selector screen.

Just off hand, if it's not the video card, then I would say check the Ram, remove all but one stick.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Not sure if you’ve recovered your machine yet, but I was wondering if you have the supplemental power connected on your graphics card. It’s a 6pin cable that connects what is likely a Radeon 5770 to the system board. There is a second port on the system board that you might try plugging that cable into. It’s a long shot, but maybe there is an issue with the 5770 getting enough power from that plug. Probably won’t make a difference, but it’s not much trouble to give it a try.

 

[stix666]

I have a similar problem with a 5:1 Mac. This has 2 Samsung evos in a RAID as the OS via PCIE. However, I also have startup disks in the SATA II slots and also an external USB drive with HS installed (created using 'Install Disk Creator')

Connected to the 4k monitor, the screen stays blank
Connected to a mini projector, I get a 720p output which shows the apple splash screen.

I have reset PRAM, NVRAm.
I have tried booting in recovery mode and to to get the boot selector screen but these don't appear to work. It remains on the apple splash screen with no boot progress. I have the stock graphics card (Radeon 5770)

Any ideas? Sorry to hijack thread but problem does seem similar.

In the past I upgraded the OS on a non-RAID disk and CCC to the PCIE raid afterwards. This time, I can't get theat option.