MBP 1,1-10,2 Force 2011 MacBook Pro 8,2 with failed AMD GPU to ALWAYS use Intel integrated GPU (EFI variable fix)

[JasonB824]

In which "Extensions folder" are you looking?
If the the iGPU-NVRAM variable is set to correct values and AMDRadeonX3000.kext is not in /System/Library/Extensions then you should be able to boot into the full OS.

Please re-check in your safe-boot Terminal.
Type:

$ sudo nvram boot-args="-v"
# to enable verbose boot

$ /usr/bin/find /System/Library/Ext* -iname AMDRadeonX3*
# to find the troublemake kext

If that doesn't turn up anything, take a bit of time and wait for the following command to finish:
$ /usr/bin/find / -iname AMDRadeonX3000.kext

Memorize the output of the above command for the location as /path/to/your/kext.
The hang on boot is likely because the X3000 kext is present in a folder where it is auto-loaded at boot.

--> If SIP is currently enabled, and let's just assume it is:
Boot into SingleUserRecovery: holding <Cmd>+<r>+<s> on system start.
Type:
$ csrutil disable
$ reboot
Boot into SingleUser: <Cmd>+<s> on system start.
$ mount -uw /
$ mv /path/to/your/kext/AMDRadeonX3000.kext /AMD_KEXTS/
#### adjust the paths to what you found above and to what you did 2 months ago; after 10.12.6 update the /path/to/your/kext/AMDRadeonX3000.kext will very likely be: /System/Library/Extensions/AMDRadeonX3000.kext

$ sync
$ reboot

You should now boot verbose mode into an iGPU accelerated Sierra normal full boot.

Thank you! I figured out the issue. Your post gave me the idea. I did find the x3000 in extensions, but could only see it with the find command for whatever reason.

So now I knew my problem. Despite what I was typing, it was not moving. I was trying to move it to the directory I created two months ago. I thought maybe it is refusing to overwrite and not moving. I created a new directory. I moved the file there. I confirmed it moved with a find command.

I restarted once (in verbose), made it past the lock screen freeze, but then it rebooted. On the next go I got into OS X without safe mode!

Thank you to everyone that helped. I've also learned a ton about unix commands from you all.

I reactivated SIP and restarted and it works again.

 

[CatapultJesus]

So I'm in almost the exact same boat as Jason above, though he fixed his.

I did the steps on page 5, worked like a dream for a while, then for some damn reason or another I was updated and my computer will no longer boot. The funny thing is my computer worked fine after the initial update and reboot; it's rebooting the system again a few days later that this happened. The difference is I can't even boot into safe mode. In verbose, safe mode, or regular boot, it gets right up to where I should be logging in but just hangs at the slightly darkened Grey screen for a while, fans speed up, computer reboots. Repeat.

I did the steps posted one page earlier. Went in, searched for the kexts, moved it to another directory... But the same thing keeps happening. I'm not sure what else to try.

I'd even be happy to do an erase and install if you believe that's an option to get me back to square one. Booting into command+r does the same thing, and unfortunately I'm without internet at home at the moment so internet recovery is not an option for the next few days, if that would even work.

Any advice to help? I'd be happy to share more specific info if you can point me in the right direction.

 

[JasonB824]

So I'm in almost the exact same boat as Jason above, though he fixed his.

I did the steps on page 5, worked like a dream for a while, then for some damn reason or another I was updated and my computer will no longer boot. The funny thing is my computer worked fine after the initial update and reboot; it's rebooting the system again a few days later that this happened. The difference is I can't even boot into safe mode. In verbose, safe mode, or regular boot, it gets right up to where I should be logging in but just hangs at the slightly darkened Grey screen for a while, fans speed up, computer reboots. Repeat.

I did the steps posted one page earlier. Went in, searched for the kexts, moved it to another directory... But the same thing keeps happening. I'm not sure what else to try.

I'd even be happy to do an erase and install if you believe that's an option to get me back to square one. Booting into command+r does the same thing, and unfortunately I'm without internet at home at the moment so internet recovery is not an option for the next few days, if that would even work.

Any advice to help? I'd be happy to share more specific info if you can point me in the right direction.

Did you disable SIP? If so and you did all those, trying make a brand new backup directory. Then use that mv command and at the end insert the name of the new directory. That is what worked for me. I had one boot up loop and then it has been working fine since.

 

[CatapultJesus]

Did you disable SIP? If so and you did all those, trying make a brand new backup directory. Then use that mv command and at the end insert the name of the new directory. That is what worked for me. I had one boot up loop and then it has been working fine since.

I don't remember doing anything with SIP back when doing this a couple months back, with those page 5 commands. But yes, I disabled SIP when doing the commands recommended to you a page back. And I had the same issue as well, so I made a new back up directory, moved the new kext to that, confirmed it was there, rebooted... But I'm still in a boot loop.

 

[JasonB824]

I don't remember doing anything with SIP back when doing this a couple months back, with those page 5 commands. But yes, I disabled SIP when doing the commands recommended to you a page back. And I had the same issue as well, so I made a new back up directory, moved the new kext to that, confirmed it was there, rebooted... But I'm still in a boot loop.

I also redid the

sudo nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

Reboot

In single user mode (with sip disabled)

After this I have no ideas left.

 

[CatapultJesus]

I also redid the

sudo nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

Reboot

In single user mode (with sip disabled)

After this I have no ideas left.

Yeah, I did that as well. Issue persists, sadly.

 

[MikeyN]

The difference is I can't even boot into safe mode. In verbose, safe mode, or regular boot, it gets right up to where I should be logging in but just hangs at the slightly darkened Grey screen for a while, fans speed up, computer reboots. Repeat.

I did the steps posted one page earlier. Went in, searched for the kexts, moved it to another directory... But the same thing keeps happening. I'm not sure what else to try.

I'd even be happy to do an erase and install if you believe that's an option to get me back to square one. Booting into command+r does the same thing, and unfortunately I'm without internet at home at the moment so internet recovery is not an option for the next few days, if that would even work.

Any advice to help? I'd be happy to share more specific info if you can point me in the right direction.

This sounds weird. SingleUser mode (<Cmd>+<s> on boot) is the most basic mode there is? If SafeMode works, SingleUser should also.

Yeah, I did that as well. Issue persists, sadly.

If the issue is now constant reboots under Sierra or High Sierra and you really made sure all of the steps from the different guides were completed successfully (that is: SMC rest, PRAM reset, nvram variables applied [gpu-power-pref and boot-args="-v" ! for the annoying variable: try the shortcut script from #572] and AMDRadeonX3000.kext moved):
These overheating-hang-reboots can happen under 10.12 and 10.13 when the system tries to load AMDRadeonX3000.kext at boot.

–– Really make sure where on your system AMDRadeonX3000.kext is located! ––

The boot-reboot-loop can happen with kernelcache and/or kextcache being out-of-sync, corrupted or absent. The system is supposed to self correct this and be just a bit slower on boot but – obviously it fails sometimes.
So try this first:
In whatever boot mode (SIP disabled) you can boot your normal system partition:
sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions
and wait for the system to finish rebuilding it. (Process kextcache in top or Activity Monitor) Only then reboot.

If the issue is still not fixed try to prepare an external boot drive apply the hack and see if it persists there.

 

[CatapultJesus]

This sounds weird. SingleUser mode (<Cmd>+<s> on boot) is the most basic mode there is? If SafeMode works, SingleUser should also.



If the issue is now constant reboots under Sierra or High Sierra and you really made sure all of the steps from the different guides were completed successfully (that is: SMC rest, PRAM reset, nvram variables applied [gpu-power-pref and boot-args="-v" ! for the annoying variable: try the shortcut script from #572] and AMDRadeonX3000.kext moved):
These overheating-hang-reboots can happen under 10.12 and 10.13 when the system tries to load AMDRadeonX3000.kext at boot.

–– Really make sure where on your system AMDRadeonX3000.kext is located! ––

The boot-reboot-loop can happen with kernelcache and/or kextcache being out-of-sync, corrupted or absent. The system is supposed to self correct this and be just a bit slower on boot but – obviously it fails sometimes.
So try this first:
In whatever boot mode (SIP disabled) you can boot your normal system partition:
sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions
and wait for the system to finish rebuilding it. (Process kextcache in top or Activity Monitor) Only then reboot.

If the issue is still not fixed try to prepare an external boot drive apply the hack and see if it persists there.

Perhaps I was unclear. Single user works, but safe boot (shift) does not.

I'm fairly certain I followed all the steps and that my kext is in a new directory, but I will definitely go through it all again, including what you recommend above.

It'll be a few hours before I can get back to my computer and try this out. Perhaps an interesting note, I noticed an error with something along the lines of bootcache whenever I boot through verbose mode. I don't know if that means anything, and unfortunately again it'll be a few hours until I can try it again and see exactly what it says . Is that something I should check into and report back with?

 

[CatapultJesus]

This sounds weird. SingleUser mode (<Cmd>+<s> on boot) is the most basic mode there is? If SafeMode works, SingleUser should also.



If the issue is now constant reboots under Sierra or High Sierra and you really made sure all of the steps from the different guides were completed successfully (that is: SMC rest, PRAM reset, nvram variables applied [gpu-power-pref and boot-args="-v" ! for the annoying variable: try the shortcut script from #572] and AMDRadeonX3000.kext moved):
These overheating-hang-reboots can happen under 10.12 and 10.13 when the system tries to load AMDRadeonX3000.kext at boot.

–– Really make sure where on your system AMDRadeonX3000.kext is located! ––

The boot-reboot-loop can happen with kernelcache and/or kextcache being out-of-sync, corrupted or absent. The system is supposed to self correct this and be just a bit slower on boot but – obviously it fails sometimes.
So try this first:
In whatever boot mode (SIP disabled) you can boot your normal system partition:
sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions
and wait for the system to finish rebuilding it. (Process kextcache in top or Activity Monitor) Only then reboot.

If the issue is still not fixed try to prepare an external boot drive apply the hack and see if it persists there.

I went through the whole process again. I believe I must have messed up the variable before, because doing it again now and my computer boots fine. I'm sorry to take your time for what was likely my error, but thank you very much for helping.

 

[PL123434]

hello, I'm new to this forum, and I just wanted to tell how i did this one, i tried the same as it said in the thread, but couldn't find the .kext files

so what i did, was install linux ubuntu, and to install it i had to use "no graphics" nomodeset=0, and "acpi=off" to be able to boot, and after install, i just thought "lets try this one" so i added, instead of nomodeset=0, i added radeon.nomodeset=0 and This "quickened" the mac up a bit, cause it was very slow, or actually it was quite fast
after having done that, i thought "ill just try to boot it up through osx" which did not work before, just had a white screen, after having booted ubuntu with the radeon.nomodeset=0, the mac booted up osx, i just wanted to share it, so that people with a macbook pro 2011, could try it out, this worked for me, and I'm not able to use the Mac, before i couldn't use the graphics card. the radeon 6750M , the thing was, while installing osx, i had this screen thing, it was really dark, not as usual, but exactly before login, it said "you need to restart" this changed it back to normal, somehow..

Thx for the thread, ! i hope this helps some
if it didn't already, i mean through the thread.

 

[MikeyN]

hello, I'm new to this forum, and I just wanted to tell how i did this one, i tried the same as it said in the thread, but couldn't find the .kext files

so what i did, was install linux ubuntu, and to install it i had to use "no graphics" nomodeset=0, and "acpi=off" to be able to boot, and after install, i just thought "lets try this one" so i added, instead of nomodeset=0, i added radeon.nomodeset=0 and This "quickened" the mac up a bit, cause it was very slow, or actually it was quite fast
after having done that, i thought "ill just try to boot it up through osx" which did not work before, just had a white screen, after having booted ubuntu with the radeon.nomodeset=0, the mac booted up osx, i just wanted to share it, so that people with a macbook pro 2011, could try it out, this worked for me, and I'm not able to use the Mac, before i couldn't use the graphics card. the radeon 6750M , the thing was, while installing osx, i had this screen thing, it was really dark, not as usual, but exactly before login, it said "you need to restart" this changed it back to normal, somehow..

Thx for the thread, ! i hope this helps some
if it didn't already, i mean through the thread.

This seems to lack some very nice and important details. Which OSX?
Where do you set these variables?
As a kernel-line in grub? In WHAT boot-loader? (Please keep descriptions to "verbose mode" –…)

If that travels back to booting OS X or macOS it might be very interesting.
Does it survive two reboots in a row from OSX to OSX?

 

[PL123434]

it was "Lion", and yes 2 reboots ive installed Windows also, it was only The radeon.nomodeset=0 that Made it, through single-verbose i couldnt Mount hdd, + AMD_Kexts was missing that why i tried radeon.nomodeset=0 actually it was While in Ubuntu 16.04 and I booted with acpi=off and nomodeset without radeon. While in Ubuntu thats when i changed.

 

[mdossett]

Thank you so much for posting this! You saved my life! I was using my brother's old computer which was about to die and I didn't have the money for a new computer. This totally worked for my MacBook Pro late 2011. Thank you again!

 

[PL123434]

cool

 

[mac_4eva]

Do not modify the AGPM.

Are you having this error with an external gpu connected to Macbook Pro? Or is this error only with the Intel and Nvidia GPUs?

My starting point for the IOScreenLockState IOConsoleUsers was that after the sudo nvram GUID: gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00, I realized that the Recovery Mode Graphical Interface worked correctly.

So I ran the ioreg command and saw the AMD kexts loaded.

For the Nvidia video card there must be something more because it has something with NVArch and also DeviceID.

Recovery Mode:

ioreg | grep -i nvdia

ioreg | grep -i nvda

ioreg | grep -i GK107M

ioreg | grep -i 0fe9


You have to compare the Recovery Mode kexts and the kexts of your Mac OS installed on the hard disk.

Recovery Mode -> OS Base System -> /System/Library/Extensions

Mac OS installed hard disk -> /System/Library/Extensions

Recovery mode has fewer Nvidia kexts. If the graphic interface works, then you have to focus on these kexts.

Normal boot:

grep -Ril nvda /System/Library/Extensions/

/System/Library/Extensions//AppleVADriver.bundle/Contents/MacOS/AVA_HD_VP3.dylib


Open the file AVA_HD_VP3.dylib with TextEdit and you will see several references to NVDA and Nvidia.

I do not know if this file might be the problem.


Dylib = dynamic library

Comparing the kexts in recovery versus standard macOS - I noticed that GeForce kexts were absent in recovery. To corroborate this, I removed all GeForce kexts from macOS - and it booted successfully. Therefore, I was able to narrow down the issue to a few kexts - as you suggested. These kexts are all of the NVDA*.kext files. Unfortunately, removing just these kexts results in the same error as before. I just have to wonder what has changed exactly since Beta 4 to cause this. Hopefully some in-progress thing.

 

[alembic]

On a side note, I've been using a Thunderbolt-DVI adapter to connect an external monitor. Once the dGPU is disabled, is the Thunderbolt port effectively unavailable? or can it be used for other data transfer purposes? When I look at System Profiler, I can see a port status of "No devices connected" for the Thunderbolt section. Does this mean the port is still functioning?

 

[yukari]

On a side note, I've been using a Thunderbolt-DVI adapter to connect an external monitor. Once the dGPU is disabled, is the Thunderbolt port effectively unavailable? or can it be used for other data transfer purposes? When I look at System Profiler, I can see a port status of "No devices connected" for the Thunderbolt section. Does this mean the port is still functioning?

More importantly, if dGPU is disabled, can you still use eGPU through the TB1 port? If that is possible, it would be great to permanently disable dGPU and still use external monitor through eGPU.

 

[MikeyN]

On a side note, I've been using a Thunderbolt-DVI adapter to connect an external monitor. Once the dGPU is disabled, is the Thunderbolt port effectively unavailable? or can it be used for other data transfer purposes? When I look at System Profiler, I can see a port status of "No devices connected" for the Thunderbolt section. Does this mean the port is still functioning?

Thunderbolt for data is still available.
Only Graphics output is effectively disabled.

 

[alembic]

I tried a Thunderbolt-Ethernet adapter to test the port. The dGPU-disabled MBP failed to establish a connection to my router but my MBA worked fine. Drats.

 

[yukari]

I tried a Thunderbolt-Ethernet adapter to test the port. The dGPU-disabled MBP failed to establish a connection to my router but my MBA worked fine. Drats.

I guess that mean neither data nor graphic output is available once dGPU has been disabled.
Ugh.

 

[alembic]

I guess that mean neither data nor graphic output is available once dGPU has been disabled.

I'm not sure. This laptop is running Snow Leopard. I'm going to update it to Sierra in a couple weeks and then I'll check the Thunderbolt port again.

 

[Simone2309]

Firs of all thank you for all the work done.

I did all the steps and now I can at least start my OS. I have an early 2011 with the Sierra, last update.
The only problem is when I log in with my account it freeze and then reboot.

It weird that with a guess account seams that is working, but I cannot access to my stuff in the SSD and trying to open gfxCardStatus it freeze too.

I tryied with the terminal in recovery mode to eliminate the AMD Kexts, but is not working, any idea?
Thanks

 

[alembic]

I did all the steps and now I can at least start my OS. I have an early 2011 with the Sierra, last update.
The only problem is when I log in with my account it freeze and then reboot.

Please perform a safe boot (hold Shift key when MBP reboots) and see if you can login to your normal account. Also, did you follow the steps in post #528? or in post #1?

 

[nsgr]

I installed the latest security update from El Capitan 10.11.6 and realized that the Macbook Pro did not freeze on the IOConsoleUsers ScreenLockState.

I did the install by the App Store -> Updates.

The AMDRadeonX3000.kext was placed back in /System/Library/Extensions.

I realized that the AMDRadeonX3000.kext (updated) did not have the file Info.plist and so it was not loaded in the reboot (rebuild cache) and did not freeze the Macbook Pro.

I downloaded secupd2017-003elcapitan.dmg, mounted the dmg image, and then opened the PKG file with the Pacifist. Yes, within AMDRadeonX3000.kext there is no Info.plist file.

Did Apple do it on purpose or was it a mistake?

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1932?locale=en_US


Update:

I manually loaded the AMDRadeonX3000.kext (folder /DisableExtensions) and temperature decreased. This kext is previous to the kext of the last update.

 

[nsgr]

Comparing the kexts in recovery versus standard macOS - I noticed that GeForce kexts were absent in recovery. To corroborate this, I removed all GeForce kexts from macOS - and it booted successfully. Therefore, I was able to narrow down the issue to a few kexts - as you suggested. These kexts are all of the NVDA*.kext files. Unfortunately, removing just these kexts results in the same error as before. I just have to wonder what has changed exactly since Beta 4 to cause this. Hopefully some in-progress thing.

Apple adds external GPU support, now selling $599 VR development kit

https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/5/1...pu-vr-development-macos-high-sierra-wwdc-2017

https://developer.apple.com/development-kit/external-graphics/


Update:

I'll focus on AppleGraphicsPowerManagement.kext. I think this kext can solve the problem of lowering the temperature of the AMD video card without having to load AMDRadeonX3000.kext.

There are differences between Nvidia and AMD in the configurations.
Changing the values you can also reduce Nvidia's power consumption.

Get rid of OSX lag and run your Macbook Pro GPU at full speed
http://www.chromescreen.com/get-rid-of-osx-lag-and-run-your-macbook-pro-gpu-at-full-speed/