Kernel Panic on start up with PC version Saphire 7950

[chirpie]

Maybe I'm destined to not upgrade my graphic card.

After returning an EVGA GTX680 that showed up with a bad display port, I decided to take a crack at living with a no boot screen image PC card as a start to save some cash.

I have a GT120 and it can be used for boot screen if need be.

Well, I never even got that far. Put the 7950 in, hooked up the six pin x 2 power cables, fired it up with the Monitor connected to the GT120 and all that happens are kernel panics follwed by a restart, followed by an infinite hang.

I was hoping to at least boot up and be able to see the system somewhat recognize the card.... I.E. 7xxx series.

I'm running 10.9.2 but the restart bug with the 7950 and 10.9.2 sounds like it should only happen if you have a monitor plugged into the display port.

Seeing as there's a million variants of the Saphire 7950, did I happen to pick one that is never meant to be used? (Saw a youtube view with it running, so I'd be surprised if that was the case.)

Yet again oh great forum, I come to you for advice.

Thank you kindly!

 

[0x2102]

Do you have any Nvidia web driver installed - maybe CUDA, too? I would try to remove them and see if that helps.

 

[chirpie]

Do you have any Nvidia web driver installed - maybe CUDA, too? I would try to remove them and see if that helps.

Hey, I appreciate the advice. I did have some Nvidia drivers installed.

Ran the uninstaller, did a permission repair, and then restarted.

Darn, still acting up.

See attachments.

It goes in this order in case anyone has ran into this behavior before...

photo attachment 1

photo attachment 2

photo attachment 3

Then freezes on photo attachment 1 again

Never a dull moment when you leave the "walled garden."

 

[666sheep]

It would help if text on second screenshot would be readable...

 

[kennyman]

@chirpie

Try with 7950 only, and connect 1 dvi/monitor.

 

[Robert Davies]

There's a boot loop kernel panic bug when you use a non-efi 7950 with display connected to the displayport.

Plenty of discussions on this subject at Apple Discussions and Netkas.

 

[chirpie]

There's a boot loop kernel panic bug when you use a non-efi 7950 with display connected to the displayport.

Plenty of discussions on this subject at Apple Discussions and Netkas.

Yeah, I read up on those, but this feels different. I have nothing connected to the 7950, only the mini display port on the GT120 and this still happens. (Or does it only matter that I'm using the display port on ANY card?)

Just to make sure, are you referring to the 10.9.2 bug? Thanks!

----------

@chirpie

Try with 7950 only, and connect 1 dvi/monitor.

I don't have a DVI monitor to test at the moment. I tried removing the GT120, and just hooked up the 7950 using HDMI, and nothing ever showed up on the monitor. I'll try a DVI monitor next once I can get my hands on one.

----------

It would help if text on second screenshot would be readable...

Apologies, I'll get a better shot soon. Thanks!

 

[Robert Davies]

Yeah, I read up on those, but this feels different. I have nothing connected to the 7950, only the mini display port on the GT120 and this still happens. (Or does it only matter that I'm using the display port on ANY card?)

Just to make sure, are you referring to the 10.9.2 bug? Thanks!

Sorry, yes, I somehow missed that bit in your original post.

That said, you do have an almost unique setup as far as having an unused AMD 7950 card in your MP alongside an in use NVidia GT120. If you have another Mac handy that runs ML or Mavericks (possibly earlier) turn on screen sharing on your MP and unplug all screens from the MP and reboot - if it reboots fine and you can login from the other Mac, that answers the 'can I plug anything into the GT120's mdp?' question.

 

[chirpie]

Thanks for the ideas everyone. I'll report back on the behavior of each test when I get a second.

Also, see attachments for better photos. (#4 is the crashing text in better detail.)

I tried to make out exactly what it said but I may have mistyped something here...

panic (cpu 8 caller 8xffffff888f6c81bb): “TLB invalidation IPI timeout:” “CPU(s) failed to respond to interrupts, unresponsive CPU bitmap: 0x40, NMIPI acks: orig: 0x0, now: 0x0”0/SourceCashe/xnu/xnu-2422.90.20/osfak/x86/paop.c:26

 

[666sheep]

Very interesting KP. AppleHDA driver, which handles HDMI audio, is crashing. I think that's related to this card's ports layout and their BIOS definitions (esp. HDMI). Try ML or 10.9.1 on another partition/HDD and if you'll get the same result, you'd need to replace the card with dual mDP one.

 

[chirpie]

Hey everyone, I appreciate the ideas. I tried the following:

10.9.1 - No GT120 installed, only 7950 = Not working
10.9.1 - GT120 & 7950 installed = Not working
10.8.5 - No GT120 installed, only 7950 = Not working
10.8.5 - GT120 & 7950 installed = Not working

Tried both DVI and the display port.

All not working.

So anyone looking for a card for their Mac Pro, use this experience to steer you away from the following model:

SAPPHIRE HD Radeon 7950 3GB GDDR5 WITH BOOST
This model has a display port, hdmi port, DVI port, and Dual DVI port. (See photos above)


Next stop? I've bought a MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5/OC BE Radeon HD 7950 with mini display ports. It'll be here maybe by next Tuesday.

We'll see how THAT goes. lol

 

[chirpie]

UPDATE:

The latest card is here and is working. Or at least well enough.

I'm in the boat of people who has their computer restart when you connect to the mini display port, but considering where I've come from, this is quite an improvement. LOL

Everything works in 10.8.5 but the restart bug shows up in 10.9.2

So I can finally hop into the normal line with everyone else. ;-)