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Mac Pro 2,8 GTX 960 boot issue

Drivers get turned off with an NVRAM reset. Much easier to troubleshot with an EFI 2600xt or GT120

Drivers are key, also being able to try different output ports. We are finding many 750ti cards that have limited or broken screen output. Have an Asus here that works fine on VGA, but nothing else.
 
Ok, So i've wiped the machine reinstalled the OSX i'm running on Yosemite 10.10.5.

I've found what i believe to be the correct driver for this update: 346.02.03f01.

When i check on the Nvidia Driver Manager under the ECC tab i find my GTX 960 which is in slot 1 (and not running) it's listed as: pci10de,fba. The other driver which is my original one i have in slot 4 it reads: ATI Radeon HD 2600. Both are NOT ECC support, but i think thats normal, right?

When i check in my system report under the graphics/displays it finds both my cards
1: ATI Radeon HD 2600
2: NVIDIA Chip Model

The ATI has a lot more info than the NVIDIA model for example it gives me a displays list whereas the NVIDIA chip model only gives me a list from the Chipset Model to the ROM Revision.

I have all the right power connectors as mentioned in previous posts yet every time i power the machine the GTX stops running after about 30 seconds and i get no booting from it what so ever and even when my old card is in with it the thing doesn't spin.

I have tried both VGA and HDMI all to no avail. Is there something i've missed in order for it to run? are all those read outs correct? Have i even got the right driver.. I'm pulling my hair out :(
 
If you click invthe NVIDIA icon on top right of screen, what does it indicate?

Is card fully powered?

You shouldn't be looking at ECC tab, you should be looking at driver or updates tab.

Fans turning off is actually normal on Maxwell Dual Fan 970/980/Ti, etc.

It's a feature, card is silent until needed.

Keep in mind, doing a PRAM or NVRAM reset turns the driver off.

It has been found that many 750 cards have output issues in OSX, perhaps you have found a 960 that does too.

But I really thought that 960 knew its name by now. Whenever I get an email like this I always say "drivers or power"
 
MacVidCards said:
If you click invthe NVIDIA icon on top right of screen, what does it indicate?

Is card fully powered?

You shouldn't be looking at ECC tab, you should be looking at driver or updates tab.

Fans turning off is actually normal on Maxwell Dual Fan 970/980/Ti, etc.

It's a feature, card is silent until needed.

Keep in mind, doing a PRAM or NVRAM reset turns the driver off.

It has been found that many 750 cards have output issues in OSX, perhaps you have found a 960 that does too.

But I really thought that 960 knew its name by now. Whenever I get an email like this I always say "drivers or power"
Click to expand...

When i click the top right of the screen it indicates NVIDA Web Driver (has a tick next to it)

The card has two cables running to it, two mini 6 pin to 6 pin going into the Y connector supplied with the card.

Ok, but the Mac still doesn't seem to know the name of the card as you pointed out.

I'm having a few issues with a PRAM reset i think my keyboard is not messing up because i'm not getting the same results most do when they try this reset (i watched tutorials etc) I'm going to try with an old USB PC keyboard hopefully i'll have some luck.

I've just installed the CUDA Drivers and updated it still nothing sadly.

I hope i've not got myself a card that doesn't want to work, i think Amazon will take it back though but i really need to machine up and a running as i have work to do on it that standard graphics card doesn't allow me to do.

EDIT

SOLVED, After managed to reset the PRAM it updated the cuda driver and found the card right away and booted with success.

Thanks for all your help i'd have been lost without you and everyone else who's helped :D
 
Last edited:
Not clear about the power. What power ports are on the card exactly and how are you connecting them?

After every PRAM reset you need to go in and turn the web driver back on.

Best case is to have a working EFI card to "see" from. 2nd best is to enable screen sharing so you can diagnose from another machine
 
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MacVidCards said:
Not clear about the power. What power ports are on the card exactly and how are you connecting them?

After every PRAM reset you need to go in and turn the web driver back on.

Best case is to have a working EFI card to "see" from. 2nd best is to enable screen sharing so you can diagnose from another machine
Click to expand...

You must have missed my Edit, it's working after i reset the PRAM and turned the web driver back on, after i booted the Mac on the old card i got a prompt from the Cuda driver to up date, i did so checked the settings and there was the name of my card and i've just booted it up through HDMI and it worked as expected.

Thanks ever so much :D
 
Hello,

I have quite a similar problem, i have a gtx980 plugged on my mid 2010 mac pro, that i used to replaced my old 5870 from ATI (card i don't have anymore)

I recently bought an SSD on which i wanted to install Yosemite. I downloaded the installer from the Apple store and when it came to complete the installation, it asks you to restart your computer. I followed the instruction and restarted my computer.

I precised that everything used to work fine my graphic card was being detected by Yosemite.

Problems begins : As i don't have a "mac edition" graphic card i got stuck on a black screen, because i don't have the boot screen anymore, and the installation have never been completed, moreover i could not simply start my computer on my normal hardrive where i have my os operating system installed.

Firstly i reset the PRAM, but it kept restarting infinetly.
Ive been looking for an answer on another forum and one person told me to start my mac pro in target disk mode and use another computer to install a copy of Yosemite on the SSD i orginally wanted to install the operating system.

I indeed used my old mac book pro as a host to run my mac pro as a target in order to install Yosemite on my SSD, which worked fine. Then i installed the nvidia web drivers for mac os 10.10.5

So i tried to normally run my mac pro with the new copy of Yosemite, but the same thing happenned : back screen, fan spin for 30 secs and nothing being found on my monitor.

I tried to use my original hard drive as the starting system, bootcamp, i aslo plugged out the SSD i installed the new copy of Yosemite on, still nothing is happenning.

Do you have any idea on how to slove this problem? I'm quite desperate on this situation.

Also sorry for my bad english, im a non native english speaker.
 
I can't actually understand what you have typed.

980 requires Yosemite and Web Driver installed before you put the 980 in. No way to see anything on an unflashed 980 until then.

You will either need to do the bulk of the work on another machine and move drive over or get an EFi card.

Even with the hard drive fully up to date, the Mac Pro needs to have the boot argument in NVRAM, so you will need to use a different card or screen sharing to set that.
 
As i tried to explain, before trying to install Yosemite on my SSD, i had it running on a normal HD. I downloaded Mavericks in 2014 at the time i still had my orginial mac graphic card (5870 from ATI)

Then i bought the 980, upgrade to Yosemite because indeed 980 requires Yosemite. I installed the web drivers unplugged the 5870 and plugged the 980. Worked perfectly fine. From 2014 till 2 days ago. Untill i wanted to install Yosemite on the SSD i recently bought.

Is it more clear ?
 
I understand what you said.

Although i have a few remaining questions :

I would like to avoid buying a mac edition card, or a flash card but if i have to i will. But if i need to buy one, My mac is a mid 2010 Mac Pro, would i need to buy like for instance a 5770 or a 5870, those cards that were delivered with the 2010 Mac Pro, or any other mac edition card would work ?

Also could you explain me the "screen sharing" concept to set the boot argument, i don't really understand it, sorry.

Anyways thanks a lot for your answers !
 
A GT120 will work, the 5,1 has backward compatibility. No need to buy any other card for that purpose.

Screen sharing is simple. You can use the native screen sharing from the OS, or other screen sharing software which allow you to remote control your Mac Pro (by other Mac or iPhone etc). So that you can "see" the screen, and activate the driver or set the argument etc.
 
Please correct me if iam wrong :

I used a FireWire cable to run my mac Pro in target disk mode.
I was able to see the mac Pro screen on the computer i used as a host, and installed Yosemite on my SSD hardrive. (precising that i have 2 Yosemite operating system, one installed on my normal HD and one on my SSD)

Then i installed the latest Nvidia web drivers and restarted my Mac Pro using my normal monitor, but nothing happenned, still got a black screen, and nothing was appearing on my monitor.
(Also wanted to precise that when i saw nothing was appearing on my monitor, used my Mac Pro in target disk mode again and selected my old HD drive as the startup disk, nothing happenned aswell)

Is what i've done screen sharing and if it is have i done it the right way ?

Thanks for your answer !
 
You can't enable the Nvidia web drivers on your Mac Pro when it is in Target Disk Mode. You have to boot from the Mac Pro to be able to enable them.
 
I'm sorry if what i will write sounds stupid to you or any other person who replied me (and thanks again for your answers)

But if i want to screenshare, or remote control my mac pro, i have to authorize external devices to be able to take control of my Mac Pro in the system preferences menu right ?

But how do i do that ? I cannot authorize remote controlling since iam not able to see what's going on when i start my Mac Pro. (Sorry again if what iv'e done seemed noobish or useless, but i tried allowing in in target disk mode and it did not work since it considered my Mac Pro as a simple Hardrive)
 
Mike Gatz said:
I'm sorry if what i will write sounds stupid to you or any other person who replied me (and thanks again for your answers)

But if i want to screenshare, or remote control my mac pro, i have to authorize external devices to be able to take control of my Mac Pro in the system preferences menu right ?

But how do i do that ? I cannot authorize remote controlling since iam not able to see what's going on when i start my Mac Pro. (Sorry again if what iv'e done seemed noobish or useless, but i tried allowing in in target disk mode and it did not work since it considered my Mac Pro as a simple Hardrive)
Click to expand...

1. Boot your Mac Pro in to Target Disk Mode.
2. Enable Screen Sharing.
3. Reboot Mac Pro normally.
4. Connect tot he Mac Pro via Screen Sharing.
5. Enable Nvida web drivers.
6. Reboot Mac Pro normally.
7. Done.
 
pastrychef said:
1. Boot your Mac Pro in to Target Disk Mode.
2. Enable Screen Sharing.
3. Reboot Mac Pro normally.
4. Connect tot he Mac Pro via Screen Sharing.
5. Enable Nvida web drivers.
6. Reboot Mac Pro normally.
7. Done.
Click to expand...

I've tried that, but the only device i'm being able to control is my Host computer, (which is in my case a Mac Book pro)
even when i restart my host computer selecting my Mac Pro HD, my host computer is the only recognize device i can share screen with. My Mac pro isnt.

Unless of course i did something wrong, which is possible.
 
When you have your Mac Pro in Target Disk Mode, hold the Option key on your MacBook Pro while booting so that you boot using the the Mac Pro drive.
 
Sorry, even after that, only my Host computer is appearing on the sharing menu. It says the name of my computer i can share screen with is the Mac Book Pro :/
 
That's my bad man, i needed to boot my mac pro using the right HD, it worked i was being able to enable the screensharing of my Mac Pro. Its being recognize over the finder, but now when i try to share my Mac Pro screen it says that screensharing is not enabled on my Mac Pro and to check my network connexion...

I guess i'm having some really bad luck !
 
I found where my problem came from : you cannot enable screen sharing if you have your firewall on, so i had to disable it and then screensharing worked.

I boot my Nvidia web drivers and everything worked again !!

Wanted to thanks all of you guys who replied me, it has been a great help !!

Again thanks a lot !!! ;)
 
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