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alphaod

macrumors Core
Original poster
Feb 9, 2008
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NYC
I have a 2009 Mac Pro that I retired about four years ago when I got my 2013 Mac Pro, but recently I upgraded the 2013 Mac Pro to 12 cores and I figured it's perfect upgrade for the 2009 Mac Pro.

Basically before I put the 2009 Mac Pro computer into storage (in the original box), the computer was working fine. I took it out the other day from storage and I removed all the extraneous drives only using a boot SSD (in a PCIe adapter) and a 2TB HDD in tray number 4.

It's running Mac OS 10.9 (Mavericks) and I can boot into Windows just fine. When i boot into Mac OS, where the login screen should be, I get a black screen. I've reset SMC, NVRAM, rearranged drives, etc., nothing seems to be working.

I don't have the original Radeon 4870 that came with this particular Mac because I sold that a long time ago. The current graphics card is the Sapphire Radeon 7950 Mac Edition. The only other graphics card I have is the Sapphire RX 580 that I use with my MacBook Pro eGPU setup.

The only thing I recall I did was I upgraded the Mac to 5,1 I think I originally planned to do this upgrade to dual 6-core processors, but I can't really remember if I did this and I can't verify because it doesn't boot into the OS. Silly me I already bought two X5690 and I got it today.

Any thoughts?
 
I have a 2009 Mac Pro that I retired about four years ago when I got my 2013 Mac Pro, but recently I upgraded the 2013 Mac Pro to 12 cores and I figured it's perfect upgrade for the 2009 Mac Pro.

Basically before I put the 2009 Mac Pro computer into storage (in the original box), the computer was working fine. I took it out the other day from storage and I removed all the extraneous drives only using a boot SSD (in a PCIe adapter) and a 2TB HDD in tray number 4.

It's running Mac OS 10.9 (Mavericks) and I can boot into Windows just fine. When i boot into Mac OS, where the login screen should be, I get a black screen. I've reset SMC, NVRAM, rearranged drives, etc., nothing seems to be working.

I don't have the original Radeon 4870 that came with this particular Mac because I sold that a long time ago. The current graphics card is the Sapphire Radeon 7950 Mac Edition. The only other graphics card I have is the Sapphire RX 580 that I use with my MacBook Pro eGPU setup.

The only thing I recall I did was I upgraded the Mac to 5,1 I think I originally planned to do this upgrade to dual 6-core processors, but I can't really remember if I did this and I can't verify because it doesn't boot into the OS. Silly me I already bought two X5690 and I got it today.

Any thoughts?
Could you boot a El Capitan installer on a USB key? If you didn't have it upgraded to 5,1, it's the latest OS that you can boot without patching/hacking.

Other thing, a 4,1 or a 5,1 on a BootROM pre MP51.0083.B00 (released about one year ago on the betas of High Sierra) can't boot APFS disks, only HFS+.

Try to install El Capitan on a empty SATA disk and then do the needed firmware upgrades downloading Mac App Store full installer for 10.13.6.
 
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I will have to create an El Capitan boot drive, but I'll give that a go.
 
I don't necessarily think this is your problem since you said you can boot to Windows (is that on the 2TB spinner, or a second partition on the PCIe SSD?), but...

There is a known issue with booting any of the Radeon 7950 cards with EFI (which the Mac edition definitely is) on a 4K monitor--or maybe even any monitor-- that has DisplayPort 1.2 enabled. So if you're using a newer monitor you might try an HDMI or DVI connection just to see if that makes any difference (or go into the menu of your monitor and see if there is an option to switch the DP mode to 1.1).

Maybe a long shot, but just an idea.

Along those same lines, if you're plugged into a 4K monitor and have FileVault turned on, you'll also get a black screen. The FileVault password entry screen is waiting for you to enter your password, but the 7950 can't display that screen at 4K resolution so it just stays black and appears to hang.
 
I will have to create an El Capitan boot drive, but I'll give that a go.
Remember that you will need a card with EFI to do the firmware upgrades, so install/keep installed the Sapphire 7950 for Mac.
 
I am already using HDMI. I get the boot drive selector screen just fine. I just try to go onto the recovery partition of the SSD and even that seems not to be working either.

Yeah I didn't plan to go beyond the 7950 since I will be using this Mac for only it's CPU capabilities.
 
I am already using HDMI. I get the boot drive selector screen just fine. I just try to go onto the recovery partition of the SSD and even that seems not to be working either.

Yeah I didn't plan to go beyond the 7950 since I will be using this Mac for only it's CPU capabilities.
So seems that the problem is APFS. Install El Capitan, boot from it, download Mac App Store 10.13.6 full installer, run it and then do the firmware upgrade.
 
Hmm, yeah if you can get the boot picker then nothing wrong with the monitor connection. Only other thing I could think to try would be to take the SSD off the PCIe card and install it in one of the 4 bays just to see if the result is different.
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So seems that the problem is APFS. Install El Capitan, boot from it, download Mac App Store 10.13.6 full installer, run it and then do the firmware upgrade.

I'm curious though why would the SSD be formatted APFS if when he last used it he was running Mavericks. APFS wasn't even a possibility until Sierra and only HS and Sierra would have automatically formatted a drive that way.
 
Hmm, yeah if you can get the boot picker then nothing wrong with the monitor connection. Only other thing I could think to try would be to take the SSD off the PCIe card and install it in one of the 4 bays just to see if the result is different.
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I'm curious though why would the SSD be formatted APFS if when he last used it he was running Mavericks. APFS wasn't even a possibility until Sierra and only HS and Sierra would have automatically formatted a drive that way.

I supposed that he created the High Sierra on another Mac, he said that he boxed it 4 years ago, but I should have asked.
 
The computer was never upgraded to Sierra and I took the drive and checked it's still running JHFS+.

I am currently waiting for El Capitan to be transferred to a USB drive and I guess it doesn't help I picked an old USB 2.0 drive. I will update if this fixes my issues.

In the meantime, thanks!
 
I supposed that he created the High Sierra on another Mac, he said that he boxed it 4 years ago, but I should have asked.

Ah ok. I just thought maybe I missed something in his posts. In any case, your suggestion of an El Cap USB drive is a good one, because even if it's not an APFS issue and instead just corruption of the Mavericks install then he can upgrade it to El Cap, then once booted he can determine if the firmware is MP51 and then decide what firmware and OS version to use from there.

Edit: OP, I do think it's worth temporarily putting the drive in a SATA bay, eliminating the PCIe card as a potential factor (unless it's an m.2 SSD in which case nevermind).
 
The computer was never upgraded to Sierra and I took the drive and checked it's still running JHFS+.

I am currently waiting for El Capitan to be transferred to a USB drive and I guess it doesn't help I picked an old USB 2.0 drive. I will update if this fixes my issues.

In the meantime, thanks!
Ops, I've re-read the first post and it's Mavericks not High Sierra, sorry. I need to sleep :)
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Ah ok. I just thought maybe I missed something in his posts. In any case, your suggestion of an El Cap USB drive is a good one, because even if it's not an APFS issue and instead just corruption of the Mavericks install then he can upgrade it to El Cap, then once booted he can determine if the firmware is MP51 and then decide what firmware and OS version to use from there.

Edit: OP, I do think it's worth temporarily putting the drive in a SATA bay, eliminating the PCIe card as a potential factor (unless it's an m.2 SSD in which case nevermind).
Yep, the OP will need to boot El Cap and do the necessary firmware upgrades, on a Mac Pro you can't just boot the High Sierra createinstallmedia usb-key and do the firmware upgrade like on every other Mac.
 
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I put El Capitan installer on a USB drive and I booted it up on the Mac Pro and … it's not good.

I get the same black screen after the Apple logo and progress bar as with my original Mavericks OS install. I can't see anything on the screen. It seems my monitor sleeps because it's not getting a display signal.

I will get a miniDP to HDMI adapter and see if it's the HDMI output that's the issue… if not then I will need to take the original monitor I used with this Mac Pro out of storage as well.

I did at one time have an GT 120 that I used for running an extra monitor that hopefully I can find to see if it's a graphics card adapter issue.
 
I put El Capitan installer on a USB drive and I booted it up on the Mac Pro and … it's not good.

I get the same black screen after the Apple logo and progress bar as with my original Mavericks OS install. I can't see anything on the screen. It seems my monitor sleeps because it's not getting a display signal.

I will get a miniDP to HDMI adapter and see if it's the HDMI output that's the issue… if not then I will need to take the original monitor I used with this Mac Pro out of storage as well.
My Mac Pro with HD7870 flashed with 7950 EFI is extremely picky about what output port I'm using. I never got it working on HDMI without booting macOS via DVI first, it's a problem every time I do a install from scratch. Maybe it's the same case with yours.

I don't have this problem with eVGA GTX 680 for Mac.
 
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Yeah I checked all the cards, connectors, it seems after the computer is booted up. It sleeps and wakes with my USB keyboard/mouse.

So far the problem seems to be something wrong with the video card. Now it doesn't even show me the boot screen and when I boot into Windows even though the monitor is 1080p and the resolution is set to 1920x1080, it will show a smaller screen with black bars all around like it's underscanning.
 
Ah yes, forgot about the handy BIOS switch on the 7950 cards. You may not even be aware of it OP--it's tiny. Try flipping it to the other position and see if the behavior is any different. You may not get a boot screen in that mode, but if you wait a bit the monitor may turn on once the GUI is loaded (or not, in which case the BIOS is not the problem).

I would try booting from USB with all PCIe cards and HDDs removed, just to see if the result is the same or different. Generally when troubleshooting you want to remove as many variables as possible so you can isolate the problem.

But yes if you have a different video card, cable and monitor to try those would also be helpful.
 
I already removed all the cards and extra HDDs. I already checked the switch, it's already set to position 2. In fact I put kapton tape on the switch originally so it wouldn't get moved. I'm now seeing if I can get a cheap GT 120 on Ebay or something to test with. I'll also dig out a DVI monitor to test. Like I said the only other card I have is the RX 580 that came with the Apple Developer eGPU kit.
 
I already removed all the cards and extra HDDs. I already checked the switch, it's already set to position 2. In fact I put kapton tape on the switch originally so it wouldn't get moved. I'm now seeing if I can get a cheap GT 120 on Ebay or something to test with. I'll also dig out a DVI monitor to test. Like I said the only other card I have is the RX 580 that came with the Apple Developer eGPU kit.

You can use the RX 580 but you would have to be sure that you were on MP51 firmware and install High Sierra for it to work (doesn't have drivers in Mavericks or El Cap). You would definitely not get boot screens with the 580 but it does work once booted into later versions of MacOS.

Since you are using a different monitor than you used to use with that machine I would definitely see if you can get the actual monitor you used to use (along with the cable for whatever connection you used to use on it) so you can test the 100% identical combination that previously worked for you. Unfortunately, Mac GPUs can be picky about that stuff.

And RE: the BIOS switch, you should remove the tape and try switching it to the other position. That puts the card in PC mode, which lacks the EFI so you won't get boot screens. But it would still give you a screen image once OS X (or your El Capitan USB installer) fully loads. If there's no change in the behavior then simply power down, move the switch back and re-apply the tape. You have nothing to lose by trying it.
 
So good news. The problem seems to the HDMI port. I got my old Dell monitor from storage and it boots up fine, I can see the log in screen and my desktop via DVI!

And it looks like I am running the 5,1 firmware albeit a very old version, so I guess my next step is upgrade to High Sierra. I guess I better start delidding those X5690 processors I just got :)

Thanks everyone for your help!
 
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Nice. Yes you can get the newest firmware by downloading the full High Sierra installer from the Mac App store (which is version 10.13.6). When you run it it will give you the instructions on doing the firmware flash. Then after it does and you get back into the OS you can check what FW you're on. It should be MP51.0089.B00. Then the installer will proceed with the actual OS install.

You could accomplish the exact same thing with the latest public beta of Mojave if you are interested in checking that out. It requires a metal-capable card, but the 7950 fits that requirement. Because yours is the Mac edition, it also has the EFI needed to flash the 0089 firmware (which also comes bundled with the Mojave Public Beta 3 installer).

Either way, sounds like you're good to go.

Glad you got it sorted.
 
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Either I haven't done this in a long time or something…

When it tells me to hold the power button to do the firmware upgrade, I do the standard 10 second hold until the flash and the tone, but then it doesn't seem to do the update.

Should I put my SSD into one of the SATA trays instead of the PCIe adapter for the firmware upgrade to work?
 
Either I haven't done this in a long time or something…

When it tells me to hold the power button to do the firmware upgrade, I do the standard 10 second hold until the flash and the tone, but then it doesn't seem to do the update.

Should I put my SSD into one of the SATA trays instead of the PCIe adapter for the firmware upgrade to work?

Yes, I would. Not 100% sure if that's an issue but it's a "non-stock" configuration which Apple is not all that great at accommodating. Also, are you seeing the progress bar on the screen during the flash? If you have your EFI 7950 installed then you should be seeing that bar move across.
 
I moved the SSD to one of the sleds and now everything is working great and yes I saw the progress bar move. I guess now I will prep a fresh High Sierra installer and get to upgrading those CPUs.

You guys are all great help when I'm getting frustrated.
 
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Just a little tip, occasionally on my Mac Pro 2009 flashed to 5,1, GTX950, El Capitan I get a grey screen on boot with no visible login window. By placing mouse cursor in center of screen it discovers the hidden login slot and allows login without login graphics. Have tried trashing login window preferences but did not help.
 
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