MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 4.1 No Boot Screen but will Boot to OS

[wyga]

Hi,
I have got the old Mac Pro 4.1 (early 2009) with GTX 680. I get the display when it's past the boot but while in boot mode there is just nothing, black screen.
So, the problem I am having is just clearly I've got to completely reinstall the mac OS and just because I can't see anything while booting I can't do that.
Any ideas?

PS. I've got also Nvidia GT 320 but unfortunately no AMD/ATI Radeon cards, all of them just died.

 

[chscag]

You're going to need a compatible video card in that Mac Pro that shows the boot process. Check eBay to see if you can pick one up at a reasonable price.

 

[jbarley]

Maybe check out this thread on a similar problem.

 

[lovely666]

Do you only need to see the boot process to select the osx usb installer to boot from?

I would just guess, i mean hold alt/option down on startup, wait 30 seconds, press left arrow once and enter.

The other option if you've got sip disabled is to bless the usb stick.

 

[cdf]

I would just guess, i mean hold alt/option down on startup, wait 30 seconds, press left arrow once and enter.

This is a popular misconception: without a Mac-EFI graphics card, holding the option key at boot will not bring up the Apple Startup Manager; it can't even be used "blindly."

 

[BubbaMc]

Even with a flashed card, if you're using a 4k 60Hz display, you won't get a boot screen (maybe just the last few seconds).

 

[lovely666]

This is a popular misconception: without a Mac-EFI graphics card, holding the option key at boot will not bring up the Apple Startup Manager; it can't even be used "blindly."

Ah, i assumed it would work. I've always used the bless method myself.

 

[KeesMacPro]

Confirmed and Possible Flashable GTX 680 Models

I recently acquired a used EVGA 02G-P4-2684-KR and flashed it with the Mac ROM. So far it has worked as expected, the only thing unusual is that the boot screen from the HDMI output has a light green instead of the light gray background. Most issues and answers related to flashing the Mac ROM...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[wyga]

Thanks, I have actually found out similar post a few minutes after I have created mine.
I guess only proper way to do it will be just to try flash the GTX 680 which I will certainly try later on.

The poor device actually goes for sale and as for OS it is still running but I've got to clean it completely. I went sort of around it just by deleting the user account, data and such. It wasn't used for web developing so apart from user catalog it should be fine.

However I have to wipe clean other local HDDs and as far as I've seen diskutil secureErase won't work while logged in to the system and apparently has to be done in recovery mode. So again either going the alternative route and using other machine to wipe it or I guess I gotta try flash the GTX 680.

 

[tsialex]

Thanks, I have actually found out similar post a few minutes after I have created mine.
I guess only proper way to do it will be just to try flash the GTX 680 which I will certainly try later on.

The poor device actually goes for sale and as for OS it is still running but I've got to clean it completely. I went sort of around it just by deleting the user account, data and such. It wasn't used for web developing so apart from user catalog it should be fine.

However I have to wipe clean other local HDDs and as far as I've seen diskutil secureErase won't work while logged in to the system and apparently has to be done in recovery mode. So again either going the alternative route and using other machine to wipe it or I guess I gotta try flash the GTX 680.

Install macOS to one of your wiped disks, boot from it, then wipe your previous boot disk.