MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 5,1 Crashing Black Screen

[DontGetHit]

Here are my specs
2x 5680s
32gb ram
Radeon RX 580

I recently started playing Diablo 3 on the Mac and it has started crashing. The computer remains on (ie the light is on and I have to hold the power button to shut it down) but my monitors both go black instantly and never turn back on. I suspect it has something to do with the GPU for 3 reasons: 1) it was used 2) I have never really done anything too GPU before Diablo 3 and have never had a crash and 3) When I boot the computer up for the first time of the day, it will play for about an hour before crashing, however when I reboot I only get about 10 minutes. Right before it shutdown the GPU temp was reading about 75. I was wondering if anybody had any ideas as to what it could be. Like I said I'm leaning towards GPU failure, but I've seen that the PSUs are prone to failure.

 

[tsialex]

Your AMD Radeon RX 580 model is Sapphire Nitro+ or any other overclocked model that is known to have a power draw greater than what the backplane can provide? I've saw this happening with Nitro+ and marginal PSUs.

First thing is to eliminate the RX 580 as a possible culprit installing the GPU to a PC that have PSU powerful enough to power it and running Furmark for at least half hour.

After that you can run AHT and ASD with your Mac Pro to be sure it does not have any problems. If you have access to another Mac Pro, testing the RX 580 with another Mac Pro is not a bad idea.

Be sure that you have the correct cables for your GPU.

 

[DontGetHit]

Your AMD Radeon RX 580 model is Sapphire Nitro+ or any other overclocked model that is known to have a power draw greater than what the backplane can provide? I've saw this happening with Nitro+ and marginal PSUs.

First thing is to eliminate the RX 580 as a possible culprit installing the GPU to a PC that have PSU powerful enough to power it and running Furmark for at least half hour.

After that you can run AHT and ASD with your Mac Pro to be sure it does not have any problems. If you have access to another Mac Pro, testing the RX 580 with another Mac Pro is not a bad idea.

Be sure that you have the correct cables for your GPU.

Yup it is a Sapphire Nitro+.... Haha I knew the Mac had problems with overclocking but didn't realize that's what the Nitro+ meant. I only got it cause I liked the blue color. I just installed it into another PC with what should have sufficient power (normally runs a 2080 super just fine) so I'm going to be testing with that. If it is related to voltage do you know how to under clock it? Is that possible? If not though as long as it works I can just resell it.

 

[tsialex]

Yup it is a Sapphire Nitro+.... Haha I knew the Mac had problems with overclocking but didn't realize that's what the Nitro+ meant. I only got it cause I liked the blue color. I just installed it into another PC with what should have sufficient power (normally runs a 2080 super just fine) so I'm going to be testing with that. If it is related to voltage do you know how to under clock it? Is that possible? If not though as long as it works I can just resell it.

Resell it, it's too much of a hassle, then buy a GPU that only require a 8-pin power input.

To make a Nitro+ card to really work without any issues when gaming or rendering full throttle, you will need to do a Pixla's mod, since it's a 8-pin + 6-pin GPU.

 

[DontGetHit]

Resell it, it's too much of a hassle, then buy a GPU that only require a 8-pin power input.

To make a Nitro+ card to really work without any issues when gaming or rendering full throttle, you will need to do a Pixla's mod, since it's a 8-pin + 6-pin GPU.

Since you seem more knowledgeable, what is the margin of error for failing the pixlas mod? A main reason I have been hesitant is the fear of messing something up and frying either the gpu, or the entire computer (and usually the gpus that require the pixlas mod aren't cheap). However, I have 0 understanding of electronics so that fear is based on things that I simply don't understand.

 

[tsialex]

Since you seem more knowledgeable, what is the margin of error for failing the pixlas mod? A main reason I have been hesitant is the fear of messing something up and frying either the gpu, or the entire computer (and usually the gpus that require the pixlas mod aren't cheap). However, I have 0 understanding of electronics so that fear is based on things that I simply don't understand.

Success or failure is entirely dependent on your skills. My advice for you is to read the Pixla's mod thread and see the problems people had and try to avoid it.

 

[kkinto]

After that you can run AHT and ASD with your Mac Pro to be sure it does not have any problems. If you have access to another Mac Pro, testing the RX 580 with another Mac Pro is not a bad idea.

Be sure that you have the correct cables for your GPU.

I am having the same problem with my RX580. Its not overclocked or anything fiddled from opening the box. No other problems but as soon as I start messing around with 4K video it will crash sooner or later - black screen, fans go full, hard restart required. It has the dual pin cable power from the board. Even happens somethimes when I am using photoshop.

How would I run AHT and AHD ? Do I need to get them from somewhere and what OS would I need to be running?

Thanks

 

[tsialex]

I am having the same problem with my RX580. Its not overclocked or anything fiddled from opening the box. No other problems but as soon as I start messing around with 4K video it will crash sooner or later - black screen, fans go full, hard restart required. It has the dual pin cable power from the board. Even happens somethimes when I am using photoshop.

This have big probability of being the GPU that is defective, so you have to be sure that the videocard is working. Did you diagnosed your GPU with a PC? Another Mac Pro?

How would I run AHT and AHD ? Do I need to get them from somewhere and what OS would I need to be running?

Thanks

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-mid-2010-5-1-random-shutdowns.2373483/post-31803378

 

[blauesliebe7]

I am having the same problem with my RX580. Its not overclocked or anything fiddled from opening the box. No other problems but as soon as I start messing around with 4K video it will crash sooner or later - black screen, fans go full, hard restart required. It has the dual pin cable power from the board. Even happens somethimes when I am using photoshop.

How would I run AHT and AHD ? Do I need to get them from somewhere and what OS would I need to be running?

Thanks

I am having the same problem too. I purchased a new rx580 because I thought the last one which was causing the same problem you are having. The results are the same. So both cards when running gpu intense programs causes shut down of screens and computer fans go full blast.

 

[carylee2002]

I run a Nitro rx 590 on my 5,1 but haven't really noticed that much strain on my gpu when running Divinci Resolve..so straining the 580 seems odd that it can't handle the extra voltage. IIRC...Is saw years ago that one can get extra power to setup to the 6 pin on the GPU via a cord from your SSD port to a 6pin to get the extra power. I believe it was on youtube.

 

[ALF07]

I'm getting this exact issue, i've done the Pixlas mod and i'm using a Radeon VII. This worked fine for a month or two but now all i get is the chime and half way through the boot loading screen and then my monitors go to offline and i get nothing else.

Im at a loss

 

[blauesliebe7]

I am having the same problem too. I purchased a new rx580 because I thought the last one which was causing the same problem you are having. The results are the same. So both cards when running gpu intense programs causes shut down of screens and computer fans go full blast.

Turns out all the problems i was having was the power supply was going out. Went on Ebay and for 40 dollars I got a nice refurbished PSU for the mac 5,1 and like magic, my mac was able to render video, upscale photos etc.. etc..

Was very easy to replace and got to blow out some dust while i was in there.

 

[kkinto]

Turns out all the problems i was having was the power supply was going out. Went on Ebay and for 40 dollars I got a nice refurbished PSU for the mac 5,1 and like magic, my mac was able to render video, upscale photos etc.. etc..

Thanks for that report. Just replaced mine with a borrowed PSU and did some 4K editing in FCP today without any problem - maybe this is the solution? I don't really know much about power supplies so I don't want to speak too soon!

 

[h9826790]

Thanks for that report. Just replaced mine with a borrowed PSU and did some 4K editing in FCP today without any problem - maybe this is the solution? I don't really know much about power supplies so I don't want to speak too soon!

You may stress test the PSU for an hour in order to check the stability.

1) Run Prime95 to stress the CPU
2) at the same time, run Furmark to stress the GPU

This can create a power draw that higher than any moment of video editing.

If your cMP survive, then all power (and cooling) should be at gold standard.

Espect high fan speed during this kind of test. If you still worry about the temperatures, you may manually spin up the fans. However, in order to know "if the system can work at your existing setting", you better just leave it alone, and let it manage the fans by itself.

 

[kkinto]

You may stress test the PSU for an hour in order to check the stability.
1) Run Prime95 to stress the CPU
2) at the same time, run Furmark to stress the GPU
This can create a power draw that higher than any moment of video editing.
If your cMP survive, then all power (and cooling) should be at gold standard.
Espect high fan speed during this kind of test. If you still worry about the temperatures, you may manually spin up the fans. However, in order to know "if the system can work at your existing setting", you better just leave it alone, and let it manage the fans by itself.

Thank you for that.

OK, I am not sure I understand how to use those apps properly, but I ran both of them together for a while. I was busy running some handbrake compression and file uploading as well that I didnt want to quit. Eventually the fans began to be heard but not that loud. Here is a screenshot from iStat CPU page - does it make sense?
No blackout happened but maybe not run long enough. But the 'blackouts' I was having were far more frequent and often just opening a 4K video file in FCP would crash it, not even doing any playback. Even creating bezier clipping paths in Photoshop would get the fans going.

 

[h9826790]

Thank you for that.

OK, I am not sure I understand how to use those apps properly, but I ran both of them together for a while. I was busy running some handbrake compression and file uploading as well that I didnt want to quit. Eventually the fans began to be heard but not that loud. Here is a screenshot from iStat CPU page - does it make sense?
No blackout happened but maybe not run long enough. But the 'blackouts' I was having were far more frequent and often just opening a 4K video file in FCP would crash it, not even doing any playback. Even creating bezier clipping paths in Photoshop would get the fans going.

All number looks normal to me.

If the cMP can survive under this kind of loading, then the PSU and cooling system should be fine.

 

[kkinto]

One week on, much 4K work in FCP X and all is still good, not one black screen crash and hardly a peep from the fans! I hope I can get to keep this PSU

 

[blauesliebe7]

Discovered that if i boot from a drive connected to SATA instead of the PCIE drive that the mac doesn't experience this issue. I had the Radeon in Slot 1 and NVM Express in slot 2. Perhaps this is the issue. I am going to try and put the NVM in slot 4 and rerun the geek bench before just booting from SATA solely. Hope this helps someone.

 

[kkinto]

One week on, much 4K work in FCP X and all is still good, not one black screen crash and hardly a peep from the fans! I hope I can get to keep this PSU

Well, things went well until three days ago when the Mac suddenly switched itself off randomly - immediate switch off with a little click at the power switch (as it does at the end of shutting down or if that switch is held in to hard power off) no fans, no black screen, just compete power off. This happened three times throughout the day with hardly any activity straining anything - mac just idle or reading text. The next day it switched itself off within about 3 minutes and thereafter it did that predictably.

My PSU replacement was a loaner from a friend from an unused 2012 with no guarantees so I replaced it with my original PSU so that I can do ome work with it. Avoiding anything that stresses at the moment so I am not sure if I have the original screen black/fans problem again but I am assuming I do for now.

I have ordered a refurbished PSU from dvwarehouse but as I am not in USA that will take a while to get here.

I suppose I need to try Martin's stress test again just to confirm, but I really don't want to kill anything else in this grand olde beast...I desperately need her to get me through another year before I can afford an M2/M3 replacement - but at the same time I need to edit 4K video to earn the $!

 

[blauesliebe7]

Well, things went well until three days ago when the Mac suddenly switched itself off randomly - immediate switch off with a little click at the power switch (as it does at the end of shutting down or if that switch is held in to hard power off) no fans, no black screen, just compete power off. This happened three times throughout the day with hardly any activity straining anything - mac just idle or reading text. The next day it switched itself off within about 3 minutes and thereafter it did that predictably.

My PSU replacement was a loaner from a friend from an unused 2012 with no guarantees so I replaced it with my original PSU so that I can do ome work with it. Avoiding anything that stresses at the moment so I am not sure if I have the original screen black/fans problem again but I am assuming I do for now.

I have ordered a refurbished PSU from dvwarehouse but as I am not in USA that will take a while to get here.

I suppose I need to try Martin's stress test again just to confirm, but I really don't want to kill anything else in this grand olde beast...I desperately need her to get me through another year before I can afford an M2/M3 replacement - but at the same time I need to edit 4K video to earn the $!

I purchased a new PSU and I thought it fixed everything. Then I thought it was the cables maybe. Replaced the cables with different brands all to the same effect. Then i purchased new SSD and NVMe drives with new installs of open core starting with the installation from MOJAVE. Each time i thought i beat the problem but it would eventually after a few weeks would comeback. You know, all of a sudden black screen and fans full blast forcing me to do a hard shutdown.

1 thing i noticed is that this only happens when i am using the saphire Rx580. In 2020-21 i purchased a saphire Rx580 and it worked great. Then this started happening so i purchased another. and another. People told me it had to be a faulty card or the thermal paste needed to be applied again or the cables were bad and that i should buy american cables or that the PSU was going out and I needed a new one or that the new one i just purchased was faulty and needed another new one. All of this was a very expensive money pit.

What i can tell you is that the RX580 that is not a nitro included in the picture below doesn't suffer this issue (yet) and this issue doesn't happen with the RX560 that i purchased just so i am not left without a computer for work.

The other day i was told to alter the config file in the device section and add instructions to it, basically telling the computer to not throw some much volts at it when rendering? I did it to my config and it worked for a week and then back to the same problem.

I am researching what other folks did and it feels like going down a rabbit hole so I know how frustrating it is for you, believe me i do. At the moment I would suggest getting a smaller card like the 560 if you need to work with your computer to make money. I am using the 560 and rendering 4k video albeit a lot slower it still gets the job done. Best thing is it is self powered too and requires no cables. Alternative number 2, buy a non nitro card like the one i got recently and cross your fingers.

 

[blauesliebe7]

I purchased a new PSU and I thought it fixed everything. Then I thought it was the cables maybe. Replaced the cables with different brands all to the same effect. Then i purchased new SSD and NVMe drives with new installs of open core starting with the installation from MOJAVE. Each time i thought i beat the problem but it would eventually after a few weeks would comeback. You know, all of a sudden black screen and fans full blast forcing me to do a hard shutdown.

1 thing i noticed is that this only happens when i am using the saphire Rx580. In 2020-21 i purchased a saphire Rx580 and it worked great. Then this started happening so i purchased another. and another. People told me it had to be a faulty card or the thermal paste needed to be applied again or the cables were bad and that i should buy american cables or that the PSU was going out and I needed a new one or that the new one i just purchased was faulty and needed another new one. All of this was a very expensive money pit.

What i can tell you is that the RX580 that is not a nitro included in the picture below doesn't suffer this issue (yet) and this issue doesn't happen with the RX560 that i purchased just so i am not left without a computer for work.

The other day i was told to alter the config file in the device section and add instructions to it, basically telling the computer to not throw some much volts at it when rendering? I did it to my config and it worked for a week and then back to the same problem.

I am researching what other folks did and it feels like going down a rabbit hole so I know how frustrating it is for you, believe me i do. At the moment I would suggest getting a smaller card like the 560 if you need to work with your computer to make money. I am using the 560 and rendering 4k video albeit a lot slower it still gets the job done. Best thing is it is self powered too and requires no cables. Alternative number 2, buy a non nitro card like the one i got recently and cross your fingers. View attachment 2202222 View attachment 2202223

I wanted to show you what cables i have tried so you don't make the same mistakes I did going down that route as a possible solution.

 

[blauesliebe7]

Well, things went well until three days ago when the Mac suddenly switched itself off randomly - immediate switch off with a little click at the power switch (as it does at the end of shutting down or if that switch is held in to hard power off) no fans, no black screen, just compete power off. This happened three times throughout the day with hardly any activity straining anything - mac just idle or reading text. The next day it switched itself off within about 3 minutes and thereafter it did that predictably.

My PSU replacement was a loaner from a friend from an unused 2012 with no guarantees so I replaced it with my original PSU so that I can do ome work with it. Avoiding anything that stresses at the moment so I am not sure if I have the original screen black/fans problem again but I am assuming I do for now.

I have ordered a refurbished PSU from dvwarehouse but as I am not in USA that will take a while to get here.

I suppose I need to try Martin's stress test again just to confirm, but I really don't want to kill anything else in this grand olde beast...I desperately need her to get me through another year before I can afford an M2/M3 replacement - but at the same time I need to edit 4K video to earn the $!

I also tried adding this to the config, it may work for you. It worked for a week for me and may need to be tweaked in my case but maybe worth a shot. Add the following code to config:


<key>DeviceProperties</key>
<dict>
<key>Add</key>
<dict>
<!-- Add the RX580 graphics card configuration code here -->
<key>PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)</key>
<dict>
<key>@0,name</key>
<string>ATY,Forrahue</string>
<key>@1,name</key>
<string>ATY,Forrahue</string>
<key>@2,name</key>
<string>ATY,Forrahue</string>
<key>@3,name</key>
<string>ATY,Forrahue</string>
<key>CFG_NVV</key>
<integer>2</integer>
<key>CFG_PTPL2_TBL</key>
<data>ggAAAHwAAAB2AAAAcAAAAGoAAABkAAAAXgAAAFgAAABSAAAATAAAAEYAAABAAAAAOgAAADQAAAAuAAAAKAAAAA==</data>
<key>CFG_TPS1S</key>
<true/>
<key>CFG_USE_AGDC</key>
<true/>
<key>CFG_USE_CP2</key>
<true/>
<key>CFG_USE_SCANOUT</key>
<true/>
<key>CFG_USE_TCON</key>
<true/>
<key>PP_DisableMCDownLoadFeature</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>PP_EnableLoadFalconSmcFirmware</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>PP_Falcon_QuickTransition_Enable</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>ATY,Copyright</key>
<string>Copyright AMD Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2005-2019</string>
<key>ATY,DeviceName</key>
<string>580X</string>
<key>ATY,EFIVersion</key>
<string>01.01.183</string>
<key>ATY,EFIVersionB</key>
<string>113-4E353CU-O4B</string>
<key>ATY,FamilyName</key>
<string>Radeon Pro</string>
<key>device-id</key>
<data>32c=</data>
<key>device_type</key>
<string>ATY,ForrahueParent</string>
<key>hda-gfx</key>
<string>onboard-1</string>
<key>model</key>
<string>AMD Radeon Pro 580X</string>
<key>revision-id</key>
<data>wAA=</data>
</dict>
</dict>
<key>Delete</key>
<dict/>
</dict>

 

[Macsonic]

I purchased a new PSU and I thought it fixed everything. Then I thought it was the cables maybe. Replaced the cables with different brands all to the same effect. Then i purchased new SSD and NVMe drives with new installs of open core starting with the installation from MOJAVE. Each time i thought i beat the problem but it would eventually after a few weeks would comeback. You know, all of a sudden black screen and fans full blast forcing me to do a hard shutdown.

1 thing i noticed is that this only happens when i am using the saphire Rx580. In 2020-21 i purchased a saphire Rx580 and it worked great. Then this started happening so i purchased another. and another. People told me it had to be a faulty card or the thermal paste needed to be applied again or the cables were bad and that i should buy american cables or that the PSU was going out and I needed a new one or that the new one i just purchased was faulty and needed another new one. All of this was a very expensive money pit.

What i can tell you is that the RX580 that is not a nitro included in the picture below doesn't suffer this issue (yet) and this issue doesn't happen with the RX560 that i purchased just so i am not left without a computer for work.

The other day i was told to alter the config file in the device section and add instructions to it, basically telling the computer to not throw some much volts at it when rendering? I did it to my config and it worked for a week and then back to the same problem.

I am researching what other folks did and it feels like going down a rabbit hole so I know how frustrating it is for you, believe me i do. At the moment I would suggest getting a smaller card like the 560 if you need to work with your computer to make money. I am using the 560 and rendering 4k video albeit a lot slower it still gets the job done. Best thing is it is self powered too and requires no cables. Alternative number 2, buy a non nitro card like the one i got recently and cross your fingers. View attachment 2202222 View attachment 2202223

Just to clarify, from your attached screenshot of RX580 GPUs, the brand of GPU you purchased is a XFX brand? If I recall correctly, XFX brands sometimes would give problems to the classic Mac Pro.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mp-5-1-4-1-doesnt-boot-with-radeon-rx-580-8gb.2283344/post-29580236

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/opencore-on-the-mac-pro.2207814/post-31032450

 

[blauesliebe7]

Just to clarify, from your attached screenshot of RX580 GPUs, the brand of GPU you purchased is a XFX brand? If I recall correctly, XFX brands sometimes would give problems to the classic Mac Pro.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mp-5-1-4-1-doesnt-boot-with-radeon-rx-580-8gb.2283344/post-29580236

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/opencore-on-the-mac-pro.2207814/post-31032450

That may be so. I did not realize at the time that that' particular card had any issues with the mac 5,1. To be honest i didn't know there was any difference at all with the RX580 because i was/am a rookie at this and listened to the wrong people. What i can tell you from my personal experience as of today that XFX card is the ONLY RX580 that will work properly rendering graphics on MY mac. I don't know why, it's just the experience as of today.

 

[blauesliebe7]

That may be so. I did not realize at the time that that' particular card had any issues with the mac 5,1. To be honest i didn't know there was any difference at all with the RX580 because i was/am a rookie at this and listened to the wrong people. What i can tell you from my personal experience as of today that XFX card is the ONLY RX580 that will work properly rendering graphics on MY mac. I don't know why, it's just the experience as of today.

To reiterate the problems squarely lay with the SAPHIRE RX580 and not the other two portrayed in the picture above. I forgot one thing to the original reply. The saphire RX580 has a switch in the back of the card where it can boot from a different ROM? Just want to add that whether i boot with the switch is to the left or to the right it makes no difference with clearing up the problem that I was/am having with the black screen/fans full blast issue when stressing the computer with a GPU intensive activity i.e. using Topaz Video Enhancement AI, AI upscaling photos, running a Geekbench Compute test, etc..