Mid 2010 screen black upon booting

[rjv0807]

Hi Guys,

I have a Mac Pro Mid 2010 and a few days ago I noticed the computer was having issues waking up from sleeping, and that the SIL was always steady on. So today I did I reset the PRAM and the SMC as indicated by Apple and now the computer boots, chimes, but the screen stays black and the SIL remains steady.

Does anyone have any idea what could be going on here? I unplugged everything except the mouse and keyboard but it remains the same. Thanks.

 

[bookemdano]

Need more info on your setup. Is it completely stock? (original video card, spinning hard drive, RAM, etc.) Or have you changed anything out in it? Please be as detailed as possible in noting anything you have added, removed or changed from the original configuration.

What version of MacOS are you running? What kind of monitor do you have connected and via what type of cable (DisplayPort, HDMI, etc.).

Do you not even get the gray screen with the Apple logo right after it chimes?

 

[rjv0807]

Hi,

Sorry for the lack of detail. It is not totally stock. I'm running the latest verison of OS (high sierra) and few years ago I added two 16gb of ram (two 8gb sticks), a usb 3 card in one of the pci slots, a 500gb ssd which i boot from, and 2tb wd black. Video card and everything else is stock.

No, it doesn't even get to the grey, the monitor "searches" for the computer when it boots up, then goes into power save mode as if the computer's asleep. The monitor is a dell ultrasharp hd 27" and it's connected via displayport from the original video card.

 

[bookemdano]

OK. So your video card is a Radeon 5770/5780. Does your monitor have a DVI input, and if so, do you have a DVI cable you can try instead of the DisplayPort?

How new is the monitor? You might check in the menus for it whether it has has a setting for the DisplayPort version. If it does and if it's set to 1.2, change it to 1.1.

You might try another round of PRAM and SMC resets. I always prefer to plug in a USB keyboard to do a PRAM reset because I've found sometimes bluetooth ones don't always get "talking" to the Mac early enough for the PRAM key combination to register. That said, it's pretty obvious when a PRAM reset completes successfully (second boot chime).

And just some general troubleshooting things to try:

Power off and unplug everything--including the monitor. Leave unplugged for 30 seconds and plug everything back in (that will also accomplish the SMC reset on the Mac). Turn the monitor on, then the Mac and see if there's any change.

Unplug both ends of the DisplayPort cable and plug back in firmly.

Remove your USB card and your 2TB HDD. Only leave in place your video card and boot drive. See if that does anything.

BAD RAM is a possibility I guess. Pull out all but one stick and see if you get any change. If not, pull that stick and put back in one of the others.

 

[rjv0807]

Thank you very much for your reply. I will try all of this tomorrow.

Very odd thing happened just now I should note. The only thing plugged in was the monitor and I pressed the power button a few times then the logon screen came on but it had this odd grey image in the background, like someone sitting at a computer. Is this safe mode? I logged on, my harddrives were there, but everything was loading so slowly and there were no apps. I should mention the background looked the same as it usually does.

 

[bookemdano]

Can you take a picture (like with your phone or something) of the screen you're talking about?

 

[rjv0807]

sure, this is it before I plugged the keyboard in, or just as I was..

 

[bookemdano]

Those white "smudges" don't look like anything I've ever seen before. But the login screen with High Sierra is a "blurred" version of your desktop wallpaper, so does your desktop have something like that on it?

Sounds like your black screen issue is solved though?

 

[rjv0807]

My background is the high Sierra stock background, so honestly those white smudges don’t make sense. Also there’s another circular smudge behind that dialogue bar which is what makes it look someone sitting at computer desk... kinda creepy.

But again, this only happened when the computer was already on and I pressed the power button a few times in a row. And when It logged me on, like I said there were no apps, just a few files on the desk top and the links to my drives. some of the files I remember being from a previous version of my Mac, possibly from the old hdd I booted from originally years ago? I deleted a bunch of files from that drive, so is it somehow possible the computer is booting from that old drive? When I rebooted, the black screen issue persisted again. Not sure what’s going on at all, it’s really bewildering.

I willtry all of which you prescribed and let you know what happens tomorrow. If none of that works, I have an Apple certified repairman nearby I can use.

Again, thanks for being so helpful.