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MP 1,1-5,1 MP 5,1 -Won't boot up with black screen and continuous chime

tsialex said:
This is debatable, a lot of people don't need pre-boot configuration support at all or can use another Apple OEM GPU like GT120 when it's needed for debugging purposes.
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Anyone will eventually need pre-boot configuration support. Problems happen.
Having a GT120 just for troubleshooting is ok, but swapping cards every time you need pre-boot is very annoying.
Besides, most users will be happy with a simple HD7950.
Faster cards like the RX580 don’t support pre-boot, don’t support EFI Windows, and - most importantly - will not run stable with the standard PCIe GPU power provided by the MB. Been there, done that.
 
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Dan Streaman said:
Anyone will eventually need pre-boot configuration support. Problems happen.
Having a GT120 just for troubleshooting is ok, but swapping cards every time you need pre-boot is very annoying.
Besides, most users will be happy with a simple HD7950.
Faster cards like the RX580 don’t support pre-boot, don’t support EFI Windows, and - most importantly - will not run stable with the standard PCIe GPU power provided by the MB. Been there, done that.
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Some current AMD GPUs, like VEGA 56 or RX 580 can work within the power envelope of a MP5,1. Some models of VEGA56 need even less power than the usual HD 7970.

The problem with UEFI Windows is the BootROM corruption caused by Windows 8.1 and 10 installed with UEFI mode flashing SecureBoot certificates in the NVRAM at every boot. A user here works at Microsoft and opened an internal bug report that was escalated, maybe this won't be a problem in the near future.

RX 580 still have CSM support and can work with UEFI Windows or CSM. Some newer GPUs, like VEGA GPUs don't even have CSM support anymore and only work with UEFI Windows - this is a problem currently since iMac Pro BootCamp drivers can't be used with a MP5,1 when you install Windows via UEFI, so you can't go back from Windows via BootCamp startup panel. This is a problem of the BootCamp drivers, not the GPU.

Edit: Seems that only cross-flashed and BIOS modded VEGA GPUs don't have CSM support, since the hardware validation rejects the VBIOS.
 
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tsialex said:
Some current AMD GPUs, like VEGA 56 or RX 580 can work within the power envelope of a MP5,1. Some models of VEGA56 need even less power than the usual HD 7970.

The problem with UEFI Windows is the BootROM corruption caused by Windows 8.1 and 10 installed with UEFI mode flashing SecureBoot certificates in the NVRAM at every boot.
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The only thing I am sure about is that my XFX RX580 8GB did not run stable before Pixlas mod.
Some cards seem to work fine without, but then you might have sudden freezes or resets. Besides, you are stressing the power lines and might eventually damage the power supply and/or MB. I do not recommend using a 6pin to 8pin cable to power a GPU from the MB: if it _seems_ working, it does not mean it is working properly.

Also, bootcamped Windows 10 UEFI does not boot with my card, displaying a weird “missing boot device” message. Swap the card with a RTX2060, and it boots nicely.
 
Dan Streaman said:
The only thing I am sure about is that my XFX RX580 8GB did not run stable before Pixlas mod.
Some cards seem to work fine without, but then you might have sudden freezes or resets. Besides, you are stressing the power lines and might eventually damage the power supply and/or MB. I do not recommend using a 6pin to 8pin cable to power a GPU from the MB: if it _seems_ working, it does not mean it is working properly.

Also, bootcamped Windows 10 UEFI does not boot with my card, displaying a weird “missing boot device” message. Swap the card with a RTX2060, and it boots nicely.
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The recommended card Sapphire Pulse RX580 works flawless and does NOT stress the PSU lines.

It works perfectly in Mojave and Windows 10. BootCamp driver does not work in UEFI mode. It has nothing to do with the GPU. BootCamp drivers work perfectly in CSM installs.

Pixlas MOD is not needed with the recommended GPU.

Your experience is anecdotal and not accurate for the recommended GPU.

XFX has a long and well known history of incompatibility with Mac. Poor choice...
 
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crjackson2134 said:
The recommended card Sapphire Pulse RX580 works flawless and does NOT stress the PSU lines.
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Your recommended card is rated at 225W TDP using a 8pin connector. My XFX has even a lower TDP of 185W.
If you want to power that board from the motherboard, you should at least use a special cable with dual 6-pin (motherboard) to single 8-pin PCIe power connector (card).
Again, I do not recommend a single 6-pin to 8-pin cable: it will not run stable and it will stress the lines under heavy load.
 
Dan Streaman said:
Your recommended card is rated at 225W TDP using a 8pin connector. My XFX has even a lower TDP of 185W.
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Using the 2x mini 6 to 1x single 8 is common knowledge. Of course that’s how I use it, no one has suggested otherwise except for you. If you didn't install your card properly, you shouldn't expect it to work properly. It (Sapphire Pulse RX580 8G) meets the Apple power spec. just fine when installed correctly.

You are spreading unhelpful misinformation. Apple recommend this card, not me.

Dan Streaman said:
If you want to power that board from the motherboard, you should at least use a special cable with dual 6-pin (motherboard) to single 8-pin PCIe power connector (card).
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Everyone already does this. Most people have already done the research.

Dan Streaman said:
Again, I do not recommend a single 6-pin to 8-pin cable: it will not run stable and it will stress the PSU lines under heavy load.
Click to expand...

See above..

Anyway, this is all an off topic tangent, and needs to stop. Make a new thread about your recommendations if you want. There are dozens already. You’re not helping at this point, and most your information is redundant and applicable to your mistakes.

I.L.
 
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As @crjackson2134 and @tsialex have stated, the Sapphire Pulse RX580 is the way to go, so I’ll be ordering one of those. However, I believe it’s important to have preboot support, so I was thinking of getting a cheap GT120 for when the need arises to be able to just swap out. But I was reading that once in Mojave, only GPUs that support Metal will work. So, what is the cheapest Metal capable GPU out there that will work in a MP 5,1 that I can keep on hand for emergencies? Otherwise, should I just stick with High Sierra and the GT120 for as long as I can? What’s everyone else out there doing who feel the need to have preboot functionality?
 
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greg97 said:
As @crjackson2134 and @tsialex have stated, the Sapphire Pulse RX580 is the way to go, so I’ll be ordering one of those. However, I believe it’s important to have preboot support, so I was thinking of getting a cheap GT120 for when the need arises to be able to just swap out. But I was reading that once in Mojave, only GPUs that support Metal wil work. So, what is the cheapest Metal capable GPU out there that will work in a MP 5,1 that I can keep on hand for emergencies? Otherwise, should I just stick with High Sierra and the GT120 for as long as I can? What’s everyone else out there doing who feel the need to have preboot functionality?
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GT120 works with Mojave, using EFI drivers. It's un-accelerated and only useful for diagnostics, but works/shows the screen.
 
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Ok, good news and bad news...I got the Sapphire Pulse RX580 and the proper power cable and plugged it into my machine. I connected it to my Dell U2711 with a Displayport cable. When I turned it on I got the single chime so I waited for the display. Nothing. On the screen I only got the message saying “No DVI-D1 cable”. So I unplugged the DisplayPort cable and hooked up my DVI cable. This time the monitor recognized that the cable was attached but had a message saying “Entering power save mode” and went to sleep. The computer itself seems to be running fine with both fans on the GPU spinning away. When I pressed the Diag LED button, I get the Sys PG and EFI Done lights green, but nothing for the GPU OK light. Any thoughts?
 
You won't get anything on the screen until RX 580 drivers are loaded, read post #19.

Make a createinstallmedia USB-key with the newest Mojave MAS full installer, Apple updated it today, remove all your drives keeping just the createinstallmedia USB. If your Mac Pro is working correctly, after around two or three minutes the installer will load the AMD drivers and the screen will then work.
 
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Great thanks, but what if I wanted to stick with High Sierra, which is what I have now? There was a reason I don’t want to upgrade to Mojave just yet (although I can’t remember just why, but I remember it was important).
Are there drivers for High Sierra?
 
I disconnected all my drives and inserted my High Sierra USB installer (which I have used in the past). I heard it chime twice at the beginning. It’s been about 10 minutes. Should I have seen the screen by now, or do I shut it down, remove the USB, and reinstall the drives and start it up again? Thanks

Update: After about 15 minutes my computer went to sleep so I figured it must be done. I reinstalled the drives and powered up but still no screen...
 
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greg97 said:
I disconnected all my drives and inserted my High Sierra USB installer (which I have used in the past). I heard it chime twice at the beginning. It’s been about 10 minutes. Should I have seen the screen by now, or do I shut it down, remove the USB, and reinstall the drives and start it up again? Thanks

Update: After about 15 minutes my computer went to sleep so I figured it must be done. I reinstalled the drives and powered up but still no screen...
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Did you tested the RX 580 with another Mac/PC?

Unless you have a very incompatible display (improbable, but possible and some people here had it before) or you have NVRAM problems, your GPU is not working at all.

Did you ever got your Mac Pro working? Did you accessed it from screensharing?
 
Here is a screenshot of the USB I was using...perhaps this is not correct? I don’t remember how I created it but it wasn’t via ‘createinstallmedia’, but I did use it previously to reload High Sierra when I was having issues getting my MP to update past 10.13.4 (which I was still unable to do before my original GPU died). Unfortunately I have no other PC/Mac to test the GPU in. My only other computer is a MacBook Pro pre 2018 so I don’t have screensharing capability. My monitor is a Dell U2711 with DP, HDMI, DVI, and VGA inputs.
Question: when pressing the Diag LED button, should I be getting BOTH the EPI Done and GPU Ok lights green? I find it odd that when the old non working GPU was installed, I was still getting the GPU Ok light as green, but the EPI Done was off. Now it’s the other way around??
Also, if the USB boot method IS successful, would the screen come on at that point when it is finished, or only after I reinstall my drives and restart the computer again? Thanks!
1D92DD95-C679-4539-BBB6-85ECD7E02304.jpeg
 
greg97 said:
Here is a screenshot of the USB I was using...perhaps this is not correct? I don’t remember how I created it but it wasn’t via ‘createinstallmedia’, but I did use it previously to reload High Sierra when I was having issues getting my MP to update past 10.13.4 (which I was still unable to do before my original GPU died). Unfortunately I have no other PC/Mac to test the GPU in. My only other computer is a MacBook Pro pre 2018 so I don’t have screensharing capability. My monitor is a Dell U2711 with DP, HDMI, DVI, and VGA inputs.
Question: when pressing the Diag LED button, should I be getting BOTH the EPI Done and GPU Ok lights green? I find it odd that when the old non working GPU was installed, I was still getting the GPU Ok light as green, but the EPI Done was off. Now it’s the other way around??
Also, if the USB boot method IS successful, would the screen come on at that point when it is finished, or only after I reinstall my drives and restart the computer again? Thanks!View attachment 851233
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You are really making this more complicated than needed, follow Apple instructions on how to create a createinstallmedia USB installer and test it: How to create a bootable installer for macOS.

RX 580 don't have EFI drivers, so it won't work with the diagnostic system, GPU OK LED, of the backplane.

Any Mac have screensharing including yours. Search how to enable it, install High Sierra to a external USB drive, remove all drives from your Mac Pro and check if it boots. If screensharing shows it booting, but the screen still don't works, replace the RX-580. Forget your Mac Pro drives, keep it all out of your Mac Pro btw, until you have it working with createinstallmedia USB key or external USB drive.
 
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Ok, partial success! Obviously the problem was with the original USB I was using, so after creating a new USB boot drive, I finally got it to load into the initial gray screen which gives the options of “Restore from TM backup, Install macOS, Get help online, or Disk Utility”. What do I do at this point? Thanks
 
greg97 said:
Ok, partial success! Obviously the problem was with the original USB I was using, so after creating a new USB boot drive, I finally got it to load into the initial gray screen which gives the options of “Restore from TM backup, Install macOS, Get help online, or Disk Utility”. What do I do at this point? Thanks
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Fully erase a drive using your MBP, install the erased drive into your Mac Pro, then use the USB installer to install.

You will only boot from the USB installer again if you fully erase the drive, any bootable SATA drives will always have preference over USB drives. Since your card don't support pre-boot configuration, you don't have the BootPicker/BootSelector.
 
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Sorry for the trouble, but now I can't get my MBP to recognize my SSD boot drive from my MP that I'm trying to erase. I tried to attach it using a card from a WD Easystore external enclosure (which is the only way I believe I have to attach the card to anything externally). The card lights up so I know its on, but won't show up in Disk Utility. So I tried to attach it externally to the MP and use the Disk Utility on the initial gray screen, but it doesn't show up there either?
Also, I understand I have no Boot Selector with this new GPU, but why am I having to erase my MP start up disk and starting all over again? At this point that I know the GPU is working, why can't I just put all the drives back in and it works? Most people on Youtube that I saw hooking up this GPU just made it look like it was plug and play?
Thanks
 
greg97 said:
Sorry for the trouble, but now I can't get my MBP to recognize my SSD boot drive from my MP that I'm trying to erase. I tried to attach it using a card from a WD Easystore external enclosure (which is the only way I believe I have to attach the card to anything externally). The card lights up so I know its on, but won't show up in Disk Utility. So I tried to attach it externally to the MP and use the Disk Utility on the initial gray screen, but it doesn't show up there either?
Also, I understand I have no Boot Selector with this new GPU, but why am I having to erase my MP start up disk and starting all over again? At this point that I know the GPU is working, why can't I just put all the drives back in and it works? Most people on Youtube that I saw hooking up this GPU just made it look like it was plug and play?
Thanks
Click to expand...
You already connected and didn't work, no?
 
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Ok, you've got a point...I'm sorry but I've been at this for so long that I'm getting confused, which isn't hard to do since I'm no expert at this! And I truly appreciate all the help that you've given me, I'm really sorry to keep bothering you like this :/
Any idea how I can get my SSD erased so I can start over again?
 
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