Hello everyone,
So I have a 2009 Mac Pro that I have been trying to troubleshoot for a few days now and I just can’t seem to make any headway.
Skip to the bottom for a summary.
Mac has the firmware updated to 5,1 and I am currently running Catalina 10.15.3 installed via DosDude’s installer. At the same point of the initial install I replaced the nvidia GT 120 with an RX 560 and a few weeks later added the Intel X5680 x2
I initially had no issues, but I wasn’t trying to use most of the stock apps. A lot of adobe, pro tools, Tidal, and threw a couple of mindless games on there via Steam. No problems. Recently though, I thought I’d test out the new 4K monitor (connected via DP) with some Interstellar or Oblivion. So I fired up the TV app, and 3 seconds in, the movie just quit. I’ve never had HDCP issues over DP, but I swapped it for a HDMI cable, did a restart to be safe, and still, the same thing. So I started doing some digging.
I came across a few posts, one from this forum, and a couple forms some different ones where the posts mentioned issues with Kexts in Hackintosh-like setups not playing well with others and causing issues with HDCP. So I tried to add Lilu and WEG. Kextbeast was unsuccessful, so I did some more digging, and found that on some occasions SIP has to be disabled in order to modify the extension folders. Sooo... I attempt to boot in recovery mode, to no avail. After more digging, I think it may be the GPU. So I pull out the old GT 120. Cmd+R gets me the no parking sign. So I power down, boot back in to macOS, check diskutil to see if recovery is there, and it is!
After multiple failed attempts to try local and internet recovery, I just reinstalled macOS via thumb drive. Thinking to myself that “I had no issues before (the 560 was literally plug and play the first time)”, I put the 560 in, and nothing. Pull power again, reset NVRAM and nothing still. So now, another problem.
I’ve been a PC builder for about 17 years and I’ve fried a couple things with touching things in all the wrong places, so I tossed in a brand new 580 and 5500 xt (since “they have native support”) and still nothing. I get the chime, it boots, just no display. I’ve tried different PCIE ports too. So I threw the GT in again, with the 560 in slot 2 to see what happens and I get display from the GT.
Once logged in, I check About This Mac and pull the system report. When looking at the kernel extensions, NONE of the AMD Kexts are loaded. With the 560 installed. I thought maybe it’s an issue with nvidia and AMD competing in the OS so I dug up an old ATI HD card that came with one of my other Mac pros. Still. Nothing.
So what started as something simple, has become a very deep and annoying rabbit hole.
Here’s a summary for my TL;DR friends:
2009 Mac Pro upgraded to 5,1
2x Intel X5680
Catalina 10.15.3
AMD RX 560 (worked initially)
Nvidia GT 120
Can’t play iTunes (TV) movies.
Unable to install Lilu and WEG to system/library/extensions
Can’t boot to recovery mode unless I’m using a thumb drive.
560 no longer works - FIXED
580, 5500 xt tested and doesn’t work either.
Only the GT 120, and 5770 (after releasing NVRAM reset after 3rd chime) - FIXED
System report shows only AMD5000controller.kext Loaded, even with 560, 580, 5500 xt installed.
I’ve even tried the daunting (to me) task of manually loading them. After reboot, they still show not loaded. - FIXED
I’ve only been working with Macs for a few years and this is my first hack. I’ve annoyed my wife with all my time google searching and digging through forums, so I figured it’s time to ask for help. It is much appreciated, by me, and my better half
Thank you,
Zac
So I have a 2009 Mac Pro that I have been trying to troubleshoot for a few days now and I just can’t seem to make any headway.
Skip to the bottom for a summary.
Mac has the firmware updated to 5,1 and I am currently running Catalina 10.15.3 installed via DosDude’s installer. At the same point of the initial install I replaced the nvidia GT 120 with an RX 560 and a few weeks later added the Intel X5680 x2
I initially had no issues, but I wasn’t trying to use most of the stock apps. A lot of adobe, pro tools, Tidal, and threw a couple of mindless games on there via Steam. No problems. Recently though, I thought I’d test out the new 4K monitor (connected via DP) with some Interstellar or Oblivion. So I fired up the TV app, and 3 seconds in, the movie just quit. I’ve never had HDCP issues over DP, but I swapped it for a HDMI cable, did a restart to be safe, and still, the same thing. So I started doing some digging.
I came across a few posts, one from this forum, and a couple forms some different ones where the posts mentioned issues with Kexts in Hackintosh-like setups not playing well with others and causing issues with HDCP. So I tried to add Lilu and WEG. Kextbeast was unsuccessful, so I did some more digging, and found that on some occasions SIP has to be disabled in order to modify the extension folders. Sooo... I attempt to boot in recovery mode, to no avail. After more digging, I think it may be the GPU. So I pull out the old GT 120. Cmd+R gets me the no parking sign. So I power down, boot back in to macOS, check diskutil to see if recovery is there, and it is!
After multiple failed attempts to try local and internet recovery, I just reinstalled macOS via thumb drive. Thinking to myself that “I had no issues before (the 560 was literally plug and play the first time)”, I put the 560 in, and nothing. Pull power again, reset NVRAM and nothing still. So now, another problem.
I’ve been a PC builder for about 17 years and I’ve fried a couple things with touching things in all the wrong places, so I tossed in a brand new 580 and 5500 xt (since “they have native support”) and still nothing. I get the chime, it boots, just no display. I’ve tried different PCIE ports too. So I threw the GT in again, with the 560 in slot 2 to see what happens and I get display from the GT.
Once logged in, I check About This Mac and pull the system report. When looking at the kernel extensions, NONE of the AMD Kexts are loaded. With the 560 installed. I thought maybe it’s an issue with nvidia and AMD competing in the OS so I dug up an old ATI HD card that came with one of my other Mac pros. Still. Nothing.
So what started as something simple, has become a very deep and annoying rabbit hole.
Here’s a summary for my TL;DR friends:
2009 Mac Pro upgraded to 5,1
2x Intel X5680
Catalina 10.15.3
AMD RX 560 (worked initially)
Nvidia GT 120
Can’t play iTunes (TV) movies.
Unable to install Lilu and WEG to system/library/extensions
Can’t boot to recovery mode unless I’m using a thumb drive.
560 no longer works - FIXED
580, 5500 xt tested and doesn’t work either.
Only the GT 120, and 5770 (after releasing NVRAM reset after 3rd chime) - FIXED
System report shows only AMD5000controller.kext Loaded, even with 560, 580, 5500 xt installed.
I’ve even tried the daunting (to me) task of manually loading them. After reboot, they still show not loaded. - FIXED
I’ve only been working with Macs for a few years and this is my first hack. I’ve annoyed my wife with all my time google searching and digging through forums, so I figured it’s time to ask for help. It is much appreciated, by me, and my better half
Thank you,
Zac
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