Leave the mains power cable disconnected for at least one hour before any tests. You need to start your diagnose with a totally reset SMC.
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Problem getting a RX580 card running on Mac Pro 5,1
- Thread starter kenshin27
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Update.
Okay I just installed another power supply and it's doing the same thing, press power button and the power button light does not come on, although it's turning on the fan of the video card. Any suggestions. I'm trying to get through the troubleshoot guide and doing my best to grasp it.
Okay I just installed another power supply and it's doing the same thing, press power button and the power button light does not come on, although it's turning on the fan of the video card. Any suggestions. I'm trying to get through the troubleshoot guide and doing my best to grasp it.
Install ONLY the RX 580
This is the correct cable for your RX 580 from amazon.com
=====================================================
This may or may not work . . . read the small black text.
First, remove the Mac Pro power cable for a couple of minutes.
NOTE : From a COLD BOOT . . HOLD DOWN THE ABOVE KEYS until you hear the " Happy Mac Chime" THREE TIMES
Good Luck.
This is the correct cable for your RX 580 from amazon.com
COMeap Dual Mini 6 Pin to 8 Pin PCI Express Video Card Power Adapter Cable for Mac Pro Tower/Power Mac G5 15-inch(38cm)
COMeap Dual Mini 6 Pin to 8 Pin PCI Express Video Card Power Adapter Cable for Mac Pro Tower/Power Mac G5 15-inch(38cm)
www.amazon.com
=====================================================
This may or may not work . . . read the small black text.
First, remove the Mac Pro power cable for a couple of minutes.
NOTE : From a COLD BOOT . . HOLD DOWN THE ABOVE KEYS until you hear the " Happy Mac Chime" THREE TIMES
Good Luck.
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
MIKX
Thanks for the help.
I installed the original video with original cable to verify it's not the brand new card.
It's so strange. I press the power button, and I hear a click, but the power button light is not lit, although I see the video card fan spinning, and even see a USB stick blinking. None else, and put a different power supply and same thing. Could it be the power button itself ?.
I have to hold the power button in (not lit), for a few seconds to hear the click to stop the fan from spinning, essentially hard shutdown.
I greatly appreciate all your folks time.
Powers there, but not lighting and booting.
Thanks for the help.
I installed the original video with original cable to verify it's not the brand new card.
It's so strange. I press the power button, and I hear a click, but the power button light is not lit, although I see the video card fan spinning, and even see a USB stick blinking. None else, and put a different power supply and same thing. Could it be the power button itself ?.
I have to hold the power button in (not lit), for a few seconds to hear the click to stop the fan from spinning, essentially hard shutdown.
I greatly appreciate all your folks time.
Powers there, but not lighting and booting.
Power button can be bypassed using the PCB pads, see the Apple Technician Guide. I bet that it's not your problem, since you can do the hard shutdown.
Your problem is more akin to a corrupt BootROM than anything. If you have access to another Mac Pro, replace the backplanes, if the problem moves to the second one, you have a problematic backplane, probably caused by a corrupt SPI flash.
Btw, there are different ways to brick a backplane, the usual one is caused by NVRAM corruption and the Mac Pro powers on and off normally, but can't boot anything, a "soft" brick where DIAG button still works and EFI DONE is off. Then there are the real bricks, where the SPI flash totally corrupts/fails and you can't even power on the Mac Pro and DIAG button sometimes don't even work.
Yes Sir, I even removed all the memory and left one stick in.
Okay, will get more detailed when I do more troublshoot. Fingers crossed, thank you.
If the BootRom is corrupt, should I just buy another used Mac ?, considering the cost of repair.
The best way to diagnose a Mac Pro is to test the parts with another one that works. You can easily find what is causing your problem changing the parts between the two. Look at Mac Pro prices, maybe you can find a bargain on Craigslist. Any early-2009 to mid-2012 can be used for diagnostics purposes. You can't use a 2009 backplane with a mid-2010/mid-2012 CPU tray - incompatible SMC version and fans will work full time at full RPM - but for sure you can use a early-2009 Mac Pro to find what is defective with a mid-2010/mid-2012.
You can get an used backplane for around $75 + shipping on eBay with some searching, sometimes even less - I got a mid-2010 last year for $68,99 with free shipping.
Whats crazy is two weeks ago I had a chance to buy a 2010 Mac Pro dual 2.66 for $300. Darn it. I knew I should have bought it.
I have the modified dual CPU tray with 5690's, do I need to find a backplane that is particular to a dual CPU tray ?
thanks all
I have the modified dual CPU tray with 5690's, do I need to find a backplane that is particular to a dual CPU tray ?
thanks all
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No, CPU trays are interchangeable between single CPU or dual CPU mid-2010/mid-2012 Mac Pros.
You can even buy a early-2009 and use your tray with it for diagnostics purposes, just remember that early 2009 SMC is incompatible with mid-2010/mid-2012 and fans will run at fail-safe mode, full RPM/full time. For diagnostics purposes the SMC incompatibility don't matter, but no one can be side by side of a Mac Pro running all fans at full RPM all the time.
- SMC versions between trays and backplanes need to be the same.
- SMCs with different versions don't talk with each other.
- Early-2009 SMC is 1.39f5, while mid-2010/mid-2012 is 1.39f11.
- SMC firmware is not updatable, only Apple have the source code for the SMC H8S firmware, no user or technician can update it, ever.
Thank you so much for the info. There's a 2010 2.66 single core on Craigslist. Makes sense to buy that one and swap out the trays (YIPPIE). My only concern is that risking of installing the new Sapphire X580 in the machine, and hope it doesn't brick wall the computer. I wonder if it had anything to do with me upgrading the CPU's to the X5690's ?
I read I believe someone mentioned BootRom 140. would brickwall Westmere CPU's ?, since that's why I bought the Sapphire to upgrade the BootRom.
Man I can't thank you all enough for your gracious time.
I read I believe someone mentioned BootRom 140. would brickwall Westmere CPU's ?, since that's why I bought the Sapphire to upgrade the BootRom.
Man I can't thank you all enough for your gracious time.
It's 142.0.0.0.0 and W3xxx processors, but it was a beta firmware never released outside developers and public betas.
I have a 2012 dual 306 5,1. Just replaced my Nvidia GTX 980ti with the Radeon Pulse RX 580. Upgrading from HS to High Sierra (staying there for foreseeable future). Apple has been fighting with Nvidia and we are the victims. Nvidia no longer supports my newest (66) High Sierra build, besides, with the Nvidia Web patch for their unflashed 980ti, it was quite glitchy in my X-Plane 11xx. So went to the 8gb 580 from the 6 go 980ti. The Nvidia card need and external power supply to meet its 600w requirement so 8 added that. My 580 only requires a 500W PSU and I can use the on board power from the logic board. I boxed up the PSU and put it back on the shelf. I tried to add my old 5770 to another PIC slot but as has been said here in other threads, these Macs don’t like running to cards with different specs.
Other than not getting the boot screen with the 580 either, it runs beautifully and actually adds stability to my machine.
Other than not getting the boot screen with the 580 either, it runs beautifully and actually adds stability to my machine.
High Sierra latest version= 17G13035 and there is a Nvidia web driver available too...
Installed a 580 last night, with efi boot screen, a guy in Texas has em for around $250, boot screen is something I need, and like, and use.
Zephyr's Market , great communication, and fast shipping , unlike others....no affiliation, just sayin..And he sent the correct cable, I personally did not need it, I have pixlas mod.
It replaced 780ti, have latest boot rom, just went through replacing backplane, and power supply before hand.
Pretty much just plugged in in and it worked.
Don’t see the old nivida drivers at all. In OS X,
It all just worked in high Serra and Mojave, in Windows 10, I had some strange issues, after a few reboots, and removal of old drivers all is well.
Windows is play time for me and games.
Get work done in OS X.
Was a small bump in performance. But had a free sync monitor.
So enabled it, never saw my screen look that good.
The game doom is much more fun now. 60 FPS on my ultra wide.
And looks stunning.
High settings, no over clocking ,
not bad.
In windows you do have much more control over the card, like setting the fan, or overclock, the fan stopping was startling at first, till I got into windows and saw this is Normal, and gpu temps are very low when the fans do stop, In windows you can set the fan to run however you wish, I went back to stock auto settings, they work fine. Took awhile to understand what was happening here.
Just adding this, because the card works well in OS X, and the 5,1.
as long as the power and backplane are up to speed. And the card is good.
I also have the latest bootrom.
Many of Alex’s posts helped to get my old Mac back on track.
Keep working through issues you may have.
This card works well in the old 5,1 Mac Pro.
The best part is not having a flag telling me drivers need to be updated, but no driver exists...as did with coda!
Zephyr's Market , great communication, and fast shipping , unlike others....no affiliation, just sayin..And he sent the correct cable, I personally did not need it, I have pixlas mod.
It replaced 780ti, have latest boot rom, just went through replacing backplane, and power supply before hand.
Pretty much just plugged in in and it worked.
Don’t see the old nivida drivers at all. In OS X,
It all just worked in high Serra and Mojave, in Windows 10, I had some strange issues, after a few reboots, and removal of old drivers all is well.
Windows is play time for me and games.
Get work done in OS X.
Was a small bump in performance. But had a free sync monitor.
So enabled it, never saw my screen look that good.
The game doom is much more fun now. 60 FPS on my ultra wide.
And looks stunning.
High settings, no over clocking ,
not bad.
In windows you do have much more control over the card, like setting the fan, or overclock, the fan stopping was startling at first, till I got into windows and saw this is Normal, and gpu temps are very low when the fans do stop, In windows you can set the fan to run however you wish, I went back to stock auto settings, they work fine. Took awhile to understand what was happening here.
Just adding this, because the card works well in OS X, and the 5,1.
as long as the power and backplane are up to speed. And the card is good.
I also have the latest bootrom.
Many of Alex’s posts helped to get my old Mac back on track.
Keep working through issues you may have.
This card works well in the old 5,1 Mac Pro.
The best part is not having a flag telling me drivers need to be updated, but no driver exists...as did with coda!
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basslik
If it is not the same that is why you have startup problems,
Is the power cable THE SAME as the one in my previous Post 54 ?
If it is not the same that is why you have startup problems,
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Pixlas mod is not really neccessary for the RX 580 8gb.
The TWO x Mini 6 pin to ONE 8 pin in Post #54 is enough if only one GPU is installed.
( Actually, I sometimes also connect a TWO x SATA to ONE x 6 pin cable . .then connect that cable to my EVGa PowerLink. It depends on how much GPU load is involved. ).
Probably not necessary . . . . but better to be safe than sorry. 😀
The TWO x Mini 6 pin to ONE 8 pin in Post #54 is enough if only one GPU is installed.
( Actually, I sometimes also connect a TWO x SATA to ONE x 6 pin cable . .then connect that cable to my EVGa PowerLink. It depends on how much GPU load is involved. ).
Probably not necessary . . . . but better to be safe than sorry. 😀
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Pixlas mod , is a very good idea, regardless if the card runs without it or not, you are dragging all gpu current through an old backplane, older capacitors, that are getting electronically leaky, and showing more esr.
Saying pixlas in not needed, is an opinion, and not a very good one “electronically speaking”
Just saying.
Saying pixlas in not needed, is an opinion, and not a very good one “electronically speaking”
Just saying.
and when the backplane dies, in a year or so....
Remember what I wrote
Remember what I wrote
Yes but RX580 pulse is recommended card by Apple, plugged straight into Mac.....
The PCIe x16 slot also supplies power to GPUs as do the two Mini 6 pin AUX sockets along with ( if needed ) the SATA sockets. My MSI Armor RX580 8gb is showing 21w usage at the moment.
Just saying
It appears so. When I bought it I went with a 16gauge, I was reading the heavy gauge would be better?
I noticed on this one I bought (initial cable), the end has all black wires on the end top row where the rest of the top row is blue (left photo). Man I hope that the wiring wasn't incorrect ?
I now bought another cable, but made sure the listing is for Mac Pro video cards, pic on the right.
I stuck back in the original 5770 with original cable, and even the 5870 with it's original dual power cables. Same thing, Press power button, no light on power button, thus not booting, but definitely the video card fans spinning on all the video cards, including the new RX580.
Thank you all for your guidance indeed. Daughter is coming over tomorrow and she's pretty smart ( bio medical engineer ), and we'll go through the troubleshooting guide one step at a time.
HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ALL AND YOUR FAMILIES
Alex I've seen on eBay bootRom chips that can be replaced. Is that an option ?, requires a little soldering skills.
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