MP 1,1-5,1 RX560 Black screen with every OS update

[ashleykaryl]

The last two security updates in Mojave have both resulted in a black screen on my 2010 5.1 using the MSI RX560. It is fixed by resetting the PRAM, but I find it a bit annoying that this is occurring on a graphics card that was listed by Apple as being compatible. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208898

I found a post on the Apple forums of somebody who seems to be having exactly the same problems, using the same card, including the inability to run disk utility from recovery mode, which I also have. The only difference is that I have a Sumsung SSD, whereas he had an Apple SSD installed on a 2012 Mac Pro. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250329940

To install Mojave I was also forced to completely wipe everything from recovery multiple times after a normal install via the internet failed and then use a USB installer, however it is clear that the problem returns with the next update and I wonder if anybody can think of a way to fix this properly?

Day to day usage seems to be OK, however there is something in this setup that Mojave doesn't like and it's almost like running a Hackintosh at this point.

 

[tommy chen]

have you ever NVIDIA cards in your cMP?
and may the nvidia webdrivers or cuda still installed?
how is your bootrom version?

 

[ashleykaryl]

The boot rom version is 144.0.0.0.0 and I've never tried installing any web drivers. I simply removed the old 5770, plugged in the RX560 and it worked in High Sierra after rebooting.

From there I upgraded to Mojave with the USB. Following that clean install where I wiped the drive and only installed essential apps I've never had a more stable operating system in daily use. It's just these problems every time there is an OS security update and not being able to run disk utility from recovery mode.

 

[tommy chen]

you know that a securityupdate lasts approx. 40 min
are you killing your mac before?

look if you have fsroot tree errors in disk utility
starting from utilities - diskutil can't repair this failure!

also reinstall your system from recovery mode and
when the problem persist, make a backup with carboncopycloner
and reformat your SSD

 

[ashleykaryl]

Yes, I know it takes a while with the security updates and I let it run overnight the last time. In the morning it was powered up, but with a black screen. After force shutting down the black screen was still there until resetting the PRAM.

I've just run disk utility and no issues were reported. I was actually able to re-install the OS recently from recovery mode without problems, which I tried because I was having issues with one particular app. Yes I could reformat the drive again and do another clean install, but that is only likely to bring me back where I am currently following the next security update in theory.

All of this has me wondering how long it will be viable to continue with the Mac Pro as a main machine. The lack of boot screen is an issue, because I cannot boot into safe mode, nor could I install from the USB stick the last time I tried. The only time I was able to do that was after reformatting the drive half a dozen ways from recovery mode, which lead to a big ? on the screen when I tried to reboot. It eventually located the USB stick and let me run the installer.

 

[tommy chen]

possibly there is a problem with the bootrom - then you should contact @tsialex

 

[ashleykaryl]

OK thank you for your help. It is much appreciated. From memory the bootrom was updated under High Sierra before I could install Mojave, so there could be something there.

 

[bsbeamer]

Few suggestions:
Reset NVRAM THREE times in a row.
Clean install OS to a spare SATA SSD or SATA HDD. Do not install via USB. Do not try to update via USB.

 

[ashleykaryl]

Somebody on Facebook apparently had the same problem and was able to fix it by putting in the original graphics card. He was then prompted to update, which took 28 minutes.

After putting in the old card I was able to boot the computer in Mojave, which I hadn't thought was possible. There was no option to update the computer, however I was able to book into safe mode now, so I did that and ran disk utility there as well. It took ages for the computer to start in safe mode.

Starting with the option key to choose a startup disk only offered the OS drive with no recovery drive made available, so I tried again with cmd + R and it went into recovery mode. With the old graphics card I had no problems running disk utility, which has not been possible with the RX560. It was not possible to reinstall the OS like this as I suspected because no metal card was present.

From here I shut down the computer, reset the SMC and reset the NVRAM 3 times as suggested. It seems fine and I'll have to wait until the next security update to see if any of this has worked, but I do have a bit more knowledge now of what is possible with this setup under Mojave. I had been under the impression that disk utility was not working in recovery mode due to the Samsung SSD, but it turns out the RX560 graphics card was responsible.