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Startup keys don't work

Project Alice

Project Alice

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
2,154
2,239
Post Falls, ID
None of the startup keys will work on my 4,1 > 5,1. I need to use the option boot chooser, to boot back into mac os from Windows 10 which was just installed. Windows 10s bootcamp support software doesn't recognize APFS properly so it still boots back in to Windows after selecting mac in bootcamp control panel.
So I'm effectively stuck in windows 10 unless I pull out the drive it's installed on.
I've spent about an hour on google, and haven't found anything that's worked. I've tried every key sequence known, as well as reset the SMC, and I've tried 3 different keyboards. In all my years of owning macs I have NEVER had this happen. What do I do?

Update:
I was able to get the new APFS friendly bootcamp control panel from the iMacPro1,1 package and got back into mojave.
However, this still doesn't solve the fact that I can't use start up keys -_-
 
Last edited:
I’m on 10.13.6 and I don’t remember any of them functioning besides Option-Command-P-R for some time. It might have been El Capitan or even Yosemite. That’s using a USB keyboard.
 
You mentioned three different keyboards but were they USB or Bluetooth? In my experience, only Apple's own BT keyboards work OK with startup key presses. And even they don't beat a good old USB keyboard for this kind of thing.

If you are indeed using a USB keyboard, then have you tried doing an NVRAM reset? You may have because you said you tried every key sequence. But zapping the NVRAM would be a biggie so if you haven't tried that then definitely do (Command+Option+P+R - Hold them down as soon as you hear the boot chime and keep held down until you hear 3-4 more chimes--it can take a minute or so).

If you can't even get the NVRAM zapped then you may want to dump your ROM and ask tsialex if he will examine it for potential corruption. This goes especially so if you ever installed the MP51.0087.B00 firmware and/or you use Windows 10 in UEFI mode. Not sure if bootrom corruption can cause the symptom you're seeing but it wouldn't surprise me.
 
bookemdano said:
You mentioned three different keyboards but were they USB or Bluetooth? In my experience, only Apple's own BT keyboards work OK with startup key presses. And even they don't beat a good old USB keyboard for this kind of thing.

If you are indeed using a USB keyboard, then have you tried doing an NVRAM reset? You may have because you said you tried every key sequence. But zapping the NVRAM would be a biggie so if you haven't tried that then definitely do (Command+Option+P+R - Hold them down as soon as you hear the boot chime and keep held down until you hear 3-4 more chimes--it can take a minute or so).

If you can't even get the NVRAM zapped then you may want to dump your ROM and ask tsialex if he will examine it for potential corruption. This goes especially so if you ever installed the MP51.0087.B00 firmware and/or you use Windows 10 in UEFI mode. Not sure if bootrom corruption can cause the symptom you're seeing but it wouldn't surprise me.
Click to expand...
I don't even own a BT keyboard (or want one for that matter). All USB. Actually they're all old Apple Pro Keyboards.

This is correct I can't even get the NVRAM zapped. I'm on 141 - installed the official apple way (installed 10.13 from 10.12, then 10.14 from there). And Windows is not in UEFI mode because I was aware of that problem. Its using CSM.

fastlanephil said:
I’m on 10.13.6 and I don’t remember any of them functioning besides Option-Command-P-R for some time. It might have been El Capitan or even Yosemite. That’s using a USB keyboard.
Click to expand...
I sure as hell hope that isn't what apple intended... Having the option boot menu is the ONLY reason I purchased myself an EFI capable card. Might as well just go by an RX580 like everyone else I guess. My 3,1 works just fine, and it was mojave too. And it's officially supported up to 10.11 so I can't imagine that'd be it. I can't remember being this annoyed since I remembered (the hard way) that my B&W G3 doesn't have it either lol.
 
What I would do next is open the case up and remove all drives and PCI cards except your macOS boot drive and your GPU, just to aid in troubleshooting the cause. Is your macOS drive on a SATA HDD or SDD in one of the four bays? Ideally for testing this you would not want any blade SSDs in the machine (try to go as "stock" as possible).

Might try an old school SMC reset too (just unplug power to the cMP and leave it unplugged for a few minutes).

Edit: To counter the other person's post: Holding option to get the boot picker should definitely be working given that you have an EFI GPU. Other startup key combinations work too--such as Command+R to get the Recovery partition, C to boot from CD/USB, etc.
 
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This is a long shot, but is your keyboard plugged directly into one of the built-in USB ports on the Mac and not into an add-on USB controller or hub?

I agree with the above posts that you might try removing all drives to see how the system behaves. After you remove everything, see if the system will then allow you to reset the NVRAM. Also, do investigate the possibility of a firmware password, since that would probably produce the behavior you're describing.

Good luck and let us know what you find.
 
My Mac OS drive is not in any of the bays. It's a PCIe NVME SSD. The main keyboard I use is plugged into a KVM but I knew that would cause issues, so during this whole fiasco I plugged it and the other keyboards directly into the Mac. There's no Firmware password enabled on this thing.

I will remove all the drives and investigate further.
 
Project Alice said:
None of the startup keys will work on my 4,1 > 5,1. I need to use the option boot chooser, to boot back into mac os from Windows 10 which was just installed. Windows 10s bootcamp support software doesn't recognize APFS properly so it still boots back in to Windows after selecting mac in bootcamp control panel.
So I'm effectively stuck in windows 10 unless I pull out the drive it's installed on.
I've spent about an hour on google, and haven't found anything that's worked. I've tried every key sequence known, as well as reset the SMC, and I've tried 3 different keyboards. In all my years of owning macs I have NEVER had this happen. What do I do?

Update:
I was able to get the new APFS friendly bootcamp control panel from the iMacPro1,1 package and got back into mojave.
However, this still doesn't solve the fact that I can't use start up keys -_-
Click to expand...

rEFInd

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/booting-mac-os-or-windows-using-refind.2178195/
 
So first thing then, remove all drives including your NVMe blade. Just leave your GPU installed. Then boot up and test holding down option to see if you get the boot picker.

If so, then try reinstalling your NVMe drive, but in a different slot than the one it was in. Test again.

If you can still get Option booting to work then start reintroducing anything else you pulled out.
 
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