Beware! This discussion thread has been opened to provide information about this issue with Parallels/BootCamp with Non-EFI Cards. This is for those that are seeing a Blank Screen / Black screen on boot and can't get into OS X even with EFI card or have Black Screen in OS X.
Applies To:
- Mac Pro (any year or model)
- Nvidia NON-EFI Card (ex. GTX 670)
- Boot Camp with Windows 7 or 8.
- Parallel Users running Windows off Boot Camp partition OR you do not use Parallels but have broken your NVIDIA video driver.
Issue:
1. You are a user of Boot Camp and occasionally boot back into Windows to play games or use Windows only software. To take advantage of the full hardware specifications, you are using Boot Camp over running these apps in Parallels alongside Mac OS X.
2. At the same time you decide to use Parallels v7 or v8 for ease of access to Windows while in OS X. But, rather than creating a new Virtual Hard Disk that takes up space you decide to use your Boot Camp partition and boot Windows that is installed on your Boot Camp partition within Parallels (under OS X).
3. Everything appears to be going fine and all the Parallels tools install successfully.
4. Boot Camp and Parallels are both working fine, you are able to boot into your boot camp partition but are also able to run Windows off that same partition within OS X using Parallels.
5. A new NVIDIA Driver has been released or a new Parallels driver has been released and you decide to update for whatever reason.
6. Once the driver has been installed, you restart your computer (into the native Boot Camp Partition) and notice that there is NO VIDEO SIGNAL or a BLACK SCREEN.
The computer continues to do it's thing and you are able to use it with Narrator enabled.
Attempts at fixing it:
- You do not have Remote Desktop enabled and cannot remotely access your machine but you try connecting to it anyways.
- You are stuck in Windows with no video signal or a black screen. So you attempt to power down the machine and try holding down the Option key to change boot order. That does not work either. Press as many random buttons as you want but you still can't select OS X as the boot drive.
- Nothing is working, not even replacing the NON EFI card (ex. GTX670) with the stock EFI card (GT120), still no video and no Apple logo (because you haven't gotten into OS X yet).
- You have tried pulling the HDD out that has Windows installed and holding "X" to force the machine to boot into OS X. That doesn't work either. IT WILL STILL CONTINUE TO BOOT INTO WINDOWS and say "ERROR, NO OPERATING SYSTEM INSTALLED"
- Checked all the cables and they appear to be fine.
- SMC / PRAM reset makes no difference.
What has happened is that the Video Driver has broken! THE MACHINE IS STILL TRYING TO BOOT INTO WINDOWS no matter what and since you have NO VIDEO you can't use the machine at all except with Narrator!
Solution:
1. Power down your machine fully.
2. Unplug the power cord and remove your NON EFI video card. Install in your EFI (stock) video card into the lowest slot (x16). Do not install the non-efi card.
*** If you have sold your EFI (original video card) and are experiencing blank screen issue, the best option is to go to the Apple Store and have them take a look at fixing it. No matter what you do, it will still boot into Windows (for some odd reason) and only the geniuses can fix it. ***
3. Power on the machine and once you hear the hard drive making less noise or stop, press CMD+U. This will open up Narrator and Accessibility options. Using the spacebar as the "accept" key, select Start Narrator when you hear the option using spacebar. From here on it will say stuff like "FOCUS ON PASSWORD FIELD, LOGIN WINDOW" press space, "PASSWORD" (type your password). "WINDOWS START MENU" ....
If you are in Windows 8, press CMD (Windows Key) and type "Boot Camp". It will say "NO APPLICATIONS FOUND".
Press tab and the down arrow key until you hear it say "Settings", "BOOT CAMP FOUND". Once it says "Boot Camp" selected (by itself) press Spacebar.
It will say "USER ACCOUNT DIALOG" .... Here it does not read options so you will have to press TAB, TAB, TAB (yes 3 times) so that it highlights YES button and then press spacebar.
Now you have to navigate it using spacebar and tab until you hear "BOOT DRIVE, MACINTOSH DRIVE SELECTED" then press tab until you hear "RESTART" and "OKAY"....
For Windows 7, just press Windows key, type "boot camp" and press enter. Press tab / tab / tab (3 times) to select "YES" for user account control dialog and open the application. Select Macintosh Drive and restart (see above steps).
4. It will now reboot the machine into OS X. You will have video in OS X but Windows is still broken. From here (since you are using the EFI card) you will be able to boot into Windows safe mode and fix any problems with Windows.
DO NOT USE PARALLELS TO BOOT WINDOWS FROM YOUR BOOT CAMP INSTALL WITHIN OS X, IT JUST BREAKS EVERYTHING BY HAVING MULTIPLE VIDEO CARD DRIVERS AND OTHER DRIVERS INSTALLED
EVEN WORSE SITUATION: COREGRAPHICS is BROKEN!
- Because of some odd reason, CoreGraphics / the Mac video driver is broken and you have no video in OS X either.
- You have successfully followed the above steps to boot into OS X.
- Luckily you can remote into your Mac Pro (OSX) using Screen Sharing or a terminal command to force remote into it (google "ssh force remote into osx").
- The machine can be controlled via remote but you still have no video on your monitor or a black screen.
There are two solutions:
1. Open Disk Utility and run Repair Permissions and Repair disk on your OS X disk. Let it run until it says "permissions repair or disk repair complete" at the bottom.
2. Reboot the machine and it should be fixed.
Solution 2 is more risky and requires low res monitor:
1. Open system preferences and set the boot disk to OS X 10.8 Repair partition. If it's not there (probably not) you will have to hunt down a terminal command to set it.
2. Once you have restarted into OS X repair, you will no longer be able to control your machine using remote / screen sharing. You will need to hook up a VGA monitor to the MDP port, apparently DVI and HDMI monitors don't work but you can try hooking them up but be sure to use an Adapter -> MDP.
3. If you have an old LCD or CRT that is low res (like 800x640 or 1024x768 or even 1280x800 etc.) the video should come up.
4. From here you can run disk utility and repair permissions/repair disk. You might also want to install OS X again, this won't (or shouldn't) delete any of your files. CAUTION! Be sure to have backups in case.
5. Reboot and the machine should be fixed.
*** REMEMBER IF WINDOWS DRIVER IS STILL BROKEN DO NOT ATTEMPT BOOTING BACK INTO IT, YOU WILL ENCOUNTER THE SAME ISSUE *** Just browse your Windows disk in OS X and copy all files you need. Do a clean install of Windows (format).
If all else fails, consider going to the Apple store to have the machine checked out. I certainly don't have Apple Care but they might be able to do something for you.
Applies To:
- Mac Pro (any year or model)
- Nvidia NON-EFI Card (ex. GTX 670)
- Boot Camp with Windows 7 or 8.
- Parallel Users running Windows off Boot Camp partition OR you do not use Parallels but have broken your NVIDIA video driver.
Issue:
1. You are a user of Boot Camp and occasionally boot back into Windows to play games or use Windows only software. To take advantage of the full hardware specifications, you are using Boot Camp over running these apps in Parallels alongside Mac OS X.
2. At the same time you decide to use Parallels v7 or v8 for ease of access to Windows while in OS X. But, rather than creating a new Virtual Hard Disk that takes up space you decide to use your Boot Camp partition and boot Windows that is installed on your Boot Camp partition within Parallels (under OS X).
3. Everything appears to be going fine and all the Parallels tools install successfully.
4. Boot Camp and Parallels are both working fine, you are able to boot into your boot camp partition but are also able to run Windows off that same partition within OS X using Parallels.
5. A new NVIDIA Driver has been released or a new Parallels driver has been released and you decide to update for whatever reason.
6. Once the driver has been installed, you restart your computer (into the native Boot Camp Partition) and notice that there is NO VIDEO SIGNAL or a BLACK SCREEN.
The computer continues to do it's thing and you are able to use it with Narrator enabled.Attempts at fixing it:
- You do not have Remote Desktop enabled and cannot remotely access your machine but you try connecting to it anyways.
- You are stuck in Windows with no video signal or a black screen. So you attempt to power down the machine and try holding down the Option key to change boot order. That does not work either. Press as many random buttons as you want but you still can't select OS X as the boot drive.
- Nothing is working, not even replacing the NON EFI card (ex. GTX670) with the stock EFI card (GT120), still no video and no Apple logo (because you haven't gotten into OS X yet).
- You have tried pulling the HDD out that has Windows installed and holding "X" to force the machine to boot into OS X. That doesn't work either. IT WILL STILL CONTINUE TO BOOT INTO WINDOWS and say "ERROR, NO OPERATING SYSTEM INSTALLED"
- Checked all the cables and they appear to be fine.
- SMC / PRAM reset makes no difference.
What has happened is that the Video Driver has broken! THE MACHINE IS STILL TRYING TO BOOT INTO WINDOWS no matter what and since you have NO VIDEO you can't use the machine at all except with Narrator!
Solution:
1. Power down your machine fully.
2. Unplug the power cord and remove your NON EFI video card. Install in your EFI (stock) video card into the lowest slot (x16). Do not install the non-efi card.
*** If you have sold your EFI (original video card) and are experiencing blank screen issue, the best option is to go to the Apple Store and have them take a look at fixing it. No matter what you do, it will still boot into Windows (for some odd reason) and only the geniuses can fix it. ***
3. Power on the machine and once you hear the hard drive making less noise or stop, press CMD+U. This will open up Narrator and Accessibility options. Using the spacebar as the "accept" key, select Start Narrator when you hear the option using spacebar. From here on it will say stuff like "FOCUS ON PASSWORD FIELD, LOGIN WINDOW" press space, "PASSWORD" (type your password). "WINDOWS START MENU" ....
If you are in Windows 8, press CMD (Windows Key) and type "Boot Camp". It will say "NO APPLICATIONS FOUND".
Press tab and the down arrow key until you hear it say "Settings", "BOOT CAMP FOUND". Once it says "Boot Camp" selected (by itself) press Spacebar.
It will say "USER ACCOUNT DIALOG" .... Here it does not read options so you will have to press TAB, TAB, TAB (yes 3 times) so that it highlights YES button and then press spacebar.
Now you have to navigate it using spacebar and tab until you hear "BOOT DRIVE, MACINTOSH DRIVE SELECTED" then press tab until you hear "RESTART" and "OKAY"....
For Windows 7, just press Windows key, type "boot camp" and press enter. Press tab / tab / tab (3 times) to select "YES" for user account control dialog and open the application. Select Macintosh Drive and restart (see above steps).
4. It will now reboot the machine into OS X. You will have video in OS X but Windows is still broken. From here (since you are using the EFI card) you will be able to boot into Windows safe mode and fix any problems with Windows.
DO NOT USE PARALLELS TO BOOT WINDOWS FROM YOUR BOOT CAMP INSTALL WITHIN OS X, IT JUST BREAKS EVERYTHING BY HAVING MULTIPLE VIDEO CARD DRIVERS AND OTHER DRIVERS INSTALLED
EVEN WORSE SITUATION: COREGRAPHICS is BROKEN!
- Because of some odd reason, CoreGraphics / the Mac video driver is broken and you have no video in OS X either.
- You have successfully followed the above steps to boot into OS X.
- Luckily you can remote into your Mac Pro (OSX) using Screen Sharing or a terminal command to force remote into it (google "ssh force remote into osx").
- The machine can be controlled via remote but you still have no video on your monitor or a black screen.
There are two solutions:
1. Open Disk Utility and run Repair Permissions and Repair disk on your OS X disk. Let it run until it says "permissions repair or disk repair complete" at the bottom.
2. Reboot the machine and it should be fixed.
Solution 2 is more risky and requires low res monitor:
1. Open system preferences and set the boot disk to OS X 10.8 Repair partition. If it's not there (probably not) you will have to hunt down a terminal command to set it.
2. Once you have restarted into OS X repair, you will no longer be able to control your machine using remote / screen sharing. You will need to hook up a VGA monitor to the MDP port, apparently DVI and HDMI monitors don't work but you can try hooking them up but be sure to use an Adapter -> MDP.
3. If you have an old LCD or CRT that is low res (like 800x640 or 1024x768 or even 1280x800 etc.) the video should come up.
4. From here you can run disk utility and repair permissions/repair disk. You might also want to install OS X again, this won't (or shouldn't) delete any of your files. CAUTION! Be sure to have backups in case.
5. Reboot and the machine should be fixed.
*** REMEMBER IF WINDOWS DRIVER IS STILL BROKEN DO NOT ATTEMPT BOOTING BACK INTO IT, YOU WILL ENCOUNTER THE SAME ISSUE *** Just browse your Windows disk in OS X and copy all files you need. Do a clean install of Windows (format).
If all else fails, consider going to the Apple store to have the machine checked out. I certainly don't have Apple Care but they might be able to do something for you.
