Black screen on startup / recovery not accessible

[Duncanc]

Hi, I’m hoping you can help - my computer knowledge is basic, but think my Radeon Sapphire 580 Pulse GPU might’ve died!

I had the 580 running ok for a couple weeks. I’d updated from High Sierra to Mojave 10.4.6 on a boot camp partitioned make sure it worked with my essential software (Avid Media Composer v.8.4.5) and it all worked fine.

So yesterday I updated my mac’s man in SSD HD to Mojave (and erased that bootcamp partition intending to make it a High Sierra partition in case I need that, but haven’t done that yet).

that worked, so I then put in 2 new PCIe cards:

A sonnet fusion dual which will allow me to put 2 SSDs on it and RAID 0 them (haven't got the SSDs yet, so it’s just the empty card I put in).

And also another sonnet card with 4x USB-C ports.

The 580 is quite big, so this left things pretty crammed inside the Mac’s PCIe space. I had put the card in the second slot up from the bottom so it had plenty of space around it, but now moved it to the bottom slot so I could fit the sonnet cards in: The Fusion Dual card in the second slot up and the USB-C card in the fourth slot up (top slot).

Stared my Mac ok and checked the hardware and it could see all 3 cards, all 3 stating 5Gb speed.

Black screen on startup / recovery not accessible

Finally I installed the Avid Media Composer video editing software. When install completed it asked me to restart, so I did and the 2 screens stayed black (Apple LED Display and an Acer display).

Tried unplugging and swapping display inputs and tried cmd c for recovery. Nothing, just black.

I took out the two sonnet cards and tried the 580 in a different PCIe slot. Still black screens.

Took out the 580 and put the original GPU in (ATI Radeon 5870 HD). Restarted and now the display lights up! I get the Apple logo and the loading bar below it. The bar take a very long time to load and while this is happening the 5870 fan is getting louder and louder. The bar finally reaches the end but nothing happens. After 15 minutes of the 5870 fan going crazy I turn off - the GPU is burning hot.

I assumed the Avid Software install had corrupted something so I plugged in my time machine external disk which revert to High Sierra (unfortunately that was the last time I backed up). Tried recovery mode with cmd c, but it doesn’t work - just repeats the logo/loading bar thing again.

Note: Its an windows (Avid) keyboard so I’ve remapped cmd to it’s control key, but I’ve restarted again and again using every one of those keys with ‘R’ and none are giving me recovery mode.

However if I hold option (Alt) I get the choose startup disk screen. But that doesn’t show the time machine external drive, only the SSD HD taking me back to the logo/loading bar forever.

I’m guessing the Mac is can’t start with the ATI Radeon 5870 HD because it’s not ’metal’ and the OS is Mojave, so it’s incompatible and that’s why the GPU just spins, getting hotter and hotter with completing startup!!!

so I’m stuck! black screen with the 580. The 5870 won’t start because it’s not metal and recovery mode isn’t working. No idea what to do!

I wonder if it’s either a corruption, or virus for the Avid software, or if something in the 580 has fried!

Here’s my spec: Mac Pro 5.1 2010, 6-core 3.33.

if you can help you’ll be a life saver - I need my Mac to work, so I’m in a bad place now!

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-The Radeon Sapphire 580 Pulse GPU isn't officially Mac-compatible, so that may be part of the problem. PC cards need to be "flashed" to work in Macs, which I personally do not recommend, as they can be totally bricked if not done properly.
-Most Mac Pro graphics cards need to be installed in the bottom-most PCI slot, and have the proper power cabling attached to function properly.
-You cannot startup from Time Machine drives using Startup Manager, which is why it doesn't show.

Bare Feats - Reports on Sapphire Radeon RX 580 8GB in Mac Pros (macOS 10.14.x, 10.13.x, 10.12.6)

Do you happen to have an external drive with OS X/macOS installed on it? It may help getting things sorted out.

I have no experience with non-Apple video cards in Mac Pros, so I am not sure what else I could suggest to troubleshoot.

C

 

[Harry Trent]

I would suggest trying the Rx 580 in another known working computer. Perhaps a PC shop would do this if you don't have another machine. You need to answer the question of whether or not the Rx 580 is actually working or is dead.

What is the watt output of your PSU? You're adding a lot of power hungry hardware to the machine. Can the PSU cover it all? And if that is the original PSU it is now 10 years old.