Velocity Solo X2 Blinking Curser Boot Problems

Hey Guys,

I have a Mac Pro 3.1 (Early 2008). I am having issues getting my new Intel 730 series 480gb SSD to boot with the Velocity Solo X2 Card.

Here is what I did.

1. Kept my OSX drive installed, and took out all other drives
2. Installed the Velocity card in (Slot 1) x16 slot (No SSD Attached)
3. Installed My new SSD drive on the Sata II slot.
4. Installed Windows 8.1 Pro, and updates (Multiple Restarts) (Made sure the Velocity drivers were installed)
5. Took my SSD out of the Sata II slot, and attached it to the Velocity card
6. Started up Yosemite and selected Windows 8 as the boot drive
7. Restarted and all I get is a black flashing curser. I waited around 5 min
8. Tried booting to windows from the boot screen, and I get the same result

I always install windows without Bootcamp. I don't think that's the issue. Everything was great before I attached the SSD to the velocity card. I am at a loss. Not sure what to do from here. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Appreciate your time,

Tried a couple more things, and it didn't have any affect.

1. PRAM Reset
2. Moving the Solo X2 card to slot 4
3. Then Moved the OSX drive to bay 4

Still black screen with blinking curser after each step. No lights on keyboard at all...

I am going to call customer support tomorrow. Hopefully there is a firmware update or something I can try.

Will post back with updates.

Still waiting on support to get back to me. I did have a thought that got me a little further. I have two superdrives and the Mac Pro 3.1 uses IDE cables instead of sata.

Both drives were set to "Auto" on the switch, and I think this was conflicting. Back in the old days you had to change the jumper on one to master, and slave on the others etc...

To save time I took out both super drives, and now I get a message "No Boot Drive Found. Press any key to continue"

It's not much, but it's a little progress. It seems like the card is working now, but not detecting the SSD.

At first I thought the drive was not getting power even though I power my R9 280x with an external power supply. I tried using the second Sata port on the card, and using my external power supply to power the drive. Same result, so that's not the issue.

I don't know if enabling AHCI by editing the Mac's MBR will work or not... It won't take that long to do... There is an article I might try to follow below...Need to make sure it's not outdated.

http://www.adminsehow.com/2012/10/how-to-enable-ahci-support-for-windows-on-an-imac-macbook-or-etc/

Will keep updating as I go...

Gav Mack said:

The AHCI article is correct - mine was already patched and I need it anyway for windows access to all the sleds.

Last official RST supported by the 3,1 is 10.1.0.1008

http://www.win-raid.com/t2f23-Intel-R-RST-RSTe-Drivers-newest-v-v-WHQL.html

Newer hacked modded ones here:

http://www.win-raid.com/t11f23-Modded-Intel-AHCI-and-RAID-Drivers.html

Don't think it is the key thing getting it going though, with the 3,1 it just has problems booting legacy mode off it. Support were useless when I asked about my 3,1, was supposed to be escalated but heard nothing at all back. I got it going off the 2nd SATA port with the optical power extension off my own bat.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the links Gav! Did you have to do anything special like install drivers etc... to get windows to boot from the 2nd SATA port? When I hook up the Mac drive to the Solo x2 it boots fine, I just can't get windows to boot for some reason.

Appreciate your time