MP 1,1-5,1 10.14.6 update has halted my Sapphire RX580 from booting into Mojave (Please help)

[tmpname1]

Hello. This morning I updated a 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 with the 10.14.6 Mojave update through the system preferences and everything went fine until after I had to restart the system, and now when I restart the computer up it chimes and leaves the screen black. I can tell a signal seems to be being sent because it normally has an orange flashing light on the power button of the BenQ monitor, but now it's solid orange. When I put the original ATI GPU back into the computer it boots up no problem. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to rectify this issue?

I do not want to reinstall Mojave as I am able to boot into the system by using the ATI card so I know the OS is still intact. It's just not recognizing the RX580 Sapphire card which I've been using for a couple of years now. Please help. I have read through the forums and I see something about 10.14.6 changing the Bootrom to something else. The Bootrom is currently at 138.0.0.0.0. I was unaware it would do anything like that so this is entirely my fault. I really could kick myself for updating as I know they're only problems for this GPU/Machine.

Also I've read some users saying something about an OpenCore. I have no idea what that is, so I'm kind of hoping that someone might have a clue as to what I may need to do in order to get the system to recognize the GPU card again. Please help.

 

[mattspace]

The Bootrom is currently at 138.0.0.0.0.

How did you get to Mojave in the first place? Part of the initial install should have been to upgrade the bootrom to 144.0.0.0.0.

Also, what connection are you using for the BenQ display?

 

[KeesMacPro]

The Bootrom is currently at 138.0.0.0.0. I was unaware it would do anything like that so this is entirely my fault. I really could kick myself for updating as I know they're only problems for this GPU/Machine.

It's impossible you installed Mojave "by the book" , as stated by @mattspace , because the BootRom would be 144.0.0.0.0.
Mojave is the last officially supported OS for a MP4,1/5,1 and known as very stable (including updates).
The Sapphire RX580 is a standard GPU for this setup and should work flawlessly.

Short version: Maintaining this install "because it boots " while seeing updates as "only problems" is IMO an irrational point of view.
You could consider to do a clean install of Mojave the way it is meant to be done.
Installing a patched OS on a supported Mac is unnecessary and IMO asking for trouble.
If Mojave is correctly installed, there's no need to worry about updating.
After a clean install you can easily recover all your data with Immigration Assistant and e.g. a TM backup.

OC is (mainly) an option of you prefer to install newer and unsupported OS, there are lots of threads about the pros and cons , but it might not be what you're looking for if you prefer a straight forward and stable OS .

Perhaps the RX580 just died as a coincidence and is definitely not caused by the Mojave update.
You could test another port on the GPU for example.

Here's an excellent thread about how to install Mojave (post #1):

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[macguru9999]

You need to solve the problem logically and systematically. Isolate the problem. Try the radeon card with an earlier system disk or in another computer to make sure its working and has not failed. I think its probably ok. Put the ati card in the mac pro instead of the radeon and set up a working high sierra installation. Then install the radeon card and verify its working. Next while booted off the drive in the drive bay, not an ssd in a pcie slot, run the latest mojave installer you can download from apple. This should update the firmware to 144.0.0.0 and you will get 10.14.6. If thats all working try your problem disk again, and if there is a problem you will know its just software, hopefully you can import your files and settings to the working copy of mojave and when its all working clone that onto whatever disk you want. Make sure you keep backup systems next time. But 10.14.6 is GOOD on this machine. It might just be that the video settings are out of range for some reason.. also only have one video card in the machine at a time

 

[carylee2002]

When you updated your OS..did you also update the AMD adrenlin driver also? I found that on my 2014 mac mini with rx570, it wont boot with that driver. I rolled back to 2020 driver and no problems.

 

[rpmurray]

you can easily recover all your data with Immigration Assistant

 

[KeesMacPro]

@rpmurray : not bad for a non-native speaker right?
Although this may lead to (slightly off-topic) unexpected political discussions .... 😆

 

[tmpname1]

How did you get to Mojave in the first place? Part of the initial install should have been to upgrade the bootrom to 144.0.0.0.0.

Also, what connection are you using for the BenQ display?

I purchased the Mac Pro from ipowerresale.com that way. It came with Mojave preinstalled. HDMI connection.

It's impossible you installed Mojave "by the book" , as stated by @mattspace , because the BootRom would be 144.0.0.0.0.
Mojave is the last officially supported OS for a MP4,1/5,1 and known as very stable (including updates).
The Sapphire RX580 is a standard GPU for this setup and should work flawlessly.

Short version: Maintaining this install "because it boots " while seeing updates as "only problems" is IMO an irrational point of view.
You could consider to do a clean install of Mojave the way it is meant to be done.
Installing a patched OS on a supported Mac is unnecessary and IMO asking for trouble.
If Mojave is correctly installed, there's no need to worry about updating.
After a clean install you can easily recover all your data with Immigration Assistant and e.g. a TM backup.

OC is (mainly) an option of you prefer to install newer and unsupported OS, there are lots of threads about the pros and cons , but it might not be what you're looking for if you prefer a straight forward and stable OS .

Perhaps the RX580 just died as a coincidence and is definitely not caused by the Mojave update.
You could test another port on the GPU for example.

Here's an excellent thread about how to install Mojave (post #1):

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...

forums.macrumors.com

At the time of purchase I believe the Mac Pro was not officially supported for Mojave. It did not have boot screens using the RX580 and still does not and I've been running the app GL View once a day to ramp up the internal fans and have them settle back down after starting to keep the fans from running at full blast all day. If what everyone is saying that it is supported including bootscreens and it no longer has the high running fan problem I will attempt a reinstall, but what I'd like to do is just update the bootrom and see if that helps.

You need to solve the problem logically and systematically. Isolate the problem. Try the radeon card with an earlier system disk or in another computer to make sure its working and has not failed. I think its probably ok. Put the ati card in the mac pro instead of the radeon and set up a working high sierra installation. Then install the radeon card and verify its working. Next while booted off the drive in the drive bay, not an ssd in a pcie slot, run the latest mojave installer you can download from apple. This should update the firmware to 144.0.0.0 and you will get 10.14.6. If thats all working try your problem disk again, and if there is a problem you will know its just software, hopefully you can import your files and settings to the working copy of mojave and when its all working clone that onto whatever disk you want. Make sure you keep backup systems next time. But 10.14.6 is GOOD on this machine. It might just be that the video settings are out of range for some reason.. also only have one video card in the machine at a time

I was thinking I might try to upgrade the bootrom before I attempt a reinstall to see if that fixes the problem. Is it possible to put the Mac Pro in Target disk mode and and upgrade the bootrom using a laptop via firewire. I do not have another machine to test the card in but I find it unlikely that a software update would cause a graphics card to physically fail. If that's the case, well, let's just hope that's not the case... because I will not be spending any more money on computers.

I will look into migration assistant.

After the restart and no video I did a PRAM reset to see if that would fix and now I can hear and see the internal fans ramp up even with the original ATI installed using the app 'Macs Fan Control' by Crystal Idea. It's nowhere near as high as with the RX580 installed but I saw/heard the fan speeds before doing the PRAM and they are definitely higher now.

I downloaded a copy of Mojave from the app store last night so I will create an install disk shortly to see if its possible to just upgrade the bootrom via firewire.

 

[tmpname1]

When you updated your OS..did you also update the AMD adrenlin driver also? I found that on my 2014 mac mini with rx570, it wont boot with that driver. I rolled back to 2020 driver and no problems.

I did not. If any drivers were updated via the apple update, I do not have knowledge of that.

 

[MarkC426]

You will NOT get boot screen with an RX580, unless flashed by a third party.
The gpu fans should only kick in when under load.

 

[MarkC426]

deleted (site problem)

 

[MarkC426]

deleted (site problem)

 

[tmpname1]

The gpu fans should only kick in when under load.

This should be the case, but alas, it is not. It has been an issue with this particular GPU which has been reported numerous times on the internet which is how I came across the solution. I have spent the better part of this morning trying to find a way to create an installer from a Mojave disk image on Big Sur. I've tried Terminal, Install Disk Creator & DiskMaker X. All of which have failed. I'm having to resort to using a 2001 Macbook Pro using El Capitan which is excruciatingly slow. Trust me when I tell you that 'Yes' I know things should 'work differently', but they do not. I am hoping that I can fix this issue and I will NEVER perform another update on this machine.

My wifes Mac mini running Big Sur with 16GB of ram is snappier than this 2010 Mac Pro was, (when it was working), maxed out at 128GB of ram with a Sonnet PCIe full of SSDs chips.

Once I win the lottery I have made a pact to rid my life of all electronic devices forever.

 

[MarkC426]

The problem lies in the selller you purchased from.
They did not perform the Mojave upgrade properly.

I have a 5.1 with RX580 and zero issues.
I assume you have the 8gb version?

 

[tmpname1]

The problem lies in the selller you purchased from.
They did not perform the Mojave upgrade properly.

I have a 5.1 with RX580 and zero issues.
I assume you have the 8gb version?

The version of Mojave I have is 6.05 GB in size and version 14.6.06. I downloaded it using the dosdude1 patcher from the apple servers. I also downloaded the same size and version through the app store last night from the Mac Pro, but I don't want to keep it on for too long since the fans are so high while its running, so I'm assuming they're the same. The dosdude1 sourced version I downloaded using my wife's mac mini.

Do you happen to know if its possible to put the mac pro into target disk mode and just update the bootrom and leave the operating system intact? That's kind of what I'm about to experiment with. I have a laptop running el capitan and I was going to connect it to the mac pro running Mojave with the sapphire card installed and on but without any video image since its not sending a video signal to the monitor (which is what I believe its doing). Otherwise the mojave installer will give the metal capable card error message. I don't know if I should try to have both the ATI card and the RX580 Sapphire installed at the same time and just have the ATI plugged into power and leave the Sapphire with no power cables connected to the board. Is the PCI slot power enough to register the card as being installed, but just not on? I don't think I have enough outlets on the board to power both I don't think. Arrgh. This is so frustrating and trying to research through years and years of forum posts which may or may not be relevant to my task is seemingly impossible.

 

[JMVB]

You need to know which Mojave installation method did the seller.
Mainly, there is 3 options:
- Native, you only need a Metal GPU and bootrom 144.0.0.0.0.
If you have a PC GPU, you will get black screen in the boot process. No hardware acceleration.
- Opencore: very easy and efective method, macOS remains entirely untouched, you can get boot screen, hardware acceleration, software update, etc.
- Patched: a modified installed by third party software. Although effective, this strategy may be considered undesirable, because it alters system files—a potential problem for updates (where apparently your problem lies)

FYI: Mojave is native supported in a 4.1-5.1 cMP

Source: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/opencore-on-the-mac-pro.2207814/

 

[MarkC426]

The version of Mojave I have is 6.05 GB in size and version 14.6.06.

I was referring to the gpu (8gb model).
Why are you using dosdude to download a fully supported os.

 

[tmpname1]

I was referring to the gpu (8gb model).
Why are you using dosdude to download a fully supported os.

Because the only version that the app store would let me download was on the mac pro which is having the GPU problem and the fans are running very high since I performed a PRAM to try and fix the GPU signal out issue after the update. According to blog.greggant.com there's no difference, so that was the only version I could get on this mac mini with Big Sur installed. It kept stating that it wasn't compatible or the 'GET' button was greyed out. I do not know which version of the GPU model it is. 8GB sounds correct, but I cannot hook it up and find out. I was not sent the box because it was sourced from an OEM or something. The machine was custom built.

 

[tmpname1]

You need to know which Mojave installation method did the seller.
Mainly, there is 3 options:
- Native, you only need a Metal GPU and bootrom 144.0.0.0.0.
If you have a PC GPU, you will get black screen in the boot process. No hardware acceleration.
- Opencore: very easy and efective method, macOS remains entirely untouched, you can get boot screen, hardware acceleration, software update, etc.
- Patched: a modified installed by third party software. Although effective, this strategy may be considered undesirable, because it alters system files—a potential problem for updates (where apparently your problem lies)

FYI: Mojave is native supported in a 4.1-5.1 cMP

Source: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/opencore-on-the-mac-pro.2207814/

Thanks. But what I would like to find out is, if the computer itself is on bootrom 138.0.0.0.0 at Mojave update 10.14.6, if I take all cards out of the PCIe slots and place the ATI back in, then reboot to where I can have access to the bootscreen is there a way if I have a current USB mojave installer that I can plug it in and select to boot to it, will it perform the bootrom upgrade to 144.0.0.0.0 prior to any OS installation so that I can, after the bootrom has been updated to 144.0.0.0.0, then stop the process prior to an installation.

Or, if there is an alternate way to upgrade the bootrom outside of OS installation. That would be extremely helpful. I have so many tweaks (fstab configurations to prevent internal disks from auto-mounting, etc.) and small applications (like an app installed to prevent the DVD drive from opening when the eject key is accidentally pressed on the keyboard, etc.) I have so many tweaks setup it would take me for-ever to remember what all was installed. I don't even know that changing to bootrom will fix it, but its where I was going to start.

 

[tmpname1]

@rpmurray : not bad for a non-native speaker right?
Although this may lead to (slightly off-topic) unexpected political discussions .... 😆

I found a 1TB drive from a previous imac and have installed it in the mac pro using the ATI 5770 card which still allows me to view the OS.

Will either off the following scenarios be possible:

Scenario #1

1) Create a Time Machine snapshot on newly installed 1TB drive once FileVault gets done decrypting the disk. (Mojave installer was throwing two errors, No Metal card installed and File Vault needs to be disabled)

2) Perform a clean Mojave install (complete with bootrom update) on Mac Pro from a Mojave USB while having both GPUs in place but only having the ATI Radeon 5770 card plugged into the motherboard power and the Sapphire RX580 just sitting in the PCIe slot.

3) Then reinstall previous computer state by utilizing the Time Machine snapshot.

Scenario #2

1) Put Mac Pro in Target Disk Mode with only having the RX580 installed and plugged into motherboard power (to which I will not be able to see whether it is or not since there are no boot screens)

2) Using firewire and a Macbook Pro laptop running El Capitan use the Mojave disk image to install onto the Mac Pro which is in Targeted Disk Mode.

3) Reinstall the previous version of Mojave (complete with the settings and applications) using the Time Machine snapshot.

*Assuming in both scenarios that a fresh install of Mojave will automatically update the bootrom to 144.0.0.0.0 and fix whatever issue is causing the Sapphire RX580 GPU to not send a video out signal.

Or do you have any other suggestions which might be of use...

Thanks for any help as I just want the computer to work good again. hahaha

EDIT: I just thought of something, will a time machine backup change the bootrom back to the previous version or is it something which once its changed, it sticks like the BIOS on a PC.

 

[MarkC426]

Create a clean install on your second disk.
You need a metal gpu (RX580) to install Mojave, and FileVault cannot be on.
At the beginning of the install it will update bootrom.
You cannot have a metal and non metal gpu in together.
The boot rom will not change back to an old version.

 

[tmpname1]

Create a clean install on your second disk.
You need a metal gpu (RX580) to install Mojave, and FileVault cannot be on.
At the beginning of the install it will update bootrom.
You cannot have a metal and non metal gpu in together.
The boot rom will not change back to an old version.

So how is that done?

Filevault is now completely off and I've backed up the Mojave OS in its current state with the update that I did yesterday morning to 10.14.6.

I can't have the metal RX580 GPU in the computer by itself because I can't see anything. I can only get video to show using the ATI card.

Any ideas?

I have a 2001 macbook pro laptop on el capitan that I can use to put the mac pro in target disk mode to install mojave via firewire, but without the metal GPU inside and it turned on...? I don't see how it can be done.

Even if I set the Mac Pro to boot to the Mojave USB installer from inside system preferences using the ATI card (I think I can do that), turn the computer off, reinstall the RX580 and take the ATI out, the second I turn the computer on it will chime and go to a black screen wont it. So...? I dunno. What's the solution...

 

[MarkC426]

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[tmpname1]

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...

forums.macrumors.com

Jesus. Can't you have some mercy on me? I've been stressing on this for two days and I can't comprehend a page full of all of that electronics jargon. My eyesight is already gone from using computers my whole life and I've been feeling my way through installing and reinstalling these cards like I'm defusing a bomb wearing a blindfold. C'mon man. Seriously. Everything is a blur to me close up and I don't have glasses. or contacts, plus everything is squeezed into these chassis like a fat girl getting dressed for prom. Jeez. I have no idea what's relevant to me in that forum post and I'd have to read every dam word... this could take me lifetimes and I've got to get this computer operational asap. (Yes, I know there's supposed to be an 'n')

I don't have any prior mac OS versions downloaded, so am I supposed to download the previous version now and install that prior to installing mojave. Is there not any easier way. This is beyond messed up...

 

[tmpname1]

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...

forums.macrumors.com

I just tried logging into the app store and using the link from the apple support website, the El Capitan OS will not allow me to download high sierra, neither will Big Sur, nor Mojave and I do not have it in my purchase history, so how should I go about getting that to even begin to start going through the information at the link you provided?