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MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 5,1 not booting any OCLP USB anymore — stuck booting Mojave

Are there any drives in the SATA bays?
Is your cheepo MS mouse connected directly to your Mac Pro, or through the keyboard? (if the mouse is USB1, it would be a problem during OS install. Your keyboard is USB2, so chaining through the keyboard solves the problem.)
What drive is OpenCore EFI folder installed to?
What is the firmware version on your Mac Pro? System Profiler -> Hardware Overview: System Firmware Version (OCLP may obscure this - boot Mojave directly to see the real version. v 144.0.0.0.0 preferred.)

I've had better luck installing OCLP to the EFI folder of a SATA drive. I had boot problems putting OC directly on the NVME drive. If your firmware is an old version, you won't be able to boot from NVME until after OC loads - OCLP can supply NVME boot capability. But OC still has to boot first from a supported drive.

Is your RX580 flashed with Mac firmware? Without that, the firmware boot picker won't load. Blank screens with direct boot until late in the macOS boot sequence. OC supplies its own drivers, the OC boot picker can load, and provide full macOS boot screens afterwards.

If your RX580 has Mac firmware, then the boot picker may be failing due to a PCIe card being incompatible. Try pulling one at a time, until the boot picker reappears. For example, my Sonnet McFiver card prevents the firmware boot picker from loading.

A failing SATA drive (including an optical drive) can muck up booting or boot picker. Suggest unplugging your optical drive(s) for testing purposes.
 
Last edited:
No drives in SATA bays
Yes, mouse is attached to the keyboard
DVD Drive disconnected

Firmware version 9999.9999.9999.9999.9999.
What?????

Something's obviously badly out of whack here
I have no idea what to make of this.

Screenshot 2025-11-01 at 17.48.33.png
 
It's probably the battery. I seem to remember this sort of thing happening on one my other machines a few years ago
 
sirroderick said:
Ah OK so no big deal
Click to expand...

You still need to boot anything between 10.6 to 10.14, native/without OC/OCLP, and check the real BootROM version.

If your Mac Pro doesn't have 144.0.0.0.0 yet, you will need to upgrade it.
 
Thing is I've still got the original USB Monterey installer I used to install on all 3 machines. This installer still works fine on the other 2 machines. By that I mean if you insert it one of the USB slots at the front then reboot while holding OPT it begins the Opencore install as normal. Obviously I didn't continue with that but the point is if I do the same on this machine the screen remains black forcing a hard reset. This is a machine stripped down to the bare bones i.e. RX580 and the system drive (SATA SSD). I also tried putting an empty Hard Disk in the mix just incase the installer required a possible target disk but it made no difference.
tsialex said:
You still need to boot anything between 10.6 to 10.14, native/without OC/OCLP, and check the real BootROM version.

If your Mac Pro doesn't have 144.0.0.0.0 yet, you will need to upgrade it.
Click to expand...
I've still got a High Sierra install on HD in a disk tray so it should be easy to get that info. I'll do that in the morning.
I appreciate your help.
 
It sounds like the RX580 in the one machine isn't flashed for Mac. Hence no firmware boot picker. You may have to swap in a different graphics card to get the boot picker back. Just long enough for the macOS install. Once you're all patched up with the OS version you want, you can go back to the existing RX580.
 
Although I should point that I did get a boot picker initially but I couldn't click to initiate OpenCore install.
 
_LiveSorcerer_ said:
About the Option + Command + P + R:
Yes, I’ve tried that several times. I know it can take a while, especially with a lot of RAM (I have 64GB), but on my machine I only hear one chime, and then it boots straight into Mojave — it never does the second chime or restarts automatically.
I’m using the original Apple wired keyboard and mouse, both connected via USB 2.0 ports directly on the Mac Pro 5,1.


Regarding "Install OCLP in the drive and not on the USB":
I’ve done that as well — I’ve installed OCLP not only on the USB but also directly in the EFI partition of:


  • the NVMe SSD (WD Black SN850 on PCIe adapter),
  • a clean SATA SSD, and
  • even a spare SATA HDD — just to test if it would boot.

In all cases, the machine still skips them and boots directly into Mojave. It simply won’t recognize any OCLP EFI anymore, regardless of where it's installed.


As for network and input setup:
I’ve always used a wired internet connection, and again, original Apple wired USB keyboard and mouse via USB 2.0 ports — so that shouldn't be the issue either.


At this point I’m thinking maybe there’s something deeper going wrong at the firmware or board level, but I’m open to any suggestions you or others might have.
Click to expand...

_LiveSorcerer_ said:
Hi everyone,


I’m experiencing a serious issue with my Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid 2012) and I’ve run out of ideas. Here’s my setup:


  • CPU: Xeon Six Core 3.3GHz
  • RAM: 64GB DDR3 1333MHz
  • Storage:
    • 1x 4TB Seagate IronWolf HDD
    • 1x 500GB Samsung HDD
    • 1x 240GB Sandisk SSD (macOS Mojave)
    • 1x 500GB Samsung 860 QVO SSD (Windows 11 Pro)
    • 1x WD Black SN850 1TB NVMe on OWC Accelsior 1M2 PCIe Adapter
  • GPU: Sapphire RX 580 Nitro (previous), now RX 580 Red Dragon
  • PCIe Add-Ons:
    • Titan Ridge Thunderbolt 3 Card
    • USB 3.2 Expansion Card (2x USB-A, 3x USB-C)

The problem:​


I had been using macOS Ventura through OCLP without any major issues. Later, I tried updating OCLP to support newer versions of macOS, and that’s when the problems started.


I’ve tested OCLP versions from 1.0.1 to the latest 2.3.2, attempting clean installs of macOS Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma, and even the latest Sequoia beta — but none of the installations complete. They either hang or fail before finishing.


After multiple attempts, the situation got worse: my Mac stopped booting from any USB drive entirely. No matter what version of macOS or which USB port I use — even the USB 3.2 ports — it always boots straight into Mojave on the internal SATA SSD.


Here’s what I’ve tried:


  • Using several macOS versions and matching OCLP EFI setups on different USB drives,
  • Testing all USB ports (front/back, USB 2.0, 3.2, A and C),
  • Placing OCLP EFI folders directly on internal SSDs/HDDs to bypass USB entirely,
  • Swapping the drives between SATA ports,
  • Resetting NVRAM/PRAM (Option + Command + P + R — only get one chime, no restart or second chime),
  • Resetting SMC,
  • Replacing the GPU (from RX 580 Nitro to Red Dragon, thinking GPU issues were freezing Mojave).

Nothing works. I can no longer install or boot into any version of macOS beyond Mojave. I’m completely locked out of upgrades, even with known good OCLP setups.


Any help, advice, or ideas from the community would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Did you ever get to the bottom of this?
 
sirroderick said:
Did you ever get to the bottom of this?
Click to expand...
Reset SMC, and the PRAM.

Sounds like what I went through.

Patience is key. Took a long time, and I thought it was hung up. But not the case.

Takes a long time, and multiple boots. You will know the last re-boot when the % bar pops up, then your almost home.

Use OCLP 2.4.1;)
 
basslik said:
Reset SMC, and the PRAM.

Sounds like what I went through.

Patience is key. Took a long time, and I thought it was hung up. But not the case.

Takes a long time, and multiple re-boots. You will know the last re-boot when the % bar pops up, then your almost home.

Use OCLP 2.4.1;)
Click to expand...
 
I have a 2010 Mac Pro running Open core Monterey and I’ve been trying to upgrade it to OC Sonoma. I’ve already successfully done that exact same upgrade on a 2009 Mac Pro (thanks to guidance on this forum) but it just won’t have it on this machine for some reason. I power up, hold down the option key and… nothing… it never comes back and I have to do a hard reset. The same USB installer seems fine on the other machine (although I didn’t proceed with the install of course). The only difference I can see (apart from the year) is the graphics card on 2010 model (which is an RX580). Anyone got any ideas? I’m a bit stuck.
 
Looks like the PCI mounted NVME is toast now (it stops a 2009 macPro from booting too. I'm obviously gonna need to rebuild an OCLP install from scratch. I've never done that before so not sure how to go about it. I've got a fairly recent Carbon Copy Clone if that's that any help?
 
sirroderick said:
I power up, hold down the option key and… nothing… it never comes back and I have to do a hard reset. The same USB installer seems fine on the other machine (although I didn’t proceed with the install of course). The only difference I can see (apart from the year) is the graphics card on 2010 model (which is an RX580). Anyone got any ideas? I’m a bit stuck.
Click to expand...

Two things possible:

  1. If your GPU does not support NATIVE (the real Apple BootPicker, not the OC/OCLP one) pre-boot configuration, ALT will not work for BootPicker.

    You need a GPU that BootPicker works natively and no PCIe card that blocks the BootPicker should be installed, like MacFiver/Sonnet Tempo and etc.

    A RX580 from factory does not support pre-boot configuration support, you'll need EnableGop injected to the BootROM or GPU firmware (I do not recommed that since the modded GPU won't work with a recent PC when SecureBoot is enforced) for that and the GPU is required to have the factory firmware unmodded (no mining firmware).

    There are lots of motives for native pre-boot configuration support to not work, like PC GPUs, PC GPUs with mining firmware, old PC GPUs that are too old for GOP support, ROM switch in the wrong position and etc.
  2. If your GPU does in fact have pre-boot configuration support and works perfectly when installed to other Mac Pro, then the most probable is that your BootROM is corrupted or the NVRAM is read only.

    If the Mac Pro is in firmware fail-safe mode, it won't change boot devices at all. If this is the case, BootROM needs to be repaired, RTC battery changed and subsequentially the RTC reseted.

Also, if you are very unlucky, both things above could be happening at the same time - I wouldn't be surprised if this is the case.
 
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