Contribute
Register

Dell PowerEdge R710 GTX 950 strange performance, and instant KP on Clover

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Nov 21, 2010
Messages
9
Motherboard
GA-Z97X-UD7 TH
CPU
i7-3770K
Graphics
GTX 960
Mac
  1. MacBook
  2. MacBook Pro
  3. Mac mini
  4. Mac Pro
Classic Mac
  1. Power Mac
  2. PowerBook
Mobile Phone
  1. Android
  2. iOS
Hi everyone,

I'm here seeking for help...

I'm trying to install Yosemite on a Dell PowerEdge R710 server. Main specs:

2x E5645 @ 2.4GHz
6x 8G DDR3 ECC 1333MHz
Intel 5500 series chipset
PERC 6/i (using dukzcry's SASMegaRAID.kext)
Asus GTX 950 (on 8x slot, the slot is cut to fit the card. no need ext power supply)
4 ports BCM5709C (doesn't work apparently...)
2 ports Intel 1000/PT (OOB)
NEC USB 3.0 PCIE card (flashed subsystem IDs with drivers from Sonnet)

Chimera v4.1 works without dsdt.aml, using MacPro3,1 SMBIOS, with the following kexts in S/L/E:
ElliottForceLegacyRTC.kext
EvOreboot.kext
FakeSMC.kext
NullCPUPowerManagement.kext
SASMegaRAID.kext
SXHCD.kext
and nvidia web driver

Boot.plist entries:
EthernetBuiltIn=No
GraphicsEnabler=No
IGPEnabler=No
Kernel Flags=-v -npci=0x2000 dart=0 kext-dev-mode=1 nvda_drv=1
UseKernelCache=Yes

Except for graphics, certain operation will cause the whole system stuck for a long time (around 30s or more). That is, everything is stuck. Like if there is an Active Monitor somewhere, it stops refreshing too. Only mouse cursor is movable, everything else is not responsive. Sometime the spinning cursor even stops spinning... But mouse and keyboard operations are actually pending. When the stuck is over, everything refreshes like fast forward.

I found these operations are but not limited to:
Opening a desktop volume (zoom in effect, however closing it doesn't trigger the stuck)
Popping out Open file... window (also kind of zoom in pop up effect)

However dragging a window around is okay no matter how fast it goes.

This happens after the nvidia web driver is installed. Before installation the screen flickers and is laggy, but it never stuck. I also tried a GT 710 which is a PCIE 8x card, feel like the same.

Any suggestion would be appreciated...

------------------

I also tried to fix the problem by using Clover. Actually I started by using Clover but it has never worked. I always got instant KP. Sometimes no other information, sometimes a little bit more like attached screenshot. The panic is always type 14=page fault.

Tried -x, drop DSDT OEM _DSM, drop SSDT OEM, Patch APIC, Halt Enabler, Apple RTC, Asus AICPUPM, Kernel CPU, Kernel LAPIC, KernelPm, No Cache, various SMBIOS models... Always panic type 14=page fault...

Attached config.plist and Clover boot debug.log. Log is zipped since I can't upload .log file...

By the way this is on the very boot volume where Chimera works...

And I also tried 10.6.8, 10.9.5, 10.10.5, 10.11.5. All the same. And Unibeast 10.10.5 too.

I will be off town for a few days so I won't be able to try your suggestions immediately, but I will do it very soon. The most frustrating thing is, this metal box needs 1m30s to do POST... UEFI boot takes even longer :banghead:

Really really appreciate your suggestions.
 

Attachments

  • Photo Jul 25, 12 41 14 AM.jpg
    Photo Jul 25, 12 41 14 AM.jpg
    1.9 MB · Views: 203
  • config.plist
    5 KB · Views: 249
  • debug.log.zip
    13.9 KB · Views: 76
Except for graphics, certain operation(s) will cause the whole system [to be] stuck for a long time (around 30s or more). That is, everything is stuck. ... Only mouse cursor is movable, everything else is not responsive. Sometime the spinning cursor even stops spinning... But mouse and keyboard operations are actually pending. When the stuck is over, everything refreshes like fast forward.
...
This happens after the nvidia web driver is installed. Before installation the screen flickers and is laggy, but it never stuck. I also tried a GT 710 which is a PCIE 8x card, feel like the same.

To me it sounds like a video driver problem. Changing the video card doesn't help because it's using the same driver. I would uninstall the nVidia Webdriver and see if it works better using the OSX driver (other than the stutter when first logging in - which is normal, imo.)

You can also see if there is a BIOS setting for the graphics card, whether it needs to be set to PCIE2 or PCIE3, etc. If possible disable built-in graphics. Etc.
 
To me it sounds like a video driver problem. Changing the video card doesn't help because it's using the same driver. I would uninstall the nVidia Webdriver and see if it works better using the OSX driver (other than the stutter when first logging in - which is normal, imo.)

Yeah I finally inserted a GT 640, uninstalled nVidia web driver. Now the GFX works totally fine. I could be wrong but I think 7xx and 9xx cards need web driver to work, OSX driver couldn't drive them.

I think Dell claims that the PowerEdge R710 doesn't support graphic cards... At least for me I had to cut the slot to make 16x card fit in 8x slot. No much options other than disabling built in VGA graphics which I have already done. There are IRQ settings though, tried different combinations didn't make much difference.

Maybe Clover works better with 7xx and 9xx? Unfortunately I still can't make clover to work with my system at all, which is really weird...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top