Mountain Lion does not load after MultiBeast install

[sukebei]

Morning WildWillow...

While in BIOs I did see a graphics display that had 3 icons. Displayed was the SSD, HDD and the optical drive in boot sequence. I made certain that the SSD which contains the OS was the primary boot device followed by the HDD. I'll check when I reset the BIOs and pull the video card to see if there is another area where the first boot priority is shown.
If I go back and reset the BIOs will I have to reinstall Multibeast or can I just go directly to BIOs and make the changes like setting the first display to PCIe 1, disable the onboard intel graphics and check to see if the boot priority is set to P0 and not P1?

Just want to make sure I'm doing it right. Thanks for the assist.

Sukebei

 

[sukebei]

WildWillow...

Reset the BIOs and pulled the video card. Went into BIOs and that icon graphic window is titled Boot Sequence. The first position is held by the SSD with UEFI emblazoned in red above it. There is a 2nd SSD icon with the designation P3 next to it. There is nowhere else in BIOs that deals with boot priority.
The UEFI icon SSD 120 has also been by default first in the Boot Sequence.

Not sure what to do since everything in BIOs is basically the same as the last time. If I do the steps to install the GPU I'll just be repeating what I did the last time with no changes.

I don't know if this is of any help but when I start up and hit the F12 hot key I get the window for Please Select Boot Device. The menu looks like this: P1: Optical Drive
P5: Sand Disk SSD 120
UEFI: San Disk SSD 120
PNY: USB boot stick
Enter Set Up or BIOs

Hmm, I wonder why there are two SSDs listed in both the Select Boot window as well as the Boot Sequence window. I know that I can get into ML thru the UEFI SSD using safe mode -x.


Added later...

I was wondering if the PSU cables that came with the video card are properly hooked up. The GPU had two PCIe 6 pin connectors that plug into the GPU jacks. From those two PCIe cables each split into two 4 pin molex connectors for a total of 4 molex plugs. I used the PSU supplied 4 pin molex cable to mate with the 4 molex connections from the GPU. Opposite the 4 molex connectors on the PSU cable is a single 6 pin connector that I plugged into the PSU. Is that one connector enough to provide the needed power?
Included in the PSU extras were two separate PCIe cables with the 6 pin + 2 pin (8 pin optional) and at the opposite end each has an 8 pin plug that fits into the PSU. Should I switch out the cables and go with just the PSU cables or does it make any difference which configuration I use?

Added later still...

Switched out the PCIe cables so that there were separate cables going from the 2 GPU sockets to 2 sockets in the PSU. Disabled onboard graphics and first display to PCIe slot 1(the 16x default slot). Same No Signal response. I now wondering if the video card is bad.

Again, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sukebei

 

[sukebei]

WildWillow...

Have I stumped you? I know I'm completely frustrated. I'm going to ask a friend who just bought a new PC if I can have the old one to test the video card. It's a Dell running windows XP. Don't know if it's even compatible but we'll see. If the card is no good then I'll just RMA it to EVGA.

In the meantime is it possible to just use the onboard graphics to go ahead and finish the OS install? Once it's stable and running smoothly I can always come back and install a new GPU, right? It would boost my confidence if OS was performing as it should.

What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks for your patience...

Sukebei

 

[wildwillow]

WildWillow...

Have I stumped you? I know I'm completely frustrated. I'm going to ask a friend who just bought a new PC if I can have the old one to test the video card. It's a Dell running windows XP. Don't know if it's even compatible but we'll see. If the card is no good then I'll just RMA it to EVGA.

In the meantime is it possible to just use the onboard graphics to go ahead and finish the OS install? Once it's stable and running smoothly I can always come back and install a new GPU, right? It would boost my confidence if OS was performing as it should.

What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks for your patience...

Sukebei

Hi sukebei,

Stumped could possibly be a hardware issue with your graphics card. Sorry for the late reply I have been busy with work but have been following your progress and testing.

Things for you to try if it is possible. Have you got another cable other than the HDMI you could try with the graphics card to your monitor.

And yes using the onboard Intel graphics was my suggestion of the evening to you. For this you will need to remove the Graphics card but before you do this, enter the BIOS and set Init Display First to IGFX and enable onboard graphics. Shut down, unplug the power and remove the Graphics card. Boot your installation drive (with your HDMI plugged into the motherboard) and when you reach the Chimera boot screen hit the space bar. Type in GraphicsEnabler=Yes using capitals where I have. See if this enables you to reach the desktop. Keep your fingers crossed.

Your are using 10.8.5 edition of Mountain Lion?

 

[sukebei]

WildWillow...

You are not going to believe this. I decided to follow your suggestions of finding another type of cable to connect to the monitor other than HDMI. I had a old Envision 20" monitor sitting around collecting dust. With an extra VGA cable I hooked it up to the mobo. Went thru the steps of bios and reinstalled multi beast. Shut down and unplugged. Inserted video card and booted system. In bios I disabled onboard graphics and as I was going to select PCIe1 as the first display, I paused. I looked at the mobo and saw a small PCIe slot above the PCIex16 slot that the video card now sat in. It occurred to me that bios saw the small slot as PCIe1 and the x16 slot as slot 2. I thought "What the hell!" and set PCIe2 as the first display. Save and exit. Monitor loses signal.

I switched the VGA from the mobo to the video card and watched the damned monitor come to life with the mac desktop. My guess is that it's not the type of cable but the slot I was selecting for the first display. My forehead is now flat from getting palm slapped so many times. I'll switch out the VGA with the HDMI and hopefully it'll work.

FYI, I am running OS 10.8.5. Okay, now that we've got the GPU up and running, what's the next step?

Few minutes later...

Swapped out the VGA and HDMI but the HDMI still refuses to see signal. I guess you were right as well. I was hoping with HDMI to use the speakers on the monitor but it looks like I'll either have to use DVI or get an VGA adapter for the monitor hookup.

So, where do we go from here? I'd like to be able to boot directly into the OS without having to use safe mode. Or can I already do that? Been so worried about the video card I haven't really thought about it.

Thanks for being the voice of reason...

Sukebei

 

[wildwillow]

sukebei,

Think we are getting somewhere now. Things for you to try, make sure you can boot your system without using safe mode. Also try another HDMI cable, maybe that specific HDMI cable is damaged in someway. Good news is that DVI-D can output audio to a TV/Monitor. VGA as a rule doesn't work with audio but with exceptions will carry the picture to the TV/Monitor as you have found. If everything in the above is working as you would like then we can move onto suggestions for audio.

 

[sukebei]

WildWillow...

Thanks for the advice. Yeah, the next thing I will do is to boot directly into the OS, hopefully without getting hung up in the start up window. As for the HDMI cable, it's brand new and it did work when plugged into the mobo socket. For some reason it did not work in the GPU socket. I do have a couple of adapters on the way from Amazon so I'll experiment using the DVI socket to connect to a 32" monitor.

While in safe mode I checked out youtube to see if there was audio for the videos. However, there was no sound at that time. Of course, I was prompted to download the latest version of flash so I could access the videos so that could be a reason for the lack of sound. I did finally go to the audio in system preferences and did hear those sound effects thru the low end speakers I had jacked into the computer.

If I can directly boot into the OS is it okay to start downloading software like flash or should I wait?
So many questions.

I'll keep you posted on my progress. Thanks much.

Just a little later...

Booted directly into OS without a hitch, kudos to you. Went to youtube homepage and a vid automatically began to play with audio clearly coming thru my speakers. I'm ecstatic. I assume that since I was able to boot into OS I should be able to start downloading software. Do you have any thoughts about what I should watch out for such as issues with updating OS and related apps like iTunes. Will I have any issues migrating apps from my present mac to my new hack using say an ethernet cable? Are there any further things that you can think of that I should do before anything else?

After this I will be buttoning up the final side panel on my first build. Knowing my luck I'll still be bothering you for a while with future glitches and problems. Your help is truly appreciated.

Sukebei

 

[wildwillow]

WildWillow...
If I can directly boot into the OS is it okay to start downloading software like flash or should I wait?
So many questions.

I'll keep you posted on my progress. Thanks much.

Just a little later...

Booted directly into OS without a hitch, kudos to you. Went to youtube homepage and a vid automatically began to play with audio clearly coming thru my speakers. I'm ecstatic. I assume that since I was able to boot into OS I should be able to start downloading software. Do you have any thoughts about what I should watch out for such as issues with updating OS and related apps like iTunes. Will I have any issues migrating apps from my present mac to my new hack using say an ethernet cable? Are there any further things that you can think of that I should do before anything else?

After this I will be buttoning up the final side panel on my first build. Knowing my luck I'll still be bothering you for a while with future glitches and problems. Your help is truly appreciated.

Sukebei

Hey sukebei,

That is great news in respect you reaching the desktop. I presume you are using the onboard graphics?until you receive your adapters. Some ports with OS X on graphics cards are sometimes known not to play well. I had a not so great experience with a Radeon 6850 a while back.

The good thing for you using Mountain Lion is I don't think there will be further updates, this will probably be the case for Lion also apart from security/App updates. In which case you will be safe to update them. As for migrating your Apps over to your system, as long as you are using the same account as your Mac then you should have no problems, they can also be downloaded from the Mac App Store with your account login/details.

Personally if I were you I would get your system up to date and make a back up of it, just incase. Something you can revert to if need be. Personal preference of mine and many others, good practice as it saves you a lot of time installing.

I too leave the side door off until I am happy with everything. Never want to jinx it.

You've come a long way on your journey.

 

[sukebei]

WildWillow...

Thanks for the information. I'll probably be looking into something like SuperDuper which is what I used with my old iMac. Having that to do a total restore saved my butt at least 3 times. I'm already trying to figure out how to set up my work station and moving things around.

I'm not on the motherboard GPU which is disabled but on the GeForce 670 video card. I wanted to be sure to get that working because it cost a bundle to purchase. The VGA port works fine, it's just the HDMI port that is not cooperating.

Well, I was lost on that journey until you came along. Your help was invaluable. Thank you again.

Sukebei.

 

[sukebei]

WildWillow...

I have come upon an odd problem. In finder I can't see the HDD listed under devices. In finder preferences I clicked on show hard disks in sidebar with external disks and CDs, DVDs etc. already clicked by default. The HDD does not show up at all.

However, it does show up in Disk Utility along with the SSD. Why is it only seen there and not in finder? In order to be able to access it I need it to be seen in finder where I can start to transfer the bigger files, right? Do you have a solution for this?

Hasn't been all that long since I last bothered you. Sorry.

Sukebei.