DVI port flipping

At the moment I have everything installed successfully
10.6.5 updated.
Gigabyte EX58 UD5
Gigabyte 1GB HD 5870

My only 'annoyance' which I dont think I saw prior to 10.6.3 is my DVI keeps flipping.

The graphics card has two DVI ports. On one boot, the output will go to DVI port 1, on another cold book it might be on port 2, and so on.


Has anyone else seen this or suggest what I might be able to do to stop this flipping of DVI ports?

Nobody? I'm just switching the DVI cable each time

Okay, I see it wasn't flipping, merely that if I pulled the DVI plug out and plugged it straight back it comes on ..hmm...

Yup. I'm seeing the same problem with my XFX 5870 1GB card, using the Uakari frame buffer. I still haven't found a solution.

So this is what I can see if I play around in the plist ..

With nothing in it, the monitor comes on and acts like its gone to sleep (ie. power button flashes).

Only way I fix this is pull the plug out and re-plug it.

IF I set "Graphics Mode" in the plist file and have it at 1920x1200x32, then the monitor does not act like its going to sleep. It just stays blank, again I replug to get the monitor back.

Personally I think the framebuffers used are screwy for ATI cards. I'm guessing if I had 3 monitors, DVI1, DVI2 and Displayport I would see my displayport monitor come on ..only a guess.

I might reinstall for another crack at the pipe

So I thought I would kinda document what I've been trying, hey it might help others

Restarted with the new MultiBeast 3.0.3, same motherboard, same graphics card.

This time I did not use the ATY_* that MultiBeast has.

Instead I installed the ATI Experimental bootloader, graphicsEnabled=Yes and you know what? Everything boots up, HOWEVER the only major problem is ..

The highest resolution is stuck at 1280x1024x32. Using Graphics Mode to set the resolution does not work.

As far as I can tell, everything is accelerated, which is 'awesome'. But resolution sucks.

At this point the screen NEVER goes into power save mode and it boots up all the time, every time.

Using useAtiROM=yes, with *.rom and the correct boot file (Uakari), I now see the correct number of output ports that I have (for the first time) and it does NOT go into POWER save mode on the FIRST boot.

Subsequent boots it does go into power saver. Whats happened on the subsequent boot? Seems like something 'incorrect' or wrong is being saved? Dont know.

Still an issue

This is an old thread, but some of us are still seeing this issue today. I'm seeing this with an XFX 5870, 30" ACD on DVI under 10.8. Did any of you ever find a better solution then those mentioned here?

This is due to the framebuffer in the driver not matching the framebuffer in your VBIOS byte for byte. Its usually a thrown off SenseID. For those who feel ballsy and know their way around hex patching, here is the guide, and despite it being for the 4000 series, the framebuffers are still assembled in the same manner. Good luck!

Mobility Radeon HD 4650:Full Resolution with QE & CI working on Internal LVDS screen - InsanelyMac Forum

Even though following that guide and editing my ATI5000Controller.kext was educational, the issue never improved. There were differences between Uakari and my VBIOS, but one DVI port (next to the vent) was almost dead on. The small deltas would likely only enable the analog parts of the port for VGA. For sanity checks I changed the HotPlugID and hot plug stopped working, etc. Btw, this guide builds upon the one posted already: tonymacx86 Forum • View topic - Guide to getting the HD6850 connetors to work

The only interesting thing is that when the Transmitter is changed to single link (from dual link), it does get through the black screen, but you're stuck with single link video. I discovered this because Zonalis has single link ports that work. Changing any of those to a dual link Transmitter recreates the black screen issue.

Solved. While looking at 6870's gibba DVI2 port definition I noticed it looked like mine except the Encoder was different. By changing the Encoder on both DVI ports they now boot straight through without a black screen. I overlooked this because the guide had a table from Linux that seemed to confirm what I already had. Thanks upton_oliver for pointing me in the right direction.