Mac Pro 5,1 nvidia GTX960 black screen

[matty2x4]

Hi all.
I am hoping someone here can help me.
I have an mac pro 5,1 that I have recently just installed a new
EVGA GTX960 into.
Up dated to latest Elcapitan and what I think was the latest nvidia driver (cant check right now... read on).
It was working just fine.
I have a Samsung UHD in the hdmi and my apple 22" in the dvi, it starts up on the samsung.
then about 2 weeks after install, on start up all I get is a black screen.
The os chime sounds but nothing from the screens. Not even a check signal cable etc...
I tried all the screen plugs and all the combos I could think of and nothing.
In the end I ripped out the graphics card and reinstalled my old ati radion that came with the mac.
The nvida driver has switched off (pretty sure) I turned it back on (reinstall gtx) and it was working fine for a month and a half.
But it has happened again.
Can anyone recommend anything I should try.
I can put the old card back in have a look then reinstall the GTX again, but I cant do that every 1.5 months!
I have to have it back up and running for work in a day or 2 so I might have to do the above to get me going but I would like to solve and fix this issue if at all possible.

I will endeavor to be as co-operative with any help as I can, but warning I am not very tech headed sorry.

Thank you in advance for any help!

Matthew

 

[matty2x4]

OK,
So i have popped the old ATI card back in.
My Nvidia driver matched my OS. 10.11.3, driver 346.03.05f01:
So I read on
I noted this on the driver from the above link "Release Notes Archive:
This driver update is for Mac Pro 5,1 (2010)"
So I have updated to 346.03.05f02:reinstalled the card and its working fine (for now).

Will update if any more issues.
So what I have learned.
1, Its not just a OS compatibility with graphics driver there is also a mac model compatibility issue thrown in as well.
2, never sell or get rid of your old graphics card when you upgrade

hope this helps any other mac pro 5,1 users

 

[slim.jim]

OK,

1, Its not just a OS compatibility with graphics driver there is also a mac model compatibility issue thrown in as well.

The driver release notes state MacPro 3,1/5,1/5,1 because that is the only models that are officially supported. However, the drivers will work in ANY Mac or Hackintosh with a Nvidia GPU just fine. The drivers for 10.10.4 or earlier did in fact check that they were being installed on one of those machines but as of 10.10.5 that check was removed by Nvidia.

 

[matty2x4]

awwww
so what you are saying is I have not really fixed it.
And it might happen again?
I am to scared to shut down or restart my comp anymore.
Its going well so far.
Will keep a post of any issues for others to read when and if they happen.

thanks

 

[slim.jim]

awwww
so what you are saying is I have not really fixed it.
And it might happen again?
I am to scared to shut down or restart my comp anymore.
Its going well so far.
Will keep a post of any issues for others to read when and if they happen.

thanks

Luckily a real Mac supports NVRAM so the boot-arg nvda_drv=1 should be saved no problem. If NVRAM gets cleared, like when doing a PRAM reset, then the computer might not boot. The good news is that with the 10.11.3 update came basic support for Nvidia Maxwell GPUs and you no longer need to boot with nv_disable=1 to get to the desktop when the Web drivers aren't active. You can boot as normal without graphics acceleration and then apply the Web drivers and reboot.

 

[Fl0r!an]

You can boot as normal without graphics acceleration and then apply the Web drivers and reboot.

Sadly you can't on real MacPros. A GPU without Mac EFI will show nothing but a black screen when the Web Drivers are disabled. The Web Drivers will get disabled every time you update OS X (system update, security update) or flush your PRAM.

Honestly I'd sell the GTX960 and get a card that you can easily flash with a Mac EFI. A 960 isn't worth the trouble, AMD Tahiti cards will perform equally or better with full OS support.

Other possibilities:

• Just keep your old GPU installed all the time and swap cables.
• Enable VNC to reinstall & activate the WebDrivers via screen sharing
• Get your GPU flashed by MacVidCards

 

[slim.jim]

Sadly you can't on real MacPros. A GPU without Mac EFI will show nothing but a black screen when the Web Drivers are disabled. The Web Drivers will get disabled every time you update OS X (system update, security update) or flush your PRAM.

Honestly I'd sell the GTX960 and get a card that you can easily flash with a Mac EFI. A 960 isn't worth the trouble, AMD Tahiti cards will perform equally or better with full OS support.

Other possibilities:

• Just keep your old GPU installed all the time and swap cables.
• Enable VNC to reinstall & activate the WebDrivers via screen sharing
• Get your GPU flashed by MacVidCards

Thanks for the clarification. Haven't fixed my MacPro to do any testing with.

 

[matty2x4]

Hey thanks for all the feedback guys.
I live in New Zealand so getting any thing flashed or modified is kind of out of the question.
The postage and time away will kill me.
I will look out for a Tahiti card (any suggestions?). However again being in NZ means I have a very small supply pool so would probably have to order online, again cost $, postage $ and time. I can drop the 960 into my PC which is my 3D workstation so its not that big a deal or loss.
In the mean time I will keep the old card handy, always sleep never shut down and avoid any updates.
Seems all I can do.

again
thanks for the help

fyi its still going fine

 

[riz_vista]

For black screen fix i had same issu with gtx 970 but whole research and r&d last i fix with only dvi-i to hdmi cable

do not use any dvi converter to vga or dvi converter to hdmi only use cable
DO NOT USE converter IT'S NOT work in web driver.
i hope advice maybe help you.




Thx