NVIDIA 650 Ti 2GB Not working.

[shazeal]

NVIDIA 650 Ti 2GB Not working. [Solved]

Ok this is a really odd one.

I have built a machine with a Gigabyte 650 Ti 2GB (which replaced a 1GB version of the same card). The first couple of boots it worked fine, but I had to manually type PCIRootUID=1 GraphicsEnabler=Yes on the boot prompt to get it to work... GE=No just went to a blank screen.
A few boots later, I ran some updates and other bits nothing major. It just stopped working all together. Every time I get a blank screen, monitors go into power save mode. I can boot with -x, or by removing all the NVDA* kexts. Though using -x sometimes results in a multi coloured screen all corrupted, like the screen was being rendered in the wrong bit depth if you have ever seen that before.
When booting in -v it loads up fine, and the screen is apparently being redirected from the framebuffer. The machine is not locking up, just not showing anything on the screen.

I am leaning toward faulty card, but I am still not convinced as it was working fine albeit with oddball boot options since it should work with GE=No right?

This is my current boot options that do not work.
<key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>GenerateCStates</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>GeneratePStates</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>No</string>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>darkwake=0 npci=0x3000 PCIRootUID=1 nvda_drv=1</string>
<key>Legacy Logo</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>2</string>
<key>UseKernelCache</key>
<string>Yes</string>

I have tried with and without the Nvidia web drivers. I have tried using only DVI or HDMI ports, or both since I have 2 monitors.

Here is my System Info when in safe mode

http://iforce.co.nz/i/ectm33et.r0j.png

Any ideas?

 

[shazeal]

Ok I solved it myself. The problem was I was working under the assumption that this card should work with GE=No like the 1GB version. Also I forgot that specifying parameters at boot overwrites the options give as kernel options in the chamelion plist.

So I was typing GraphicsEnabler=No PCIRootUID=1

Which does not work since it overwrites the kernel command line leaving out npci=0x3000

So if I type

GraphicsEnabler=Yes PCIRootUID=1 npci=0x3000 it works fine.

So my final boot options are...
<key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>GenerateCStates</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>GeneratePStates</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>darkwake=0 npci=0x3000 PCIRootUID=1 nvda_drv=1</string>
<key>Legacy Logo</key>
<string>Yes</string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>2</string>
<key>UseKernelCache</key>
<string>Yes</string>

 

[shazeal]

Ok I spoke too soon, I connected the 2nd monitor, which showed up fine. Rebooted and it switched the order of the monitors. I set the monitors round the "right" way switching left and right, rebooted again and now its broken again.
So obviously its something to do with the Monitor settings?!

Is there a way to manually reset these settings, since I can just physically re-arrange them and see if that works consistently.

 

[sqishy]

Hi, for 2 displays aren't you using System Preferences > Display > Arrangement

Also make sure 'Mirror Displays' is unchecked..

 

[shazeal]

It does not matter if I use 1 or 2 displays.

I have swapped out the motherboard for a H61M-D2-B3, which made no difference.

I have found I can boot into OSX with no problems if I boot to single user mode, then reboot. But if I boot into full QE/CI using the nvidia then reboot it will stop working until I turn the machine off and boot into single user mode again. Once it gets screwed up trying to boot into safe mode results in the screwed up screen.

This is just stupid. Why would booting to single user mode, doing fsck then rebooting make a difference for the graphics card?! Why does rebooting (after booting normally and everything working) cause the machine to stop booting?!

Just want to throw the computer out the window, go outside and run it over with the car.

 

[shazeal]

Found this in the console logs

6/07/13 7:57:52.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDAStartup: Web
6/07/13 7:57:52.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDAGK100HAL loaded and registered
...
6/07/13 7:58:00.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(Video): Channel exception! exception type = 0x20 = DMA Engine Error (PBDMA Error)
6/07/13 7:58:00.000 PM kernel[0]: NVDA(Video): Channel exception! exception type = 0x1f = Access Violation Error (MMU Error 2)
6/07/13 7:58:00.755 PM UserEventAgent[11]: Captive: [mySCCopyWiFiDevices:162] WiFi Device Name == NULL
6/07/13 7:58:00.758 PM configd[16]: setting hostname to "hayaku.local"
6/07/13 7:58:00.759 PM configd[16]: network changed: DNS*
6/07/13 7:58:00.789 PM netbiosd[106]: Unable to start NetBIOS name service:
6/07/13 7:58:02.000 PM kernel[0]: tap kernel extension version 20111101 <[email protected]>
6/07/13 7:58:02.000 PM kernel[0]: tun kernel extension version 20111101 <[email protected]>
6/07/13 7:58:06.087 PM apsd[77]: CGSLookupServerRootPort: Failed to look up the port for "com.apple.windowserver.active" (1102)

 

[sqishy]

Can you type this in terminal


defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver GLCompositor


provide what it outputs.....

 

[shazeal]

It gives this.
2013-07-06 20:30:28.708 defaults[335:707]
The domain/default pair of (/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver, GLCompositor) does not exist

I just tried rebooting a few more times, it seems mashing the keyboard and yelling at the screen work just as reliably as booting into -s mode... which is to say not very often.

 

[sqishy]

Ok try this

sudo -s
defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver GLCompositor -dict tileHeight -int 256 tileWidth -int 256
then restart...

 

[shazeal]

No that does not help. Its so random it must be a hardware issue. I thought I would do a sanity check. I installed debian linux on a spare disk, installed the Nvidia drivers, and it worked fine, rebooted and the Xorg server hung at start up. Rebooted several time same deal, its segfaulting on startup.

I have put in and RMA and will swap it for an ASUS version of the 650ti, I have had too many problems with Gigabyte cards recently.