Please HELP!!!!! This is a long post. (Sorry) :/

[guitarguy45]

THIS IS A LONG SPECIFIC POST, SO PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU READ EVERYTHING BEFORE GIVING ANY HELP!!


Hello everyone. Please forgive me for the very long post, however I want to be as specific as I can possibly be with this as I need as much logical & real help as I can get.
I have had a very incredibly well working dual-boot Hackintosh PC since about June or so. I've had Windows 8.1 on one drive for gaming and I have had OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 on there running for video/audio post production editing recording, mixing, mastering, and engineering. My system specs are as follows and are updated as of a few hours ago:

CPU: Intel i7 4790k
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H Black Edition LGA1150 Socket
Memory: 8GBs of Corsair Vengeance RAM at 1600Mhz (2x4GB sticks). **Upgrading to 16GBs very soon**
Storage #1: Samsung 850 EVO 120GB 2.5" SSD (Boot Drive For Windows 8.1).
Storage #2: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" HDD (Storage Drives For Windows PC Games).
Storage #3: Seagate Barracuda 3TB 3.5" HDD (Boot Drive/Main Storage for OS X Yosemite 10.10.3).
Storage #4: Seagate Barracuda 4TB 3.5" HDD
GPU: Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 WindForce Overclocked 2GB GDDR5 Graphics Card.
Optical Drive: Pioneer Blu-Ray Optical Drive.

My goal originally was to have the SSD be a boot drive for Windows 8.1 and have one of the 3TB HDDs be a main storage drive for my games and everything, I have a second SSD that I wanted to the same thing for OS X but I decided otherwise. Now that I have multiple different larger size HDDs, what I want to do now is use the SSD and the one 3TB HDD the same way I have been for Windows, but now I want to use the 2nd 3TB drive for one of two things. Either Keep that one running OS X Yosemite and then use the 4TB drive for OS X Mountain Lion or just use the 4TB HDD as the main drive for Mountain Lion and then reformat the other 3TB HDD for some extra Mac Storage/Windows Gaming Storage. I want to downgrade to Mountain Lion because I started an internship in the audio production industry in LA, California and they use Pro Tools 10 religiously and noting else hahaha, and from what I understand Pro Tools 10 isn't compatible with either OS X Mavericks, Yosemite, or El Capitan. Here are the few problems I encountered with Mountain Lion that I didn't encounter when installing Yosemite.

I went to install Mountain Lion on to the 4TB Drive like I said. First red flag is that on both the USB Installer and accessing it from the HDD itself it will not boot without me having to type in the nv_disable=1 -no -zp boot flag that disables my GTX 960. I don't mind having to do that, I went through the Multibeast driver installations like I did with Yosemite, did the same ones for Mountain Lion as I did for Yosemite. Audio gave me some problems but it was coming through my headset I have plugged into my system I think i figured out the solution because it is a Logitech Z506 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System. First problem I ran into was that even after I did the Multibeast network driver installations, my system said that Ethernet was connected and working but I couldn't get online at all, however I was still connected wired & wirelessly on my other devices in my apartment. That was problem #1.

Problem #2 is the fact of knowing what I had to do in terms of enabling my graphics card to work in OS X Yosemite and downloading different NVIDIA Web Drivers for my GTX 960 and switching to the Web Driver. I download the web driver and install them onto the system and then go to restart my system and go back into Mountain Lion from the HDD and I type in the nvda_drv=1 -s boot flag that enables and activates the card but for some damn reason, every time, it freezes at a certain point in the boot process and doesn't go back in unless I reboot with the nv_disable=1 -no -zp boot flag.


Basically, in an attempt to make a long story short, I don't know if it's the way I'm installing the OS, the Multibeast drivers, the NVIDIA Web Drivers, or something along those lines but it will not recognize my GTX 960 for Mountain Lion but it works just fine for Yosemite. My GTX 960 won't become recognized or be enabled with the boot flags I am using despite the fact they have worked before and no matter how many different times and versions of the networking drivers I install I still cannot get a connection. Please help!!! Again I am so incredibly sorry for this ridiculously long post but I wanted to be as specific as I possibly could so those of you who know whats wrong could help me out!! Like I said I want to use any sort of version of Mountain lion but preferably 10.8.4 or 10.8.5! SERIOUSLY PLEASE HELP ME GET THIS RIGHT I NEED THIS SYSTEM TO WORK WITH THE COMPONENTS I HAVE FOR AUDIO PRODUCTION. Also if my fears are true and the 960 is not compatible with Mountain Lion recommend me options of mid-level 2GB workstation/gaming graphics cards for no more than like 180 or 200 bucks as I am on a very very tight budget. Again very very sorry for how long this post is but please take the time to read it and help a fellow Hackintosher get this right!!!!

 

[Going Bald]

You have 2 problems:

1. Mountain Lion kernel has no support for Haswell refresh hardware. It is like same problem for Snow Leopard - it will not run or boot from HDD/SSD. (If you had 8 series board 10.8.5 would run, maybe)

2. You need the web drivers for the GTX 960. I am not sure these work with 10.8.5.

PT 10.3.9 works on OS X 10.10.1 from what I have read on the forums.

 

[guitarguy45]

In response to your reply, thank you for the advice sir. I am currently looking at the NVIDIA Geforce GTX 770 or 780 card as I know for a fact those are compatible with Mountain Lion.

1. I am downloading many different versions of the NVIDIA Web Drivers for 10.8.5, which is what I installed onto the system. I can boot just fine info the OS with that boot flag nv_disable=1 but when I try to install the 10.8.5 Web driver, I open the installer and it says this is not compatible, you must have OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5 to access this driver. I'm like, "uh........I am at 10.8.5 what do you mean". So you may be right and the 10.8.5 Web driver just simply doesn't work with the 960. And in terms of PT10 on Yosemite, I am running 10.10.3 or 4, if I remember correctly and I am not sure how to downgrade back to a specific version of each OS. I know to how change between Mountain Lion, Mavericks, etc, but not like going from Yosemite 10.10.5 back down to 10.10.1. In my case I would much rather be running Mountain Lion as flawlessly as possible throughout my system on one drive for all of my audio workstation stuff and my other drive to house Yosemite or El Capitan whichever I prefer. So would you recommend I try staying at Yosemite 10.10.1 and using Pro Tools 10 with that or do you think it is worth me continuing the researching and tweaking of my system with the stuff I have before I go and spend more money on a different card that will most likely be the salvation of all of my problems? Lol


Also in terms of the multibeast audio drivers for mountain lion I install everything I need to, reboot and then input the same graphics disabling boot flag "nv_disable=1", seeing as how that's the only way I can get into the OS and it picks up my surround sound speakers but doesn't play anything whatsoever through them but everything plays absolutely beautifully and crystal clear through my Turtle Beach PX22 Headset I have plugged into the system. Why us this happening you think? You think it has something to do with my graphics card not being compatible? Because again, through all of the evidence I've explained in my long as hell post, here, and from what I've seen on my own, it seems like the biggest problem with doing this is the fact that I'm using a GTX 960 and not a GTX 6xx or 7xx sites card like a lot of other websites, along with this one, seem to strongly suggest.

Again sorry for the insanely long responses for everything, I just want to be as specific as possible, as I am attempting to make this system my main system for everything. Windows gaming and Apple Audio Production. BTW windows side of the system works perfectly and flawlessly as one would expect with the components in my system. Again sorry for the huge novel sized paragraphs of text. Trying to be as specific as possible. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Going Bald]

The only thing I can think of to try is to set your primary gfx to the iGPU, boot with the display connected to the mainboard port. At desktop, try to install drivers for the GTX960.
If successful, remember to add boot-arg nvda_drv=1 to org.chameleon.boot.plist and change the drivers to the web drivers in the preference panel before rebooting to BIOS and setting the discrete GPU as first init display device.