Question: How do I reset the System Preferences Refresh Rate when using Nvidia Webdriver?

[s1mul8]

System:

Clover bootloader (Multibeast)
El Capitan 10.11
Gigabyte Z97MX Gaming 5
i5 4690k
GTX 750

Issue: Monitor out of Range, no signal after switching refresh rate by accident.

So I'm on my second Hackintosh and I'm stumped here. I had successfully installed and configured my system using the onboard HD4600, and after installed the Nvidia Web Driver to get my GTX 750 working correctly.

That installation goes well, and I'm able to reboot and install my GTX 750 and it works correctly with hardware acceleration, but I wasn't able to get 2560 x 1080, it would only support 1080p.

So, like an idiot, I decided to tinker with the scaling setting in System Preferences. I figured well, maybe I am reaching the limits of what signal can be transmitted via HDMI @ 60hz, so I set it to 30hz to test... and this is where I made my fatal mistake.

OSX doesn't give you 10 second window to change your resolution back like Windows does, it just immediately commits to what you select. If your monitor doesn't support the refresh rate like mine does, it will just blackout and give you an "OUT OF RANGE" error message.

I've searched high and low on how to fix this and I'm stumped. It seems OSX stores the values for refresh rate and resolution somewhere, but I can't seem to find it since I am using the Nvidia Webdriver. It may be that the settings are stored somewhere separately outside of the usual system preferences .plist if you are using the Nvidia Webdriver.

I can hook up a secondary monitor using the DVI, and can even alternate between HDMI and DVI on the primary, any time a second monitor is hooked up OSX seems to go to default EDID settings, but whenever the primary monitor is hooked up and is the only monitor, doesn't matter if it's HDMI or DVI, OSX forces 30hz on it which the monitor won't display.

I've tried:

- booting into safe mode. I can get to desktop but it bypasses the Nvidia driver, meaning that any changes made in system preferences won't reflect during standard boot.
- deleting com.apple.systempreferences in the Library folder. No effect.
- Uninstalling the Webdriver in order to reinstall it. (Can't boot now, not sure what to do)

I don't know what else to do other than just reinstall OSX all over again.

Help?

 

[slim.jim]

Try booting with nv_disable=1 and then make your changes.

 

[s1mul8]

Try booting with nv_disable=1 and then make your changes.

With or Without the GPU plugged in? I had to install without the GPU plugged in, because clover wouldn't initiate the boot sequence with it plugged in, even while using nv_disable=1.

 

[slim.jim]

With or Without the GPU plugged in? I had to install without the GPU plugged in, because clover wouldn't initiate the boot sequence with it plugged in, even while using nv_disable=1.

With the GPU plugged in. If Clover is not showing up when the monitor is plugged into the GPU then you need to change the intiate device in your bios settings.

 

[s1mul8]

Clover is showing up, the whole boot sequence is fine, it's just when i get to the desktop, the picture goes to black because the Nvidia Driver is forcing the monitor to run at 30hz. Really, I was just hoping that someone knows where Nvidia keeps its plist that I can edit to force it back to 60hz.

In the end, I am just gonna reinstall, I have already wasted too much time messing with it. Sad because I had pretty much everything about my install ironed out. One wrong click and I'm back to square one.

 

[slim.jim]

Clover is showing up, the whole boot sequence is fine, it's just when i get to the desktop, the picture goes to black because the Nvidia Driver is forcing the monitor to run at 30hz. Really, I was just hoping that someone knows where Nvidia keeps its plist that I can edit to force it back to 60hz.

In the end, I am just gonna reinstall, I have already wasted too much time messing with it. Sad because I had pretty much everything about my install ironed out. One wrong click and I'm back to square one.

The Nvidia driver doesn't control the resolution or refresh rate. That is part of OS X's system preferences.

 

[s1mul8]

I have my doubts about that. Two things: when I boot via safemode and bypass the nvidia driver, I can see the desktop fine. I've also deleted the system preferences plist via the library folder so it should have defaulted back to whatever it was prior to installing the nvidia drivers.

Needless to say, I just reinstalled and got everything up and running again this afternoon. Didn't touch the refresh rate settings, but I did update to 10.11.2 and update the nvidia drivers to the latest version and ultrawide resolution all of a sudden fixed itself upon reboot after the driver install.

 

[ajknodel]

Funny that I find your post....I have the latest nVidia web drive on my GTX 970 and can't get it above 30Hz. Now, I've never had it above that in the first place. New display, new graphics card, new OS update, and new drivers.

I tried switchresx and it gave me "no signal" error on my display, so I had to go forcibly remove that whole thing. I know that Windows is capable of 60Hz, but it doesn't seem Mac OS X is for whatever reason.

 

[slim.jim]

I have my doubts about that. Two things: when I boot via safemode and bypass the nvidia driver, I can see the desktop fine. I've also deleted the system preferences plist via the library folder so it should have defaulted back to whatever it was prior to installing the nvidia drivers.

Needless to say, I just reinstalled and got everything up and running again this afternoon. Didn't touch the refresh rate settings, but I did update to 10.11.2 and update the nvidia drivers to the latest version and ultrawide resolution all of a sudden fixed itself upon reboot after the driver install.

Booting in safe mode doesn't load any graphics drivers and the card is just using the VESA mode. The display resolution and refresh rate are in the /System/Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist file. If you had deleted that it would have been fixed.

 

[s1mul8]

Thanks!

That was exactly what I was looking for, although I am already re-installed at this point, and working perfectly. I will definitely save this post and keep it in mind should I ever run into that issue again.