2013 15" MBP GT750M + GTX 980 + Sonnet III-D Won't Boot

[Mark]

Hey guys,

I swapped my 780 Ti to a 980 thanks to EVGA's Step Up program. It has arrived today, and after installing it, the laptop won't turn on. I pressed the power button, the Sonnet III-D and the GPU light up, but there is no boot-up chime from the MacBook at all.

This is what I have at the moment:

Late 2013 rMBP with 750M

EVGA GTX 980 with ACX cooler

Seasonic M12II EVO

I'm trying to get this sorted, I've already done a clean install and if I get this sorted I'll let you guys know. If anyone has any ideas I would gladly appreciate your help!!

Update (3rd December): The following has been done so far:

- Removed the EFI partition on the SSD. It made no difference.

- Transferred the 980 into my old eGPU enclosure: Sonnet SEL with an unpowered riser. It boots up 60-70% of the time and works a treat on both Windows and OS X when it does. This is currently my setup.

- Used a friend's old GPU (XFX HD 5770) on the III-D. Laptop makes it to the boot screen and boots up. GPU is recognised as "Display" in OS X. Therefore, there wasn't a problem with my III-D, and the problem is not due to the dGPU and the eGPU having a different GPU architecture/brand (in general).

- I used another friend's 2011 MBA with the 980+III-D setup. The laptop booted up with no issues.

NEW: I have tried hot-plugging my 980+III-D combo as soon as the Apple logo appears. Still not working as usual, but now System Profiler actually acknowledges the existence of the card (i.e. it shows up as GTX 980)

More observations:

- Another user, Torsten, reported a similar problem with his 970, another Maxwell card. His 970+SEL setup boots up 20% of the time. He has a 2014 rMBP with the 750M dGPU.

- The only 970/980 + III-D setups that have successfully worked with no issues so far involved MacBooks with integrated graphics only. This includes the EVGA ACX 2.0 model that both I and Torsten have. entzoe had his EVGA 980 ACX 2.0 working on his III-D with is Iris Pro only rMBP.

Conclusion: There is an issue with rMBPs with dGPUs booting with the new Maxwell cards (980/970), especially with the Sonnet III-D, where it doesn't work at all.

[Dschijn]

Without the eGPU it boots? Can you start without the eGPU, press ALT, wait in the boot drive selection menu, plug in the eGPU and boot?

[Mark]

Yeah, it boots without the eGPU. What I've also done is hot-plug the eGPU, but Yosemite doesn't detect it at all!

[entzoe]

With the 780Ti, you were already using yosemite and the latest nvidia driver? Same setup when you installed the 980? No changes made? Have you checked if you selected the nvidia graphics driver instead of osx in the nvidia general preferences?

I assume you have an external monitor

[Mark]

Yeah, when I had the 780 Ti, I already had the latest NVIDIA drivers, but that didn't boot up so I did a clean install thinking that it would solve the problem. I couldn't get it to run on OS X at all, so now I'm doing another clean install (from scratch) using Windows 8.1.

[Dschijn]

Had trouble to get my GTX 970 working in OSX as well… I just focused on Windows than. Is your eGPU working in Windows?

[Mark]

Nope, it's not working on Windows either. My problem is that I cannot even get into the boot screen (i.e. the laptop's screen doesn't even turn on)!

Here is what I've tried so far:

- Started the eGPU (cold boot): GPU and Sonnet chassis turn on, laptop doesn't make it into boot screen.

- Turned laptop on and pressed alt on the boot screen (where you choose which disk to boot into), and then hotplugged the eGPU: GPU and chassis turn on, but I cannot select either partition to boot, but the boot screen doesn't freeze.

- Turned laptop on, pressed alt to bring up the boot screen, then hotplugged the eGPU as soon as I choose a partition: GPU and chassis turn on, but they are not detected in either OS. On Windows, the fans kept jerking every 4-5 seconds too, as if they are about to spin. Might have something to do with the zero RPM feature of my cooler.

I've also tried using both the Seasonic PSU and the Sonnet's PSU (both of which booted up my 780 Ti successfully). No luck whatsoever.

So, I guess I can narrow the issue down to three things so far:

- My GPU is incompatible with the Sonnet III-D. I'll test this theory tomorrow with the SEL that I have. This means that I've wasted £650 on the Sonnet III-D.

- My GPU is just plainly incompatible to be used as an eGPU. This is the worst case scenario for me, as this means that I have to sell this 980 and buy another model of a 980 (which is probably £200+).

- I've been blessed with a GPU that's DOA. I'm going to try and test this GPU on a friend's desktop computer, to see if it works.

I'm just hoping that there is something hidden that I've missed out and I won't have to spend a ridiculous amount of money because I have the wrong model :/

[entzoe]

What brand is your GPU? I tried EVGA MSI ASUS and Gigabyte (970/980) all of them worked on my Sonnet using OSX

my HD from my Mac Mini that I installed to MBP that has OSX and bootcamp also worked. I was surprised that the eGPU bootcamp worked on MBP but not on Mini.

[Mark]

My GPU's brand is EVGA. It's the GTX 980 with the ACX 2.0 cooler, that is stock-clocked (I swapped so that I can enclose everything into my Sonnet III-D)

[Dschijn]

Can you reinstall in Windows the newest Intel Graphics driver and GeForce driver?

[Mark]

I have done that a couple of times last night, it still cannot get into the boot screen.

I've tried the 980 on my SEL. It works! Therefore, I can rule out the GPU being defective. I've also tried another PCIe card (a sound card that's been lying around) and the III-D made it to the boot screen. I should try another GPU on the III-D, to make sure that it's not the one that's bricked, but I don't know anyone who has a spare one I can try and use.

I guess that for some reason, the particular GPU that I have is not compatible with the III-D. I want to find that reason.

It's such a shame that the very reason why I swapped/downgraded my OC'ed 780 Ti to my 980 (which is around 10% less powerful because it's stock clocked) is so that I can use it with the PSU the III-D has and have an eGPU solution in a small form factor. Now I'm left with a £650 box, I'm back to my stability issues which I hope to fix with my SEL and possibly a £100-200 bill of either selling this 980 and buying a new 980 (or maybe whatever Maxwell card that's better that will come out) and/or designing and making a custom enclosure for an SEL-based GPU (and having regrets about getting rid of my more powerful 780 Ti).

EDIT: I'm getting the same problem with the SEL sometimes too. I'm going to try this card with my friend's desktop computer, to see what happens.

[Mark]

What brand is your GPU? I tried EVGA MSI ASUS and Gigabyte (970/980) all of them worked on my Sonnet using OSX

my HD from my Mac Mini that I installed to MBP that has OSX and bootcamp also worked. I was surprised that the eGPU bootcamp worked on MBP but not on Mini.

Do you know specifically which 980s worked with your III-D? Whether they were reference designs? Stock clocked or overclocked?

New update: with the SEL I'm now getting a kernel panic when trying to boot into OS X 10.10.1 while it's plugged in. My laptop boots without problems without the eGPU plugged in as usual.

My suspicions are now starting to shift to the GPU itself.

[entzoe]

The 980 that I tried are non-referenced card EVGA ACX 2.0,

970 ASUS CU, Gigabyte G1, MSI

[Mark]

Well that's strange because that's exactly the card that I have... There must be a reason why your 980 worked and mine didn't. I even swapped the controller cards between the SEL and the III-D... still no luck, I must be getting that desperate to do that!

[Mark]

Alright guys, another update:

- Still couldn't get it to work with the III-D. I'm using my old SEL + unpowered riser method, which is stable (and boots up 90% of the time). It ran Unigine Valley for 6 hours and 12 hours under Skyrim (with mods, in 4k) with no problems.

- I managed to get my eGPU working in Yosemite (10.10.1). It turns out to be just a mistype in one of the kext files. I'll be making a guide soon.

- I tried using my III-D+980 with my friend's 2011 MacBook Air. It booted with no problems at all. Of course, I didn't go the whole way and actually get it to work, but the fact that it went past the boot screen was an interesting observation.

Therefore, I have another observation: I've noticed that all the 970/980+III-D setups that were successful involved MacBooks without dedicated graphics. Maybe the reason why everyone else's worked while mine didn't was that I have a model with the 750M dGPU. I would love to be corrected about this, it makes my decision even more regrettable!

[Dschijn]

Can you make a fresh instalation of OSX onto an external drive? Maybe there is just a little mistake in your current OS.

[Torsten]

Hey, I've the same problem but with my sonnet SEL and the EVGA 970! It won't boot to the start screen with my eGPU connected.

when I boot into bootcamp without eGPU and remove the nvidia drivers, the system boots up just fine. When I then reinstall the drivers with my eGPU connected, I see the screen on my external display as expected. But after the next reboot everything stays black again.

one thing I like to add:

i had it running until I tried to boot into OS X with my eGPU connected. After that it's all black.

[Mark]

Can you make a fresh instalation of OSX onto an external drive? Maybe there is just a little mistake in your current OS.

I have done that a couple of times at the start. [EDIT: fresh installation on my internal drive, sorry] I've even wiped out my SSD and deleted and reinstated my EFI partition. I've had no luck at all. I have also been thinking of buying an external SSD, so it might be a good time to do so [EDIT: if I have the funds] (I have no spare external hard drives at the moment as they are full of backups)

Hey, I've the same problem but with my sonnet SEL and the EVGA 970! It won't boot to the start screen with my eGPU connected.

when I boot into bootcamp without eGPU and remove the nvidia drivers, the system boots up just fine. When I then reinstall the drivers with my eGPU connected, I see the screen on my external display as expected. But after the next reboot everything stays black again.

one thing I like to add:

i had it running until I tried to boot into OS X with my eGPU connected. After that it's all black.

Which MacBook Pro and EVGA 970 do you have? When plugged into the SEL I've had to try a few times with my 980 to get it to work.

Another update: I've just been around to a friend's earlier. I used his XFX HD 5770 on my III-D, and my laptop booted up with no problems, and even detected it as a "Display" under Graphics/Displays on System Report. So my III-D is working, and my laptop shouldn't be limited to Kepler cards (because the 750M is a Kepler card) as it boots up even with an AMD GPU.

My current two solutions are 1) Get another 980 (or if it comes out this month, 980 Ti), but a reference model or 2) Find a high end stock-clocked Kepler GPU (780 Ti or 780) reference card. Both of which involve selling my 980.

However, I have another suspicion that there is somewhere in the Apple firmware that stops a Maxwell card working when plugged in to a MacBook with a dedicated GPU. Hopefully an EFI update is around the corner.

[Torsten]

I've a 2014 MacBook pro with dGPU and as I sad, I had it working until I tried to boot into OS X. I even have a valley score, so this should invalidate the assumption that apple stops maxwell cards.

Ive a gtx 970 sc btw.

update:

there is a firmware update for the gtx 970 but I'm unable to flash the card. Is it possible for you to flash it in an other pc and try again?

update #2:

after reading the firmware description, it will make no difference at all. it only brings a total spin down for the fans.

After a lot of restarts I can now say that my system will boot up about 20% of the time.... this setup with an gtx 760 booted 100% of the time (but was unstable due to the power consumption)

[entzoe]

@Mark does the fan of your 980 turns on when you boot up your Sonnet?

[Mark]

I've a 2014 MacBook pro with dGPU and as I sad, I had it working until I tried to boot into OS X. I even have a valley score, so this should invalidate the assumption that apple stops maxwell cards.

Ive a gtx 970 sc btw.

update:

there is a firmware update for the gtx 970 but I'm unable to flash the card. Is it possible for you to flash it in an other pc and try again?

update #2:

after reading the firmware description, it will make no difference at all. it only brings a total spin down for the fans.

After a lot of restarts I can now say that my system will boot up about 20% of the time.... this setup with an gtx 760 booted 100% of the time (but was unstable due to the power consumption)

Yeah, my 980+SEL combo boots up around 60-70% of the time. There is still something that gives us all the trouble. It's either EVGA cards, which however, entzoe had working on his Iris Pro MBP, or more likely the dGPU somehow interfering with the boot process and not working well with Maxwell cards. Also, I was talking about Apple's EFI firmware update the comes out via the App Store, which updates the firmware of the logic board of the laptop.

EDIT: I'm not sure whether you can flash the card on one PC and use it on your eGPU setup, and I thought about going that route too.

@Mark does the fan of your 980 turns on when you boot up your Sonnet?

Yes, the fans turn on, and then they either spin for a while or suddenly stop. Neither makes a difference when plugged in to the SEL. This is probably because of the way the fans work, which is not to spin until the card reaches a certain temperature. When plugged in to the III-D, the external screen that's connected to it also wakes up and turns on as if a signal is about to be sent but the screen turns off again after a while.

[cgap]

Just wanted throw in my experience as another data point. I just finished building my eGPU setup (specs below) and am experiencing the same ~20% success rate for getting to the boot screen. If I recall it worked well the first few boots but now not so much. I wish I had paid better attention to any changes during that time. My boot sequence goes - power everything down - connect thunderbolt - power up atx/egpu - power up macbook. However, like you guys, when I hold down the power button on the macbook I get nothing 80% of the time. The fans on the GPU spin up but no boot screen. When it does boot it's running fine, I've had several multi hour sessions without crashes. Another random observation is that now when booting with or without the eGPU connected, the boot chime on the macbook is no longer happening (even on success boots).

Setup:

2013 Macbook Pro Retina w/ GT 750m

Akitio box, no riser

Zotac GTX 970

[Mark]

Thank you for your input. I've also been looking forward to getting a reply from someone with an Akitio chassis as well, to see whether it's limited to Sonnet enclosures.

This further confirms that the problem lies with the 750M dGPU in the 15" MacBook Pros. I'm eagerly waiting for an EFI update from Apple, otherwise, let's see what NVIDIA GM200 GPUs offer, otherwise, it looks like the III-D is just an expensive paperweight.

[ME_]

Hi,

I just want to confirm, that I am suffering from the same issues with my Akitio Chassis and a EVGA FTW AC 2.0 GTX 970. It is only working on the second attempt - sometimes even more trials are needed to boot up the MBPro 15" with dGPU.bUT if it fails the first time, I just press the power button until the MB switches off - while having powered on the GPU/ATX all the time. After some seconds it repower the MB on and normaly it will start to boot in a proper manner. If it fails all the time, only a PRAM-Reset helped me (but of course with disconnected eGPU)...

What I also can confirm but this Is maybe in the know, is, that the EFI for Win, which enables the internal IRIS PRO, will always lead to an system hang up, if the eGPU is connected.

Of course is really bad, since it would be possible to save energy if we could use optimus even without the eGPU connected. However I tried to disable the 750M inside windows but without any differnce in the boot behaviour, so I flashed back the normal EFI by dd (i had an backup)...

Here is my Setup:

[Mark]

I hotplugged my 980+III-D setup again. The computer recognises it, but there is no output on the screen. However, strangely enough, I was able to use the eGPU as an OpenCL device for LuxMark!