EVGA Geforce GTX 750 Ti strangeness

[maclocus]

Hi!

 

The video card from the topic title works, no doubt about it but it does so in a weird way.

 

The card's drivers are the Nvidia Web drivers for OS X 10.10.5 with nvda_drv=1 as argument in Clover rev. 3292.

But after a second restart (after installation of the Web drivers) it shows glitches whenever I move a Finder window, Safari, as shown in the screenshot below.

 

Through coincidence I noticed that when I restart through single user mode and mounting the boot drive and do a 'touch /System/Library/Extensions' followed by exit, the machine reboots and after that the glitches are gone and all is okay.

 

A next plain reboot (without the single user mode and touching Extensions), the glitches are back.

 

Does anybody understand what is happening? Or has (had) those problems and a solution?

Glad to hear it!

 

 

Gigabyte EX58-UD3R

Intel 920 Core i7

SSD Samsung 840

Nvidia GTX 750 Ti (EVGA)

12G 1333MHz memory A-DATA

 

 

 

 

[arsradu]

Hi!

 

The video card from the topic title works, no doubt about it but it does so in a weird way.

 

The card's drivers are the Nvidia Web drivers for OS X 10.10.5 with nvda_drv=1 as argument in Clover rev. 3292.

But after a second restart (after installation of the Web drivers) it shows glitches whenever I move a Finder window, Safari, as shown in the screenshot below.

 

Through coincidence I noticed that when I restart through single user mode and mounting the boot drive and do a 'touch /System/Library/Extensions' followed by exit, the machine reboots and after that the glitches are gone and all is okay.

 

A next plain reboot (without the single user mode and touching Extensions), the glitches are back.

 

Does anybody understand what is happening? Or has (had) those problems and a solution?

Glad to hear it!

 

 

Gigabyte EX58-UD3R

Intel 920 Core i7

SSD Samsung 840

Nvidia GTX 750 Ti (EVGA)

12G 1333MHz memory A-DATA

 

Does this happen with default OS X drivers, as well?

I had something like this....when I was running with nv_disable=1 which basically means that you've got no acceleration enabled. But I guess you didn't add nv_disable=1 and also nvda_drv=1, both at the same time, right?

 

Also, you don't need to manually add nvda_drv=1. The Nvidia driver will add that anyway. Also, I would suggest giving the default drivers a chance. Unless you really need the CUDA driver or something that only works with the Nvidia proprietary driver, you might as well run with the default drivers. I had no issues with that (but then, we have different cards).

 

Taking a look at your Clover config.plist might help, so if you have some info you don't want to share (like SMBIOS), you can delete that and leave the rest alone for debugging.

[maclocus]

Hi arsradu,

 

I started with the the system drivers originally but that brought me only reboots the moment it would normally go into graphics mode, I saw no way of getting the stock drivers to work.

So, if you have any tips about that situation, I am happy to hear them!

 

That was my problem first, so then I went the way of the Nvidia Web drivers, and was delighted at first, right after installation of the Web drivers all was fine until my next reboot. All was good until I moved some windows and I saw the garbled redraws.

 

The only way to 'reset the web drivers to normal was going into SUM and do a 'touch /System/LibraryExtensions', reboot and all is good until the next reboot.

 

I'll upload my config.plist, which is redacted in the usual places 

 

 

 

 

 

config.plist.zip

[arsradu]

Hi arsradu,

 

I started with the the system drivers originally but that brought me only reboots the moment it would normally go into graphics mode, I saw no way of getting the stock drivers to work.

So, if you have any tips about that situation, I am happy to hear them!

 

That was my problem first, so then I went the way of the Nvidia Web drivers, and was delighted at first, right after installation of the Web drivers all was fine until my next reboot. All was good until I moved some windows and I saw the garbled redraws.

 

The only way to 'reset the web drivers to normal was going into SUM and do a 'touch /System/LibraryExtensions', reboot and all is good until the next reboot.

 

I'll upload my config.plist, which is redacted in the usual places 

 

Uhm...one thing that should definitely not be there is Inject ATI. Unless that GTX 750 of yours is somehow made by ATI. Also I don't think you need Inject Intel either, if you're not using your iGPU.

 

And I just LOLed your editing... )

 

By the way, if you're not using El Capitan (you posted in the Yosemite section), RtVariables 0x28 and 0x67 are not needed. However, in Yosemite, you do need kext-dev-mode=1 boot flag (I added it to your config).

 

And just for kicks, if, when you tried to boot up with the default drivers, you got reboot, while injecting ATI and Intel in your config, maybe try without them once? Might not make any difference. Might make all the difference in the world. And there is only one way to find out.

 

By the way, I would highly recommend you to make a backup of your current config (although that graphics injections is definitely wrong, so you need to change that anyway) and try the one attached to this post. It's still yours, just rearranged a little bit. See if that works for you.

 

Also, how's your boot? Do you have the Apple logo for both boot stages? Is the loading bar displayed on the center of the screen for the second stage, or somewhere on the bottom left? Just curious.

config.plist.zip

[styrian]

@ maclocus

 

Hello!

 

It looks like you are using a SMBios of IMac with AMD gfx. This should be a big part of your gfx problems (black screen at boot). Try to use the one of Mac Pro 3,1.

 

Have fun.

[maclocus]

@arsradu the ati injection is for my other card and indeed i had forgotten to remove them. And the RTvariables _are_ for El Capitan. I want to have a good Yosemite before migrating to El Caitan.
I will definitely look at your corrections and try them.

The Apple logo is shown on a black background and the loading bar directly beneath the logo as it should. (a la iPhone/iPad)

 

I could have sworn I uploaded a config.plist without serial numbers etc.... strange...

 

@styrian iMac11,1 was and is chosen then by Clover and I never changed that because all was well.
It's only after 10.10.5 I believe that for instance my sleep is disrupted (machine goes to sleep) and only wakes to a state that the fans are working but black screen stays in suspend mode with blinking light. I can't ssh in, so machine is still suspended.

Like I said I want a good funtioning 10.10.5 before migrating to my 10.11 disk which I have pre-installed on another disk.

[arsradu]

@arsradu the ati injection is for my other card and indeed i had forgotten to remove them. And the RTvariables _are_ for El Capitan. I want to have a good Yosemite before migrating to El Caitan.

I will definitely look at your corrections and try them.

The Apple logo is shown on a black background and the loading bar directly beneath the logo as it should. (a la iPhone/iPad)

 

I could have sworn I uploaded a config.plist without serial numbers etc.... strange...

 

Understood. Cool. Let me know.

 

And..yes, you have.

[maclocus]

@arsradu

I replaced my config.plist with yours and did a reboot for test, no problem.

I uninstalled the Nvidia Web drivers.

Reboot and used Apple stock drivers, no go.

Boot clover with "kext-dev-mode=1 nv_disable=1 -v -x'

Installed the Nvidia Web drivers.

Boot clover with 'kext-dev-mode=1 nvda_drv=1'

Test windows/applications moving around, no glitches.

Reboot.

Test windows/applications moving around, no glitches.

Reboot

Test windows/applications moving around, no glitches.

 

I have reboot now 5 times and no more glitches, I am happy!!

 

If you think you know why my machine is having problems coming out of sleep, please tell me.

Wake up now is just switching on my fans and nothing more, black screen with blinking light on the monitor, processor still in suspended state because I can't SSH into it.

 

But for now, thank you very much!

 

 

Bleh...spoke too soon....I really don't get it....the glitches are back!
Why after the 6th or 7th reboot the glitches return?

 

Still thanks for your time!

[arsradu]

@arsradu

I replaced my config.plist with yours and did a reboot for test, no problem.

I uninstalled the Nvidia Web drivers.

Reboot and used Apple stock drivers, no go.

Boot clover with "kext-dev-mode=1 nv_disable=1 -v -x'

Installed the Nvidia Web drivers.

Boot clover with 'kext-dev-mode=1 nvda_drv=1'

Test windows/applications moving around, no glitches.

Reboot.

Test windows/applications moving around, no glitches.

Reboot

Test windows/applications moving around, no glitches.

 

I have reboot now 5 times and no more glitches, I am happy!!

 

If you think you know why my machine is having problems coming out of sleep, please tell me.

Wake up now is just switching on my fans and nothing more, black screen with blinking light on the monitor, processor still in suspended state because I can't SSH into it.

 

But for now, thank you very much!

 

 

Bleh...spoke too soon....I really don't get it....the glitches are back!

Why after the 6th or 7th reboot the glitches return?

 

Still thanks for your time!

 

Did you change anything in your config?

 

If you say the card is ok, as in...it doesn't have any hardware issues, such as overheating, or chipset problems, and if it works ok on other operating systems (Windows, for example), then the problems can only be either from OS X itself (never heard of these issues before) or the driver (most likely). The only similar issues I had were when disabling acceleration (nv_disable=1), which is perfectly normal.

 

 

Which driver version are you using? And which Yosemite build number (you can check that in About This Mac by clicking the version once)?

 

About the sleep issues, I had those issues before, but not when waking up from sleep, but when going to sleep. The PC would just remain in a suspended state, like half asleep lol. And trying to wake it up from that state was impossible. The only way to make it work again, was to reboot my computer.

 

Anyway, please, note that nvda_drv=1 boot arg is automatically added (not in boot args but in nvram) when installing Nvidia web driver. So you really (trust me) don't need to add it again.

 

And for booting with stock drivers, there is also no need for that. So I would suggest removing that. It won't help you in anyway.

 

Also, can you install anything in Safe Mode?

 

You said you booted Yosemite with

kext-dev-mode=1 nv_disable=1 -v -x

kext-dev-mode=1 to load unsigned kexts. Ok.

nv_disable=1 to disable acceleration. Ok.

-v for verbose mode, to see if anything weird shows on the log. Ok.

But do you also need -x?

[maclocus]

- I used your config.plist unchanged

 

- the card is okay, two days old, under windows no problems.

 

- Drivers are the latest from Nvidia for OS X 10.10.5 WebDriver-346.02.03f01, Yosemite build number is OS X 10.10.5 (14F27).

 

- I read more people have problem with wake from sleep, so I hope some day there will be a solution, apart of course from upgrading my hardware, this system is already 5-6 years old.

 

- I know that it is added to nvram but that's the point, I am not using nvram, my Clover is on another disk and that disk is only used for booting through Clover (I know it sounds difficult but I like it that way), so that is the reason I have added nvda_drv to the arguments.

 

- With stock I mean the standard Apple drivers, if I try to boot with those it reboots as soon as it tries to go to the Apple logo with loading bar. I am not going to remove them as they belong to a normal standard OS X installation.

 

- This time I have installed the Nvidia Webdrivers in safe mode yes.

[arsradu]

- I used your config.plist unchanged

 

- the card is okay, two days old, under windows no problems.

 

- Drivers are the latest from Nvidia for OS X 10.10.5 WebDriver-346.02.03f01, Yosemite build number is OS X 10.10.5 (14F27).

 

- I read more people have problem with wake from sleep, so I hope some day there will be a solution, apart of course from upgrading my hardware, this system is already 5-6 years old.

 

- I know that it is added to nvram but that's the point, I am not using nvram, my Clover is on another disk and that disk is only used for booting through Clover (I know it sounds difficult but I like it that way), so that is the reason I have added nvda_drv to the arguments.

 

- With stock I mean the standard Apple drivers, if I try to boot with those it reboots as soon as it tries to go to the Apple logo with loading bar. I am not going to remove them as they belong to a normal standard OS X installation.

 

- This time I have installed the Nvidia Webdrivers in safe mode yes.

 

Got it. Thanks for the explanation.

 

If there aren't any issues with other OSes, and since the card is brand new, I think we can rule out hardware issues. Which leaves us with software issues. Namely Nvidia drivers issues, since there is no way to test the default OSX ones.

 

Tough. If you had enough space on your HDD/SSD, I would say let's try to install El Capitan (on a separate partition, you can get the space back afterwards) and see if the issue still occurs with that one. You already wanted to upgrade anyway. You're gonna need new Nvidia drivers, of course. But that's also part of the test. To see if the issue is from OS X or the drivers.

 

For the sleep issue, I'm pretty sure there is a solution. But does your computer go into sleep properly? Is it just the waking up part that's not ok? Cause I told you, in my case, it's actually both. But the problem is that the computer doesn't go into sleep mode properly in the first place. Also, I don't have that issue anymore.

 

By the way, weird thing that the glitches didn't start to reappear after the first restart. Can you remember what did you do differently before it started to go crazy again (if anything)?

[maclocus]

After a new reboot the glitches are again gone, everything behaving as it should. So now I can conclude (very careful   ) that it is kind of random.

 

I have a spare drive already installed with El Capitan which was before the Nvidia card, the El Capitan installation on that drive is pristine, with only a throw-away account, no additional software.

 

That's the way I allways go when upgrading to a new OS, first install the bare OS, test things with a throw-away account, keep the 'pollution' as small as possible and when I am satisfied I migrate my application and stuff over to the new OS.

 

I want to thank you for your effort and help and I will let you know how things go when I go to El Capitan (it won't be today, though).

 

BTW I noticed that if I move my Terminal window around (in the glitches moments) that window is not affected. I think that it has to do with the transparency settings I use in Terminal. I have opacity on 80% and I think that has something to do with not being affected. Just a thought but it can't be a coincident.

[arsradu]

After a new reboot the glitches are again gone, everything behaving as it should. So now I can conclude (very careful   ) that it is kind of random.

 

I have a spare drive already installed with El Capitan which was before the Nvidia card, the El Capitan installation on that drive is pristine, with only a throw-away account, no additional software.

 

That's the way I allways go when upgrading to a new OS, first install the bare OS, test things with a throw-away account, keep the 'pollution' as small as possible and when I am satisfied I migrate my application and stuff over to the new OS.

 

I want to thank you for your effort and help and I will let you know how things go when I go to El Capitan (it won't be today, though).

 

You're most welcome. And...there's no such thing as random. Just a pretty hard to catch cause.

 

Something must trigger that issue. And since you're using the same config (since I suppose you're always booting from the same place), which, at least to my eye, looks ok now (well better than before anyway), I'm not sure the issue resides there either.

 

Looking forward to your El Capitan result.

 

The sleep issues are usually cause by either processes keeping the CPU running. Or the CPU not generating enough states to go to sleep. For the last thing, I already added C6 states in your config. Anyway, a clean installation of Yosemite (not sure if there's a full installer of OS X10.10.5 already, so that you don't have to update it afterwards) might bring a new light over these issues. That's one more reason why I'm very curious in your results with El Capitan.

 

Been nice talking to you, man. And please, do share your results whenever you can. It would be interesting to at least have a slightly different approach on the same issue.