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10.6.3 nVidia Blank Screen Issue with DVI/HDMI on 9800GT

athena

By athena,
in OSx86 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

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HamNCheese
HamNCheese
Posted
Posted
No, you are wrong. The instructions refer to where ever your device-properties string is.

 

Ummm... No. EFI Studio puts stuff in the /Library boot.plist. In my case, I still got lockups after adding the ROM to the one in /Extra. So yes, this still has to be removed (this has been said before, complete removal of EFI strings is required to make this work.)

 

If you had no EFI strings in /Library, then you have a different situation.

 

HamNCheese, can you confirm that you are using an HDMI device plugged into an HDMI port on a 9800GT? If so, what method are you using (efi strings? roms? dsdt?) and are you on 10.6.3?

 

I am using a dual DVI card with 1 DVI display and 1 HDMI display via a DVI to HDMI cable. I have no EFI strings at the moment, I do have a DSDT for my motherboard (P55-UD3R - courtesy of tonymacx86)

 

I also would say you are incorrect about /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist - that file should never be touched when using a chameleon bootloader - EFIStudio output data should be placed in the /Extra/com.apple.boot.plist.

 

EFIStudio modified this some time ago. It was needed to get ethernet working (at that time.) I have since started using a PCI-e Broadcomm card with native support. This solution (/Extra plist modified with nvidia.rom from a MacPro 8800GT) did not work for me until I removed said strings from Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist.

 

If you are plugging a TV into a DVI port, either with DVI cable or DVI->HDMI adapter, then yes, you should be working - as has been posted here, the lockup issue is only happening with HDMI *ports* and is presumed to be related to HDCP. I have another 9800GT card with Dual DVI ports, and yes, I can get it working fine too - but I really want to use my Silent Cell fanless card, and it only has one DVI port...

 

Not true at all. My machine was locking up with DVI -> HDMI. I suspect (having read this and several other threads) that others are experiencing the same probelm. Yes, this is an HDCP problem, but no, it's not particular to HDMI -> HDMI.

 

DVI is forwards compatible with HDMI. The only real difference is audio plus HDCP being ratified into 100% of HDMI equipped devices. Many DVI devices these days also support HDCP.

 

With DVI -> HDMI, HDCP comes into play if both sides (the card and the display) support it. HDMI -> HDMI is not the only requirement for a HDCP handshake to take place. If this were not the case, then how are windows users watching HDCP protected content on their DVI displays?

 

So, DVI -> HDMI or HDMI -> HDMI - in either case, the HDCP handshake seems to be the culprit. Perhaps there is another issue in your case? Maybe the 8800 rom doesn't work with HDMI outputs (seeing how there are no real macs with this port?)

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nullspot
nullspot
Posted
Posted
If you had no EFI strings in /Library, then you have a different situation.

I've never placed any EFI strings in /Library before... always used /Extra (I've never had EFIStudio automatically do it for me)

 

EFIStudio modified this some time ago. It was needed to get ethernet working (at that time.) I have since started using a PCI-e Broadcomm card with native support. This solution (/Extra plist modified with nvidia.rom from a MacPro 8800GT) did not work for me until I removed said strings from Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist.

Of course, if you have EFI strings *anywhere*, including /L/P/SC, you should remove them. I'm assuming that you did get the .rom method to work after that? so no lockups when you connected your DVI->HDMI adapter?

 

Not true at all. My machine was locking up with DVI -> HDMI. I suspect (having read this and several other threads) that others are experiencing the same probelm. Yes, this is an HDCP problem, but not, it's not particular to HDMI -> HDMI.

Sorry, I was taking for granted the .rom method solving at least the DVI->HDMI issue (as I was past that and trying to get the HDMI port to work). Yes, absent the {censored} 8800 .rom file, you would get a lockup even with DVI.

 

So, DVI -> HDMI or HDMI -> HDMI - in either case, the HDCP handshake seems to be the culprit. Perhaps there is another issue in your case? Maybe the 8800 rom doesn't work with HDMI outputs (seeing how there are no real macs with this port?)

 

Yes, the handshake is the culprit. And yes, the 8800 rom is problematic as no real macs have this port (among other things - it spawns a phantom VGA display and chameleon reports its size as too big (>64k) and truncates it, doing who knows what damage)

 

HOWEVER,

 

What drives me nuts is that my 9800GT card was working just fine in 10.6.0! HDMI port direct, adapters, whatever, the HDMI device works flawlessly with no special .rom hacks, EFI Strings, just the GraphicsEnabler=Yes.

 

So it can't just be that no real macs have HDMI - it's that somewhere between 10.6.0 and 10.6.3 the drivers got changed and HDCP suddenly became an issue (maybe it wasn't being activated before? maybe something changed in how it was implemented?)

 

Others have posted earlier that simply restoring the kexts from 10.6.1 or 10.6.2 didn't solve the problem, or resulted in KP's, etc. Yet I can't help but think that the key bit of info we're missing in all this talk of .roms and strings and DSDT's is that the change is hidden somewhere in that OS upgrade. None of these hacks were necessary. Granted, I'd like a hack solution that keeps the OS vanilla and protects against future 10.6 updates...

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el_charlie
el_charlie
Posted
Posted

Well, my 8800GT works even without injecting the bios. I triplechecked on my backup installation bootloader the absense of the bios and I upgraded from 10.6.0 to 10.6.3 and still works. I checked also that I was booting from the hard drive that doesn't have the bios inyection, just GraphicsEnabler.

 

I also don't touch my installation and EVERYTHING is on the EFI partition. Well, almost everything because I now have 10.6.2 AppleHDA on S/L/E because the new one kill my audio.

 

When I get home I will upload my DSDT to check why my system works fine.

 

Greetings from Venezuela.

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will1384
will1384
Posted
Posted
You're saying that when you plug your monitor the system locks up.

 

Yep

 

Have you tried booting the OS with the monitor attached and turned on.

 

Yep, the system locks up before it reaches the desktop, BTW my Dads

Hackintosh was working with this same HDTV before the 10.6.3 update, and

it did not matter when the HDTV was plugged in, it just worked, also

my gaming system with Windows 7, I can unplug and replug the monitor

and any time with no trouble

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will1384
will1384
Posted
Posted
I used kakewalk method as well, but you could perhaps help me, What exactly is my boot.plist suppose to look like? and which one? the one in the /Extra folder? or the /Library/Preference/systemconfig?

 

In the /Extra folder

 

Mine looks like this with the extra stuff to load the ROM

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>5</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>arch=i386 -v</string>
<key>EthernetBuiltIn</key>
<string>y</string>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1024x768x32</string>
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>y</string>
<key>UseNvidiaROM</key>
<string>yes</string>
<key>VBIOS</key>
<string>yes</string>
</dict>
</plist>

 

And without the extra stuff to load the ROM

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Kernel</key>
<string>mach_kernel</string>
<key>Timeout</key>
<string>5</string>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>arch=i386 -v</string>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1024x768x32</string>
<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>
<string>y</string>
</dict>
</plist>

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nullspot
nullspot
Posted
Posted

Just a FYI -

 

though we keep describing the HDMI problem as a "lockup", it's important to note that the OS itself is not frozen. You can easily SSH in and "sudo reboot" (better than hitting the reset switch). What is "frozen" is the screen - which can either be simply blank, solid blue, or if you're "hot-plugging" the HDMI, the existing screen just freezes where it is.

 

when you SSH in, you'll also notice that it's the WindowManager process that's going beserk...

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will1384
will1384
Posted
Posted

I just tried replacing the "WindowServer" file in

 

"/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Frameworks/CoreGraphics.framework/Resources/"

 

with the one from 10.6.0, and it still locks up, so its not just WindowServer" by its self

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Cheww
Cheww
Posted
Posted

Hi people,

 

I added the following lines to my boot.apple.com.plist file (in extra folder)

 

<key>GraphicsEnabler</key>

<string>yes</string>

<key>VideoROM</key>

<string>NVIDIA.rom</string>

<key>VBIOS</key>

<string>yes</string>

 

I downloaded that rom file from one of the posts (8800gt) on here and renamed it to NVIDIA.rom and put it in my extra folder

 

Graphics card i have is a gigabyte 9800gt I connect it via DVI > HDMI converter used a HDMI cable and connected it to my AOC HDMI port and it worked ..

 

I also tried it on my Soniq HDMI 42inch plasma and it displayed there too..

 

However i cant dual screen HDMI or run HDMI directly from the hdmi port.

 

At least i have clear HDMI display using the converter on my AOC screen before i was using VGA and it looked yuk..

 

I havent tried to boot directly from the native hdmi port yet i suppose i'll try that one day!

 

EDIT: I just tried to boot from the HDMI port natively thats on the 9800gt card and it didn't work.

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nullspot
nullspot
Posted
Posted
Graphics card i have is a gigabyte 9800gt I connect it via DVI > HDMI converter used a HDMI cable and connected it to my AOC HDMI port and it worked ..

 

However i cant dual screen HDMI or run HDMI directly from the hdmi port.

 

Yup - this all sounds familiar...

 

That's the best anyone's acheived so far...

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shremi
shremi
Posted
Posted

Apple has just released a new mac mini. It has a built in hdmi port.

 

I hope these may solve our problems.

 

Edit : Today there is also the release of 10.6.4 crossing fingers and hoping it solves our issues.

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shremi
shremi
Posted
Posted

Yeah also the update didn't work for me either.

 

Im just lucky that my monitor has all 3 ports , as well as my card .

 

So i guess i just will be stuck with dvi until i upgrade my card.

 

Edit: Has anyone tried regressing the graphics kexts to the ones from 10.6.1???

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will1384
will1384
Posted
Posted

Nope, no fix for me ether, but I did have some fun with SleepEnabler giving me

a kernel panic, funny part is I dont use it, was installed by accident when I

reinstalled myHack to so I would have a new-er version of the boot loader

for that Video ROM file, LOL

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shremi
shremi
Posted
Posted
I thought about it, but since it didn't work for 10.6.3, I figured it wouldn't for 10.6.4. Love it if someone could prove me wrong.

 

If you provide me the kexts from 10.6.1 i will give it a try and let you know.

 

I have a specific partition for testing so i wont mess up my working hack.

 

Also i saw a specific update for the new mac mini in wich i quote :

 

`Resolves compatibility and performance-related graphics issues`

 

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1054

 

I for sure know that that update will break my install but i am interested in extracting some kexts. for us to try, any ideas on how to proceed??

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el_charlie
el_charlie
Posted
Posted

I've updated to 10.6.4 yesterday but I haven't tried any games yet. I only had to use again the AppleHDA.kext from 10.6.2.

 

When I get home later I will try Portal, Modern Warfare and BioShock.

 

Cheers!

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germanicus
germanicus
Posted
Posted

hello guys.

 

i figured out, that if you use vga-output (at least) on some nvidia cards the first display of the computer is the hdmi/dvi output. so if you (after os x installation) first boot in wrong resolution and change your display resolution you will get a light blue screen without anything (no dock, no icons). you might think this is a hanger or something but if you short press the power button of your hackmac two times with a little pause (first to sleep and second to wake up), you will see that your display comes back on the new monitor. in my case i bought a little vga/dvi adaptor to fit the vga-cable to the dvi port on the nvidia and all went good.

 

think this is worth mentioning and maybe will help someone.

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