MP 1,1-5,1 MacPro 5,1 New SSD=Prohibited Sign Can't Install OS

[sinthetic]

Hello all, looking for some help as I am at my wits end. I have attached a screenshot of my system specs and my GPU. So to start, I had 3 SSD's and one regular HD (no OS on it) that I removed and replaced with another new SSD. My HighSierra is installed on Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB, I also have an OWC Mercury Electra 250GB with Bootcamp running Win10. I also have a Samsung 860 EVO 1TB for files and just installed a Samsung 860 QVO 1TB (this is the problem drive) that I wanted to install Mojave on.

I have tried to install Mojave and then High Sierra when Mojave didn't work, both show the Prohibited Sign after acting like it's installing the OS. When I first installed the 860 QVO I formatted it as APFS (tried Mac OS Extended Journaled too) and when I booted off my Mojave flash drive installer, it said I need a firmware update witch I performed successfully as far as following the basic directions. After the restart I again tried to install Mojave and it said I needed to to perform a firmware update (again?!?) I did it again, same as before and after restarting tried to install Mojave and it gets to the install stage then stops and the sign shows up.

Some odd behavior I immediately noticed after this were my Firefox browser was glitching out (never seen this before) when I moved my mouse over the top tabs, the tabs would starting blinking and distorting. I thought this was odd, but tried to install Mojave again regardless of this odd behavior. The second time it failed to install I looked at my GPU to re-verify I have a metal supported card. I do, I have a Mac flashed AMD Radeon R9 280X and as you will see in the screenshot, it says "Metal: Supported". What was even more crazy was at that moment, it actually REMOVED the entire Metal line, just nothing there anymore, gone!?!?! I thought crap, the firmware updated must have screwed with my GPU or something.

I did a 5 tone reset on my NVRAM and that eventually brought the Metal Supported line back and no more glitchy Firefox tabs. However, now my entire new SSD drive disappeared from not only my desktop but from Disk Utilities as well, just gone as though it was never there!?!?!

At this point I had already been scouring the internet for these issues, and %80 of the prohibited sign seemed to be MacBook related (bad cable quite often) and not MacPro and nothing seemed to help in my case. I'm now going crazy and don't know what else to do.

Things I have tried are:

1.Remove the drive and put it in a different slot (currently in slot 2, 1 is HighSierra SSD, 3 Bootcamp SSD, 4 SSD for files) which didn't help but after several NVRAM restarts, it showed again on the desktop and Disk Utilities.
2. Try to install Mojave from my applications folder where the full installer still resides, same result as flash drive.
3. Downloaded High Sierra installer and tried to install from my applications folder, now THAT is giving me the prohibited sign too!?!?!
4. Booting in Safe Mode and trying to install, same result.
5. Tried booting into Recovery Mode, which I can but then my new SSD was once again gone from the list.
6. Punched myself in the face several times, saw stars for a second, but still couldn't install an OS on this damn SSD.

Is it something obvious I am missing, please say yes!?!? I found an article that suggested I start deleting some files via the Terminal, but I thought that sounds a little sketchy and wasn't entirely sure how to.

I did also install 64 GB of ram, when I installed the new SSD, but that hasn't been an issue at all as far as I can tell.

Lastly, I ordered an "Apple EFI AMD RX580 8GB Sapphire Pulse" from MacVidCards that will be here tomorrow and I plan on installing that to see what happens. But, I was hoping to have Mojave already installed on the new SSD to go with the new GPU.

Sorry for the book I just wrote, I just really have no idea what else to do and could use some advice from more experienced users. Thank you

TLDR: Bought new SSD, can't install HighSierra or Mojave on it even though I have a Metal supported GPU.

 

[Soba]

Hello all, looking for some help as I am at my wits end. I have attached a screenshot of my system specs and my GPU. So to start, I had 3 SSD's and one regular HD (no OS on it) that I removed and replaced with another new SSD. My HighSierra is installed on Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB, I also have an OWC Mercury Electra 250GB with Bootcamp running Win10. I also have a Samsung 860 EVO 1TB for files and just installed a Samsung 860 QVO 1TB (this is the problem drive) that I wanted to install Mojave on.

I have tried to install Mojave and then High Sierra when Mojave didn't work, both show the Prohibited Sign after acting like it's installing the OS. When I first installed the 860 QVO I formatted it as APFS (tried Mac OS Extended Journaled too) and when I booted off my Mojave flash drive installer, it said I need a firmware update witch I performed successfully as far as following the basic directions. After the restart I again tried to install Mojave and it said I needed to to perform a firmware update (again?!?) I did it again, same as before and after restarting tried to install Mojave and it gets to the install stage then stops and the sign shows up.

Some odd behavior I immediately noticed after this were my Firefox browser was glitching out (never seen this before) when I moved my mouse over the top tabs, the tabs would starting blinking and distorting. I thought this was odd, but tried to install Mojave again regardless of this odd behavior. The second time it failed to install I looked at my GPU to re-verify I have a metal supported card. I do, I have a Mac flashed AMD Radeon R9 280X and as you will see in the screenshot, it says "Metal: Supported". What was even more crazy was at that moment, it actually REMOVED the entire Metal line, just nothing there anymore, gone!?!?! I thought crap, the firmware updated must have screwed with my GPU or something.

I did a 5 tone reset on my NVRAM and that eventually brought the Metal Supported line back and no more glitchy Firefox tabs. However, now my entire new SSD drive disappeared from not only my desktop but from Disk Utilities as well, just gone as though it was never there!?!?!

At this point I had already been scouring the internet for these issues, and %80 of the prohibited sign seemed to be MacBook related (bad cable quite often) and not MacPro and nothing seemed to help in my case. I'm now going crazy and don't know what else to do.

Things I have tried are:

1.Remove the drive and put it in a different slot (currently in slot 2, 1 is HighSierra SSD, 3 Bootcamp SSD, 4 SSD for files) which didn't help but after several NVRAM restarts, it showed again on the desktop and Disk Utilities.
2. Try to install Mojave from my applications folder where the full installer still resides, same result as flash drive.
3. Downloaded High Sierra installer and tried to install from my applications folder, now THAT is giving me the prohibited sign too!?!?!
4. Booting in Safe Mode and trying to install, same result.
5. Tried booting into Recovery Mode, which I can but then my new SSD was once again gone from the list.
6. Punched myself in the face several times, saw stars for a second, but still couldn't install an OS on this damn SSD.

Is it something obvious I am missing, please say yes!?!? I found an article that suggested I start deleting some files via the Terminal, but I thought that sounds a little sketchy and wasn't entirely sure how to.

I did also install 64 GB of ram, when I installed the new SSD, but that hasn't been an issue at all as far as I can tell.

Lastly, I ordered an "Apple EFI AMD RX580 8GB Sapphire Pulse" from MacVidCards that will be here tomorrow and I plan on installing that to see what happens. But, I was hoping to have Mojave already installed on the new SSD to go with the new GPU.

Sorry for the book I just wrote, I just really have no idea what else to do and could use some advice from more experienced users. Thank you

TLDR: Bought new SSD, can't install HighSierra or Mojave on it even though I have a Metal supported GPU.

From your description of repeated upgrade prompts, I have a hunch the BootROM/firmware upgrade of your Mac did not succeed. Not knowing the age of the existing BootROM in your system, all bets are off as to the behavior you will see. So, let's start with that.

What is the version of your BootROM? You can find this in System Information > Hardware (at the very top).

If it is not 144.0.0.0.0, then the BootROM update that comes with Mojave did not succeed. It is is also not MP51.0089.B00, then you do not even have the latest High Sierra BootROM, which you will need to install first before installing 144.0.0.0.0.

Follow the instructions in the first post of this thread to upgrade your BootROM and see if that helps with your problem. (Please follow the steps exactly; it's not nearly as bad as it looks!)

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-bootrom-upgrade-instructions-thread.2142418/

Note that you don't need to run through the complete OS install to update the BootROM. After the BootROM update is done, the installer will run, but you can just quit the installer and reboot.

Since you already have Windows 10 on your system, I also recommend booting into Windows and running Samsung Magician to make sure you have the latest firmware on all of your Samsung SSDs. Please back up your data before upgrading drive firmware. There is usually no problem with firmware updates, but it is possible for a firmware update to blank the drive. (For the record, I have never actually seen this occur.)

Report back and let us know how it goes.

 

[sinthetic]

Hello Soba,

Thank you so much for offering to help me out on this. I just checked my BootRom and it is 144.0.0.0.0

Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro5,1
Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3.33 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 6
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 12 MB
Memory: 64 GB
Boot ROM Version: 144.0.0.0.0
SMC Version (system): 1.39f11
SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f11

Have you ever heard of anyone getting the prompt to update firmware back to back? That really worried me at first, but I thought it is a very simple process to follow along and let it do its thing.

Also, is it possible that even though the system states it is the latest BootRom version, it actually isn't? e.g. it didn't truly take and hence the double firmware request?

I tried removing all other SSD's except the new one and booted up, with Option Key. I saw "Install macOS" and then my flash drive with "Install macOS Mojave". This time I chose the first option, HighSierra and started installing, said it would take 11 minutes. I thought removing the drives did it!!! But, after the 11 minutes it stopped and showed the prohibited sign. I am mentally burnt, but will put my other drives back in and boot to Windows 10, but I am not sure how to get the software you mention I thought it would have been removed from the formatting process? I will search how to get the Samsung Magician and try updating their firmware. Again, thank you very much!

-Sinthetic

From your description of repeated upgrade prompts, I have a hunch the BootROM/firmware upgrade of your Mac did not succeed. Not knowing the age of the existing BootROM in your system, all bets are off as to the behavior you will see. So, let's start with that.

What is the version of your BootROM? You can find this in System Information > Hardware (at the very top).

If it is not 144.0.0.0.0, then the BootROM update that comes with Mojave did not succeed. It is is also not MP51.0089.B00, then you do not even have the latest High Sierra BootROM, which you will need to install first before installing 144.0.0.0.0.

Follow the instructions in the first post of this thread to upgrade your BootROM and see if that helps with your problem. (Please follow the steps exactly; it's not nearly as bad as it looks!)

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-bootrom-upgrade-instructions-thread.2142418/

Note that you don't need to run through the complete OS install to update the BootROM. After the BootROM update is done, the installer will run, but you can just quit the installer and reboot.

Since you already have Windows 10 on your system, I also recommend booting into Windows and running Samsung Magician to make sure you have the latest firmware on all of your Samsung SSDs. Please back up your data before upgrading drive firmware. There is usually no problem with firmware updates, but it is possible for a firmware update to blank the drive. (For the record, I have never actually seen this occur.)

Report back and let us know how it goes.

 

[Soba]

Hello Soba,

Thank you so much for offering to help me out on this. I just checked my BootRom and it is 144.0.0.0.0

Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro5,1
Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3.33 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 6
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 12 MB
Memory: 64 GB
Boot ROM Version: 144.0.0.0.0
SMC Version (system): 1.39f11
SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f11

Have you ever heard of anyone getting the prompt to update firmware back to back? That really worried me at first, but I thought it is a very simple process to follow along and let it do its thing.

Also, is it possible that even though the system states it is the latest BootRom version, it actually isn't? e.g. it didn't truly take and hence the double firmware request?

I tried removing all other SSD's except the new one and booted up, with Option Key. I saw "Install macOS" and then my flash drive with "Install macOS Mojave". This time I chose the first option, HighSierra and started installing, said it would take 11 minutes. I thought removing the drives did it!!! But, after the 11 minutes it stopped and showed the prohibited sign. I am mentally burnt, but will put my other drives back in and boot to Windows 10, but I am not sure how to get the software you mention I thought it would have been removed from the formatting process? I will search how to get the Samsung Magician and try updating their firmware. Again, thank you very much!

-Sinthetic

I'm glad the BootROM update eventually worked. If it is showing 144, then you should be fine. Multiple prompts are not unheard of if the first attempt failed and there are any number of reasons (most innocuous) that the update would fail. Yours succeeded at some point, so you are good.

It is possible you simply have a bad drive, or for some reason your new RAM is causing you trouble. For the sake of troubleshooting the drive issue, remove your new RAM and put the old RAM back in, then see if the system behaves any better. (Also, what RAM did you purchase and from where?) I doubt your problem is related to the RAM, but it's easier to troubleshoot with one change at a time.

Samsung Magician can be downloaded here (it is for Windows, only) :

https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/magician/

You said that you tried rebooting with only the new drive and your USB Mojave installer flash drive attached. If this is so, I do not understand where you were running the High Sierra installer from, unless you were booting into the recovery partition. Can you verify?

I am also curious how you created the flash drive installers that you've been using.

 

[sinthetic]

Ok, this is just annoying. So, I read that I can download the Samsung software from the the link on the box my drive came in (thank you for the direct link as well). I put all drives in and removed my USB 3 card from slot 3 (no idea why, just figured try it) and when I booted up....I SAW MY NEW DRIVE (MacSSD2) AS A BOOTABLE DRIVE?!?!? I thought what the hell, lets click it and see what happens...HighSierra HAD installed?!?! WTF?!?

So, I tried upgrading to Mojave, not a fresh install, no go it pretended and started the install, then just stopped and showed the sign. So, I restarted, booted into Windows and updated all the Samsung drives. Now I think I should try and upgrade my new MacSSD2 to Mojave from my original/current HighSierra and see what happens, though I doubt I will see anything different.

I bought the ram from OWC/Macsales and am fairly confident that it is not a ram issue, and more importantly can't put in the old ram as I used it as a rebate trade in. I do have another MacPro 1,1 I could possibly grab the ram from (don't remember if it is compatible?), but I really don't think that would be the issue (but will if you think I really should). I am going to try the upgrade and see what happens.

Please let me know if you have any other ideas based on what I am now seeing. Much appreciate Soba!

-Sinthetic

 

[Soba]

Ok, this is just annoying. So, I read that I can download the Samsung software from the the link on the box my drive came in (thank you for the direct link as well). I put all drives in and removed my USB 3 card from slot 3 (no idea why, just figured try it) and when I booted up....I SAW MY NEW DRIVE (MacSSD2) AS A BOOTABLE DRIVE?!?!? I thought what the hell, lets click it and see what happens...HighSierra HAD installed?!?! WTF?!?

So, I tried upgrading to Mojave, not a fresh install, no go it pretended and started the install, then just stopped and showed the sign. So, I restarted, booted into Windows and updated all the Samsung drives. Now I think I should try and upgrade my new MacSSD2 to Mojave from my original/current HighSierra and see what happens, though I doubt I will see anything different.

I bought the ram from OWC/Macsales and am fairly confident that it is not a ram issue, and more importantly can't put in the old ram as I used it as a rebate trade in. I do have another MacPro 1,1 I could possibly grab the ram from (don't remember if it is compatible?), but I really don't think that would be the issue (but will if you think I really should). I am going to try the upgrade and see what happens.

Please let me know if you have any other ideas based on what I am now seeing. Much appreciate Soba!

-Sinthetic

At this point, I would not trust anything that's on the new drive. So, let's try totally wiping the new drive and removing any other possible causes of trouble from your Mac.

I suggest the following to create a really clean, known baseline for figuring out what's up:

1) Boot into any working version of macOS, erase your USB Mojave installer with Disk Utility, and format the USB drive as HFS+.

2) Delete the file Install macOS Mojave.app from your Applications folder and then empty your trash. This file must also not be located on any other drive that is attached to the Mac. If this file does not exist, go to step 3.

3) Re-download Mojave from the App Store using the "Get macOS Mojave" link from Step 4 on this page: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210190

4) After Mojave finishes downloading, create a fresh USB Mojave installer using Apple's instructions: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

5) After you have a fresh USB Mojave installer ready to go, shut down the Mac and remove all cards from the system except for your graphics card.

6) Remove all drives from your Mac except for the new SSD and the USB installer. Also disconnect everything that is attached to the Mac except your keyboard, mouse, and display.

7) Start the Mac. When you hear the startup chime, hold the Option key to access the Startup Manager and select the USB Mojave installer drive (but don't install yet).

8) After the installer loads, open Disk Utility.

9) Select your new SSD (be certain you are selecting the new SSD and not your USB installer drive) in the left column of the Disk Utility window and look at the "Device" line that appears at the lower right of the window. It will say something like disk1s4 or disk6s1, and so on. (The numbers on your system will be different.) Write down the disk# part; the # is what's important and you can ignore the s# at the end.

10) Close Disk Utility and open Terminal from the Utilities menu.

11) As I said above, ALL drives must be removed from your system. Do not perform this step if any drives are connected to your Mac other than the new SSD and your USB installer. You are about to destroy everything on the drive. Type the following into Terminal:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk#

where disk# matches what you wrote down from step 9. Stop the program at any time (it only needs to run for a second or two; longer won't make any difference) by hitting Ctrl+C.

12) Close Terminal and reopen Disk Utility. It should show your SSD with no partitions on it.

13) Erase your SSD and use APFS as the format (NOT encrypted or case-sensitive). If at some point you are asked what partition scheme you want to use, be sure to choose GUID.

14) Close Disk Utility.

15) Quit the installer and reboot, then boot back into the installer using Startup Manager, as before. (This reboot is probably not needed, but do it just out of an abundance of caution.)

16) Install Mojave normally to your new SSD.

17) Do not add any cards or drives back to your system yet. See if the system boots normally, try to update Mojave using System Preferences > Software Update, power down and reboot several times, and so on, to see if the system behaves properly.

If the system seems to be working normally, try adding your other hardware back into the system, then see what happens. Let us know how that goes or if you get stuck on any of these steps.

 

[sinthetic]

It seems to just keep getting worse. The upgrade attempt didn't work, same thing, started then the sign. So when I went to do a shut down instead of holding option, I just booted up sans key command. It immediately went into a "installing...33mins". I thought, wtf again...is it installing/updating to Mojave finally? 33 minutes later and it is back to the prohibited sign, but guess what? Now, when I boot to that drive it goes right to the prohibited sign, now HighSierra is gone too!

F@CK! This machine is just not Mojave compatible! Do you think the new GPU should/would have any difference with the install? I'm starting to wonder if its the damn installer itself? I got it from App store, everything is legit, no patches or anything. Will have the new GPU tomorrow after I get home from work and I will install it and hope to hell it makes a difference. If not, I will have to give up, this is just far too frustrating for something that should be straight forward and fairly simple.

-Sinthetic
[automerge]1575609154[/automerge]
Wow, thank you SO MUCH for this very detailed instruction list. I will do this first thing when I get home from work tomorrow BEFORE I install the new GPU. I would really like to get this figured out.

I can't thank you enough for the help! I will delete the USB flash drive and download Mojave again (after checking it isn't on any other drives) in preparation for tomorrow. I will be sure to have all drives removed and any other peripherals.

Again, thank you VERY much for your help Soba!!!!

-Sinthetic

At this point, I would not trust anything that's on the new drive. So, let's try totally wiping the new drive and removing any other possible causes of trouble from your Mac.

I suggest the following to create a really clean, known baseline for figuring out what's up:

1) Boot into any working version of macOS, erase your USB Mojave installer with Disk Utility, and format the USB drive as HFS+.

2) Delete the file Install macOS Mojave.app from your Applications folder and then empty your trash. This file must also not be located on any other drive that is attached to the Mac. If this file does not exist, go to step 3.

3) Re-download Mojave from the App Store using the "Get macOS Mojave" link from Step 4 on this page: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210190

4) After Mojave finishes downloading, create a fresh USB Mojave installer using Apple's instructions: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

5) After you have a fresh USB Mojave installer ready to go, shut down the Mac and remove all cards from the system except for your graphics card.

6) Remove all drives from your Mac except for the new SSD and the USB installer. Also disconnect everything that is attached to the Mac except your keyboard and mouse.

7) Start the Mac. When you hear the startup chime, hold the Option key to access the Startup Manager and select the USB Mojave installer drive (but don't install yet).

8) After the installer loads, open Disk Utility.

9) Select your new SSD (be certain you are selecting the new SSD and not your USB installer drive) in the left column of the Disk Utility window and look at the "Device" line that appears at the lower right of the window. It will say something like disk1s4 or disk6s1, and so on. (The numbers on your system will be different.) Write down the disk# part; the # is what's important and you can forget the s# at the end.

10) Close Disk Utility and open Terminal from the Utilities menu.

11) As I said above, ALL drives must be removed from your system. Do not perform this step if any drives are connected to your Mac other than the new SSD. You are about to destroy everything on the drive. Type the following into Terminal:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk#

where disk# matches what you wrote down from step 9. Stop the program at any time (you only need a second or two; longer won't make any difference) by typing Ctrl+C.

12) Close Terminal and reopen Disk Utility. It should show your SSD with no partitions on it.

13) Erase your SSD and use APFS as the format (NOT encrypted or case-sensitive).

14) Close Disk Utility.

15) Quit the installer and reboot, then boot back into the installer using Startup Manager, as before. (This reboot is probably not needed, but do it just out of an abundance of caution.)

16) Install Mojave normally to your new SSD.

17) Do not add any cards or drives back to your system yet. See if the system boots normally, try to update Mojave using System Preferences > Software Update, power down and reboot several times, and so on, to see if the system behaves properly.

If the system seems to be working normally, try adding your other hardware back into the system, then see what happens. Let us know how that goes or if you get stuck on any of these steps.

 

[Soba]

Wow, thank you SO MUCH for this very detailed instruction list. I will do this first thing when I get home from work tomorrow BEFORE I install the new GPU. I would really like to get this figured out.

I can't thank you enough for the help! I will delete the USB flash drive and download Mojave again (after checking it isn't on any other drives) in preparation for tomorrow. I will be sure to have all drives removed and any other peripherals.

Again, thank you VERY much for your help Soba!!!!

-Sinthetic

You're welcome! You might have a hardware problem/incompatibility somewhere, or it might just be a faulty SSD, but the procedure I wrote up is intended to try to confirm/isolate whatever is happening so we have more information to go on.

Your machine should run Mojave without jumping through all of these hoops (it is fully supported by Apple on your model Mac), so let's see if it works with a really bare bones configuration like I described.

And yes, hold off on installing the new graphics card for now.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[sinthetic]

You're welcome! You might have a hardware problem/incompatibility somewhere, or it might just be a faulty SSD, but the procedure I wrote up is intended to try to confirm/isolate whatever is happening so we have more information to go on.

Your machine should run Mojave without jumping through all of these hoops (it is fully supported by Apple on your model Mac), so let's see if it works with a really bare bones configuration like I described.

And yes, hold off on installing the new graphics card for now.

Let us know how it goes.

Well, I decided to give it one more go before crashing out tonight. I followed your excellent instructions to the letter. Everything worked correctly until I got to the installation of Mojave. After agreeing to the terms is asked which disk I wanted to install to....there wasn't a disk to be found. It was there previously in all the other steps it showed up just fine. Used terminal to remove any partitions, formatted as AFPS etc. My only guess now is the carrier (Newertech AdapterDrive) which is also new, or the SSD itself.

Tomorrow I will try swapping the carrier with one that I know works, the WIN10 and see if that makes any difference. If it doesn't, what else could it possibly be except for the SSD itself? I have never seen this happen and at my work they buy and use these same drives (except the "PRO" version) and don't ever seem to have an issue. But, you mentioned it could be a bad SSD, so...not sure what else it could be?

Thanks Soba, will try the carrier swap tomorrow and let you know what happens. I don't know if I'll be able to resist installing my new 8GB GPU. May just say screw the SSD for now and just do some test renders and modeling in Blender to see how the new RAM and GPU works.

Thank you!

-Sinthetic

 

[Soba]

Well, I decided to give it one more go before crashing out tonight. I followed your excellent instructions to the letter. Everything worked correctly until I got to the installation of Mojave. After agreeing to the terms is asked which disk I wanted to install to....there wasn't a disk to be found. It was there previously in all the other steps it showed up just fine. Used terminal to remove any partitions, formatted as AFPS etc. My only guess now is the carrier (Newertech AdapterDrive) which is also new, or the SSD itself.

Tomorrow I will try swapping the carrier with one that I know works, the WIN10 and see if that makes any difference. If it doesn't, what else could it possibly be except for the SSD itself? I have never seen this happen and at my work they buy and use these same drives (except the "PRO" version) and don't ever seem to have an issue. But, you mentioned it could be a bad SSD, so...not sure what else it could be?

Thanks Soba, will try the carrier swap tomorrow and let you know what happens. I don't know if I'll be able to resist installing my new 8GB GPU. May just say screw the SSD for now and just do some test renders and modeling in Blender to see how the new RAM and GPU works.

Thank you!

-Sinthetic

Almost certainly a faulty SSD or carrier, then. Try swapping carriers, as you said. Then restart the instructions I wrote beginning with Step 7 and give it a whirl.

If it still fails with the new carrier, and if you have any other drive you can spare (and that you don't mind wiping out), try swapping that in as the only drive in the system, then you can see if erasing the drive and installing Mojave works with that. Even an old spinning platter hard drive would be fine for testing purposes if you have no spare SSDs. If that works, then the new SSD is your culprit. Should be quite easy to send back and exchange for a working one, though.

 

[macguru9999]

The QVO drives are not compatible with the mac pro 5,1. I suggest you remove it and fit an EVO drive instead. They do work in newer imacs , but not in the 5,1s.

 

[Soba]

The QVO drives are not compatible with the mac pro 5,1. I suggest you remove it and fit an EVO drive instead. They do work in newer imacs , but not in the 5,1s.

D'oh, yes. There are threads on this board mentioning that the QVO doesn't work and I had seen them some time ago. ?‍♂️

@sinthetic Sorry about all the jumping through hoops. Erase your QVO and then exchange it for a different drive. The EVO's do work very well. On the plus side, you're well positioned to get up and running as soon as the new drive is in your hands.

 

[sinthetic]

D'oh, yes. There are threads on this board mentioning that the QVO doesn't work and I had seen them some time ago. ?‍♂️

@sinthetic Sorry about all the jumping through hoops. Erase your QVO and then exchange it for a different drive. The EVO's do work very well. On the plus side, you're well positioned to get up and running as soon as the new drive is in your hands.

The QVO drives are not compatible with the mac pro 5,1. I suggest you remove it and fit an EVO drive instead. They do work in newer imacs , but not in the 5,1s.

Wow, that is much better news than expected! I was fearing something hardware related on my end. Thank you very much macguru9999, your info is extremely helpful! I should have done a search for QVO. It didn't even dawn on me since I already have 2 variations of EVO Samsungs, never thought a specific version would be incompatible.

Soba, I really appreciate all you have done! And even better, I caught this message at 6am and ordered an EVO 860 which I already have, so I know it will work! And, it will be here today since you guys were able to help me solve the issue so fast! And, my new GPU is here, so woohoo!

Thanks again to both of you!

-Sinthetic

 

[sinthetic]

Just a final note. I have my new EVO 860 installed with Mojave running smoothly along with the new GPU and Ram. All looks to finally be good!

Thank you macguru9999 and Soba!

-Sinthetic

 

[flowrider]

Just to add, I'm using a QVO in a USB external enclosure on my 5,1 for miscellanies crap. No OS on it. Works fine. My 7 internal SSDs are 2 NVME 970 Pros on an /O Crest., 1 AHCI SM951 on an Angelbird, and 4 840 EVOs on the HDD sleds.

Lou

 

[DPUser]

Hadn't previously heard about the QVO incompatibility; good to know, although I cannot see a compelling reason to go with a QVO regardless...

 

[smartin80]

Just a final note. I have my new EVO 860 installed with Mojave running smoothly along with the new GPU and Ram. All looks to finally be good!

Thank you macguru9999 and Soba!

-Sinthetic

Sinthetic,

I have exactly the same setup as you and have been knocking myself out against the Mojave install for three days now...

For the life of me I can't get an install to work on my Samsung 860 QVO. Could you confirm for me that the 860 EVO *will* work as a Mojave boot disk on a Mac Pro 5,1? (Same as yours with the Sapphire RX580 8gb vid card...)

I'm not clear if you're actually booting from that SSD...

Thanks

S

 

[KeesMacPro]

The QVO drives are not compatible with the mac pro 5,1. I suggest you remove it and fit an EVO drive instead. They do work in newer imacs , but not in the 5,1s.

@smartin80 :never had any issues with 860EVO in a cMP4,1>5,1...

 

[smartin80]

@smartin80 :never had any issues with 860EVO in a cMP4,1>5,1...

Thanks. I have ordered one
S

 

[smartin80]

The QVO drives are not compatible with the mac pro 5,1. I suggest you remove it and fit an EVO drive instead. They do work in newer imacs , but not in the 5,1s.

I can attest to this not being entirely true as I have happily been using the 860QVO as my High Sierra boot disk for almost a year now, in my 5,1. It must be the combination of Mojave and the 860QVO which won't mix.

I would regularly get the "Stop sign" on first boot but it would boot normally the second time. Even after I fitted the RX580 card, I would wait for the login after the black screen, if it took too long I would force a quit and it would boot the second time.

S

 

[KeesMacPro]

well, if you were happy pushing the power button, wait for the stop sign, force a quit and push the power button again that's perfect

 

[smartin80]

well, if you were happy pushing the power button, wait for the stop sign, force a quit and push the power button again that's perfect

Just saying they're not *entirely* incompatible. It's Mojave that's the real issue. Given I very rarely reboot my Mac, the double start was never a big thing...

S

 

[macguru9999]

I can attest to this not being entirely true as I have happily been using the 860QVO as my High Sierra boot disk for almost a year now, in my 5,1. It must be the combination of Mojave and the 860QVO which won't mix.

I would regularly get the "Stop sign" on first boot but it would boot normally the second time. Even after I fitted the RX580 card, I would wait for the login after the black screen, if it took too long I would force a quit and it would boot the second time.

S

You have pretty much confirmed what I said... I would not tolerate that when the simple fix is to use an evo drive and repurpose the qvo outside the 5,1. Each to his own.