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2015 13" Retina Macbook Pro eGPU on Win 10 - will not boot past spinning wheel!


99benns

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On 20 February 2016 at 3:18 PM, 99benns said:

 

Yes. I can also boot into windows with the GPU connected and the drivers uninstalled. The GPU appears in device manager as a GTX970 without drivers installed. As soon as I install the drivers and restart I can't boot.

 

I'm using the latest driver from NVIDIA, 361.91 15th Feb with Windows 10 (yesterday I tried 8.1, same problem)

If the GPU appears as a GTX970 “without drivers installed”, Windows has already downloaded them automatically, otherwise it would show as “basic display adapter”.

 

You have connected the eGPU to the second TB port in your picture. Connect the eGPU to the first TB port (closest to the MagSafe power port). When your MBP is in closed clamshell mode, this is the primary port where the firmware looks for active external display. This might have an effect on eGPU detection as well. If you didn’t try the -a mode and TB1 port combination, try it.

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1 hour ago, goalque said:

If the GPU appears as a GTX970 “without drivers installed”, Windows has already downloaded them automatically, otherwise it would show as “basic display adapter”.

Sorry my mistake, if I uninstall the NVIDIA drivers via programmes/features, it still appears as GTX970, but then if I right click here and select 'uninstall', it then appears as "Microsoft basic display adapter"

 

1 hour ago, goalque said:

You have connected the eGPU to the second TB port in your picture. Connect the eGPU to the first TB port

I've tried most tests with both. I normally use the TB port closest to the MagSafe

 

1 hour ago, goalque said:

If you didn’t try the -a mode and TB1 port combination, try it.

Yep I've tried this

Edited by 99benns
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What happens if you perform a clean installation in custom options of the Nvidia installer? Or just select the graphics driver component?

 

2015 Macs support TB hot plug in Windows, so did you try hot plugging the eGPU after you have Nvidia drivers installed, the computer is restarted, and you have logged in?

 

Sometimes nvlddmkm.sys causes problems, try renaming it or delete the file before installing Nvidia drivers.

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1 hour ago, goalque said:

What happens if you perform a clean installation in custom options of the Nvidia installer?

It'll often freeze during the uninstallation process. It has successfully uninstalled a couple of times and the result appeared to be the same as when I uninstalled it via the 'programs and features' window

 

1 hour ago, goalque said:

Or just select the graphics driver component?

I've tried uninstalling everything except just the driver component, no luck there

 

1 hour ago, goalque said:

2015 Macs support TB hot plug in Windows, so did you try hot plugging the eGPU after you have Nvidia drivers installed, the computer is restarted, and you have logged in?

Yes. In this case, the eGPU is detected in device manager without any warnings, but not by anything else (e.g. NVidia control panel, Windows display manager). There's no activity on the display and I also get some strange behaviour from windows: the explorer file browser will sometimes freeze, and if I try to restart the computer the restart screen will sometimes hang. 

 

1 hour ago, goalque said:

Sometimes nvlddmkm.sys causes problems, try renaming it or delete the file before installing Nvidia drivers.

I'll try this tonight

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1 hour ago, 99benns said:

I'll try this tonight

This will likely solve the freezing problem during the uninstallation when "perform a clean installation" is checked. When done, try the hot plugging route (wait for some 20 seconds after you have logged in).

 

For further troubleshooting, look into windows event logs and what GPU-Z says.

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Thanks for the pointers. Still no joy.

 

8 hours ago, goalque said:

This will likely solve the freezing problem during the uninstallation when "perform a clean installation" is checked

Unfortunately it didn't

 

8 hours ago, goalque said:

For further troubleshooting, look into windows event logs and what GPU-Z says.

Any pointers as to where I could start with the logs? It's a big maze down there!

 

Here are the exact steps I just took:

start windows
hotplug eGPU
open GPU-Z and try to backup bios. GPU-Z freezes.
rename nvlddmkm.sys
run nvidia installer and select to perform clean install
installer freezes (dismal1.jpg)
wait 15 minutes
force power off
turn eGPU psu off and on again
windows boots
open nvidia installer
take screenshot (dismal2.jpg)
proceed with install
installer freezes (dismal3.jpg)

dismal.JPG

dismal2.JPG

dismal3.JPG

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A very tricky issue. Please don’t force power off. Open task manager and end the installer process.

 

Open event viewer->windows logs->system. Do you see any errors or event id 7045 row there when you hot plug the eGPU (when drivers successfully installed)? Close all the programs, including GPU-Z during the driver installation.

 

Can you try another GPU? GPU-Z doesn’t detect UEFI. I wonder why some BIOSes at techpowerup say that UEFI is not supported, even though Maxwell cards should have it.

This may be your card:

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/162438/zotac-gtx970-4096-140911.html (UEFI Supported: No)
https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/173740/zotac-gtx970-4096-150122.html (UEFI Supported: Yes)

 

We don’t know your BIOS version. The problem may be related to the card itself.

Edited by goalque
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3 hours ago, goalque said:

Please don’t force power off. Open task manager and end the installer process.

I killed the process with task manager, but I do eventually have to force power off as windows doesn't shut down or restart (infinite spinning wheel again!)

 

3 hours ago, goalque said:

Open event viewer->windows logs->system. Do you see any errors or event id 7045 row there when you hot plug the eGPU

No event logs appear when I hotplug the GPU, and there are no event ID 7045's, but the card appears in device manager when I hotplug it.

 

I do have a few of these errors however which seem to appear when I try to start with the eGPU connected or install the drivers (not 100% sure which)

ACPI event ID 13
: The embedded controller (EC) did not respond within the specified timeout period.....

 

3 hours ago, goalque said:

Can you try another GPU?

I don't have another to try unfortunately, that would be useful though

 

3 hours ago, goalque said:

We don’t know your BIOS version. The problem may be related to the card itself.

I was hopeful when you mentioned this, but I can see the BIOS ver when I boot into OSx and this is 84.04.36.00.6E (the UEFI version I suppose).

Edited by 99benns
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58 minutes ago, 99benns said:

No event logs appear when I hotplug the GPU, and there are no event ID 7045's, but the card appears in device manager when I hotplug it.

And this was done with successfully installed drivers? (if you manually managed in uninstalling the previous ones). That’s the first step. Whenever you restart the Mac, don’t keep eGPU connected.

 

Besides hot plugging, you should be able to unplug the eGPU without system crash since the latest Nvidia driver supports also “surprise removal”.

I’m afraid that I cannot help much more… the best bet is to try another GPU.

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Hi everyone, I finished the hardware setup today.

So I plugged it into my  laptop to install the drivers. After I finished installing the drivers, it made me do a restart. Windows keeps loading, but can't boot into the system.

But I can boot into Windows without drivers.

my windows is in uefi mode

what should I do?

Edited by TifosiRay
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Can you please try this booting procedure on every Windows boot:

- turn on MB

- press and hold ALT key

- wait for boot chime and boot selection

- wait for the WiFi search to be done

- now turn on the eGPU (power on), TB cable already connected

- wait 5-10sec

- boot into Windows

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1 hour ago, Dschijn said:

Can you please try this booting procedure on every Windows boot:

- turn on MB

- press and hold ALT key

- wait for boot chime and boot selection

- wait for the WiFi search to be done

- now turn on the eGPU (power on), TB cable already connected

- wait 5-10sec

- boot into Windows

I'll try that when I get home. Thanks a lot 

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6 hours ago, Dschijn said:

Can you please try this booting procedure on every Windows boot:

- turn on MB

- press and hold ALT key

- wait for boot chime and boot selection

- wait for the WiFi search to be done

- now turn on the eGPU (power on), TB cable already connected

- wait 5-10sec

- boot into Windows

It works when I'm using the external hard drive with win8.1 on it. But it doesn't work for internal ssd.

the screen freezed right after I turn on the egpu in your procedure.

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On February 26, 2016 at 1:56 PM, goalque said:

Those steps work with pre-2015 Macs, but likely gives ACPI_BIOS_ERROR BSOD with the latest line of Macs. 2015 13” MBP seem to show an infinite spinner…

I think I might have a solution to the start up. I turn on my egpu first, than turn on the MacBook. Before the circle start to spin, I plug in the thunderbolt. I successfully boot into the Windows, but this time I have a code 12 error. I read the whole thread about dsdt over riding. But I barely understand. Can someone help me with this?

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A quick update: I remembered that my Mac Mini had a TB1 socket so I tried it with this. Everything worked straight away. (The eGPU actually crashes after about 10 minutes when I have Rise of the Tomb raider in full screen, but this is a different matter for a different thread).

 

So I think it's safe to say the Enclosure/Cable/GPU are all fine. The next step will be to try it on my friends 2015 macbook pro with the same spec just to be 100% sure there's nothing on my HD which I may have missed...

 

I've tried every boot procedure possible over the past few weeks. I'm 99% sure this will not solve anything.

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So..just tried on a second Macbook Pro 2015. Fresh El Capitan install and Win10. Exactly the same problem.

 

-2 TB enclosures

-2 macbooks

-3 versions of windows

-3 versions of OSx

 

The Zotac GTX970 simply does not work with a 2015 13" Macbook pro!

 

The graphics card is fine, it works on Windows 10 with the Mac Mini and with OSx on the macbook. So frustrating :yawn:

Edited by 99benns
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  • 3 weeks later...

This exact same thing happened to me, it was a complete nightmare. I took all of the steps you took too. What finally worked for me was using display driver uninstaller and going in and uninstalling all of the drivers that Windows took upon itself to install and veery gently installing only exxxactly what I needed on 8.1 and upgrading to 10. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 2016. február 25. at 9:27 PM, TifosiRay said:

It works when I'm using the external hard drive with win8.1 on it. But it doesn't work for internal ssd.

the screen freezed right after I turn on the egpu in your procedure.

TifosiRay is right. With internal ssd, I did the following:

power up egpu but plugged off (from mac)

power up mac and hol the option key (alt)

when operating systems show up, plug in the thunderbolt

after 10-15 seconds choose windows and hit enter

for me now stand up the system

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I thought I'd give it another go tonight with the suggestions from @wmjnottriell:

 

-uninstalled nvidia drivers from program list

-uninstalled intel drivers from program list

-uninstalled intel display adapter from device manager

-disabled internet

-restarted computer

-installed nvidia drivers

-restarted computer

-it worked

-restarted again

-it didn't work (spinning wheel on startup)

 

Tried above steps again, but disabled the built in adapter completely, again it worked first time, restarted and it stopped working again.

Edited by 99benns
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  • 2 weeks later...

@Codeweaver No still no luck. However I did get it to work every time when booting windows from a USB3 hard disk (but then I encountered other Windows errors so this isn't really a solution). I'm hoping as more people buy the new Macbooks and realise they don't work, someone will find a solution.

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