White screen with EGPU only connected

@Mac Carlos

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250714657?answerId=251771630022#251771630022

...same Hardware here (Vega 56 + Razor Core X eGPU), but no Issues with Catalina upgrade: I did a clean install via USB Thumbdrive, Monitor was plugged in directly to the Mini, eGPU detached. Did a PRAM-Reset after installation, shut down the Mini, reconnected the eGPU with Monitor attached to it, no Problems so far.

This is a known and repeatedly reported issue which was sadly overlooked during the Catalina Betas by the Apple team. The issue is dubbed "white screen of death"

The problem mostly affects the 2018 Mac Mini running Catalina connected to a AMD Radeon RX570 or RX580 based eGPU.

The symptom is mostly a blank white screen (sometimes black or magenta) upon boot and excessive GPU heat which causes the GPU fans to spin to full speed after a while.

You have to do the following to live with the issue:

• When the white screen appears, turn off your eGPU for 5 seconds and then turn back on. The login screen should appear normally.
• Turn off "Start up automatically after a power failure" under Settings/Energy Saver
• Turn off "Install macOS updates" under Settings/Software Update/Advanced...

The last two actions are needed to prevent your Mac to boot to a white screen unattended causing your eGPU to overheat for extended periods of time (this might cause further hardware related problems).

See these discussions for more information:

https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/state-of-egpu-for-macs-catalina-10-15-update

https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/macos-catalina-tidbits-egpu-updates/paged/2/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/catalina-egpu.2193797/page-4?post=27853347#post-27853347

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-mini-2018-hot-egpu-fan-full-throttle-after-upgrading.2204860/

https://www.reddit.com/r/eGPU/comments/dex36o/egfx_breakaway_box_550_amd_580_catalina_troubles/

Same issue with RX560 in Breakaway Box running Mojave on 2018 Mini. Problem started after latest security update.

I have a second monitor connected to the HDMI port - that does not avoid the problem if eGPU is powered. The workaround I use is:

1. Boot with eGPU powered off with second monitor on HDMI
2. After login complete, I turn on eGPU then move second monitor to eGPU. Both monitors behave normally

I am running FileVault so I have my second monitor on an HDMI switch that allows me to trivially move the second monitor between Mac HDMI and RX560.

eGPU

New Features

• Support has been added for the AMD Navi RDNA architecture. For more information see Use an external graphics processor with your Mac.

Same problem with me too. RX580 + eGFX Breakaway Box 550 on 2018 Mac Mini. I have to power cycle the eGPU box then I see the logon screen. I know at least a dozen other people with the exact same problem. Seems to be 570's and 580's that are having these issues.

Exact same problem, hardware and “solution”. Radeon rx580 and sonnet box. I have found an online forum that has talked about this issue through multiple beta versions ... so it’s been known for a long time but not addressed (or resolved at least) by Apple before the official release.

I just called Apple Support regarding this issue (Sonnet Breakaway 550, Radeon RX 580). The rep couldn't find any information about the issue on their boards, so she talked with a senior supervisor. After that, the rep told me they were surprised it was working with Mojave because "the website" said it was only supported through High Sierra. I'm not sure what "the website" is because Sonnet's website clearly says Mojave (10.14), which makes me think they didn't really dive into the issue. They said I should contact Sonnet to see if there is an updated driver.

In other words, Apple said it wasn't their problem.

My suggestion is to call Apple Support. If they get enough calls, someone may actually look at the problem.

I've been in touch with Sonnet and they were able to narrow down the issue to a driver. It looks like a place holder has been set in the PCI section instead of the native AMD driver. So this isn't a systemic issue it seems, but it may be still be fixable by Apple if they cared enough to address it. If reinstalling doesn't work then it may be a hardware problem where the PCI isn't being detected properly.

There is no official way of installing drivers as they are included in the Apple OS. However, it's likely that a driver could be installed manually using an "unsupported" driver insertion (kext). Sonnet recommended backing up to Time Machine and reinstalling from scratch or downgrading back to Mojave. I'm going to resintall this weekend and report back.

One guy at egpu.io tried to revert to Mojave but he now has a black screen of death problem upon boot.

The issue seems to be related to a Mac Mini 2018 firmware update which runs during Catalina upgrade. This firmware update enables boot screen during boot (this is why you see the Apple logo during boot instead of just a blank screen as it was the case before), but somehow interacts badly when the Operating System's Radeon Polaris drivers (which supports the RX560/570/580 cards) fires up. The problem is not eniterly universal as there are Polaris based products which work fine.

Since the system firmware remains updated even if you revert to Mojave, you might still encounter problems.

For more info about the firmware update and the newly added eGPU boot screen support, see this discussion:

https://egpu.io/forums/mac-setup/mac-mini-2018-egpu-boot-screen-support

I have installed the Beta 10.15.1 Beta (19B68f), and I am still having the same issue, apple logo, black screen, sonnet 550 with AMD 580x goes full blast on, then calms down, and does nothing after that. I still have to shut off the EGPU for 5 seconds, and then turn it on, in order to work again.