White screen with EGPU only connected

I have a Mac mini 2018 + Sonnet egpu with rx570. It seems to reboot successfully most times as long as I have one monitor plugged directly into the Mac mini. I don’t use boot camp so can’t comment on the unfortunately.

it will not boot if both screens are connected to my egpu which is a shame.

but it’s a massive improvement from not booting at all with the egpu switched on for over 12 months.

Issue is fixed with beta 2 for me as well with my MacMini 2018 w/RX5700XT eGPU.

Just thought I'd add to this. I am using a HP Omen eGPU box and running the latest beta (to try and fix the white screen) and still having the same issue as everyone else. I am currently booting using the HDMI connected to the same monitor and then logging in (I found have to be logged in to switch) then remove the HDMI. My setup worked flawlessly in Mojave. I find it ironic that this firmware update designed to aid eGPU boots has actually broken so many working eGPU setups using RX580. Let us hope this is fixed in a beta (and then I am going back to Mojave as also removed SMB1 support that my NAS uses).

This is also a problem Sonnet Breakaway Boxes/Mac Mini/Catalina with Radeon RX 480. It appears that this is possibly a universal issue with Mac mini/Catalina and all egpu boxes. I read that "some high-end" Radeon video cards may work but I can't verify this.

I do know that many (if not all) of the Radeon video drivers are native to Mojave and Catalina so the eGPU manufacturers are unable to patch them. Even tho Apple shows certain configurations work with Catalina...they may not. Apple Engineering will need to provide a fix with an update to Catalina. Let's hope they will do so soon. I know a lot of unhappy people (some gamers and some advanced video users) who need their egpu/Radeon cards to work like they did with Mojave. Reverting back to Mojave from Catalina is a major pain and may cause other unintended consequences.

Even after the two "Updates" from Apple to the official Catalina release (Now October26,2019) I have the same issue with the Radeon RX580 in the Sonnet Breakaway Box presenting the "White Screen of death". Reported the problem to Apple this morning. No suggestions given. Workaround of cycling the power off/on on the Sonnet Breakaway box enables the EGPU. While this is a bit of a pain, I prefer it to having to have an additional monitor connected to the HDMI port, which does work too.

My situation was similar on a 2018 Mac mini with a Radeon RX580 in an OWC eGPU, which is listed among the supported devices on Apple's website. Upon update to Catalina, the eGPU was not recognized at all. This was true booting into Mac OS and Windows 10 via Bootcamp. I connected to external display via HDMI, which worked fine on integrated graphics. I tried several fixes until I found what worked: opening the eGPU case, unplugging the power directly to the graphics card, pressing the card to be sure it was seated, and re-inserting the power cables. When I put the system back in place, it worked the same as it did under Mojave. (It also worked again under Bootcamp like before.) I still have problems: upon first boot, the second monitor is not recognized in Mac OS X. I need to put the computer to sleep and then wake it in order to get the second display to work. Everything works flawlessly in Bootcamp running Windows 10. There is a bright red screen during the boot up sequence to Catalina, but the displays work thereafter.

Yes, but this wears out the fragile Thunderbolt connector. When shutting down the Mac, i also switch off the eGPU at the power supply. Then, when switching on the Mac, i wait for about 20 seconds and then switch on the eGPU. Works without unplugging something, but is still annoying...

I just leave the monitor off until the computer finishes booting and then turn it on. Works every time.

...10.15.3 seems to have fixed the problem, at least with my Vega 56 and the Razer Core X...

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.

@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.

Hey Yockster, do you have any idea when 10.15.4 will be released? Do you think that I will be able to skip 10.15.3 and go to .4 directly when it is released?

I am still on 10.15.2 and can work around the issue by waiting about 5 seconds after booting the Mini before I power up the EGPU. When I do this, I can log in normally. If I do a restart, I have to kill the power to the EGPU until I guess that it is past its initial boot sequence. I usually wait to hear my external back-up drive start to power up, then flick the power on on the EGPU.

I am sorry but the .4 beta still does not fix the issue in my case. :((

The latest update changed the bootrom to 1037.100.321.0.0 (iBridge: 17.16.14226.5.3,0)

Now there is no Apple logo during boot with eGPU - only a blank black screen (no more white screen of death though). The display does not go to sleep but the OS does not boot either. The GPU fans now don't rev up which is an improvement. Only if I turn off the eGPU completely beforehand and then turn on the Mac (with the display connected directly to the Mac) can the system boot up. Once I reach the login screen I can turn on the eGPU.

Why Apple????!!!!

My config: Mac Mini 2018 + RX 570 eGPU

I just installed 10.15.4. I get a black screen when trying to boot with the eGPU connected and monitors connected directly to the EGPU (no monitor directly connected to the Mac Mini). Unable to login. Force shutdown, disconnect the eGPU and plug one of monitors into the Mac Mini and it starts fine. Then I can plug the eGPU in.

It's been 6 months and 4 updates since this thread started. I doubt the problem will ever be fixed by Apple.