After 10.9.2 update my Radeon 7950 won't display

I am using the Radeon 7950 (Mac Edition), but don't use Little Snitch.

Yes, I usually find that the folks at Apple try to be helpful. I called Apple Care since I purchased the 27" Cinema Display (refurbished) from Apple in December and is still under warranty. I told then right away that there was nothing wrong with the display (just the OS update). They were quite interested in the problem (despite the 3rd party hardware) and hopefully we'll see some results in the (not too distant) future.

I'm currently reverting to 10.9.1. looks like it'll take another 3 hours to complete.

Dave

Indeed, my earlier method also leaves me anxious to see if further issues will befall me. As the OS was relatively a fresh install at Bug-time, I am testing to see if this worked well enough by re-installing some GPU hungry apps. If not, then back to 10.9.1, I go.

In the meantime, I also sent a bug report to Apple regarding the update:

Regarding the following Apple Discussion Thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5943974?answerId=25003969022#25003969022

The official update to OSX 10.9.2 bricked my machine. My Radeon [5870] graphics card would no longer output to display via MDP > DP, although it had worked just fine since OSX 10.7.

As I have deadlines approaching, I tried an unorthodox method of restoring Display output without rolling entirely back to OSX 10.9.1:

By manually installing proven, compatible OSX 10.8 ATI5000 series Kext's to my OSX 10.9.2 volume, I seem to have fixed the issue, although I have yet to determine if there are other bugs remaining to be discovered, due to this 'patchwork' method . . .

I will report here if things proceed to explode. If not, then no news may indeed be good news. Good hunting,

— 5ix

~

When deadlines loom near

Never update anything.

Best tool is at hand.

Hey!

DPArt solved the issue for me in another thread.... easily! Hopefuly it will work for you:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5950437?answerId=25035104022#25035104022&ac_cid=op123456#25035104

Dave

Yap, problem solved. Darn swtich. Very easy to overlook at it.....

Hmm,

So, I was experiencing Sleep / Wake issues with my jerry-rigged OSX 10.9.2 Drivers. Inevitable, that it wasn't a 'perfect' fix. Figured it wasn't worth the worry, so I've re-install a fresh version of OSX 10.9.1. Now for the reinstallation of Applications . . .

I like to go about a fresh install once, anually – although this will now be the second time I have done this since Mavericks was released. I will err on the side of caution when it comes time to 'update' to 10.9.2. I just hope I don't get stranded on 10.9.1 [Although I did hang out on Snow Leopard throughout the Lion days – just 'borrowed' GPU drivers from 10.7, much like my recent quick fix].

By erring on the side of caution, I mean I will clone a working copy of 10.9.2 [with applications already installed] onto a secondary drive. This should keep my tower functioning, while allowing me to 'try before I buy' Apple's new 'update'.

It strikes me as a bricking maneuvre on their part. Perhaps it's not malicious, as my GPU is a PC card [Non-EFI] – which had worked just fine since Lion.

I just find it hard to imagine this reduced functionality is not intentional, on their part. Bootcamp 5 is already 'officially' incompatible with my Mac Pro 3,1 (2008). While the hardware is still more than capable, the software support is beginning to dwindle. And so we jump through hoops. At least it gives us a chance to get creative. 😉

— 5ix

5ix, I don't think this is intentional. See this thread regarding built-in Radion exhibiting the same issue: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5966359

...a further +1 to 5ix's solution:

2008 Mac Pro 3.1 with non-EFI Gigabyte Radeon 7950 (1xDVI, 1xHDMI, 2xminiDP)

connected to Dell 2711 via miniDP + Dell 2005 via DVI

I would get immediate reboot with kernal panic (ie reboot loop) whenever I plugged the 2711 into the miniDP however I could get the 2711 or 2005 to work on lower resolution (?) when connected via DVI.

What I did to fix the issue was:

- in terminal see what drivers are being used via the following command:

- kextstat | grep AMD

- it was showing that it was running off the 2000 series drivers

- compare the /System/Library/Extensions folders from 10.9.2 to 10.8.5 to see what was missing

- download KextDrop from http://www.cindori.org/software/kextdrop/

- install the following missing kext files that I had on a parallel start-up disk running 10.8.5

(I put all of them in, not just the ones needed for the 7950)

- AMDRadeonAccelerator.kext (missing from your solution 5ix - unsure how necessary it is)

- ATI2400Controller.kext (optional)

- ATI2600Controller.kext (optional)

- ATI3800Controller.kext (optional)

- ATI4600Controller.kext (optional)

- ATI4800Controller.kext (optional)

- ATI5000Controller.kext (optional)

- ATI6000Controller.kext (optional)

- ATI7000Controller.kext (necessary for 7950 card)

- ATIFramebuffer.kext

- ATISupport.kext

Using KextDrop means you don't have to do anything with permissions or ownership

...but you will still have to open terminal to delete the kext cache.

So following this guide:
http://seo-michael.co.uk/slow-shutdown-startup-macbook-mavericks-10-9/

I ran the following commands in terminal

• sudo chown root:admin

  enter your password

• sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
• sudo kextcache -system-caches

Then

• Open System Preferences
• Open Startup Disk
• Ensure Startup Disk is still set correctly
• Reboot

After that everything seems to work correctly.
It appears they just left a bunch of drivers out of 10.9.2 accidentally.

Thanks to 5ix for bringing this to our attention - haven't fully tested sleep mode but just happy to have the displays working correctly again.