How to get normal boot screen back on Mac Pro?

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Level 1

6 points

How to get normal boot screen back on Mac Pro?

I upgraded the graphics card in my 2008 Mac Pro, which also has bootcamp, but now when I want to switch back to Mac OS X I have to switch out the graphics cards, boot into OS X restart with my OS X disc selected, and then it will stay, instead of being able to hold down the option key during boot to get the disc chooser. Is there a file I can modify so that I get the Apple boot screen, and disc selector back?

Mac Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4), 2008

Posted on Apr 28, 2016 2:24 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Apr 28, 2016 2:36 PM in response to boovish

Sounds like the replacement graphics card is a plain PC card and not a Mac-flashed card. Only a Mac-Flashed card will show a boot screen and thus allow use of Option, Recovery and other special startups.

Some mac-flashed cards have a switch on them to select PC or Mac mode

What graphics card did you install?

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Answer 2

boovish Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 28, 2016 2:37 PM in response to lllaass

Yeah, I just bought a standard EVGA GTX 950. It didn't even occur to me to look for a mac-flashed one. But I thought I had seen at one point how to change the approved cards within a system file

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Answer 3

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Apr 28, 2016 3:00 PM in response to boovish

No way to change via file system. It has to be in the cards firmware. This is because OSX is not even partially loaded for Option key and other special startups

It does not appear that your card can be flashed

http://www.macvidcards.com/store/p81/Nvidia_Flashing_Services.html

After Windows is installed, you can switch between OS X and Windows. Use theStartup Disk preference panein OS X, or theBoot Camp system trayitem in Windows to select your startup disk, then restart your computer.

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Answer 4

boovish Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 28, 2016 2:59 PM in response to lllaass

I would use the bootcamp system tray but when I tried to install it, it gave me an error saying that the 2008 mac pro is too old to support windows, even with 8 cores and 32gb of RAM. Oh well, I can deal with the method I've been using to switch it out

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Answer 5

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Apr 28, 2016 3:04 PM in response to boovish

Are you running greater than Win 7?

Apple says the 2008 only supports Win 7 and earlier.

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