My Mac Pro did something disturbing today. It suddenly produced pink flecks all over the screen, and rebooted with a Kernel Panic message.

The pink flecks look like this:


http://twitpic.com/bajj4e

It was also flickering a lot. Here's a video, blurry and shot on my phone.
http://telly.com/HWHAD

I am guessing a failing video card. It did the same in safe start up, and now won't show a picture at all that isn't a load of red dots.

Am I correct in the assumption? I guess I'll need a Mac Pro (2008) Compatible video card. suggestions that aren't too exorbitant?

A quick google coughed up this:

http://apple.stackexchange.com/question ... iginal-1-1

Whether you can find one of those cards is another matter.

It would seem likely, although if you have another monitor handy you might want to plug that in to eliminate the possibility the monitor's playing up rather than the card.


All mac replacement video cards are exorbitant if you buy them from Apple. You might want to try http://www.applemacparts.co.uk/ - see if they've got a salvage part but even then you might be talking 200 quid.

Boot into Hardware tests to check it's not the logic board - if it is, then it wouldn't really be economically viable to replace/repair.

That's if I can see them. The Mac is displaying a screen of black and white pixels at the moment. I'll give that a go if I can find the hardware test DVD.

I guess this is one to consider.
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/prod ... cts_id=653

Plugged monitor into laptop. Monitor works.

If the Mac Pro does eventually boot, is it possibly to run it via screen sharing on another machine? At least temporarily until you can sort out a GPU replacement.

I sometimes run an old G4 Mac mini that way so I don't have to move two chairs down my desk.

I can't really tell what is going on - it's just a mess of red/black pixels now. It makes the right noises, but it was doing so before getting so far and then reporting a Kernel Panic and then rebooting itself.

The reasonably good news is that I have backups and a laptop which will run all the software I'd need. So if anything crops up, I should be able to carry on there until I've sorted the Mac Pro out.

This is one of the reasons I bought a Mac Pro. It is something I can fix by swapping around components. I've also added some extra hard drives as time has gone on, but now I should be able to replace the GPU and pick up where I left off.

If this was an old iMac that had failed, then the whole machine would be written off without any diagnostic hardware tinkering. Right now, if the worst comes to the worst, I've not lost the screen, and the internal hard drives could be dropped into caddies pending a replacement machine (whatever that may be).

175 quid mark up, because it is for a Mac?

The newer version that replaced it can be had for 62€ on Amazon. Can you burn custom ROM images to a generic card?

No idea. First foray into video cards. I need one which will work on my 2008 MacPro running Mac OSX 10.8. Of course, the descriptions for video cards on Amazon fail to mention anything like that. I am not buying unless that is specifically in the description.


No.

I am being told by People Who Know (ie Mac dealers) that that may or may not work. They also say that you need the Apple specific model to get any hope of it functioning. Too many doubts there. So I have turned to eBay and am finding that I can buy refurbished cards of the kind I already have for around £130.

If it's a case of an identical replacement, then I'll go down that route. Of course, I have to be sure that the card I buy is the kind designed for my machine (64bit vs 32bit), so I've been grovelling under the desk to find the serial number. Which is printed white on a light grey background. Thanks, Apple, for not putting it somewhere more accessible.

I can say from personal experience that a Apple Radeon 5770 will definitely work in a 2008 Mac Pro as that's exactly what I'm running here at the moment.
Requires OS X 10.6.4 or later (I'm running 10.6.8).

Right now, I’ve found a few refurbished versions of the card I already have on eBay and bought one of those. I found far too many conflicting stories about the 5770s for comfort. I also understand that there are Apple ready versions, and those are the ones that cost a fortune, and I could find no definite information on whether a bog standard £130 version (from Maplin) would work. Certainly, no advice on Mac drivers on ATI’s web site.

Anyway, assuming that I would need to install drivers before installing the card, that would be hard as there is no way I can see that machine’s display. With the card fitted, it kernel panics and restarts, and that was when I could see what was going on. So it’s got to be like for like for my sanity, I’m afraid. That way I know the drivers are there, and I should (in theory) just be able to plug the replacement in and carry on. If I feel the need to experiment with something better at a later date, I will. A new card will always be better than second hand.

Almost certainly would require reflashing.


ATI (&NVidia for that matter) pretty much stopped providing driver downloads for Mac OS a few years back. Nowadays, the only drivers you get are the ones that ship as part of the OS.

Jon