MacPro Bootup Hijinx

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MacProArt

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I have a MacPro Intel G5, (OSX 10.4.11) only a couple of years old. I have been having a problem for the last few months only when the computer has been shut down for a while, on boot-up, (never happens on restart) I get the power light on and fans blowing and start-up gong, and either blank black monitor screen or two or three flashes on the screen showing the little monitor calibration box and then the gray/apple screen distorted by a kind of "fuzziness". Then it goes black again and a few seconds later the login screen comes on and everything is normal. Except for noisy fans making a kind of loud "scraping" noise, (really loud every half hour or so) like they have to be lubricated or something. Should I just ignore all this, or is my MacPro getting ready to die on me? Help? :eek:
 
MacProArt said:
I have a MacPro Intel G5, (OSX 10.4.11) only a couple of years old. I have been having a problem for the last few months only when the computer has been shut down for a while, on boot-up, (never happens on restart) I get the power light on and fans blowing and start-up gong, and either blank black monitor screen or two or three flashes on the screen showing the little monitor calibration box and then the gray/apple screen distorted by a kind of "fuzziness". Then it goes black again and a few seconds later the login screen comes on and everything is normal. Except for noisy fans making a kind of loud "scraping" noise, (really loud every half hour or so) like they have to be lubricated or something. Should I just ignore all this, or is my MacPro getting ready to die on me? Help? :eek:
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First things first... Is this a Mac Pro or a PowerMac? Because the G5 is a PowerPC chip, not Intel.If the system is running 10.4, then I would suspect very much that it's a PowerMac G5, but go to About This Mac and what does it list as the processor? It does tend to make a difference on how you go about diagnosing problems.

Regardless though, it does sound like the bearings on the fans are starting to go. Good news is, as repairs go, this is about as cheap as it gets. Assuming you don't have a water cooled G5 anyway.

The other issue is probably just the early signs of your video card starting to fail. Or if you recently got a new monitor, it's having some difficulties establishing a connection, which really could just be due to the fact that the card is old and the monitor is expecting a newer handshake protocol, isn't getting it, and the delay you see is the two trying to find some kind of common language. Either way, probably not worth doing much about, especially since finding drivers for a newer card for 10.4 will be difficult at best. Somewhere there should be a list of all video cards supported by 10.4, so if the one you have fails, all you'd need to do is go out and buy another one on the list of supported cards.
 
Thanks for the feedback, buddy.

When I go to About This Mac, it reads: PROCESSOR 2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon It IS a 2007 Mac Pro. :cool:

Thanks again.
 
Go to the Apple menu-> about this Mac -> more info..-> graphics/display and tell us which card that thing is running (if you can?). If its the GeForce 7300 GT you might be eligible for a free replacement card from Apple if the machine fits a certain serial# range and has bulging/blown caps.

The only other thing is the fan noise. The GeForce 7300 GT video cards were the low end cards for that machine and don't have an onboard fan. So it still could be a video card with a dying fan that is causing the card to overheat. In that case you'll most likely need to buy a new card.
 
MacProArt said:
It's the ATI Radeon X1900 XT

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Well, then in THAT case... That card, sorry to say, is a real POS. At an old job, they had a couple of small labs with systems like yours, and all of them had the X1900. I replaced quite a few of them after they simply stopped working. In fact, Apple's part list lists a "V2" of that particular card indicating that there was some kind of issue with the "V1" models. You try and order a "V1" card, it's automatically replaced with a "V2".

So, if the system's out of warranty, and you've got an X1900 card, be ready for that to blow up on you. Not literally, at least I've never had one literally blow up, but still. Have some money set aside for a new PCI-E video card that will work with 10.4, or maybe consider upgrading to 10.5 or 10.6 to increase your selection options.
 
Thanks again, man. Can you give me a range of what I can expect to pay for a replacement?? And can I install it myself? :confused:
 
If you buy the part through Apple, you'll pay way too much. But so long as you don't need that special little bracket on the X1900 that makes it fit into the little slot on the PCI-E area, any PCI-E card will do. You could look around to see what it'd cost to buy a X1900 retail. Or just hit some place like Wikipedia, get a list of what video cards are supported by what versions of OS X, and go shopping.

And yes, it is considered a consumer replaceable part by Apple. It's not all that much different from replacing a video card in your average PC. Just a little bit of a trick to getting the card out, which you really just have to figure out for yourself, it can't be described.
 
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