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black screen after update. macpro 1.1. All help is much appriciated

B

baldakin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 4, 2012
6
0
Hi

I updated my mac pro 1.1 to 10.7 from 10.6.3 last night. Everything went well and worked fine. I turned the comp off when I went to bed. This morning I only got a black screen and nothing else. It seems like its booting properly since I get that characteristic "plop" sound when hitting the volume keys on the keyboard.

Possible helpful info:
-graphics card: x1900
-the only lights that are turned on during booting are the red RAM lights that are promptly turned off again.

p.s. tomorrow I get an asus 6870 DirectCu I. Can I just plop this into the comp if its just the x1900 that is busted? 6870 is supposedly working fine with 10.7 (not sure about ASUS 6870 DirectCu I)

All help to get back on track is greatly appreciated,
nick
 
So you get a black screen and your fix is to put a non supported PC card in it?
 
derbothaus said:
So you get a black screen and your fix is to put a non supported PC card in it?
Click to expand...

not my "fix" per se. But if it's only the card that's broken and the pc card is supported as of 10.7 (no boot screen) then it is a valid solution? If I have missed something then please help me

p.s. i realised i can also open the dvd drive with the keyboard. Whatever else it means it cant be bad =)
 
If you have another Mac somewhere you can use Screen Sharing to see what is going on.

X1900s have 2 possible ROMs on them, it is possible that you still have the old 140 ROM on it and need the newer 202 ROM on it.

You will need to use an older OS to update.

The X1900 should set up a hair dryer like whine when you first hit the power button and then quiet down as the EFI loads. THat would at least tell you it is partially working. If it is roaring like a banshee the whole time then it is quite dead.
 
baldakin said:
not my "fix" per se. But if it's only the card that's broken and the pc card is supported as of 10.7 (no boot screen) then it is a valid solution? If I have missed something then please help me

p.s. i realised i can also open the dvd drive with the keyboard. Whatever else it means it cant be bad =)
Click to expand...

You have not missed anything, if that is what you have that is what you have. The PC card may work but it is not "supported" in any way and why the "no boot screen". Or did Apple release the "you can now buy cheap PC GPU's and use them in your Mac problem free" notice somewhere?
 
derbothaus said:
You have not missed anything, if that is what you have that is what you have. The PC card may work but it is not "supported" in any way and why the "no boot screen". Or did Apple release the "you can now buy cheap PC GPU's and use them in your Mac problem free" notice somewhere?
Click to expand...

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1330964/
NVIDIA released drivers for a majority of graphics cards. The only side effect is that there is no boot screen, but everything functions just fine.

I am not sure about ATI cards.
 
Last edited:
@MacVidCards
1. I can get hold of another mac (mac mini) although i have no idea how to go about sharing the screen. But im sure i can google it.

2. Unfortunately I have no mac with an older OS.

3. I does sound like a hairdryer on speed; it also slows down after the "beep"

@derbothaus I cant tell you more than the things i have read on the net, which is that 6870 is supported with 10.6.8 and later releases. According to "cindori", the 6000 series should work out of the box i 10.6.8/lion. Det finns också en massa poster, bland annat på macrumors som tyder på att detta ska vara fallet. Mer än så vet jag inte.

@Acidsplat verkar även vara fallet med många ATI kort.
 
Use firewire mode to start the mini using the Mac Pro HD.

Turn on "Screen Sharing" under "SHaring"

Reboot Mac Pro and connect via screen sharing from Mini. See what it says about X1900.

Frequently an X1900 will be squarely before full death. Multiple reboots can eventually get display to fire, sometimes when it is hot, sometimes when cold.
 
baldakin said:
not sure I get this part. Could you elaborate, please
thank you for your help. I really appreciate it.
Click to expand...

1. Turn both Macs off.
2. Connect them using a FireWire cable.
3. Turn un the Mac Pro and immediately press and hold the "T" key on its keyboard for about a minute, just to make sure it enters Target Disk Mode. If the display/graphics card was working, you could see it on the display, too.
4. Turn on the mini and immediately press and hold the "alt/option" key.
5. Select the Mac Pro's drive and boot from it. Now you're booted off the Mac Pro drive and can turn on screen sharing in System Preferences->Sharing. (Also make sure both Macs are on the same network.)
6. Shut down the mini.
7. Press the Mac Pro's power button to shut it down, too.
8. Remove the FireWire cable.
9. Boot both Macs and access the Mac Pro from the mini via screen sharing.
 
I can glad you all, or at least myself, that before trying to "share screen" I tried putting in the new card in the hopes of saving myself a bit of time and trouble. See and behold, it worked. Im well pleased although i havent played around with it yet so i dont know what small kinks there are to sort out yet
 
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