MP 1,1-5,1 Got free MP 1,1/2,1 without GPU, what now?

[Petr Molek]

The backstory

Hi,
Just yesterday, I received a free MP from a friend of mine, I have always wished to have one in my collection. I had no clue what MP it is, or in what condition it is in, however the previous owner said it should be fully functional. By serial number I found out it's either 1,1 or 2,1, I disassembled it, and it has 2 2.66 GHz Xeon CPUs. It, however, came with no GPU.

Hunt for the GPU

So, really happy that I finally own one of these legendary machines, I started doing research about GPUs I could fit into this MP. I was, however disappointed a lot - I come from Czechia, and I found no mac GPUs on any of our local marketplaces. I then found out about the possibility to flash some GPUs with mac firmware, which got me excited again - however, all of these GPUs are kind of expensive here.

So I found a GT 440 laying at home...

And I know very well it's not compatible with the mac. However, it seems like a mac version of this card exists, but nowhere I could find anyone using it in a MP. Now, I don't intend on running OS X with this card, the only thing I want to do is to check whether the machine works or not, presumably using windows before I buy a compatible card.

I installed the GPU into the MP, and, as expected, I get no video output at all. I tried blind-navigating to boot from a HDD with Windows 10 installed and then a Windows 10 (32-bit) installer USB, again, without any success.

So my question is:

Is there any way to check whether the machine is running fine without me buying a compatible GPU?

Thank you very much for help!

 

[Macschrauber]

You can make a Hard Disk with 10.7 on another mac and remote screen control switched on. Mac should be run headless.

Or try the gt440 and some linux live dvd.

 

[tsialex]

The backstory

Hi,
Just yesterday, I received a free MP from a friend of mine, I have always wished to have one in my collection. I had no clue what MP it is, or in what condition it is in, however the previous owner said it should be fully functional. By serial number I found out it's either 1,1 or 2,1, I disassembled it, and it has 2 2.66 GHz Xeon CPUs. It, however, came with no GPU.

Hunt for the GPU

So, really happy that I finally own one of these legendary machines, I started doing research about GPUs I could fit into this MP. I was, however disappointed a lot - I come from Czechia, and I found no mac GPUs on any of our local marketplaces. I then found out about the possibility to flash some GPUs with mac firmware, which got me excited again - however, all of these GPUs are kind of expensive here.

So I found a GT 440 laying at home...

And I know very well it's not compatible with the mac. However, it seems like a mac version of this card exists, but nowhere I could find anyone using it in a MP. Now, I don't intend on running OS X with this card, the only thing I want to do is to check whether the machine works or not, presumably using windows before I buy a compatible card.

I installed the GPU into the MP, and, as expected, I get no video output at all. I tried blind-navigating to boot from a HDD with Windows 10 installed and then a Windows 10 (32-bit) installer USB, again, without any success.

So my question is:

Is there any way to check whether the machine is running fine without me buying a compatible GPU?

Thank you very much for help!

Mac Pros work without the GPU. You can install 10.7.5 (last officially support released) with another Mac, enable Screen Sharing and then boot your Mac Pro from it. After the boot, you can check if it's working via Screen Sharing.