Mac Pro 1.1 red fuzz

[eddcunningham]

hi all,

I've started experiencing some really weird behaviour from my 2006 Mac Pro 1.1, running Snow Leopard.

The Mac will be fine for a short amount of time, but then suddenly red dots will start to appear and eventually freeze the entire Mac and the screen will be covered in a red fuzziness.
I would have put this down to graphics card failure, but the mouse is still responsive and the header bar doesn't suffer from the red fuzz.

I'm positive it's not the display as I use this for other sources and they're completely fine.

I've attached a picture for reference.

Anybody have any suggestions as to what the problem could be? Hoping my trusty workhouse isn't finally biting the bullet .

 

[keysofanxiety]

hi all,

I've started experiencing some really weird behaviour from my 2006 Mac Pro 1.1, running Snow Leopard.

The Mac will be fine for a short amount of time, but then suddenly red dots will start to appear and eventually freeze the entire Mac and the screen will be covered in a red fuzziness.
I would have put this down to graphics card failure, but the mouse is still responsive and the header bar doesn't suffer from the red fuzz.

I'm positive it's not the display as I use this for other sources and they're completely fine.

I've attached a picture for reference.

Anybody have any suggestions as to what the problem could be? Hoping my trusty workhouse isn't finally biting the bullet .

Graphics card failure I'm afraid, 100%.

Luckily the graphics card can be replaced in your model, so it's not the end of the world. MacVidCards should be able to advise what the highest model your system will support (or hopefully someone else here).

EDIT: Never mind, it looks like MVC is on MacRumors' naughty stool at the moment, so I can't say how quickly he'll respond if you PM'd him. Having a look at his website, these are the cards you can get for your model, and this is how you fit a replacement.

Hope this helps.

 

[eddcunningham]

Graphics card failure I'm afraid, 100%.

Luckily the graphics card can be replaced in your model, so it's not the end of the world. MacVidCards should be able to advise what the highest model your system will support (or hopefully someone else here).

EDIT: Never mind, it looks like MVC is on MacRumors' naughty stool at the moment, so I can't say how quickly he'll respond if you PM'd him. Having a look at his website, these are the cards you can get for your model, and this is how you fit a replacement.

Hope this helps.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

Are you sure it's graphics card? (Not doubting you, just curious).
Given that the mouse is still active and the top bar unaffected, I'd imagine the screen would be completely unresponsive?
Strangely enough, the whole mac seems unresponsive. For example, I can't switch apps and press play with the space bar on Spotify, which I would have thought I'd still be able to, even with a dead GPU.

If it is, then it's no big deal. Already replaced one graphics card on this Mac!
Maybe this will be the kick I need to finally upgrade to El Capitan with a modified EFI!

 

[redheeler]

I second the failing graphics card. Certain models are more prone to failure, such as the X1900XT. If you want a card that will run smoothly in Snow Leopard and El Capitan, I've been using a Mac edition Radeon HD 5770 in mine and it's a good drop-in upgrade for a 2006 Mac Pro.