Mac Pro 2,1 help

[tonyholes]

Hello All,

I am a new user that really enjoys reading this forum. I think I have read more about Macpro's in the last 2 weeks than I have read anything in my entire life...period

Anyway, I now turn to you experts to see if there is anything I haven't tried to resolve my problem.

Here's the backstory - My work gave me working Macpro2,1 that was missing a HDD and video card. They used the video card for another macpro and they wiped the HDD due to company policy. Here are the specs:

Mac Pro "Eight Core" 3.0 (2,1)
Arch 64 bit
EFI Arch 32-bit
6GB Ram

I bought:

Diamond Radeon HD 4870 512 video card (used)
1TB sata HDD (new)

I have a Snow Leopard OEM disk and also a bootable USB drive with Snow Leopard.

I can't get the video to display at all even when boot from disk or USB drive. When starting up I get the apple start up sound but no video. I have dual 24" LG monitors but I have tried them as dual and each individually in each dvi port.

I will admit I am a fairly new Mac user that has lots of experience with PC's. I have a Mac G5 that I mess around with but I would really love to get this Intel Macpro working.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

Tony

 

[Tesselator]

If I remember right the version of OS X on the installer disk you're trying to use can't use the video card you have. So you either need to use LION (10.7) or get a video card which is supported. Like the 7300GS or the ATI 1900 like that.

I'd go for LION myself. SnowLeopard kinda sucks in comparison.

 

[MacUser2525]

Do not see any mention of Mac with that video card there so I will guess it is PC card. If this is true then it will not show a boot screen. Mac video cards require an EFI part in addition to a regular BIOS that would be on it in order to be initialized properly. There is a chance that you may be able to flash the card you have to work in a Mac check http://forum.netkas.org to see.

 

[tonyholes]

Thanks for the replies!

I decided to do a little more research in to identifying the card I have and I believe I have found that this was falsely advertised as a Mac product and it's actually a PC card.

Here is the listing I bought and I believe the description was just copied off of an actual Mac version listing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151041195093?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

If I am wrong and can use this let me know.

I am going to return it and now i have to wait, wait , wait some more. I'm getting frustrated. Lol I have to just make sure I know what I am buying regardless of what the seller says.

It's tough finding an affordable mac version video card that is compatible with my MP2,1.

 

[Tesselator]

Thanks for the replies!

I decided to do a little more research in to identifying the card I have and I believe I have found that this was falsely advertised as a Mac product and it's actually a PC card.

Here is the listing I bought and I believe the description was just copied off of an actual Mac version listing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151041195093?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

If I am wrong and can use this let me know.

I am going to return it and now i have to wait, wait , wait some more. I'm getting frustrated. Lol I have to just make sure I know what I am buying regardless of what the seller says.

It's tough finding an affordable mac version video card that is compatible with my MP2,1.

Questions and answers about this item
No questions or answers have been posted about this item.

I wanted a good video card for a reasonable amount so there was no Apple specific options available! I dropped the GTX570 in mine. I would never dream of using an ATI card in anything other than a laptop and even them not if I could avoid it. If I ever go to install an ancient version of OS X from scratch like you are doing, then I will need to use an older fully supported card. I have the 7300GS and the 8800GT to choose from for that.

 

[tonyholes]

The seller is refunding the item and the return shipping amount.

Now I'm off to find a 8800gtx. Not many options. Once I get it installed and running I will then upgrade the OS to he highest my 2,1 will accept. Then eventually a nicer video card, a SSD and more ram.

Thanks

 

[tonyholes]

Update

So I bought a Macpro2,1 version 8800gtx and installed it and I am attempting to boot from the Snow Leopard disc since my hard drive is new as well.

So I hold down "c" when booting up the machine but still nothing. The video card is running and I hear the disc spinning and running as well for a bit but no video.

I am pretty certain everything is functional but since the hdd blank and I cant get the drivers installed I have no video. I feel like this should be working but since I am a Mac noob I may just be doing something wrong.

I have been searching and reading things until my eyes are crossed (nothing against crossed eyed people) and I can't seem to figure this out.

Is this possible aside from putting my hdd in a working Macpro and installing the OS and then putting it back in my machine???

Thanks for any advice/instruction in advance.

 

[MacVidCards]

has to be an EFI32 8800GT for Mac Pro

 

[tonyholes]

has to be an EFI32 8800GT for Mac Pro

It's an EFI32 card made for MP1,1 and MP2,1

Everything boots up and I get the start up sound at beginning and everything seems to be working just no video.

I am holding "c" just after the chime and I hear the DVD drive working just nothing happens. I have the retail version osx snow leopard disc.

Have tried all 3 of my monitors and they all work fine on my G5. There has to be something else going on or I am just missing something.

 

[TheEasterBunny]

Try blowing out the PCIe slot with a little air, and re-seating the card.
Try holding the "option" key, on boot, and then select the DVD to boot from.

 

[tonyholes]

Try blowing out the PCIe slot with a little air, and re-seating the card.
Try holding the "option" key, on boot, and then select the DVD to boot from.

I will try that tonight after work but thinking that the bottom PCIe slot might be bad I moved the card up to another slot and nothing changed.

I have my Hard drive and install disk here with me at work and I am going to try and load the OS to my drive on a different MacPro we have here at work. Just in case the DVD drive is bad (which I don't believe is) and/or the bootable image I made on my usb drive isn't done the right way. The bad thing about that is the MacPro here at work is a 3,1 or 4,1 not sure at the moment. So even if I get the OS installed to my HDD will that cause an issue with it not being the same 2,1 version that I have?

I guess there's a chance that the card is bad but I was assured it was tested successfully on 5/30 and when I received it, it was perfectly packaged on 6/3.

Question - If everything seems to be functioning and running and it chimes at start up, could I still have a bad logic board?

And since I doubt all 6 of my sticks of 1GB ram are bad I moved them around in every configuration possible (even with just 2 sticks in at a time) with no success.

As much as I love this kind of stuff I am getting frustrated hahaha because I just can't seem to identify my issue.

 

[rainman1976]

Try what I just did to get a non-EFI video card to work

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1590605/

 

[TheEasterBunny]

The Pro type won't matter, the drivers will still be on the HDD, no matter what type of Pro installed them.
I would bring the card to work with you and install it in the pro at work as an additional card, to test it. For that matter do the same with the card it is replacing too.

 

[tonyholes]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1590605/

Thanks!

I will try this tonight with the 5770 that is in my work MacPro. I believe that should work with Snow Leopard as the minimum.

----------

The Pro type won't matter, the drivers will still be on the HDD, no matter what type of Pro installed them.
I would bring the card to work with you and install it in the pro at work as an additional card, to test it. For that matter do the same with the card it is replacing too.

Gonna try it with the 5770 from work and then I will try it with both installed at same time to see if that helps based on the link rainman1976 provided.

Thanks

 

[MacVidCards]

Do you have power run to the card?

If you do, either the card is bad ot your Mac is.

EFI works without any help from HD or OS. The computer fires up the files on it's internal EEPROM and the card has an EEPROM with EFI on it as well. So as soon as power is on, the screen should fire, then HD loads OS and regular drivers.

So this issue has nothing to do with OS or HD.

 

[tonyholes]

Do you have power run to the card?

If you do, either the card is bad ot your Mac is.

EFI works without any help from HD or OS. The computer fires up the files on it's internal EEPROM and the card has an EEPROM with EFI on it as well. So as soon as power is on, the screen should fire, then HD loads OS and regular drivers.

So this issue has nothing to do with OS or HD.

The weirdest thing. So installed Snow Leopard on my hard drive at work and then brought it back home and put it in my machine along with the 5770 mac card (i borrowed from work) and still nothing. But I haven't given up that easy thus far so I decide to shut down and put the install disc in and try to boot from it.

Bam the grey screen pops up and i get the spinning processing icon for a bit and then...i'm in and I am posting this from the macpro now.

So, my next step is to reference the link rainman1976 provided and see if I can get my 8800gt to work.

Stay tuned lol Atleast I know that this machine works and if it's anything it's the card. Guess I'll have to buy a new one...hopefully third time is a charm.

Thanks for everything guys and I will report back.

 

[tonyholes]

I finally got it to work but I don't understand why it happened this way.

I have been running Snow Leopard and trying everything I could but no luck. So I decided to upgrade to Lion and ran the updates. After the reboot it didn't do much right away and when I was about to give up because it is 2am eastern time and all and I get up for work in 5 hours. ...it gives me a gray screen for about 15 seconds and then like magic it works. I plug in my second monitor and it works as well.

I am like a kid on christmas day!!!!

Here is what I have for a grand total of $89.00:

Processor 2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 6 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63)


Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro2,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3 GHz
Number of Processors: 2
Total Number of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per Processor): 8 MB
Memory: 6 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP21.007F.B08
SMC Version (system): 1.15f3


NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
Slot: Slot-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 768 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0191
Revision ID: 0x00a2
ROM Revision: preset 1.0.0
Displays:
E2211:
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Display Serial Number: 207NDQAG8772
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: Supported
E2211:
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Display Serial Number: 207NDNUGA247
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Rotation: Supported


THANKS GUYS FOR THE IDEAS AND INFO!