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olsend81

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 1, 2013
33
0
I am thinking about buying this mac pro 3,1 but the owner says that it is have these issues "I've boot from the factory CD, replace the video card, check the ram, did a SMC reset and a PRAM reset and get the same issuse : Rainbow sprites on the screen and the system looks up.. but if I place a full size house fan blowing on it , the system runs over night, rock steady, copying files, wiping drives, streaming Pandora.." Any idea of how big of a fix this could be the price is good I just dont want to get it and then spend tons of money fixing it if it is a mother board issue.
 
What is the spec of the 3,1? Processor, amount of memory, model of graphics card etc?

Remember that the memory for 3,1 models is relatively expensive.
 
new video card

he said that he purchased a new video card and both seem to have the same issues
specs are mac pro 2008 3,1
5 gb memory
two video cards that have been tried radeon x1900x and GT 8800 512mb
The only thing funky about it is that it has a hp blue ray installed.
 
In my experience, both the X1900 and 8800GT had pretty high failure rates. Both would typically fail due to heat.

Do you have any PC video cards that you can toss in there to try out? Also, is the fan that blows at the PCI-e slots working properly?
 
Looks like something is overheating, probably the GPU.
Ask him to check whether all fans are working - if one doesen't work, you've probably got your issue and a fan is fairly easy to replace.
If he states that if he blows extra air inside and it works, that means there shouldn't be any major defects.

It could very well be the GPU just overheating, and then quit working until it cooled down, so you just need to find out what isn't working.
The issues he mentioned seem related to graphics.
 
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