Mac Pro booting to orange screen. Is my gfx card dead?

[wesleyaustin]

Hi,
About 7 months ago, i bought a 3gb 'Sapphire radeon HD 7950' that had been flashed for mac to replace the Radeon HD 2600 (256mb). It was all working properly until one day i booted it up and it booted to a glitched orange screen with lines on. i waited 3 mins and it didn't do anything. I then powered off the mac and (by holding the power button) and then booted it up again. It booted normally as if nothing had ever happened. The next day i started it up and i got the same glitched orange screen but this time a 'glitches' apple logo appeared and the progress bar. When the progress bar had filled half way, it just stopped. i left it for ten mins and it didn't do anything. I put the old gfx card in and it booted normally. so i put the HD 7950 in swell as the old gfx card. i plugged both of my displays into the old gfx card and the boot screen appeared normally but when the progress bar got to half way, it got stuck (its as if whenever that the HD 7950 is plugged in it prevents the mac from booting). I force-powered it off and tried booting into safe mode (by holding shift) it booted into safe mode successfully. The HD 7950 is recognised by the mac in the 'system information' application.


Any suggestions/help is greatly appreciated
thanks

 

[h9826790]

Hi,
About 7 months ago, i bought a 3gb 'Sapphire radeon HD 7950' that had been flashed for mac to replace the Radeon HD 2600 (256mb). It was all working properly until one day i booted it up and it booted to a glitched orange screen with lines on. i waited 3 mins and it didn't do anything. I then powered off the mac and (by holding the power button) and then booted it up again. It booted normally as if nothing had ever happened. The next day i started it up and i got the same glitched orange screen but this time a 'glitches' apple logo appeared and the progress bar. When the progress bar had filled half way, it just stopped. i left it for ten mins and it didn't do anything. I put the old gfx card in and it booted normally. so i put the HD 7950 in swell as the old gfx card. i plugged both of my displays into the old gfx card and the boot screen appeared normally but when the progress bar got to half way, it got stuck (its as if whenever that the HD 7950 is plugged in it prevents the mac from booting). I force-powered it off and tried booting into safe mode (by holding shift) it booted into safe mode successfully. The HD 7950 is recognised by the mac in the 'system information' application.


Any suggestions/help is greatly appreciated
thanks

Sound like your 7950 is failed. Since your card work for almost 7 months, I won’t consider that’s a badly flashed card.

The boot screen is provide by the EFI (that’s why you want it flashed), the EFI only provide very limited function, and may not trigger the issue because unable to fully utilise the hardware.

When the loading bar progress, the GPU driver will be loaded at some stage. And the driver need to fully initialise the 7950. A hardware failure may prevent the computer to go beyond this stage.

On the other hard, safe mode won’t load the driver, your card still drove by the EFI, which again, can provide basic function without issue.

That “recognised” as 7950 is very cosmetic, the info is provided by the EFI, not according to the device ID, I can make the 7950 to “recognise” itself as a Titan Xp in that situation, but the card can’t even work correctly like yours.

 

[wesleyaustin]

Sound like your 7950 is failed. Since your card work for almost 7 months, I won’t consider that’s a badly flashed card.

The boot screen is provide by the EFI (that’s why you want it flashed), the EFI only provide very limited function, and may not trigger the issue because unable to fully utilise the hardware.

When the loading bar progress, the GPU driver will be loaded at some stage. And the driver need to fully initialise the 7950. A hardware failure may prevent the computer to go beyond this stage.

On the other hard, safe mode won’t load the driver, your card still drove by the EFI, which again, can provide basic function without issue.

That “recognised” as 7950 is very cosmetic, the info is provided by the EFI, not according to the device ID, I can make the 7950 to “recognise” itself as a Titan Xp in that situation, but the card can’t even work correctly like yours.

Thanks for the reply!

Do you have any suggestions on what to try or do you think I just need to buy a new gfx card?

 

[MIKX]

I flashed my HIS 7950 ( plus did the 5.0 GT/s mod ) and have had no problems whatsoever.
I suggest cleaning the PCIe copper connectors with a soft eraser and use canned air to blow out the PCIe slots. Then I would try new / different cables and lastly .. RESET NVRAM.

Good luck, the 7950 3Gb is a largely underated card and still quite viable for most graphic hungry tasks. I use it with X-Plane 11 which is a pixel devouring monster. X-Plane 11 orks very well indeed with this card.

 

[wesleyaustin]

I flashed my HIS 7950 ( plus did the 5.0 GT/s mod ) and have had no problems whatsoever.
I suggest cleaning the PCIe copper connectors with a soft eraser and use canned air to blow out the PCIe slots. Then I would try new / different cables and lastly .. RESET NVRAM.

Good luck, the 7950 3Gb is a largely underated card and still quite viable for most graphic hungry tasks. I use it with X-Plane 11 which is a pixel devouring monster. X-Plane 11 orks very well indeed with this card.

I just tried that, but I am still facing the issue. I have an AMD Radeon R9 270 that I took out of a dell XPS 8700, and I am going to see if I can get that to work in the Mac pro
[doublepost=1519293996][/doublepost]Ok I just booted up my Mac with the ati Radeon 2600 and the AMD r9 270. If I boot into Mac OS, I get no video output from the card, and the card is not recognised. Also, when I press About this Mac> System report > PCI I see an error saying that they are unable to display the PCI devices. If I boot into windows I get video output and I can mine/game on the card. Do you have any suggestions on why it doesn't work in Mac OS or how to make it work in Mac OS? (I also tried an Nvidia GTS 240 from an older dell XPS studio 8100 and it worked in Mac OS and windows)

 

[wesleyaustin]

Bump

 

[h9826790]

I just tried that, but I am still facing the issue. I have an AMD Radeon R9 270 that I took out of a dell XPS 8700, and I am going to see if I can get that to work in the Mac pro
[doublepost=1519293996][/doublepost]Ok I just booted up my Mac with the ati Radeon 2600 and the AMD r9 270. If I boot into Mac OS, I get no video output from the card, and the card is not recognised. Also, when I press About this Mac> System report > PCI I see an error saying that they are unable to display the PCI devices. If I boot into windows I get video output and I can mine/game on the card. Do you have any suggestions on why it doesn't work in Mac OS or how to make it work in Mac OS? (I also tried an Nvidia GTS 240 from an older dell XPS studio 8100 and it worked in Mac OS and windows)

According to Fl0r!an's table, the R9 270 may not work in macOS natively.

For AMD card, it's important to know your current OS. If the driver is not included, the card won't work at all.

 

[wesleyaustin]

Ok, thanks. I'll look into buying a new graphics card