Mac Pro Display Issue - Unexpectedly Sleeps and Freezes

[nidafkhan]

Just since a couple of days my Mac Pro desktop has been having display issues. Unexpectedly the screens go into sleep mode, it turns black and freezes, the computer doesnot respond to the keyboard or mouse.

At first I thought this was related to Chrome, and switched to Firefox, but the computer is still having the same issue. I have to shut down and restart each time it gets stuck.

I even went into preferences and changed the energy saver settings to "Never" allow display or harddrive to sleep. But this problem is stil happening.

Does anyone have the same problems? Or a solution?

 

[Erlang]

Are you sure it's not the graphic card overheating? My MP has done this a couple of times and I tracked it down by observation the GC fan was clogged with dust. So a very good blast with canned air and no problems since.

 

[nidafkhan]

I cleaned out my mac with compressed air, it was dusty, but the display flickering happened again.
Then I installed:
Temperature Monitor
http://www.bresink.de/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html


Which showed that my memory module 1B and 2B were 70 - 75'C(160 -167'F). There was no reading for the graphic card so I couldn't tell if that was over heating.


Then I installed:
smc fan controller
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol


and increased the memory_cpu fan speed which lowered the temperature of the ram to 60'C (143'F).
I even changed this ram's placement and put it in different slots.This ram was the same temperature in the new placements.

Also this is the kingston 2gb ram without heatsinks. Ive used it for 1.5 yrs, and this is the first time its giving me these problems.


Do you know how I can check if the graphic card is over heating? or is the problem just with the ram?

Thank you for all your help!

 

[Bwa]

What card do you have? I bought my 2008 with three ATI 2600s. Two of them died and I took the third one out of service before it got around to dying. After I took those cards out, my machine got a lot more stable--It would sometimes hang, but now it's rock solid. If you have a 2600 or a X1900, I'd look at replacing the card.

 

[nidafkhan]

I got Nvidia Ge Force 8800 gt in 2008 and have been using this since. Do you think its creating the problems?

 

[Bwa]

I got Nvidia Ge Force 8800 gt in 2008 and have been using this since. Do you think its creating the problems?

Sadly I have no hands-on advice regarding this card. :-( But I think it's worth a shot.