Mac Pro early 2008 Dead? Any ideas

[iriejedi]

My Mac Pro was running just fine Thursday night - shut down, sleepy time..

Friday night booted up - BONG (noise, not tool) - video card fan whirring away (seemingly at a high rate of speed) - noted front fans are spinning - but as usual, Apple Quiet...

that was it. just sat there only audible noise coming from the computer was the video card fan (8800GT).

and there we sat a few hard re-boots - an attempt at the standard by hold option key down

Pulled all cables except video for 1 monitor, pulled all 4 hard drives - inserted 1 by 1 - never got past the bong and video card fan noise.

Thank you for any thoughts (or moral support)...

George

 

[Satch]

My guess would be that your 8800GT is dead. Do you have another mac pro graphics card to test? Geforce 8 series for the mac pro (and normal pc's) have the same problem as the 8600MGT in the 2007/2008 Macbook Pro. They almost always fail in a number of years.
If your 8800GT is the problem it's possible that it can be revived by reflowing it. Had to do it about 4 times with my 8800GT, but at the moment it's been working for a while.

 

[iriejedi]

Reflow?

Sounds promising.

What is reflowing?
\
thanks

 

[DanielCoffey]

Google "baking 8800gt" and you will find out.

The 8800s were notorious for getting cracks in the solder. It is possible to "fix" the problem under carefully controlled circumstances by placing the video card (minus the fan) in an oven and letting the solder soften then gently cooling it.

This may be your opportunity to upgrade to the Apple 5770 however.

 

[iriejedi]

Google "baking 8800gt" and you will find out.

This may be your opportunity to upgrade to the Apple 5770 however.

<--- exactly what I was thinking

Watched a viedo - yeah a bit out of my comfort level to reflow - I read the my mac is not supported for the 5770 and 5870 - but I also read enough posts to know that is is.

That would be my first choice over buying a new tower and kicking my self knowing that an update is pending (even a few months out).

Should it be plug and play with Mountain lion? Anything I need to know in advance of plugging in a new video card that is 'not supported' per Apple

I appreciate your help.

 

[longmover]

Have you confirmed it's the video card? Pull it out completely and boot up without it, it should work and if you have screen sharing enabled you should be able to remote to it from another box.

 

[iriejedi]

On the way to genius bar right now. I have no way to test but I like the idea of trying to boot without the card to see if the hard drives kick in. If gb is no help, card is returnable and 450 vs 4500 it seems worth a gamble.
Fingers crossed

 

[iriejedi]

as the forum and the internet suggested it was the 8800GT - $369 for Apply to replace with a old 8800GT or $449 for a ATI Radeon 5870.... Math and path was pretty clear...

Thank you everyone....once new card installed will try the baking idea...

Have a great day see you in 2013 with my new mac pro - Gods willing...