MacPro 1.1 freaking out ... ideas?

[rp911]

I'm (desperately) trying to hold on to my Mac Pro 1.1 until the (hopefully) new 2013 comes out.

It's a 2X2.66 dual core model. I'm running 7 GB of RAM and running off a 120 GB SSD drive, so the performance is good enough for what I'm doing (print design work).

The last couple of days, I've been getting these weird random freezes where I get a spinning beach ball and there are little geometric patterns of reddish thin lines all over the screen. I can't recover from that, I have to restart.

I zapped the PRAM and repaired permissions on the boot drive, and there are no memory errors showing under the "about this Mac" information when it's been up and running a while. But at random moments, it will just freeze. I'm also noticing some weirdness with the screen display, where the dock will look odd or the desktop will not completely redraw itself when a window is closed.

Bad video RAM? Something else? Any ideas? I have a big project about to start and can't work like this.

 

[goMac]

What kind of graphics card do you have? That sounds like the problem, and the X1900 card available on that model is known for dying frequently.

 

[rp911]

It has a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT installed, the original card.

I just ran Tech Tool 3.1.3 on it, everything passed, including the video RAM. But no sooner had I run the test then the screen started to not redraw properly, I took a screen shot of that, opened it in Photoshop and it looked perfect in there. Then I got the red lines and it froze on me again.

 

[rp911]

This is a sample of what the screen looks like ... I got red and green this time.

And the cursor which has these flashing lines around it. It still moves around the screen when the Mac freezes.

 

[ActionableMango]

Sounds like a failing or overheating video card.

I would check temperatures and fan speeds.

If you can, I'd borrow a card from another computer and try it out.

 

[GermanyChris]

I'd pull it clean it and re-thermal paste it.

 

[ubergeek72]

video card options

The Radeon 5770 and 5870 cards will work in your 1,1 Pro /and/ in all subsequent Pros (can't speak for the forthcoming one, obviously.) If your video card is dying and you're running a recent version of OS X (I'm on 10.7.5) they're a good option. The only gotcha would be if the next generation of pros doesn't have PCI-E bus.

 

[paulrbeers]

The Radeon 5770 and 5870 cards will work in your 1,1 Pro /and/ in all subsequent Pros (can't speak for the forthcoming one, obviously.) If your video card is dying and you're running a recent version of OS X (I'm on 10.7.5) they're a good option. The only gotcha would be if the next generation of pros doesn't have PCI-E bus.

or he can throw just about any Nvidia 9000 series or newer card in to get him by as long as he doesn't care about boot screens.

OP. If you are trying to limp along, go buy something like an Nvidia GT 430 for about $30 and see if that fixes your problem. You won't have the initial EFI boot screens, but it'll get you thru another 6-12 months. Check out the many threads that explain where to get the drivers and what you need to do.

 

[rp911]

I appreciate the comments.

I'm running 10.6.8 on here ... I don't mind dropping $100-150 on a card to keep limping along. I will have to look for a list of what's compatible with the old workhorse.

Or I can just wash my hands and go buy a new Mac Pro and miss the update ... oh, man. I actually bought a new one last December and took it back to the store unopened a few days later.

 

[ActionableMango]

or he can throw just about any Nvidia 9000 series or newer card in to get him by as long as he doesn't care about boot screens.

OP. If you are trying to limp along, go buy something like an Nvidia GT 430 for about $30 and see if that fixes your problem. You won't have the initial EFI boot screens, but it'll get you thru another 6-12 months. Check out the many threads that explain where to get the drivers and what you need to do.

I could be wrong, but I don't think those work on Snow Leopard.