Troubleshooting Graphics Card on Mac Pro 1,1

[Dizzi45Z]

Everyone,

I have a 2006 2.6 Quad Core Mac Pro with 11 GB RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT (MA567) 256 MB DDR2 that is having major problems that seems all related to the Graphics card. (see symptoms below if interested)

I went out and purchased the latest Mac Pro 2010 model 3.2 Quad core which comes with an ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB card.

My question is: "Would it be safe and wise to trouble shoot the problem by swapping the video card from the new Mac Pro into the old one?"

I have somebody who will buy my old Mac pro for $700 if I can get it to work. Otherwise, it is basically scrap metal. I can find used video cards for the Mac Pro 1,1 that I need, but they are around $100 used at the cheapest.

Symptoms if interested:

The computer won't even boot past the Gray apple opening screen and there are weird lines across the screen. Only one of my screens is turning on. I tried all of the hardware tests and it said it was in perfect shape although it wouldn't boot.

I had a friend with an old PC Graphics card that I tried putting into the computer and tried booting it up (not supported graphics card) and this time the computer seemed to boot up fine. I could use the key commands to restart the computer and it would restart where key commands to restart wouldn't work before when it would get stuck at the gray screen.

 

[Detig]

My question is: "Would it be safe and wise to trouble shoot the problem by swapping the video card from the new Mac Pro into the old one?"

Yes, it is. I have an Apple Radeon 5770 on my Mac Pro 1,1 myself.

From your description it seems the 7300GT gave up the ghost.

PS: You need a powercable to power the 5770 on the MP 1,1

 

[Dizzi45Z]

PS: You need a powercable to power the 5770 on the MP 1,1

Can you explain this a little further for me? Is this a cable that would attach somewhere to the motherboard on the old Mac Pro?

 

[chedda]

Maybe Fan

Recently i had my screens going blank.Initially i thought it was a dust problem because it improved slightly after i gave it a thorough clean. However it was still happening, after some research i found the the 5780 had a known issue with the fan dying. Sure enough i noticed it was stopping sometimes, a gentle touch and it would spin up again. I got a replacement fan fitted from a cannibalised 4870. So far so good. This may be related, your erratic symptoms may be caused by overheating somewhere, if it's full of dust it won't help.