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Video Card problem -Replacement??

R

rocketiz

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 24, 2011
2
0
Hi folks. I'm new to this group and could use some help with a video card problem.
Here's a description:

About 1.5 months ago things started when I had a Kernel Panic and was required to restart my computer (Mac Pro 3,1 2.8 GHz) running leopard. A few days later, while working as usual, the screen started being composed of blinking dots and eventually a blue screen. About a year and a half ago I had to replace my video card and I bought a ATI Radeon 3870 from OWC. This worked fine until this problem. I don't think this is a HD problem since after the first Kernel Panic I checked my HD with Disk Utilities and it said it was OK. Further I have a mirror raid (software) and lastly, through my network, I have access to the HD. When I reboot the computer, it recognizes the HD and has blinking squares and small dots but boots and eventually gets to a solid blue screen (the mouse cursor is visible at first although later it is a beachball and latter it disappears).

I swapped monitors and the problem persisted. So I suspected the video card. I'm wondering if my computer has a problem with video cards. I called OWC and they suggested the ATI HD 5770 card - but I discovered that it will not work with Leopard - it needs Snow Leopard 10.6.4 and I don't wish to upgrade my OS right now.

Well about 3 weeks ago for no reason the computer started working again and worked fine until now with the same problem (blinking squares and stripes and nothing else. In the meantime, I have purchased the HD 5770 card. But now I have this dilemma ---- how can I install this video card without installing snow leopard 6.4 and how can I install snow leopard 6.4 without any video?????????

Thank you -sorry for the long post

Rich
 
I doubt there's a way to install the 5770 without SL.

do you mind used parts? besides another 3870, there's the 8800GT, GTX 285, GT 120 (also available new), and HD 4870.
 
derbothaus said:
GT120 is like buying an integrated graphics controller for your PCI bus. It is slower than what OP has now. Just upgrade to 10.6 and get the 5770. Everything works with 10.6 right now. Why the hold up?
Click to expand...

A) He stated he doesn't want Snow Leopard.
B) Even if he did want Snow Leopard, there's no way to install the retail disk with a 5770.
 
ActionableMango said:
A) He stated he doesn't want Snow Leopard.
B) Even if he did want Snow Leopard, there's no way to install the retail disk with a 5770.
Click to expand...

You can build it up and patch it on an external HD. Or do it on a headless remote connection via screen sharing.
 
update

Thanks folks for the help.

Well, Just for the heck of it I installed the HD 5770 graphic card into my Mac Pro which still has Leopard. I expected that upon booting that I would have no video or very distorted video. I was quite surprised that for the most part it booted up and I do have the correct desktop and most applications seem to work????
I did notice that VLC would no longer play movies, my screen saver would not work and crashed, some video was a bit "jerky". It has been suggested that the HD 5770 driver does (did) not support openGL software?

So my next step, since I have video, would be to upgrade to SnowLeopard the usual way. The DVD would only get me to 6.3 and I would have to further upgrade online. I do wonder if the upgrade itself would screw-up the HD 5770 function since I would guess that there would be a different driver.

Any comments/advice???
 
I'm guessing it is working with the generic SVGA driver then, which explains why you get standard desktop display and apps working but no acceleration and poor video. To take advantage of the 5770 you'll have to upgrade to 10.6.4 or Lion.
 
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