Weird Artifacts upon bootup (Pics Included)

[iOryan]

For the last 5 days upon initial morning bootup I receive weird artifacts on my screen and leopard does not fully bootup. After that, when I restart it - it's back to normal.

Picture: http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6473/picture2sl4.png

Side Info:
-I turn off my mac everynight, after doing a little research I've heard it isn't the best idea to prolong the life of my mac. (Mine would be off for 7hours before powered on again)
-If I turn off/restart my mac in the middle of the day, I do not get this problem.

SPECs:
Mac Pro Gen1
2xQuadcores 3.0GHz
5gb of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT
HDD Bay1: 250gb
HDD Bay2: 750gb
Blackmagic Intensity Pro (PCIE Card)

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for anyone who helps.

[Sorkvild]

I am almost absolutely certain your video card is on its last legs. I posted here with the same problem on a G4, you can check out my pic here. Had to get a new card, just before I was about to sell it :mad:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=479001

[mobilehaathi]

Yeah, I would say bad video card.

[rockinrocker]

it (the video card) might just need to be reseated....

[nanofrog]

it (the video card) might just need to be reseated....
Easy to do, and costs nothing, so it's worth a shot. ;)
If it doesn't work, only a few minutes of time was spent. Unfortunately, I don't think this will solve it. A new graphics card is likely. :(

[iOryan]

Easy to do, and costs nothing, so it's worth a shot. ;)
If it doesn't work, only a few minutes of time was spent. Unfortunately, I don't think this will solve it. A new graphics card is likely. :(

Thanks for the suggestions, but the reseating thing didn't work. I even changed the slot - alas no working result. I'm guessing I'm just going to chip away my paycheck at a better graphics card - any recommendations? (I might aswell go big now so it lasts me more then a year :rolleyes:)

[nanofrog]

Thanks for the suggestions, but the reseating thing didn't work. I even changed the slot - alas no working result. I'm guessing I'm just going to chip away my paycheck at a better graphics card - any recommendations? (I might aswell go big now so it lasts me more then a year :rolleyes:)
ATI Radeon HD 3870 PC & Mac Ed (http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=3857975).
A decent overall performance card at an affordable price as well. :)

Possible articles of interest:
http://www.barefeats.com/harper16.html
http://www.barefeats.com/harper17.html
http://www.barefeats.com/harper18.html

[iOryan]

ATI Radeon HD 3870 PC & Mac Ed (http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=3857975).
A decent overall performance card at an affordable price as well. :)

Possible articles of interest:
http://www.barefeats.com/harper16.html
http://www.barefeats.com/harper17.html
http://www.barefeats.com/harper18.html

oh wow, thanks mate. Perfect for my gaming/work lifestyle. :)

[yomibro]

I got something similar to this today on my MacPro, kinda worse then the picture so what I did was just reboot the system and everything seems to be fine. The funny part of this is that the Thinkpad T43 that I had also suffered the same issue when I opened the lid, kind of a weird coincidence that it happened in two separate machines at the same time on the same day. :confused: