2 video cards dead. Mac Pro or 2 bad cards?

[bhodgson0739]

Hi all,

I have a 2008 Early Mac Pro. I bought it with an Nvidia 8800GT... about 2 months ago, I tried hard-restarting it and display would never boot back up. I reset PRAM, SMC, reseated card, switched slots, etc. It would boot up in target disk mode fine and I could share the screen with my Macbook.
So, after talking with a Apple genius and him just confirming what I already believed to be true, I bought a new video card... the ATI Radeon HD3870 (well, I bought a card from a user on here first and received the completely wrong product and never heard anything again... but that's a completely different story). Installed it, worked great... got display again.

This lasted a month. I was booted into Bootcamp working on some multi-track audio stuff, and the screen cut out. It came back on for a second, then cut back off. Restarting the computer, and no display. Ugh. Same steps above, reset PRAM, SMC, reseated card, switched slots, I can boot to target disk mode, screen share.

So my question is, is there any reason for me to think my logic board could be shorting out my video card? Or the power supply? Doesn't seem logical as I figure I would see all sorts of other problems if I had a malfunctioning power supply or bad logic board... but maybe I'm wrong? Is there a chance my Nvidia just died after a year or so, and the new ATI I bought a month ago was just a dud?

ATI is sending me a new card under warranty, it's just a big hassle not having a computer since I do a lot of work at home so I'd love to try and iron out the issue if anyone has any ideas.

Thanks all,
Brad

[Dr.Pants]

If your 3rd card dies, contact Apple. I have had a mobo die and take the video card with it on a PC - It wasn't the PSU as it has powered another computer just fine (and still does).

However, hardware problems are far and wide, and it really comes down to what specific part breaks. Since usually poking around invokes voided warrenties, its hard to tell if the problem is hardware or you are an unfortunate victim of circumstance, which you may be :(

[gugucom]

The stock fan on the 3870 really sucks. It runs the card loud and hot. Could really be a temperature issue. Did check your temps occasionally. I run the 3870 with a 2 slot fan with heat pipes and it is good as gold.

[UltraNEO*]

Out of curiosity, did you try those cards in a different slot? Does it do the same thing?

[bhodgson0739]

Thanks all for the replies..

Gugucom, is there a way to do that without voiding the warranty of the card?

UltraNEO, yea in both instances I switched the cards to the other PCIe 16 slot without luck.

I hope it's not a logic board/PSU problem as my computer is out of warranty... I'm still hoping that isn't the issue as I haven't seen any other problems.

Maybe I can find a way to purchase an extra silent fan to mount somewhere on the Mac Pro to help keep it cooler if in fact the video card deaths are heat related?

Thanks again all...

[bhodgson0739]

Anyone have any other thoughts on this?

[Genghis Khan]

Anyone have any other thoughts on this?

If your 3rd card dies, contact Apple. I have had a mobo die and take the video card with it on a PC - It wasn't the PSU as it has powered another computer just fine (and still does).

However, hardware problems are far and wide, and it really comes down to what specific part breaks. Since usually poking around invokes voided warrenties, its hard to tell if the problem is hardware or you are an unfortunate victim of circumstance, which you may be

That's the best answer unfortunately...

[gugucom]

Thanks all for the replies..

Gugucom, is there a way to do that without voiding the warranty of the card?
.

I'm afraid there isn't.