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My Mac has started crashing more than windows!! Could be X1900?

B

big_malk

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 7, 2005
557
1
Scotland
Hi, over the last few days my Mac has started crashing more and more often.
Sometimes the screen goes black but iTunes keeps playing, sometimes the screen freezes and I can still control iTunes with the keyboard, sometimes everything freezes, and iTunes goes into a loop repeating a fraction of a second of music over and over again (sounds like a car trying to start, and failing). I can't find my panic.log file anywhere.

This could be related to my other thread about random horizontal lines here, but I don't know, there doesn't seem to be any connection between when the lines and the crashes happen.

It's been suggested that this could be an issue with my ATI Radeon X1900 XT, but I really don't know where to start trouble shooting, if that is the case. I haven't installed any updates recently, apart from the Apple Java update which wouldn't appear to be related to this anyway.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!! :)
 
That definitely sounds like a hardware issue with your graphics card. It might sound obvious but call apple and get it repaired. Thats my best advice :).
 
Mr Black said:
That definitely sounds like a hardware issue with your graphics card. It might sound obvious but call apple and get it repaired. Thats my best advice :).
Click to expand...

My Mac isn't under warranty any more and I'm miles n miles from the nearest Apple store :( and a Mac Pro isn't exactly the easiest thing to move!

Is there any hardware test I can run that could test a graphics card reliably?
 
Have you physically checked the card to make sure dust isn't blocking the air intake on the heat sink?
 
Amdahl said:
Have you physically checked the card to make sure dust isn't blocking the air intake on the heat sink?
Click to expand...

I often take the side of and bump up the fan speeds with smcFan control, but I hadn't actually taken a good look recently.

There is some dust on the intake, but not a huge amount, and I usually notice when the fans start spinning up more than usual, and they haven't, so I assume the card isn't getting overly hot or anything like that.
 
Taking the side off is actually detrimental, as it significantly reduces the front-to-back airflow pattern of the machine. If you're covered by your 1 year warranty you should be able to call Apple's support line and have the issue sussed out. Once they determine that it's a hardware problem, they'll send you a box to ship the machine to Apple to be repaired at their cost.
 
killmoms said:
If you're covered by your 1 year warranty you should be able to call Apple's support line and have the issue sussed out. Once they determine that it's a hardware problem, they'll send you a box to ship the machine to Apple to be repaired at their cost.
Click to expand...

big_malk said:
My Mac isn't under warranty any more and I'm miles n miles from the nearest Apple store :( and a Mac Pro isn't exactly the easiest thing to move!
Click to expand...

That isn't really an option :p

Well when I take the side off and bump the fans up to full speed, I can see the dust getting blown out the side, and the temperatures drop pretty quick, so it does do some good...
 
Ah, my apologies. Well, I mean, you could try getting a new card and replacing it yourself, but it might be something else entirely. This is why I always advocate the purchase of AppleCare—let them suss out what's wrong and replace it.
 
killmoms said:
Ah, my apologies. Well, I mean, you could try getting a new card and replacing it yourself, but it might be something else entirely. This is why I always advocate the purchase of AppleCare—let them suss out what's wrong and replace it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have AppleCare on my MacBook Pro, but I bought my Mac Pro from eBay a year ago this month, and it didn't have AppleCare, bit late now :(

I can't even reproduce the problem, so taking into a genius would probably be useless, and I've just started a web development company, so now isn't a good time to be without my Mac Pro!
 
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