Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

*cry* Mac Pro dead after trying Radeon 4870

T

ThatOdieGuy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 13, 2010
7
0
So searching through the forums here, I decided to get a Radeon 4870 for my Mac Pro 2008. Put it in my machine, all happy to hack this baby and play Starcraft 2 smoothly. Turned the machine on, it's not booting, and I smell electronic burning. Ut oh. Turn it off, take out the card, try to boot. Nope. Machine does nothing for a little bit, then slowly the fans go to maximum power. :( Tried resetting the PMU, unplug computer, hold down power for 5 seconds, and still the same issue.

So what are my options here? I haven't called Apple because it's out of warranty. Looking around, apparently it's a $1000 logic board replacement. That's nuts. I'd rather just sell my MacBook here and get a MacBook Pro to replace both machines.
 
Ouch. I take it you've tried your old graphics card in there instead of the 4870. Where did you get the 4870 from? If it's a genuine Apple 4870 then I'd suggest booking an Apple appointment and taking it all in. It may be out of warranty but if it's messed up because of a supported genuine Apple graphics upgrade card then they could maybe be convinced to honour your logic board repair (just be reasonable with them and not aggressive).

If it's a flashed 4870 or a second hand card then your options are limited. However, if the worst comes to the worst you can eBay your faulty Mac Pro. I just saw a non starting 2006 Mac Pro sell for £450 ($750). I thought the starting price of £450 was quite high but someone bid on it. Faulty Macs really do command a premium.
 
Don't take it to the apple store.

I find a local place here in Dallas,Texas called Mactracks and they fixed mine for about 950$ it was a fast repair which would have taken 2 weeks at the apple store.

Oh and on a funny note. The apple store i dropped my MacPro didn't even know the GTX 285 was a mac graphics card. I laughed.
 
Did you buy the appropriate aux 12v cables from the logic board to the 4870? Otherwise it could draw too much power off the PCI bus and burn out the traces. Normally it just wouldn't power up if it were in a PC, but if this was a hacked bios/EFI, who knows what failsafes were lost.
 
shokunin said:
if this was a hacked bios/EFI, who knows what failsafes were lost.
Click to expand...

I'd really like to know what happened. After dozens of hours pouring through Cintori, Rominator and Netkas' work on this forum I was just about to push the button on a 4870 with a part number that seemed flashable, but you scared the BE-JEZUS out of me. I can't afford to fry a new vid card let alone the Mac Pro.

Please do inform us.
 
I'm no expert, just putting out a guess as to what could / may have caused problems. Don't let me scare you from using a flashed card. But the OP left out a lot of details if the card was hacked, which hack, and the process used. What happens if OP put the original Video card back in, etc..

All we know it could also be the PSU had trouble on 12v rail and burnt out.
 
hahahaa, no, flashed cards dont kill your mac pro. this guy didnt even flash it before his mac burned out. he probaly short wired something.
 
Cindori said:
hahahaa, no, flashed cards dont kill your mac pro. this guy didnt even flash it before his mac burned out. he probaly short wired something.
Click to expand...

I would side with you here. Short wired or faulty power supply, but a flashed card won't kill a system. Worst case scenario is it won't load your display lol.
 
Penny wise pound foolish. This is why I stick to the Apple branded video card even if it costs a bit more than some off the shelf hack.
 
Hey guys! ok, so! Update. Machine is up and running again. WHEW! Sorry to scare anyone!

Here's the card I used. Not hacked (yet), just had it and the stock HD 2600.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150436&cm_re=4870-_-14-150-436-_-Product

I hooked up the power stuff properly as far as I can tell. I might have had a loose connection though? But this board wants two 6 pin connectors hooked up to it. The card came with two 2x4pin to 1x6pin adapters. And then has this pamphlet with it that says "Don't use those types of adapters". Geeze.

Burning smell might have just been dust in the computer or the smell might have been the fresh card fan or whatever. Who knows?

Anyways. I tried resetting the PMU on the device, as Apple support pages say the symptoms I had could be a PMU issue. Power off device, hold down power button for 5 seconds. Plug in device, turn on. Right? Tried that a few times. No go.

But yesterday I unplugged the machine and keep it unplugged until today I decided to give it a try just for kicks. And voila! Magic. I was so scared of that $1000 repair...


So I'm not sure what to do now from here. I've got a 5670 that works great in the machine under Windows and I really only care for the better card to play games under Windows. So, swapping the DVI cable every now and then isn't a horrible problem for me.

But when I thought the machine was dead, I was kind of set on selling that dead machine, my MacBook and getting a MacBook Pro (with AppleCare) and just be done screwing around with hardware.

Or, I could try flashing a different card? But I'm scared about all of that. Or buy the expensive Apple 4870. Blah.

Suggestions?!
 
Burning smell could mean you are taxing something in the system. Leave it in long enough you could get the magic smoke and a dead system. I would double check everything.
 
Ok, scratch that. The system is working now because I removed one of my hard drives before taking it in to Apple. Then I tested it again. When the system was back to working, I put the hard drive back in, and it's having the same boot issue. If I plug a hard drive into drive 3 or 4, it exhibits the symptoms I was having originally.

Think I blew out part of the power supply? Much cheaper replacement over a logicboard. And I can live without bays 3 and 4 if needed.
 
ThatOdieGuy said:
Ok, scratch that. The system is working now because I removed one of my hard drives before taking it in to Apple. Then I tested it again. When the system was back to working, I put the hard drive back in, and it's having the same boot issue. If I plug a hard drive into drive 3 or 4, it exhibits the symptoms I was having originally.

Think I blew out part of the power supply? Much cheaper replacement over a logicboard. And I can live without bays 3 and 4 if needed.
Click to expand...

the boot issue, is it hang @ grey screen?
 
Naw, doesn't get any video. Just silent for a bit, then the fans slowly go to super speed.

Found the ACTUAL culprit though. Took the system apart just a little bit to see if I could test the SATA bays. But apparently all the power cords come from the motherboard. So I didn't think it was a power supply issue.

Took all the hard drives out, took the drive I was trying in bay 3 & 4 and put it in bay 1. System didn't POST as before. Took out that drive, attached it to an external USB SATA adapter I have and saw smoke! Pic attached of a fried transistor or whatever that is. Mystery solved. Computer good to go. I think I had everything on that drive backed up!

http://tinypic.com/r/901634/4

Thanks for trying to help guys.
 
ThatOdieGuy said:
Naw, doesn't get any video. Just silent for a bit, then the fans slowly go to super speed.

Found the ACTUAL culprit though. Took the system apart just a little bit to see if I could test the SATA bays. But apparently all the power cords come from the motherboard. So I didn't think it was a power supply issue.

Took all the hard drives out, took the drive I was trying in bay 3 & 4 and put it in bay 1. System didn't POST as before. Took out that drive, attached it to an external USB SATA adapter I have and saw smoke! Pic attached of a fried transistor or whatever that is. Mystery solved. Computer good to go. I think I had everything on that drive backed up!

http://tinypic.com/r/901634/4

Thanks for trying to help guys.
Click to expand...

Man, I know exactly how you felt when things went wrong! I am glad everything worked out.

K
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back