Accidentally Overclocked my Radeon X1900 now mac is crashing

[Funkfish]

Hey guys so I have a bit of a dilemma.

Basically when I first got my Quad 2.66 Mac Pro I was all amped to finally play some windows games on my mac. This was at the beginning of bootcamp and driver support was pretty poor or so it seemed. The included bootcamp drivers weren't working well with my Radeon X1900XT video card. So I installed the Catalyst drivers from ATI and of course it has an option for overclocking which I turned on. Things we're fine for a while but then games started crashing I thought it was a windows thing, but then it started happening on my mac. I looked at the catalyst drivers and they think that the card isn't overclocked so there isn't anything to turn down. So I disregarded my problem as a hardware problem.

Then today I read an article about the new iMacs running too hot and crashing displaying graphical distortions similar to an overclocked video card......similar to my mac pro.

So now I'm pretty sure it's my card running too hot because these are the symptoms.

Games on loooowww res are fine, games on hi res crash and shut down the computer or freeze it. Switching to full screen in quicktime with HD video crashes it. Graphical distortions in the UI in regular programs. ect

So what can I do to fix this? I was thinking of just using my apple care, but I think if they find out that I overclocked the card I'm screwed. I should also say that I have recently formatted my harddrive and erased the windows partition and upgraded to leopard, If I need to put windows back on I can, but I'd like to avoid that. is there a simple fix that I can do like resetting the pram or what?

 

[Eidorian]

Then today I read an article about the new iMacs running too hot and crashing displaying graphical distortions similar to an overclocked video card......similar to my mac pro.

And that's where the similarities end.

The X1900 has been know to overheat in the Mac Pro since last year. I'd give Apple a call.

 

[jellomizer]

One of the dangers of overclocking is the chips heat up beyond their recomended limits. You may have damaged the card... Sorry...

You may need a replacement Video Card... But first. I would make sure the driver has over clocking turned off FIRST! Then Possible reinstall windows...

That may fix the problem.

 

[topgunn]

You almost certainly DID NOT damage your card. The catalyst drivers are smart enough not to let you overclock to a ridiculous amount without first testing the settings. Even if you did manage to overclock your video card five times over, the GPU itself would shut itself down before permenant damage was done. This technology has been mainstream in CPUs and GPUs since the Pentium III.

Eidorian is right. The X1900 overheating is a known issue with Apple. After calling them, they will likely send a new card your direction.

 

[trainguy77]

Call apple tell them what is happening they will send you a revision 2 version of the card other people have had similar problems. http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=94000596&sid=1 That doesn't just apply to WOW but any game.

 

[MKerr64]

I had the same problem with my Mac Pro
all i had to do was mod the graphics card.

i just got the ThermalTake TMG at1 and swapped it with the stock
i just had to cut the wire from the original and sodder + heat shrink it and it works perfectly

you do not feel the hot air rushing out but the cooler is huge and keeps the card really cool

hope that works for you if you plan to do it

if you want photos and somewhat of a tutorial how to do it, PM me and i will post something

mkerr64@hotmail.com


Here is the tutorial:
http://forums.macnn.com/73/mac-modification/363849/mac-pro-ati-x1900-cooling-mod/#post3632883