Flashed XFX 4870 Broken

[Dark Dragoon]

I have a Mac Pro 1.1 and I've been successfully running a flashed XFX ATi 4870 card for a month or so.

Yesterday evening I left my computer in sleep mode, when I came back it appeared to be awake with only one of the two screens working and everything frozen. Both screens were connected to an Apple ATi 2600 XT and nothing was connected to the 4870.

I held down the power button and restarted, the fans on the graphics cards ramp up and then down as usual and the computer makes the startup dong noise. I can hear the hard drives and optical drives working as usual then the drives appear to shutdown and I'm left with the computer apparently doing nothing.

- Fans are running
- Screens are in standby (LED's on)
- Both screens are connected to the ATi 2600
- 2 x 20in Apple Cinema Displays
- Nothing is connected to the ATi 4870
- No LEDs are lit up inside the case

Once I remove the ATi 4870 the computer starts up normally, putting the 4870 back in give the same startup problem.

Is there anything I can do to get the 4870 working again?

 

[lannister80]

First thing I would do would be to try to boot the machine without the 2600 in the box.

If you have both monitors connected to the 2600, why do you even have the 4870 installed?

 

[Dark Dragoon]

The computer acts the same with only the 4870 inside, I've tried it in both slot 1 and 2. The 2600 works fine on it's own in either slot 1 or 2.

I usually have 3 screens connected though the third one is currently connected to another computer, and hasn't been connected up for a week or so.

Although I bought the 4870 to be able to use OpenCL as I'd like to see if I can speed up some things using it.

 

[lannister80]

The computer acts the same with only the 4870 inside, I've tried it in both slot 1 and 2. The 2600 works fine on it's own in either slot 1 or 2.

I usually have 3 screens connected though the third one is currently connected to another computer, and hasn't been connected up for a week or so.

Although I bought the 4870 to be able to use OpenCL as I'd like to see if I can speed up some things using it.

And the card was officially flashed, not just using injectors, right?

In that case, wow, no idea. Will the machine boot into Windows via bootcamp with the 4870 installed? If not, you should be able to RMA the card. Could be it just up and died.

 

[Dark Dragoon]

I don't have bootcamp installed however I cannot boot from an Ultimate Boot CD or an OS X 10.6 disk. Also key combinations like Cmd + Option + P + R and eject don't work when the 4870 is installed. It seems like it's locking up the computer just after the startup sound.

The card was flashed with the XFX Rom, I used the instructions here. Unfortunately as the card was flashed the warranty is void so I don't think I can RMA it.

 

[lannister80]

I don't have bootcamp installed however I cannot boot from an Ultimate Boot CD or an OS X 10.6 disk. Also key combinations like Cmd + Option + P + R and eject don't work when the 4870 is installed. It seems like it's locking up the computer just after the startup sound.

The card was flashed with the XFX Rom, I used the instructions here. Unfortunately as the card was flashed the warranty is void so I don't think I can RMA it.

I'm pretty confident that your flash had nothing to do with the death of the card, especially if you followed the Swissman guide like I did. Only if you were messing with fan/temp settings might you have caused its premature death.

I'd just RMA it. They'll never know it was flashed, and I think you're in the clear morally as it's very doubtful your flash had anything to do with it dying. It's like those idiots at Dell (or wherever) that void people's hardware warranty when they install Linux on the machine. I mean, COME ON.

 

[MacVidCards]

I'm pretty confident that your flash had nothing to do with the death of the card, especially if you followed the Swissman guide like I did. Only if you were messing with fan/temp settings might you have caused its premature death.

I'd just RMA it. They'll never know it was flashed, and I think you're in the clear morally as it's very doubtful your flash had anything to do with it dying.

What he said.