Graphics Cards Problem. Mac Freezes On Boot Up

[Ninety7]

Recently I was in a session recording, got into mixing and my mac froze. Did a hard Reset and My mac now gets stuck at the grey screen with the apple logo. This has happened numerous times in the past but i would reset the PRAM and it would successfully boot. This time i decided to do a clean install of mavericks 10.9.5. Once it finished installing, I get to the "Select Country" screen & I get the spinning wheel. Nothing Happens. I Have two graphics. I removed the card I installed and all of sudden it works perfectly no problem. What could My problem Be?

Mac Pro 3,1
10.9.5 Mavericks
(x2) Quad-Core intel xeon Processor
16GB Ram
(x4) 1 TB Drives
Stock Card: NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GT 512mb
Secondary Card: ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256mb

 

[ActionableMango]

Not sure which one you removed, but the 8800GT is prone to failure. Baking it has been known to bring it back to life (seriously), but temporarily. They had bad solder or something like that.

Not sure about 2600XT.

 

[Ninety7]

Not sure which one you removed, but the 8800GT is prone to failure. Baking it has been known to bring it back to life (seriously), but temporarily. They had bad solder or something like that.

Not sure about 2600XT.

I removed the 2600XT first. I just tried Both cards individually & theres no problems. Its just when both are popped into a slot my mac wont boot for an odd reason

 

[bsbeamer]

Are you using any NVIDIA drivers or have CUDA installed? Any chance you installed the recent security updates for OSX?

 

[Ninety7]

Are you using any NVIDIA drivers or have CUDA installed? Any chance you installed the recent security updates for OSX?

Im Using OSX Mavericks Currently & im not too sure. I havent downloaded any drivers for either card since ive had the machine. Could That Be the issue??

 

[bsbeamer]

If you have installed any recent updates, there's a possibility it could be related. Unsure at what version(s) the released Spectre & Meltdown fixes stopped. If you can check your OS build number it could help ID what patches/updates may be installed. (Last Mavericks version I'm aware of was 2016.)

There were issues in the 10.13.3 update that basically required SIP to be enabled before being able to proceed. Systems would get "stuck" about 50% through driver install/update. If you are 100% NOT using NVIDIA web drivers, not sure this would happen.

Many on 3,1's have "hacked" it to be identified as a 5,1 (or an iMac) to install the latest macOS High Sierra. The majority of those with NVIDIA cards are using NVIDIA web drivers.

 

[Ninety7]

If you have installed any recent updates, there's a possibility it could be related. Unsure at what version(s) the released Spectre & Meltdown fixes stopped. If you can check your OS build number it could help ID what patches/updates may be installed. (Last Mavericks version I'm aware of was 2016.)

There were issues in the 10.13.3 update that basically required SIP to be enabled before being able to proceed. Systems would get "stuck" about 50% through driver install/update. If you are 100% NOT using NVIDIA web drivers, not sure this would happen.

Many on 3,1's have "hacked" it to be identified as a 5,1 (or an iMac) to install the latest macOS High Sierra. The majority of those with NVIDIA cards are using NVIDIA web drivers.

I just downloaded the security updates from the app store. Im gonna try them out and see what happens