HELP! Brand New PowerMac G5 with bizzare problems...

[quidire]

Hello all,

I just got my PM this past Saturday, and now...

well some bizzare graphics glitch occurred, and just got worse and worse.

I managed to take a screenshot before the thing went to hell and I had to reboot. No matter what setting I set Preview to, I can't get it down to a size MacRumors will let me upload, so here it is at .Mac:
A screenshot

The full set up is:
a 23" Apple Cinema Display
connected to
PowerMac 2x2.0GHz G5
2.5 GB RAM (2 1GB sticks from OWC)
ATI X850

I am not using any unsanity theming stuff... Really pretty bog-standard other than Quicksilver, Growl, and a bunch of apps that really couldn't cause this to happen - could it?

For what its worth, there was no virtual mem thrashing, and the CPU load seemed low.

I don't have readings from then, but the current temperature readings (pretty much the same as those taken after I rebooted)
CPU A Die Temp 54.2 °C (has been over 60 °C recently)
CPU B Die Temp 49.7 °C
Drive Bay 30.5 °C
Main Logic Board Backside 44.5 °C
Memory Controller Heatsink 56.1 °C
Processor Card A Ambient 45.5 °C
Processor Card B Ambient 43.2 °C
Maxtor HD 40.0 °C

What do I do?

-RS

 

[zach]

it's your graphics card.

this is the same type of issue you get when overclocking graphics cards. most likely, it's overheating or missing a heat sink or something.

just call up apple, or bring it to an apple store, tell them you're getting massive display artifacting, and ask for a new video card.

if you get lucky, they might send you one, and you wouldn't even have to send it in.

 

[quidire]

Thanks, I'll give that a go at 9am PDT.

Has anyone encountered this personally before? Have there been any reports of the X850 being unreliable?

-RS

 

[mad jew]

Weird. I've only ever seen that on Windows. I'd definitely get the graphics card checked out.

From http://www.xvsxp.com/:

 

[quidire]

It was indeed the graphics card; Apple is sending a new one out to me (they offered to install it themselves, but I don't want to wait that long)

-RS

 

[Little Endian]

Yeah I've seen that before with my Geforce 6800Gt. Your GPU is overheating or allready damaged for whatever reason. Be sure to check that the Fan in your PCI bay is working adequately. You would not want your replacement card overheating as well if it is a cooling issue. Usually if you have a bad Graphics card things are bad from the get go and manifest themselves immediately. I have also heard of other quality control issues pertaining to the x800 and x850XT Radeon Mac Cards.

 

[quidire]

Yeah I've seen that before with my Geforce 6800Gt. Your GPU is overheating or allready damaged for whatever reason. Be sure to check that the Fan in your PCI bay is working adequately. You would not want your replacement card overheating as well if it is a cooling issue. Usually if you have a bad Graphics card things are bad from the get go and manifest themselves immediately. I have also heard of other quality control issues pertaining to the x800 and x850XT Radeon Mac Cards.

Well this occurred yesterday, my 3rd day of owning the computer (thus manifesting "right at the start" as it were).

I'll look in on that when the replacement arrives.

I have to say, I'm quite pleased w/ Apple's flexibility re: shipping the replacement to me. I suppose it saves them the cost of labour to do it themselves, but I know Sony and Dell have been far less easy-going about warranty repairs.

-RS

 

[Mord]

while your at it do you midn takeing a picture of the x850XT? i'd be interested in what cooler is used.

 

[zach]

glad that issue got resolved... you got lucky, apple sent you another one

are they going to make you return the other one? if not, leave it in the machine, use a utility like ATIcellerator II to downclock it to a stable point, and tada, quad displays are possible