Help! Vertical Lines on start up!

[Djohnsen11]

I have an early 2009 Mac Pro with a stock ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB Graphics card. When I try and start up, I get grey vertical lines across the screen. It then freezes on startup (progress bar on logo screen). I have tried resetting the PRAM (OPT/CMD PR) and replacing the battery on the board. I have also tried starting in safe mode and have gotten logged on but still have vertical lines everywhere and the computer is pretty slow.

Has anyone encountered this? any solutions?

 

[MacVidCards]

SOunds like time for new GPU.

They typically aren't fixable. Baking sometimes helps but I have never done it on ATI/AMD cards.

 

[Djohnsen11]

SOunds like time for new GPU.

They typically aren't fixable. Baking sometimes helps but I have never done it on ATI/AMD cards.

Any suggestions on replacement? Looks like there aren't many options for new Mac compatible cards. I have an apple display and need a mini display port.

 

[h9826790]

Reference 7950 is a good card to replace the 4870. You can flash it on your own (otherwise, no boot screen). Dual mini display port. Use Apple native driver. Dual 6 pin input. Basically, it's a simple upgrade from your 4870 and keep all other stuff in the same config (both hardware and software).

 

[Djohnsen11]

Reference 7950 is a good card to replace the 4870. You can flash it on your own (otherwise, no boot screen). Dual mini display port. Use Apple native driver. Dual 6 pin input. Basically, it's a simple upgrade from your 4870 and keep all other stuff in the same config (both hardware and software).

So im browsing around, there seems to be like 4-5 different ones, can you post a link to the one you are talking about? And im not sure about the driver/flash process.

 

[h9826790]

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...tem-information.1808938/page-14#post-21607156

I am using this card now. This card is quite big, therefore I only recommend this if you don't need to install a full length card in slot 2 (short card like the PCIe USB 3.0 card is ok) .

If you are with OSX 10.9 or later, it's plug and play. No need to install any driver.

The link above (the whole thread) did talk about the flash part and how to make it run at PCIe 2.0. However, none of them are required. The flash part will give you the boot screen. Unless you need something like access the recovery partition, there is almost no real practical reason that you must use the flashed card.

The R17 resistor removal is more like for fun. It gives you almost zero benefit in real life. So, no need to do that either (assuming you install this card in slot 1).

 

[BobDesktop]

I have an early 2009 Mac Pro with a stock ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB Graphics card. When I try and start up, I get grey vertical lines across the screen. It then freezes on startup (progress bar on logo screen). I have tried resetting the PRAM (OPT/CMD PR) and replacing the battery on the board. I have also tried starting in safe mode and have gotten logged on but still have vertical lines everywhere and the computer is pretty slow.

Has anyone encountered this? any solutions?

Hi Djohnsen11,
I have the same ATI Radeon HD 4870 in my Pro Mac Xeon desktop tower and got the same problem with the vertical lines.
EDIT: actually I have the ATI Radeon HD 5870.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-2012-vertical-lines-at-startup-help.2121286/

Ultimately, what was the solution for your desktop?

Thanks, Bob