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Installed new Graphics card, now having problems booting.

Joshh1

Joshh1

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 14, 2007
118
0
Northern Michigan.
So I just got my Radeon 9800 in, set it all up (my power extender was quite fragile so I just went directly from the PSU and stock plug to the card., put it in my G4, works perfectly.

Then, I want to make sure all is alright since the original plug sits in a little higher since theirs wires coming under it, not into it (if you get what I'm saying)

make sure all is good, pull the card out, put it back in re connect the power.. and my Mac boots to the grey screen and then the blue but I get no "Starting Mac OS X" screen.

reset my PRAM / NVRAM, still nothing

boot from CD, run disk utility, both drives are fine

put stock card in, boots fine, put 9800 get the blue screen once more.

So I am stumped, could the card have went from good to bad THAT fast?

I 'discharged' my self of static , so I doubt that i killed the card.

Any advice? I've been trying everything I can think of....:confused:


Edit: now seems that the stock card isn't booting either..
 
Have you tried booting from your Mac OS install disk? This would help rule out driver/os issues with the card.

Is the card a Mac Version? (Dunno how the hardware ID's are mapped for MAC OS but its worth thinking about).

um other than trying the card in another computer I have nothing....
 
With the card in I could not boot from the disc, but I can boot into safe boot.

Card shows up in System profiler. Without safe boot it goes to blue screen and just freezes, one time I got a kernel panic with the original card.

I installed ATI Displays, and then this started happening, I deleted ATi Displays and un checked it from my start up programs, but still can not boot.
 
Which OS are you trying to boot from?

As you can boot from a DVD, it doesn't seem faulty hardware is the issue.
Could it be that you have driver issues..? You have installed the ATi Displays (newest??), but the fact you can Safe-Boot seems that OS / drivers are likely to be the culprit.

Any chance of a "clean install" of Mac OS X 10.4.x, followed by the newest ATi Displays 4.5.7 install?
If that doesn't work either, then maybe there is a hardware issue with the card which only occurs during some special request (like Core Image or Quartz Extreme...), resulting in a well performing Safe-Boot...
 
MacsRgr8 said:
Which OS are you trying to boot from?

As you can boot from a DVD, it doesn't seem faulty hardware is the issue.
Could it be that you have driver issues..? You have installed the ATi Displays (newest??), but the fact you can Safe-Boot seems that OS / drivers are likely to be the culprit.

Any chance of a "clean install" of Mac OS X 10.4.x, followed by the newest ATi Displays 4.5.7 install?
If that doesn't work either, then maybe there is a hardware issue with the card which only occurs during some special request (like Core Image or Quartz Extreme...), resulting in a well performing Safe-Boot...
Click to expand...


Trying to boot from disc is 10.4.6, I have 10.4.11 installed.

I'm looking for the latest 9800 driver, and then I'll install the 4.5.7 and see how I go, if not I will do a clean install of tiger.
 
FYI, I have a MDD G4 Dual 1.25 GHz (FW 800 model), with the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (128 MB VRAM, AGP 2x /4x) card, running Mac OS X 10.4.11 with the ATi Displays 4.5.7 (linked above), and it works fine.

So, your software versions seem okay, let's see if the clean install will help.
Helping you hoping!
 
Well I just installed the newest driver I could find and the new displays version, I'm going to reboot if nothing happens I will do a clean install.

Before I do it though, is there any possible way to back up my apps on my 2nd hard drive?
 
Probably the best option is to use Carbon Copy Cloner to create an image of your drive and copy that to the second drive. Then wipe the drive and reinstall. From there you can mount the disk image and copy your apps, app support folders, and preference folders over to the new install.

http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
 
Joshh1 said:
Before I do it though, is there any possible way to back up my apps on my 2nd hard drive?
Click to expand...

Usually your apps are installed in /Applications.. HOWEVER... many installed apps like Adobe CS 3, Final Cut, iLife.. etc. also place lots of data in the /Library/Application Support/ directories, and possibly other locations on your HD aswell.. :(

It could be a good idea to perfom an "Archive and Install", explained here.
 
MacsRgr8 said:
Usually your apps are installed in /Applications.. HOWEVER... many installed apps like Adobe CS 3, Final Cut, iLife.. etc. also place lots of data in the /Library/Application Support/ directories, and possibly other locations on your HD aswell.. :(

It could be a good idea to perfom an "Archive and Install", explained here.
Click to expand...

Well the only things I can't really just 'get again' is Toast 9. Which I'm sure I'll be able to come across. Everything else is just freeware.. So I think I'll just to a clean install, say screw the apps and start fresh..

I'll report back.
 
Well, no luck.

I have a CD version of Tiger, I get the 1st disc done then it just says "Your computer will restart in:countdown:"

it reboots grey screen > blank blue screen.


I'm going to try one more time.
 
When it comes to fixing issues like these try to remember KISS (Keep It Super Simple). I would try to reducing the system to a basic configuration. Unplug everything but one stick of RAM, hard drive, the stock video card, and a keyboard/mouse. You may want to keep the CD-Rom drive connected to see if you can reinstall again. Try resetting the PMU using the button on the logic board. Reset the NVRAM in open firmware, reset the PRAM with the key combination, and start from there.

I'm not sure what the 9800 may had done, if anything. I know it has a failsafe built in so that it won't allow the system to boot without the power adapter plugged in.
 
Thanks TDM.

I've given up for the night, just a bit stressed out now.

I plan to return the 9800, and see what I can do with just the stock card. I've got all of my important stuff saved to my one drive, so I'm not too worried.

You guys have been a ton of help, I greatly appreciate it.
 
Just want to update:

I've stripped everything down as you mentioned TMD, using the 'KISS' methoad, still nothing.

Like said, I have a Tiger CD set that I use to install on Machines without a DVD drive. So usually it goes from say "Installing Essentials" to "Please insert disk 2"

Instead it goes directly to "Installing Asian Language Support" then "Finishing Installation"

I've used 2 different hard drives still no luck.. I'm thinking that my CD drive maybe going? Going to see if I can swap it with a DVD drive tonight and try to install with a Tiger DVD..


I'm open to any suggestions.
 
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