Just got 2.8 MP Octo. 15 mins in,.. screen froze..

[sparkie7]

Apple delivered a refurb MP. And I just hooked it to my 30" ACD. Then suddenly the screen froze with digital artifact lines and squares. Only way to release it was to do a hard shut-down. And restart.

Looks like its the stock standard graphics card. Is there any know probs with the ATI 2600

Also under Graphics/Displays. it just says ATI Radeon HD 2600 (rather than 2600 "XT") guess its the same card

Should I call Apple and get this exchange?

 

[rockinrocker]

Did you double check to make sure the card's seated right? Mine behaved sorta like that and it was just because the card was loose.

 

[pprior]

+1 to that, and also make sure you check the ram to make sure it's seated well. Is the video card fan running?

 

[sparkie7]

i haven't checked if its seated properly or not. But found this series of links:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1237
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/451657/

Maybe its a firmware issue. And checking under About this Mac, this machine only has OS X 10.5.1, so with an update it may fix this issue

I can hear a fan running. But isn't that just the fan inside the MP to cool the processors?

 

[GregPacker]

Lots of people had that problem in January and February 2008 with the 2600XT. I think it was fixed by a firmware or software update in about March 2008, there was a lot of user feedback about it at barefeats.com at the time. I went through a couple of freezing 2600XT mac pros before the update appeared, and Apple were still in denial of the issue so I gave up and swapped for a 8800GT instead, which is quieter, faster and has never frozen.
I seem to recall people said the update which stopped the 2600XT freezing also made its fan run louder than before. If you want to determine whether the fan noise you're hearing is coming from the graphics card you can briefly put your finger on the middle of the graphics card fan to stop it (hardly needs any force) and see whether the overall noise changes.
To fix the freezing I advise trying to apply all updates, then if you're still having freezing or are unhappy with the noise then look for a cheap 8800GT.

 

[sparkie7]

ok, thanks guys. i'll try the software update route.

but sounds like even if the FW update fixes the freezing - it causes another problem, with the noise - which doesn't solve much

but thanks for the speedy feedback and advice