Mac Pro 3,1 woes

[mnewton91]

Hey All,

I've been handed a Mac Pro 3,1.

2x 2.8GHz Quad Core Xeon
8GB DDR2 800 Ram (2x4GB)
nvidia GTX285

It was given to me because the rep down at the local shop couldn't work out what was wrong with it, and wanted it disposed of.

I have fitted a new 1TB HDD, and noticed that it has a GTX285 Video Card in it.

I'm having an issue where, I've installed 10.6.3 software, and everything works great. Machine is fast, zippy and Graphics all load nicely.

However, when I update to 10.6.8, the Machine restarts, and i get the Apple Logo, with the spinning gear. After about 30 seconds of loading, the spinning gear stops, and I'm left with the boot screen, and a frozen gear, and can go no further, unless i erase the partition and re-install 10.6.3.

10.7 Doesn't boot the installer. Freezes on Boot Screen.
10.8 Doesn't boot the installer. Freezes on Boot Screen.

I also, have tried booting from a NetInstall image on my network which has Mavericks 10.9.4 on it. It does the same thing, boots from the NetInstall, gets to the Grey Boot screen, spins for a bit and then freezes. What's interesting is that the narrator starts speaking "To use english as the main language, press the return key", and the bootscreen is still up.

I have a feeling my issues are related to the video card, but i wanted some feedback before getting a cheap GT640 like someone else recently did here.

Cheers

mike

 

[flowrider]

Have you tried loading Nvidia Web Drivers from here:

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

With your description of error that's the only thing I can think of.

Lou

 

[mnewton91]

yes

Downloading the drivers didn't help. As they would only install on 10.6.8. But i can't boot into 10.6.8 to try it.

 

[MacVidCards]

Can you safe boot into 10.6.8?

Is the 285 using acceleration in 10.6.3?

 

[mnewton91]

Can't Safeboot, freezes on spinning gear boot screen.

Haven't checked for acceleration.

 

[mnewton91]

From System Information

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UPDATE: Put a nVIDIA GT 610 in the machine, Booted Mavericks install and it works flawlessly!

 

[MacVidCards]

I think the issue is that someone less well informed flashed the card.

The giveaway is the 896 Megs of RAM.

Real Apple 285s have 1GB.

Some of our competition resorted to trickery to make money.

Looks like they put a GTX285 rom on a GTX260 or GTX275. Likely it just needs clocks and power reduced, or perhaps is just bad.