Mac Pro a1186 2.8 Boots to Weird Geometric screen

[ltnew007]

Hi. I am hoping to get some help troubleshooting a weird issue I am having. I have never seen any computer do this before.

The computer was running like normal all day and it was just sitting in the office running but wasn't being used by anybody.

I turned to look at it and the screen was blue and flickering. I force shut down the computer, rebooted and it displayed the Apple logo like it's going to boot but then it displays this weird corrupt looking screen.

We dusted out the computer, we reseated the drives, we pulled out ram sticks and this problem keeps happening.

Booting into safemode detects a problem but the computer seems to lock up while searching for a fix.

I want to suspect that the video card is bad but would it still show the apple logo if that were the case? Anyway, I have attached an image file of the screen.

What should I do to troubleshoot this problem?

 

[anika200]

video card is bad but would it still show the apple logo

Yes it could, at least on regular pc hardware anyway. I also had a MacBook way back in the day that would show that type of mess after waking from long sleeps and it was video card related.

You should check your memory before giving up, take out one memory stick at a time and then swap them and see what happens.

 

[Dr. Stealth]

Looks like your GPU died.

If it was driver related it wouldn't have done it just sitting there not being used... =(

 

[orph]

may be worth checking the GPU to see if it's cooler is full of dust, a clean may help if not then you will need to replace the gpu if thats the problem.

if you just need a gpu for general use web emails etc there's a bunch of cheep ones you can get used on ebay

 

[h9826790]

Even not the same situation, worth to have a look

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...inity-6-on-mac-pro-1-1.2105403/#post-25910884

 

[ltnew007]

I brought a GPU from home to try out. I'll update when I know more.
[doublepost=1522167858][/doublepost]UPDATE:
The computer now boots to the desktop with a Radeon 5770 installed.

HOWEVER, it does not show the apple logo while booting like it used to. The screen is black for a bit and then the desktop. We also can't see the screen where you hold he option key when booting to select which drive to boot from.

We have two versions of OSX installed on this computer and there is no way to switch between them without that pre-desktop screen.

This is a little bit weird because with the old video card, we COULD see the apple logo screen and the drive select screen, only when it tried to boot to a desktop, did it fail. Now we are having he opposite problem.

FWI, the Radeon 5770 was previously in a Windows PC. I don't know if that matters.

 

[h9826790]

I brought a GPU from home to try out. I'll update when I know more.
[doublepost=1522167858][/doublepost]UPDATE:
The computer now boots to the desktop with a Radeon 5770 installed.

HOWEVER, it does not show the apple logo while booting like it used to. The screen is black for a bit and then the desktop. We also can't see the screen where you hold he option key when booting to select which drive to boot from.

We have two versions of OSX installed on this computer and there is no way to switch between them without that pre-desktop screen.

This is a little bit weird because with the old video card, we COULD see the apple logo screen and the drive select screen, only when it tried to boot to a desktop, did it fail. Now we are having he opposite problem.

FWI, the Radeon 5770 was previously in a Windows PC. I don't know if that matters.

This is normal, all PC graphic cards won't show "boot screen" on a Mac.

 

[ltnew007]

This is normal, all PC graphic cards won't show "boot screen" on a Mac.

Thanks. I guess I have learned what I need to.

I will start looking for a Mac compatible video card.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

[h9826790]

Thanks. I guess I have learned what I need to.

I will start looking for a Mac compatible video card.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

Check the GPU section, especially the link about Mac EFI

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-5-1-upgrade-guide-sticky-discussion.2099092/

 

[orph]

"We have two versions of OSX installed on this computer and there is no way to switch between them without that pre-desktop screen."

just go to system preferences -> startup disk -> chose which version of osx you want to boot then restart