MacPro1,1 + 4870 = Graphic Snow

[kylepro88]

I've had this issue for a long time and moved to a laptop so I forgot about it. However I find myself wanting to use my old MacPro and this problem has resurfaced. I bought the 4870 512MB card from Apple and installed. Display looks great, internet is great, even playing back video at times is great...however in FCP7 and FCPX is where the real problems occur. I get this graphic snow in the playback of my footage. It covers the viewer and displays in colors of purple, green, white, etc. It's irritating and I know this card works with my 1st gen MacPro.

Is there a way to update the card somehow? Maybe new firmware? I'm not very experienced with the hardware end of Macs or where to look for this kind of thing. Any help?

 

[Neodym]

At first glance it looked like faulty Ram and / or overheating. Though as it seems to be connected to FCP(X) it may well be a driver problem.

What OS are you running and did you run the Software update utility to check for latest updates?

 

[kylepro88]

Running Lion, problem happened with Snow Leopard as well. I always keep it updated so that's not the issue either. Not sure what it is. Something to note, when I was on Snow Leopard I had 13GB RAM, but after the Lion update it's only displaying 9GB RAM. Could the RAM and Graphics problem be connected somehow?

 

[sOwL]

Running Lion, problem happened with Snow Leopard as well. I always keep it updated so that's not the issue either. Not sure what it is. Something to note, when I was on Snow Leopard I had 13GB RAM, but after the Lion update it's only displaying 9GB RAM. Could the RAM and Graphics problem be connected somehow?

On some rare occasions, they could. To fix the 9GB problem, you should probably just re-seat the RAM modules on your MP or reset PRAM. If that doesn't fix it it could indicate failing memory.

 

[Graeme43]

You could try another graphics card if you have one lying around but I would also check system info to see if any of the memory modules report errors as it could help tell if it was the ram


DIMM Riser A/DIMM 4:

Size: 2 GB
Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM
Speed: 667 MHz
Status: OK

 

[thekev]

You could try something like memtest (free) in single user mode for a ram check. If failing ram is the cause, and it's causing that kind of issue. GPUs do tend to display artifacts when overheating. You could try something like hardware monitor (again free) to check temperatures while running FCP. Didn't one of the updates for FCPX require an OpenCL compatible card though?

 

[Cindori]

card is bad. return it.

 

[Graeme43]

I had issues like this with a GeForce and had to return it. Hardware Monitor will not tell the temp of the card but only the % of card used

 

[kylepro88]

Well, after trying something to get the card problem fixed my MacPro failed to start. It would just spin. I did everything. All the RAM resets, Command+V and S to check things out, disk utility to repair anything, removed drives to see if any of them were faulty, took out the little battery to reset manually, and even put in an old X1900XT but that couldn't boot (couldn't find the kext controller?). I noticed a red light on Rack B in DIMM1 so I pulled the RAM from that and only put 4GB on Rack A. Eventually I figured I should just try to reinstall Lion so that's what I'm doing now. We'll see what the deal is.

When it comes to the RAM, I actually put in different sticks in the same spot on Rack B and the light was still on so I wonder if there's a problem with the Rack itself and NOT the RAM? No way to know for sure...does anyone know? I tried old RAM and new RAM in the same dimm's and the red light showed up for both.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Remover Riser A and swap with Riser B and see what happens. They do fail as does memory.

To reinstall Lion you must have got it booted somehow?

 

[kylepro88]

Yes I got it booted by holding Alt and going into "Recovery HD" which Lion now puts on your HD so no more install discs. However, "Macintosh HD" was also an option in the list with the other, and choosing that didn't boot...same problem.

I did end up swapping Rack A with B so we'll see what happens. If I can get the stupid thing to boot like normal, then I can assess the RAM issue. I highly doubt I'll be able to sell this like I wanted to now...not sure I can trust selling it to someone. Also today, like a champ...I broke two of those little plastic clamps on the PCI slots. What cheap plastic! :/ Whoever I would sell it too wouldn't be too thrilled about that I'm sure.

Overall a wonderful day, lol. We'll see after Lion boots (hopefully) whether or not the card problem is gone. If not my only other option is to get a new card then try selling it, or not sell it.

What's odd is Adobe Premiere didn't show this graphics issue in the viewer, it's ONLY a FCP7 and FCPX problem. That means that it likely has something to do with Quicktime and the graphics card not liking it. Thoughts there?

 

[Draeconis]

Looks like a failed GPU to me.

 

[kylepro88]

Ordered an ATI 5770 from B&H for $229, best price on the net I could find (even Ebay). Hopefully my problems with this will be over.

 

[Neodym]

What's odd is Adobe Premiere didn't show this graphics issue in the viewer, it's ONLY a FCP7 and FCPX problem. That means that it likely has something to do with Quicktime and the graphics card not liking it. Thoughts there?

Seeing that the two "problematic" programs are from Apple, it may be that those make more intense use of Core services and thus tax the GPU more intensely, which _may_ eventually reveal the problem. For example - on older graphic cards the heat transfer paste ages and becomes less capable of transferring heat, so with load peaks the heat may not be "cooled away" enough anymore and thus lead to overheating issues...