nVidia 7800 GS does not work

[divan385]

Hi,
My old G5 dual 1,8 Ghz with FX5200
was not able to run HD video, so I bought nVidia 7800 GS AGP video card (PC card flashed for Mac) via eBay and now everything "work perfectly" - sometimes. ( Ha ha).
The problem is: On booting, when the circle stop to rotate, display freeze (LG Flatron L192WS) and I must restart pushing power button. I repeat booting for 7-8 times and if I have luck 9th will start up my Mac.
In SAFE MODE there is no problem with booting.
Can anybody help please. I am getting crazy because of booting for 10 times.http://images.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/confused.gif

 

[92jlee]

i have the same card flashed too - i don't know why, wish i did, but my powermac did the same!

the way i solved it was to do a P-ram flash every time i start up... alt + command + p + r when you here the chime.

hope it works!

 

[divan385]

i have the same card flashed too - i don't know why, wish i did, but my powermac did the same!

I did it, but sometimes it works sometime it does not. I also reset the PRAM pushing the button inside.
Thanks to God that the card worked well when I put it in for the first time, otherwise I would think that the eBay seller sold to me a defective card.
What do you think, do we need a nVidia driver for this card?
After the display freezes, I hear that the HD is still working which means that
MAC is working but only video card is not. Am I right?

Maybe some of the guys will know much more about this.
Hope someone will help.
THANKS

 

[divan385]

Hi,
Here is very interesting answer to my question.
http://www.macusers.org/showthread.php?p=29758#post29758

Regards,
divan385

 

[MacVidCards]

I would first check to see if the seller placed the tape on pins #3 & #11 so that card could be used in a G4. If they did, remove it.
These cards CAN be wonderful things, and perfectly functional. They can and do run circles around Radeon 9800, hence the price difference.

If there is no tae on the pins, you are likely out of luck.

WHich OS are you running, anyway?

They will run in 10.4.6 and above, but much prefer 10.5 and up.

Best would be a second one of them to test and eliminate other variables with, but I imagine that may be problematic.

Have you contacted the EBay seller? Ultimately, Paypal will see to it you are happy.

 

[divan385]

Hi Rominator,

There is no tape on 3 and 11 pins.
At this moment the card works, but I am sure that I did not solve this problem.
This had happened before. 10-15 times I could not startup my Mac then it starts up and I don't know the reason why.
This time I unplugged DVI and connect monitor via VGA and it works, but I did it also before and it won't work. That's why I am getting a bit crazy.
Yes, I contacted eBay seller and he said to reset PRAM and I did and card worked, but after I shut it down, the next day it won't start up for several times.
OS is Leopard 10.5.8
Yesterday I bought ATI 9800 Pro AGP card. This is a PC card and I intend to flash it for Mac. Maybe it will work much better.

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

I'd get the money back for that card and ship it back to the seller. I hope you didn't pay full price for that card as though it was a real Mac OEM card....

I like the 9800 Pro more as that seems to be a more compatible card for flashing and fully supports both Core Image and Quartz Extreme. 100x better than the 5200 that came with them. I've never had any problems with flashing a 9800 and always worked 100% for me both on G4s and G5s.

 

[divan385]

Well, now it's more then a month until I bought this card. Trading on eBay I accepted the risk. Now, the card works until next reset, and i will always put Mac to sleep instead of shutting down. I will follow instructions how to flash ATI 9800 Pro for Mac, and if I succeed I will replace 7800 GS with ATI.
Maybe I will find why this card sometimes boot "YES" and sometimes boot "NO".
I'll inform you.

Thanks to everybody.
divan385