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Totalbearface

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 19, 2019
46
35
United Kingdom
Hi guys,

This morning I received what I thought was a genuine Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb Mac Edition. Excited as I would be, I installed it into my Quicksilver. Of course I forgot to plug the power cable into it with the rush, and a symbol appeared on the screen with a flashing power icon to remind me it needed power. So I plugged the molex end into it, fired it back up and it started normally. Showed the grey screen with the Apple logo as normal, but after that it just displayed a blank Aqua blue background, where the login window would also normally appear.

Tried a PRAM reset, button on the logic board, open firmware reset and defaults etc, but it still does the same thing?

Here are some pics from the auction as I’m not at home right now.

CD706981-4DBE-4091-95EB-B83867E9367C.jpeg
146837F8-CE2C-43AD-B743-6587365C4A1E.jpeg
8A29D30C-4300-4318-BEAC-113CF8F0DAF9.jpeg
 
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whats your Operating system version?

and have you tried a clean install or tried another display/display output?

Nice find on the graphics card BTW, they are the best GPU you can get for a Sawtooth/GigE more or less :)
 
whats your Operating system version?

and have you tried a clean install or tried another display/display output?

Nice find on the graphics card BTW, they are the best GPU you can get for a Sawtooth/GigE more or less :)

Currently running 10.4.11, not tried a clean install yet but I have 2 MDD’s I’ll be trying it in later too. I saw on the Apple forums of the same thing but with the 128mb version of the card and the responses there said it could be because it’d a flashed PC Card, but I just find it odd how it’ll show the Apple boot logo then just go to a blank Aqua blue background. That and the fact it seems to have the genuine retail packaging, unless it’s a flashed card in retail packaging.. so many possibilities.
 
if its a flashed card you would still get the window sever, but in worse case, if it was a PC card flashed with a reduced ROM it would just be in 8bit broken greyscale until you installed the ATI 4.5.7 Drivers for their external NDRV

so I suspect the window sever not loading properly is another issue
 
if its a flashed card you would still get the window sever, but in worse case, if it was a PC card flashed with a reduced ROM it would just be in 8bit broken greyscale until you installed the ATI 4.5.7 Drivers for their external NDRV

so I suspect the window sever not loading properly is another issue

Ah alright gotcha. The colours seem perfectly normal, just no login window or Mac OS X loading bar when the aqua blue displays. Can’t wait to get home from work to carry on troubleshooting this.
 
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Ah alright gotcha. The colours seem perfectly normal, just no login window or Mac OS X loading bar when the aqua blue displays. Can’t wait to get home from work to carry on troubleshooting this.

I admit this is purely guessing, but could OS X be treating the display connected to the 9800 as a secondary one, so that all the fun happens on a possibly non-existing different/primary display? Does it happen using both outputs?
 
I admit this is purely guessing, but could OS X be treating the display connected to the 9800 as a secondary one, so that all the fun happens on a possibly non-existing different/primary display? Does it happen using both outputs?

Not sure at the moment, didn’t get that far in testing it. Going to give it a proper look tonight and hopefully figure it out.

I am using a 2560x1440 monitor for testing though so maybe it doesn’t like the resolution, although when that’s happened before on these machines it just stretches everything out. Not too sure why it’s being like this.
 
I admit this is purely guessing, but could OS X be treating the display connected to the 9800 as a secondary one, so that all the fun happens on a possibly non-existing different/primary display? Does it happen using both outputs?

if that was the case (Which i have seen happen in some cases) you would just have the wall paper on the screen and nothing else or something like that :)

Not sure at the moment, didn’t get that far in testing it. Going to give it a proper look tonight and hopefully figure it out.

I am using a 2560x1440 monitor for testing though so maybe it doesn’t like the resolution, although when that’s happened before on these machines it just stretches everything out. Not too sure why it’s being like this.

are you using DVI or VGA? in theory if your using DVI it should just run at the max rez that your monitor supports at maximum SL-DVI bandwidth but things might not like that
 
if that was the case (Which i have seen happen in some cases) you would just have the wall paper on the screen and nothing else or something like that :)



are you using DVI or VGA? in theory if your using DVI it should just run at the max rez that your monitor supports at maximum SL-DVI bandwidth but things might not like that

Used DVI when I was testing it, I have VGA cables somewhere but no idea where I’ve put them!
 
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I'm finally back home and can confirm it is indeed a genuine Mac edition card. I can also confirm it shows the boot menu fine, as well as the OS X installer. I plugged the Radeon 9200 out of my G3 in at the same time and powered it on as normal, with the DVI cable in the 9200. It took a while to show the OS X loading screen, but it appeared eventually. Logged in and it recognised both cards. Installed the latest ATI driver for it, shut down, removed the 9200, powered it back on with just the 9800 Pro, and the same thing again; stuck on the blue aqua screen with no log in window.

dSnd3H41RB2JcZ+1MQiGEA.jpg
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I had this EXACT same problem with my dual 2.0Ghz PowerMac G5, only with a Geforce 6800 ultra. I had bought the geforce to replace my factory 9800 Pro because it failed. When I got the geforce, I was astounded I could not get any OS to boot to desktop, except the installer (just as you seem to be able to do). I was stumped. Well, I had two more G5s sitting in the closet so just for fun I pulled one out, put my hard drive in it, and the 6800. It worked perfectly. I assumed something was wrong with my G5, as another G5 works with it no problem.
 
I had this EXACT same problem with my dual 2.0Ghz PowerMac G5, only with a Geforce 6800 ultra. I had bought the geforce to replace my factory 9800 Pro because it failed. When I got the geforce, I was astounded I could not get any OS to boot to desktop, except the installer (just as you seem to be able to do). I was stumped. Well, I had two more G5s sitting in the closet so just for fun I pulled one out, put my hard drive in it, and the 6800. It worked perfectly. I assumed something was wrong with my G5, as another G5 works with it no problem.

I’m still stumped. Tried it in my G4 QS and 2 MDD’s and still the exact same issue, and I’ve tried a clean install of OS X on every machine too.
 
have you tried VGA?

just in case it is some weird monitor incompatibility

have you also tried booting Linux?

Tried VGA, tried 2 different monitors, clean install of OS X Tiger from my 10.4.6 retail disc, attempted to install Leopard from my 10.5.6 retail disc but the installer won’t even load with the card in, just sticks on another Aqua blue background with the addition of a mouse cursor, tried it in my G4 QS, MDD single 1.0GHz, MDD dual 1.42GHz (on all machines I’ve done a PRAM reset, etc etc, clean install with the same Tiger discs and with Leopard, the same thing mentioned happens on all machines, and all monitor combinations and DVI / VGA tried on all machines too). Not tried Linux, no, but really wanted this card to work under OS X :(
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Tried VGA, tried 2 different monitors, clean install of OS X Tiger from my 10.4.6 retail disc, attempted to install Leopard from my 10.5.6 retail disc but the installer won’t even load with the card in, just sticks on another Aqua blue background with the addition of a mouse cursor, tried it in my G4 QS, MDD single 1.0GHz, MDD dual 1.42GHz (on all machines I’ve done a PRAM reset, etc etc, clean install with the same Tiger discs and with Leopard, the same thing mentioned happens on all machines, and all monitor combinations and DVI / VGA tried on all machines too). Not tried Linux, no, but really wanted this card to work under OS X :(

I can boot into OS X in safe mode, forgot to mention.
 
Hmm sadly it sounds like the card is damaged

as in the card will work in basic framebuffer mode but the moment anything 3D loads it falls over and hangs


(normally id expect some sort of artifacting however)

Question, can you boot the computer headless and remote in?

if so what happens when you then hot plug a monitor?
 
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Hmm sadly it sounds like the card is damaged

as in the card will work in basic framebuffer mode but the moment anything 3D loads it falls over and hangs


(normally id expect some sort of artifacting however)

Question, can you boot the computer headless and remote in?

if so what happens when you then hot plug a monitor?

Doesn’t seem to be loading anything beyond that screen, it’s as if the OS just won’t start at all. Hot plugging a monitor does the exact same thing, just the blue screen. Even with the 9200 installed at the same time which it’ll boot with, then unplugging the monitor from that into the 9800, it does the same thing, and then plugging back into the 9200 it’ll take a long while before displaying anything beyond the blue screen again. Said screen shown here.

B63C3458-BEBA-4D4A-A62D-47A2544D5208.jpeg
 
time to contact the ebay seller for a refund me thinks sadly

if you have a BGA rework station, you could replace the GPU itself? :)
 
time to contact the ebay seller for a refund me thinks sadly

if you have a BGA rework station, you could replace the GPU itself? :)

Sadly I don’t have one of those handy... haha. I’m in the process of talking with the seller at the moment.

Shame really, really wanted one of these to make a badass G4, good cards for these don’t seem to crop up often at all in the UK. Doesn’t even work in the G5 I tried it in either, same thing happens there too.
 
Sadly I don’t have one of those handy... haha. I’m in the process of talking with the seller at the moment.

Shame really, really wanted one of these to make a badass G4, good cards for these don’t seem to crop up often at all in the UK. Doesn’t even work in the G5 I tried it in either, same thing happens there too.

yeah I remember when the Radeon 9800 used to be fairly common on ebay, I bagged a nice PC one for £20 and flashed it and used it in my sawtooth for a while :) sadly I no longer have it

at some point they all sort of vanished, probably because there has been an up tick in early 2000s retro PC gaming

since you have a Quicksilver, its worth keeping an eye out for any GeForce 6800 GTs to flash or 7800 GS's :)

(the one to watch out for is the FireGL X3, while it makes for a very good card, its sadly very finniky in DA/Quicksilvers)
 
yeah I remember when the Radeon 9800 used to be fairly common on ebay, I bagged a nice PC one for £20 and flashed it and used it in my sawtooth for a while :) sadly I no longer have it

at some point they all sort of vanished, probably because there has been an up tick in early 2000s retro PC gaming

since you have a Quicksilver, its worth keeping an eye out for any GeForce 6800 GTs to flash or 7800 GS's :)

(the one to watch out for is the FireGL X3, while it makes for a very good card, its sadly very finniky in DA/Quicksilvers)

I’ll definitely keep an eye out for those. I’m starting to think I need to slow down with all these upgrades though... ordered so much stuff for my collection of PowerPC Mac’s and half of the things have been DOA or a pain to get working. Then again, I suppose that’s a side effect of having a passion for these things haha.

I think what I want mainly now is a few graphics cards just to put in my G4’s so they can at least all display something as I currently only have one GPU (other than the 9800 I can’t get working) being shared across all of them, that being the PCI 9200 that I’m going to keep in my PMG3.
 
You can try removing the kexts. The problem with that is that you don't get the full functionality of the card. I have a Radeon X1900 XT in my Quad and it exhibits this behavior. I get the same screen you do or I can only boot so far before the computer becomes unresponsive (mouse still works).

In the past @LightBulbFun has told me it's because the card is overheating and I need to try repasting it. I just haven't gotten around to that.

In any case, if you want to give it a shot - boot into Safe Mode. Go here: Macintosh HD>System>Library>Extensions and find all the kext files that start with ATI. Move them out into a folder on your desktop. Reboot.

If you can get to the login screen this way then that's the conflict. If not, it's something else. But if you do get there just be aware that you have now hosed QuartzExtreme and CoreImage for the card.
 
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You can try removing the kexts. The problem with that is that you don't get the full functionality of the card. I have a Radeon X1900 XT in my Quad and it exhibits this behavior. I get the same screen you do or I can only boot so far before the computer becomes unresponsive (mouse still works).

In the past @LightBulbFun has told me it's because the card is overheating and I need to try repasting it. I just haven't gotten around to that.

In any case, if you want to give it a shot - boot into Safe Mode. Go here: Macintosh HD>System>Library>Extensions and find all the kext files that start with ATI. Move them out into a folder on your desktop. Reboot.

If you can get to the login screen this way then that's the conflict. If not, it's something else. But if you do get there just be aware that you have now hosed QuartzExtreme and CoreImage for the card.

Interesting, that worked initially, b
You can try removing the kexts. The problem with that is that you don't get the full functionality of the card. I have a Radeon X1900 XT in my Quad and it exhibits this behavior. I get the same screen you do or I can only boot so far before the computer becomes unresponsive (mouse still works).

In the past @LightBulbFun has told me it's because the card is overheating and I need to try repasting it. I just haven't gotten around to that.

In any case, if you want to give it a shot - boot into Safe Mode. Go here: Macintosh HD>System>Library>Extensions and find all the kext files that start with ATI. Move them out into a folder on your desktop. Reboot.

If you can get to the login screen this way then that's the conflict. If not, it's something else. But if you do get there just be aware that you have now hosed QuartzExtreme and CoreImage for the card.

Thanks for the suggestion on that. I tried it, and it does boot into the OS without safe mode, but as you mentioned the graphics might as well be in safe mode; everything is choppy, no smoothness of anything, moving windows is laggy etc. Just defeats the object of owning this card really.

Tried installing the drivers again after moving then kext files which didn’t fix the issue, both from the installation disc and the latest versions online. Also tried moving kext files back or by one that may correspond to this card, restarting after each kext move and again, still no success.
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Interesting, that worked initially, b


Thanks for the suggestion on that. I tried it, and it does boot into the OS without safe mode, but as you mentioned the graphics might as well be in safe mode; everything is choppy, no smoothness of anything, moving windows is laggy etc. Just defeats the object of owning this card really.

Tried installing the drivers again after moving then kext files which didn’t fix the issue, both from the installation disc and the latest versions online. Also tried moving kext files back or by one that may correspond to this card, restarting after each kext move and again, still no success.

On a whim tried the ATI August 2005 firmware update, and the installer for the update says it can’t detect a retail Radeon card, even though this is supposed to be a genuine card. The firmware revision also seems different to that of other users who have this card on the Apple forums. This one being ROM Revision 113-A07552-134, whereas the other users have ROM Revision 113-A14402-126 / 113-A14402-116.
 
Look for either ATI Displays software, or something called ATI Rom Xtender. I remember that I needed the latter extension when running the retail 9800 on my Mystic, or else it had the same general issues that you're having. I think that the Displays software supplies this extension.

I found some info here- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1206116

It's for the 9600, but it also applies to the 9800.
 
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