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Todd Madson · Dec 1, 2009, 01:20 PM

Some bad news kids.....

My G5's video card (ATI Radeon 9600XT) is starting to show symptoms of senility/dying.

The CPU is working fine because I can SSH into it and it's definetely running but I'll sometimes get an all-white background
with no features or an all blue background with nothing happening either and it will just sit there until I reboot.

Then I actually get a desktop for a time until it starts to go into the "all white" or "all blue" mode.
A new machine is out of the question, my wife's old lamp iMac is even older and she's due for next replacement.

So here's the deal: does anyone know if the AGP cards that are available on e-bay or thru old-macs.com that are pc cards
that have been flashed are any good? I need this machine to last as much as 2 years longer before I can replace it.

Unfortunately I'm kind of being boxed into a corner with this and I guess I need to replace the card sooner rather than later,
it was doing this once in a while but it's a lot more frequent now. I'll come home from work and the video is like that or I'll
wake up after going to sleep and it's like that.

The usual zapping pram and repairing permissions doesn't work to fix hardware sadly.

reader50 · Dec 1, 2009, 03:40 PM

Check if the fan is running at decent speed on the 9600XT. I've had terrible experience with ATi fans, and eventually had to replace all of them.

Todd Madson · Dec 1, 2009, 04:39 PM

That's the problem.

There IS no fan, just a heat sink.

I bought this machine in 2005 as a display model and I wonder if they swapped out the original video card for this one?

When the machine does operate, the video quality when watching something like a video on youtube or VLC shows lots
of pixellation and/or weird artifacting. I suspect the card got cooked.

The CPU has been in my basement for the last 3 years where it's between 50-60 degrees but now that it is upstairs it
is routinely in the 70 degree range and I wonder if it was just too hot for it given there was no fan to begin with.

GuyWithACamera · Dec 1, 2009, 04:53 PM

I think that was the stock card in my G5. I replaced it with the x800 xt not because the 9600 was failing but because I wanted the upgrade. I sold it on ebay for less than $100 if I remember correctly. I guess you could check around for a used one. I'm not sure about the flashing of a PC card as I'm not one to tinker too much with things I'm ignorant about.

Todd Madson · Dec 1, 2009, 05:01 PM

I'm seeking out a replacement higher performing card as I type this. Since I'm still stuck with this Mac for another
18 months or so I need to do that I guess.

Todd Madson · Dec 3, 2009, 11:04 AM

It appears I've made my old video card stable by underclocking it by about 100 mhz. Poor performance but at least I have a
working computer until I can order a replacement card this friday. Whee. Love ordering obsolete hardware but like I said
before, the wife gets the next new Mac (she's waited long enough, running a lamp style iMac G4 1.25 ghz!) so I gotta wait a
bit. This should do the trick though.

reader50 · Dec 3, 2009, 04:22 PM

If the slot above the card is empty, you could order a fan from newegg, and screw it to the heat sink. Ugly, yes. But few people leave the side panel off for passers-by to admire the internals.

Todd Madson · Dec 6, 2009, 08:14 PM

I considered that but figured I'd get a more powerful card to make the machine a bit more
fun to use over the next year or so.

Todd Madson · Dec 9, 2009, 10:43 PM

Running an nVidia 7800GS SC and that's fixed the issues and it's a better card to boot.

djphenominal · Dec 12, 2009, 10:51 PM

Hey Todd, Just wondering where you purchased the nvidia card you used as a replacement for your existing G5's card from ? and if it was a direct swap or if other steps had to be taken to get the card to work ?
I am in a similar boat but am not very knowledgeable when it comes to macs, every search i do leads to flashing something or another anfd quite frankly my head is spinning from all this tech talk.
Any info. would be of great help.

Thanks, Alex.

reader50 · Dec 13, 2009, 12:32 AM

Todd gave more detailed info about the new card in another thread. And I asked much the same question you did.

It turns out there are several sellers of pre-flashed cards for various Macs. The cards have usually been tested for a few days to make sure they came out OK.

djphenominal · Dec 14, 2009, 01:00 AM

Thank you. There is a light at the end of the tunnel

Todd Madson · Dec 19, 2009, 01:05 AM

Originally Posted by djphenominal

Hey Todd, Just wondering where you purchased the nvidia card you used as a replacement for your existing G5's card from ? and if it was a direct swap or if other steps had to be taken to get the card to work ?
I am in a similar boat but am not very knowledgeable when it comes to macs, every search i do leads to flashing something or another anfd quite frankly my head is spinning from all this tech talk.
Any info. would be of great help.

Thanks, Alex.

I got the card from Old-Macs.Com.. I replaced the card and it was pretty easy. I did have to add a splitter so the
card was taking power from the molex connector supplying power to the superdrive but it was easy to do.

I didn't have to do anything as the card was pre-flashed and tested.

SierraDragon · Jan 5, 2010, 04:11 PM

test

Todd Madson · Jan 6, 2010, 05:44 PM

Test received.