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Problems after Leopard upgrade with ATI 9800 Pro 256MB

I don't know if this is related.. but I've been battling multiple problems ever since I upgraded my G5 to Leopard a week ago. Everything was perfect under Tiger.

The problem that only occurred directly after upgrading to Leopard... is that my graphics now get corrupted and garbled. I've got two video cards running two LCD monitors. The card giving me problems is the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (256MB). What happens is.. first all the window shadows and top menu bar start getting checkerboard patterns.. then the whole screen starts getting variants of different colors and checkerboard patterns. After awhile and refreshing the screen a few times... the problem goes away for a bit. Then comes back.

Again, this card and my entire system and drives were working fine under Tiger. Now, I don't know if I have a bad card? Is there something wrong with Leopard on my G5 2Ghz DP? Did my Maxtor 750GB triple interface drive just go bad with the upgrade?

I don't know where else to look, I'm guessing the "geniuses" at the Apple store won't help me since this machine is out of warranty. Any help would be HUGELY appreciated. I've been battling all these problems ever since I started the Leopard upgrade 4 days ago and have not got much sleep. 😟

G5 2Ghz Dual, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Feb 16, 2008 8:08 AM

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5 replies

Feb 16, 2008 10:28 AM in response to Thomas Bryant

I've already reset PRAM with the option,command,P,R keys... letting it chime a couple times... and have already done this many times over the last few days. Doesn't seem to help. I don't know how to reset NVRAM via open firmware and the instructions are vague. But, supposedly a PRAM reset is all you have to do.

If it is a heat problem, why would it only have presented itself directly after a Leopard upgrade? It also does it when I boot off the Leopard disk. Actually does it worse. I'd just get a new card if I wasn't suspicious about the Leopard upgrade... not convinced it's a hardware problem yet. Though the card is mounted on the bottom slot above the CPUs. It has a fan on top that appears to be working but it doesn't look like much clearance between the card and the top of the CPUs case.

I could move it up a slot to give it more air... but it still doesn't explain why until last Monday, it worked fine under Tiger.

Feb 16, 2008 12:30 PM in response to skiphunt

I could move it up a slot to give it more air... but it still doesn't explain why until last Monday, it worked fine under Tiger.


Actually, you won't be able to move the video card, as there's only one AGP slot on your machine.

If it is a heat problem, why would it only have presented itself directly after a Leopard upgrade?


Leopard does work the video card harder than Tiger did, so your card is doing more work and getting hotter. Since yours is a few years old, there might be dust build-up on the cooling apparatus for your card, lessening its ability to cool the card. You may want to remove the card and clean it thoroughly with one of those cans of compressed air or something.

Feb 16, 2008 1:08 PM in response to Steve Boultbee

I'm thinking that might be the case. Figured Leopard is hitting it harder with all that "core animation" stuff than it was before. When I checked the seating... it was considerably more dusty that I thought it'd be. I went to hit it with compressed air, but the can was cached. Will pick up a fresh can today and try that.

I'm in Austin and yesterday is was MUCH warmer.. in the 70s for the last few days. Last night a cold front moved in and everything is much cooler in my office today and it hasn't done it at all. Thinking it's the over-heating more and more.

But, if Leopard is hitting the card harder and creating more heat than it's used to.... why would it do it when I boot off the Leopard disk? Even worse than running of my main internal drive? Seems like the core animation would be at a minimum when booted off the install disk?

Message was edited by: skiphunt

Feb 17, 2008 8:44 AM in response to skiphunt

Cleaned the interior and the card thoroughly. Blasted the whole thing with compressed air.. reseated card.... no difference. Back to square one. The machine was even off with the card out for about an hour... plenty of time to cool off. As soon as I booted up... the problem of checkerboard display grunge came back.. so clearly not a overheating issue.

Is anyone using an ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB with a 2Ghz DP running Leopard with no problems? All was well before the upgrade to Leopard. Really thinking this is a driver issue.

I understand that my 2Ghz G5 DP only has one AGP slot. If I end up having to buy a new card... is there anything that's faster for Apple Motion 3 that I can put in one of the other 3 slots? Something better, faster, and more compatible with Leopard for the AGP slot?

Problems after Leopard upgrade with ATI 9800 Pro 256MB

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