Video Card Problem? -> Mac Pro (2x2.8 GHz Quad) w/ ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT

That new, yes take it in. Don't tell him you have a Mac Pro G5 Xeon, there is no such animal. G5s haven't been sold in years and are PowerPC / PowerMacs, not Mac Pros.

Then list hardware more specifically.
Run Apple Hardware Test, too.
Test RAM just in case.
Run Hardware Monitor to check temps
Alsoft Disk Warrior of course as the file system sounds like junked up.
Clone your system before there is trouble
Reset SMC is best done full over night

The 2008 was an Apple Store Special?

I have a similar situation. Mac Pro, dual quad-core, that is a bit over a year old. THis problem first came up in May. I took it to the local Apple Store. After 5 days of testing, they replaced the video card and everything seemed fine. For the past several days, the system would boot sometiems and otehr tiems, everything seemed normal except for a blank screen.

I am about to call Apple since I have an AppleCare contract. BUt I am wondering if there is any hsitory of problems with the ATI Radeon 2600 XT video cards.

Hello all,

I have a Mac Pro Early 2008 Edition - 2x2.8 Ghz Quad. A few weeks ago, I had the same exact blank screen issue. I had the stock ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT installed in my machine.

I went to the Apple Store, I purchased the Nvidia GeForce GT120, I got home and I replaced the ATI 2600 XT with the new Nvidia GT120. Everything is back to normal. No more video signal issues. The new graphic card cost me $149.

Good luck,

Kevin C

Another 2008 Mac Pro Dual Quad with the stock ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT suddenly booting to a black screen here. Guess it's time to go get a Radeon 4870? This video card lasted less than a year & a half. It's beginning to look like a bunch of them are dying off around the same time, from looking at this forum.

Just another 2008 Mac Pro Dual Quad with the stock ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT and a black screen.
Went out and urgently bought the ATI Radeon HD 4870....and I still get the black screen.
Any other tricks other than doing the command-alt-p-r dance?

Getting nervous here...:(

Grateful for any feedback

best
jtm

I have the same issue. DId you make any progress on this yet? I swapped cards and still have no video, even though the machine boots.

I have the same problem. Just replaced the card - I have my monitor back but my machine won't boot. Running extended hardware tests now. Initial hardware tests were fine.

Yes a new card fixed my problem. I inadvertently hurt my operating system by re-booting too much (& doing it blind).

Here's a copy of the note I added to the Apple Support request for feedback:

+If he loved his company, he would follow-up on my problem (MAC PRO 2008 -> Graphics card died, the typical Radeon 2600)+

+I purchase a MAC every couple of years as well as teach students who will one day be your potential customers. This is the second time I've bought a MAC and then I've had a small part stop working shortly after my warrant expired. It's really annoying.+

+What's really really really annoying is that I diagnosed AND FIXED the problem myself from information on YOUR FORUM and yet still, it is "not logged officially in your database" which seems to mean, it's not real from the point of view of your support staff.+

+Lucky for me, I found a dealer here in Toronto who was willing to order me a replacement graphics card without lugging in my HUGE tower which I can barely carry myself (BTW - I'm FEMALE)+

+Come on folks, we're not all idiots.+

Same problem here with ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT. In the beginning just display turned back, and did not come back from sleep mode. After installing Snow Leopard it got worst so I had to go back to Leopard. Now I have less problems although I have to use the second DVI output because on the first one I get blue screen regularly. Nevertheless I am thinking on buying the GT 120. Anyone had problem with using it on early 2008 macpro (3,1)?

I have a MacPro 3.1 with the Radeon 2600 XT card. In the end of 2009 i had the same problem, no signal from the card.
The service shop (Kullander in Malmoe, Sweden) changed my card to a brand new and it worked well until today... same problem again!!! The screen went black and turned on again after a few seconds (problem appered several times, exactly the same issue as last time. Probably the card will crash whithin a few weeks aswell as the first card 😟

Apple whats wrong? Help!
Kind Regards // Martin

I have 29 Mac Pros bought in August 2008. We had 2 Radeon 2600's fail during the first year and I have had 5 more fail since January. Now I am waiting for the other 22.

hello all

i'm sorry if this repeats a question asked earlier, but when the screen (30" Cinema) fails to light up on booting, and the problem gets progressively worse over one week (sometimes it starts ok, and everything is fine, other times i just get the blank screen) does this sound like my radeon hd 2600 xt is getting tired and needs a replacement? the problem has become accute over the past 2 days. the diaplay works only one time in 5 (after leaving the system switched off for several hours, but that might have nothing to do with it). a typical start up might simply involve all the right sounds comming from my mac pro tower (discs running, fan running, small white light on lower right corner of display lit) but the screen remains blank. other times i have seen the grey screen with the logo and timer (clock ?) rotating but the blue screen fails to appear. on the rarer occasions that it does work, well... it does work. nothing to report there. have folk found that the problem goes when a new graphics card is fitted? is the ati radeon hd 4870 a good choice for my early 2008 mac pro (i run 800MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM)? as is often the case in problems like these, some folk suggest it is the hardware and others a glitch in the software (snow leopard os x 10.6.2). i'm trying to convince myself that it is the graphics card (warranty expired) but hope that it is not the logic card/motherboard. any words of advice please?
many thanks

I replaced my ATI 2600XT with a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT last week, now i'm on track again =)

I had the same problem, I purchased the mac pro around Aug. 08 also, and the ati HD 2600 XT failed, the weird part, it failed when we upgraded the ram, the ram is working perfect, no issues, but the graphics card died. the guy at the mac store blamed us for it, saying maybe we hit the graphics card when we did the ram exchange, but I know I did not touch the card at all, because I did the job myself.
and by reading all the issues (similar or equal to mine) with this graphics card, I have no other idea than think apple or ati had defective cards on these mac pros.
I ended up having to purchase a new graphics card, I went for the 149 Ge force gt 120.
we dont need 3d or video editing power, so the ati 4870 (more $$ too) was not the best choice.
this ge force is using way less energy than the ati also for what I read.
Apple should step up to the plate and cover all these graphic cards...
i have other old cards on older computers, for over 10 years (geforece 3 ti200 to be exact) and still goes strong, with overclocking and everything... and it was a cheap video cad from the beginning.
If it wasn't that my partner loves macs to work with graphic design, I would have never put my $$ into them.
and the phone customer service is a joke. there are 1000's of post regarding this issue and the guy told me they had no recorded problems like mine on their database...

I am sorry for the person the person that owns 29 macs and he had lke 5 atis failing him in a few months...that means eventually he'll spend over 4300 bucks for a defective product exchange..

Also, from the day we opened the box, this mac pro has had more issues with stability than any other computer before...
when they do work... they work very nice...