Mac Pro Only Boots in Safe Mode - GeForce 7300 issue?

your wifegas a bootwble backup? good. Target disk mode is fine.

Took out all old ram, unplugged everything, held power button for 10 sec, plugged in keyboard, mouse and monitor and tried booting up again. Same thing, grey screen. BTW, when I try the 10.4 installer diwsc to boot, it give me the black screen, telling me that I need to reboot. 10.6 gives me the grey screen.

I booted in target mode and ran disc utilites to replair hard drive, it told me it fixed it and "seems to be ok". Unplugged, started up again...still same problem.

Should I consider buying a new graphics card? Is there a way to check if that's the problem before I buy a new one?

Since you DID get a picture while booted from the Installer/Utilities DVD, Your graphics card is working fine in "simple" mode. One more test would be to try Safe Mode. Hold down the Shift key at startup.

Safe Mode takes five minutes to run Disk Utility ( Repair disk ) then comes up in "simple" graphics mode, and has only a minimal set of Apple-only kernel extensions loaded. You will be required to provide your user_name and password to log in, even if you normally auto-login.

That 10.4 DVD was probably not the right one for a Mac Pro.

I have been in safe mode. It's the only way I can boot up. What will I be able to see in safe mode? As I mentioned in an earlier post , my picture has little blue ish grey lines running through, and my wallpaper just looks like there is something wrong with the resolution.

10.4.7 'should' be fine. there were smc and efi updates in aug/sept 2007 and 10.5.0 came out by nov. so you ought to be able to use 10.5 or later.

does not sound like op is likely to have any 3rd part pcie cards nut definitely an old uodate over uodate OS dating back to 10.4.7

there was a furmware uodate for some, not my, 7300gt. but... I would not rule out or use it, I kept mine but blown capacitors have been happening and dust, heat, not boosting fans would all contribute, and 6 yr old fb-dimms running @ 75C do not help.

The trend I see is that you can do everything in "simple" graphics mode:

Safe Mode

Installer DVD Utilities

And nothing in advanced mode, which gets turned on at the login screen. This adds credence to the possibility your graphics card is not working in advanced mode, and you should consider a replacement.

The graphics artifacts you describe above adds weight to the concept that your graphics card is not working properly.

GPU card 😟

Hi,

It seems that your Mac Pro problem is the graphic card not the memory modules. I hadthe same simptoms like you have and the new graphis card sold it all. Good luck.

Agyu

Do you guys have a suggestion on what to get? I don't need top of the line, just something good and reliable...I don't even know what the card does besides the picture, but it seems to have more impact on how my computer runs as I would have thought ; )

Everybody in this thread seems to have picked the same one and I saw it on Amazon for $244. Would I be cutting corners to go with something cheaper? I don't want to have the same problem again a year from now, and I need my computer to run properly and fast, when I work on music productions.

Also, can I install this myself, or do I need to bring it in?

Matthias

What about ebay for the GeForce 7300?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MacPro-nVidia-GeForce-7300-GT-256MB-GDDR-DVI-DVI-Video-C ard-/160991321890?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item257bd49f22

go to MacVidCards ebay then.

More than once people buying off ebay 7300's were PC cards, flashed and didn't work, etc.

http://myworld.ebay.com/macvidcards/

A thread though that refuses to die even after a year.

Still, any suggestsions would be greatly appriciated. How about that ATI 5770...read that apple is not supporting it, but everybody here bought it? That's also possibly old news, as the thread is old AND, can I order and install myself?

Should I go to best buy and have them run diagnostics for $60?

ATI HD 5770 for Mac will be the best bet. That is what I bought for my Mac Pro 1.1.

You can purchase it from the Apple Store for $250.

Do not pay Best Buy to tell you what you already know, but are unwilling to face. The card is old and tired and probably dead. Do not spend any more money on that old card. Junk it.

The Apple-firmware 5770 works in all model of Mac Pro. It works without issue for almost everything. Apple has glanced at it and decided there MIGHT be anomalies when playing HDCP-encoded (copy-protected) Videos:

Mac Pro: Using ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card with Mac Pro released before 2010

Putting my two cents in from the original post I put up.

Once I just bought, yes much more expensive than the PC version, and installed the card I have not had any issues. It continues to go strong despite the Mac Pro 1.1 being too old to run Mountain Lion my Mac is still going strong. A friend, web designer, uses one model higher had to go with a cheaper card that's not the 5770. Don't recall what she is using, but she seems to still be able power the 30' Cinema display and all the demands she had before her card died.