Green checkerboard pattern or crazy visual distortion on screen all of a sudden - video card dying?

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Level 1

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Green checkerboard pattern or crazy visual distortion on screen all of a sudden - video card dying?

Hi Forums!

I have an early 2008 Mac pro tower with an Nvidia 8800 GTS (or GT, can't remember) - recently the screen will become corrupted or distorted entirely, and the computer becomes unusable. It either looks like a crazy green checkerboard pattern, almost like Space Invaders, or the image will just become entirely corrupted.

I've taken all of the ram out, spare the stock apple ram, and the same thing happens. I'm fairly certain this is the video card drying, I've reseated it a few times with no luck. Any advice here would be appreciated!

Rob

Posted on May 4, 2011 9:24 AM

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Answer 1

May 4, 2011 1:21 PM in response to robdesignguy

It does sound like the video card is dying. However, it could also have a buildup of dust in the vents/heatsink. I would check for dust before buying a replacement card.

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Answer 2

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

May 4, 2011 10:57 PM in response to robdesignguy

Hi-

It sounds like others have described the demise of their 8800's.

Run it in Safe mode and see if there are artifacts/anomalies.

If so, it is for sure time for a new card.

If not, it means that the card is OK without load. This type of card would be a candidate for cleaning and reapplication of thermal compound.

This may resurrect the card, but all is dependent on the amount of heat damage incurred thus far.

If any of the capacitors are bulging, then the issue is there.

A bad capacitor can be replaced by the willing.

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Answer 3

DPArt

Level 3

604 points

May 25, 2011 6:24 PM in response to robdesignguy

In more than 50% of the dying 8800s, it is possible to "bake" them back to life.

9 minutes at 420F is best. Do some googling, these G92 cards are the ones that respond best.

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Answer 4

robdesignguy Author

Level 1

0 points

May 25, 2011 8:24 PM in response to DPArt

Thanks DPArt - I actually did this about 2 weeks ago and the card is working like new! Popped the heatsink and fan off, cleaned it up, in the oven at 400 for about 10 minutes, new thermal paste and it's working great!

🙂 Thanks again!

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Answer 5

May 25, 2011 8:41 PM in response to DPArt

Why should baking them do anything good? We always learned heat was bad for electronics. Any idea of the mechanism in play with this treatment?

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Answer 6

robdesignguy Author

Level 1

0 points

May 25, 2011 10:17 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

It re-melts the saudering joints that have been broken on the card, but the temperature is not high enough to melt the plastic components on the card. That, or it's magic. Either way, it worked for me and saved me $300 on a new card.

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Answer 7

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

May 26, 2011 2:07 AM in response to robdesignguy

It re-melts the saudering joints that have been broken on the card,

Otherwise known as a DIY Reflow.

Good work!

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Answer 8

pjdxxxwa

Level 1

13 points

Mar 11, 2016 1:32 PM in response to DPArt

Crash, Freese, artifact also.

Would this baking also be relevent to the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB ?

I have one of the First Intel Pro Macs running LION ... no problem with this machine until Lion. Since then,

nothing but trouble.

Model Name: Mac Pro

Model Identifier: MacPro1,1

Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon

Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz

Number of Processors: 2

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Processor): 4 MB

Memory: 5 GB

Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz

Boot ROM Version: MP11.005C.B08

SMC Version (system): 1.7f10

Serial Number (system): G87123JQUQ2

Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0017F208212A

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Answer 9

Mar 11, 2016 2:16 PM in response to pjdxxxwa

Baking the 8800GT is the most heard story.

User Tip: Mac Pro silver tower (2006-2012) Replacement Graphics cards

.

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