White Screen - OSX won't boot

Thanks Play,

I have been talking to various authorized and non authorized apple service folks and determined that the apple store repair was the best bet, but

I went to the apple store again today and sat with the same Genius as last time.

I showed him your thread from here and asked him to try a new video card and if it worked, I would buy straight away...he gladly tried but the video card did not fire up...he said (they took it out the back to try it) that maybe the card they had lying around was not compatible...So I ordered the ATI 5770 and will try it the moment it arrives at my house. Fingers crossed it does.

If not, it's probably the logic board and after exhaustive research, Apple repair is the best solution for replacment.

So fingers crossed while I wait for the new video card. At $249 it might end up being both a cheap fix and a great upgrade for what has been essentially a wonderful workhorse and computer with no problems till now.

I see many other people on the forums/communites/store reviews with Mac Pro 1.1's praising the machine.

and lastly notwithstanding my situation and eventual outcome I must also thank everybody here, Play, The Hatter, Grant Bennet-Adler and anybody who seriously contributes to these boards. The knowledge is incredibly powerful when shown to a Mac Genius, not to mention assisting owners who are troubleshooting save time, and from others who graciously took the time to assist and suggest solutions and remedies.

Thank you all.

I'll update my situation as it plays out...keep your fingers crossed for me.

Espvision.

wow, i am having the same problem on my mac pro 1.1 (2006) model since yesterday.

right now, i can boot into safe mode using a second hard drive where an older version mac os x exists.

after returning to normal boot, after apple logo, my screen turns gray with a spinning color disc.

don't know what else i can do now. by checking 4 discs on it in safe mode, they all show ok.

i will try to swap in a graphic card tomorrow to see whether it would work. hopefully mother board is ok.

I have a 2008 Mac Pro. My son hooked up and dual monitors for a few days about 6 months ago. Even since he did this, when I reboot, I get the wonderful blizzard screen, all white! So I try several simple things, unplugging everything, checking the monitor adapter, its the 23 inch 90 watts vs the 20 inch 60 watts. I have both. After making sure I did have the right adapter. I simply unplugges the power supply to the monitor, and plugged it back in! Goes right the the Apple load screen. I have now been doing this since. I do move this computer to my various events as I am a photographer. This is my main computer running an event photo network. At home its running on it own! Any ideas? Have not ran safe mode or anything like that. Disk Utility runs fine. My guess is the video card tweeked from the dual montors my son did that triggered it. My next gig, I am going to hook up dual monitors again, then try to go back to one monitor and pray it goes away.

tony panzica-

A four year old Mac that is occasionally off power may be having PRAM problems.

Try a PRAM reset:

Hold down these four keys at startup:

Command-Option-P-R

and continue to hold until you have heard the chimes four times, then release.

This resets the System Parameters to factory defaults. It may also wipe out the time-of-day, but that can be reset easily enough.

If it gives you additional problems after power is removed and restored, consider checking/replacing the PRAM backup battery. This is a nominal 3 Volt coin cell half-hidden behing the graphics card slot. The same BR-2032 battery is used in car door remotes and garage door opener remotes, so it is readily available and should not cost more than US$5.

Replaced battery, option-command-P-R does nothing. It stays white, held it for 3 minutes+...

Try a SMC reset as well:

Remove AC power.

Press and hold the power-on button for a quarter minute (this will do nothing except drain the capacitors).

Restore AC power making certain to jam the fat end of the power cord firmly into the chassis receptacle.

Wait a quarter minute.

Try the PRAM reset again. [your keyboard must be directly attached to a USB on the chassis --not a display or other Hub-- for this to work].

Same deal!

See if the official Apple instructions work any better:

Mac OS X 10.6: Resetting PRAM

Like I said this does nothing. It just stays white, no matter how long I hold the 4 buttons in. The must be something wrong with the video card. Thanks anyway for your help! Until it totally crashes I wil just have to continue to unplug the power supply to boot on. its been like this for 6 months. Soon I will take it in to Apple.

Hi All,

My Mac Pro is back up again but the solving leaves a little mystery.

Last attempt was to try a new video card. Ordered the ATI 5770 but no joy...And new symptom. No screen at all.

Took to apple. They ordered new logic board. Tried with old video card, no joy. Tried with 5770, booted and worked perfectly.

Apple left in the new logic board but did not charge me. So my repair was $250 for the new card which I'm really happy with.

Thanks again for all who helped.

If it does not respond to these keyboard buttons...

... is the keyboard plugged into a port on the chassis, not on a display or other USB Hub?