Mac Pro Video Card replacement?

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Level 1

8 points

Mac Pro Video Card replacement?

Hey guys,

First let me say this has been a problem for nearly 3 years, so I'm at a critical place. I have taken my Mac Pro (late 2013 model MacPro6,1) in for service twice. The last time they "replaced" the video card and the problem cleared up until about 2 years ago. My HDMI port went out precisely 2 months after my warranty expired, and despite all the resetting and support help, it does not function to this day. I now get video via Thunderbolt video HDMI adapter, and for the last couple of years it's been working fine. This weekend, the screen will go blank, come back, go blank, come back, recurring constantly and despite all the moving around ports, I'm not getting any joy.

My Mac Pro stays on all the time (I do restart it periodically), but it controls my POE security cameras and DLNA support for video, music, photos Primarily.

I need the video to work consistently...so my question...do you guys think that replacing the (2) AMD FirePro D300 cards fix my problem? I don't know enough about the software/hardware relationship between the video & HDMI port to determine what is causing this, but I am now to the point that the Mac Pro is so ingrained in my daily life that I need to use brute force if needed to fix this. Also, if the AMD FirePro D300 has been a problem in the past and someone on this community would recommend a better replacement, then by all means please do.

If the graphics card themselves are not the culprit, and there is another "video hardware" component, then please let me know.

Advice and Help is very much appreciated.

Mac Pro (Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 12Gb RAM, Sharp 90" HDMI, 4 Ext HD

Posted on Feb 12, 2017 11:47 AM

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Answer 1

Johnb-one

Level 6

9,156 points

Feb 13, 2017 8:16 AM in response to GatorManLA

man alive, that's gotta be a severe pain in the butt for you... for starters, try zapping the PRAM. Hold down command, shift p and R keys while rebooting, hold 'em down for 3 "bongs" and then let go. If that doesn't work, rebooting and holding down the "shift" key will give you single user (safe) mode where only the most basic stuff is loaded, so you can see if it's software that's causing you grief. I Hope you have AppleCare for this. here's the problem: the 2 AMD FirePro cards are not, as far as I know, available on the open market. The only way to get one would be to take your Mac Pro late 2013 model in ((again). However, Apple may, at its discretion, replace any Mac Pro that has had 3 big repairs on it without fixing the problem. Again, this is up to Apple to make that call, not me or you.I'd suggest giving 'em a call, and talking to the manager where you got it fixed and seeing what you can do with that. Be nice, keep all paperwork, receipts, etc and be persistent. Maybe you might get lucky. I don't remember hearing anything about the AMD FirePro D300 ever being a problem, but then again, I havent' heard everything., They are complex beasts and occasionally something may go wrong. You can see if they'll do a depot repair, that is, for a set fee, they'll fix everything that's wrong with it. I know it's for laptops, but I'm not 100% sure if it's for the Mac Pro as well. Still, you never know

hope this helps you a bit

John B

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Answer 2

JimmyCMPIT

Level 7

29,217 points

Feb 15, 2017 10:00 AM in response to GatorManLA

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