Any suggestions for a good Mac repair facility that can get a 5,1 Mac Pro working? The Mac itself is fine; just some issues with a couple of video cards.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions
Hey Dave,
Are you still having issues with the mac? It may surprise a few people but at one point in my career I was a Apple Certified Macintosh Technician. Not that it means much these days.
What’s going on with the video cards?
The problem is no video with the nvidia cards (GTX 960 and GTX 1080) and a 4K monitor (Phillips BDM4350UC). I’m using the NVIDIA drivers. I had been using the (MacVidCards flashed) GTX 960 for a couple of years, no problem. I got the GTX 1080 from MacVidCards, but he forgot to flash it, and won’t answer emails now. The 1080 did work (without boot screen) when I first plugged it in, but I took it out to return, and then neither card worked. After resetting the SMC, they both worked. But the system fans were running at max and too noisy, so I removed the 1080 and did another SMC reset, and now neither one appears to work with the 4K monitor, despite multiple SMC and NVRAM resets. A GP120 card does work. To complicate things, the 1080 and 960 are detected, and seem to work with a smaller 20" monitor (1600x1200). To further complicate things, I did find one cable was bad.
I can’t work with the Mac shop, because they only feel comfortable with stock, recommended Mac configurations, which means this is not.
As a contingency, I just picked up a used HP z620, and the 1080 card works fine (and runs quietly) in this machine with the latest Ubuntu. I am deciding whether to just use Ubuntu, or go the Hackintosh route. Linux was my main desktop from 1991 through 2008, so I’m fine with it, but Ubuntu seems so dumbed down, it’s hard to tell what’s installed. I guess this is the response to all those “Linux is not ready for the Desktop” complaints. Perhaps I’ll take a look at other distributions.
Anyway, I will try to isolate the problem a bit more. I got a PNY P2000 card, to eliminate power as an issue, and will make sure the cables and connectors are not an issue. Even once I get the z620 up and running, I may want to tap your expertise to get the Mac Pro back on track. Will you be at the retrocomputing meetup on Saturday evening?
Thanks!
Dave