Mac is freezing up: does this pic mean I need a new video card?

[tuqqer]

Major issues I think are going down inside my Mac Pro tower. Twice this morning, both my 24" LCD screens suddenly froze up, and looked like the image I'm including here (had to take it with my iPhone).

In both freezes, the sound (on both a YouTube video and an iTunes song) continued in the background. The screen was frozen, though, and no input from mouse or keyboard. The wavy lines in the image were across both monitors. A restart brought everything back up running.

Is this a video card going bad? Or could it be memory or the logic board? Or any of the above?

I'd buy a new tower in a heartbeat, but the newest one out is about two years old. I'd so prefer to hang onto this oldster until the new ones get announced (supposedly in 2013).

[bazookaman]

Looks like the video card to me. Or a flock of birds has invaded your computer. The best thing about the MacPro is you can just buy a new video card. Cheap. No muss. No fuss.

[Lew Zealand]

Video card is the first choice. I had a few go bad in the AGP era and while they did not look exactly like this, the general problem was similar. A working Mac otherwise (your music still playing), but major video display problems. Do you have a video card you can just test with - beg, borrow, steal for a few minutes?

[Lew Zealand]

Birds?!?!

Looks more like bugs to me!

Get thee an exterminator. Or entomologist!

[mattkime]

videocard is the first suspect but its not possible to be certain.

[tuqqer]

Thanks, all. I tend to agree (with the strong second possibility of it being birds. Lots and lots of birds).

If anyone has a link to video cards that I can use in the MacPro1,1 model, let me know.

I currently have the "NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB" card, so anything similar would be fine.

[bazookaman]

I replaced my nvidia card in my 06 MacPro with this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003Z6Q...hs_product

[mattkime]

hm, i wonder if you could use remote desktop without the video card installed.

[tuqqer]

Found a good list of what will fit in this unit:

http://www.dvwarehouse.com/MacPro-(2006/..._5390.html&pltid=3be60bbebc4ac67df7dbc6bf1ffab28b

[archipirata]

Space invaders!


But seriously, reseat your video card, make sure all your cooling features are working properly, and check al your cable connections to be sure. I have a mac pro tower and have had the video card go bad. It happens.