8-Core (X1900XT) issues with OS X 10.4.11 and Quicktime 7.3.1
 

I'm curious to know if anybody else is having issues with their 8-core. We seem to have all sorts of crash since we upgraded to OS X 10.4.11 and Quicktime 7.3.1. The image on the monitor disappears, seems to happen in quicktime even without Final Studio 2 being installed. It will be a few weeks before we can get a copy of Leopard here in Angola.

We've done a clean install of the OS X from the original DVD, everything is fine until we update the OS X and Quicktime...

thanks
Kalunga

There was a firmware update released late last year for the X1900 card, for some reason it doesn't always come up in Software Update automatically.

Download and install the latest firmware for the card and it should solve the problem.

I've done that already. Mind you when we reinstalled all the software from scratch, it indicates that it no longer needs the firmware. I suppose that's how firmware works.

I'm now beginning to suspect that maybe there is something wrong with the video card. Is there any way of testing this possibility. The problem only seems to happen when I'm playing out some video file for a while (DVD player, FCP, Quicktime). Unpluging the second monitor (23" cinema display) seems to help a little (doesn't crash as much)...

thanks for the feedback

Sounds like a heat induced failure. I would suspect a faulty video board or inadequate cooling.

-gb-

X1900XT overheating solution
 

Hi Greg,

You hit the nail on the head. It was looking at the MacPro forum and came to the same conclusion.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....15561&tstart=0

Apparently overheating is general problem with the X1900XT video card in the MacPro, which obviously gets worst in graphic intensive situations (which is why I bought the card in the first place).

The solution is downloading smcfancontrol which allows you to turn up the minimum fan speed as well as monitor temperature. I set fan speed to 1500 rpm (instead of default 500) and instantly all my problems were solved. I can now run both my 30" and 23" cinema displays displaying various HD quicktime videos without skipping a beat..

www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23049

I wish ATI or Apply would indicate this issue in their sites, as clearly it has played major havoc in some media businesses.

Live and Learn.

Thanks Robert and Greg for your inputs.

kalunga