Question

Apple Mac Pro - No Display output

Asked by: James_22b

Abit of a wierd one here.

I have a Apple Mac Pro (2 Years Old) that is refusing to display anything on a monitor, it boots into OSX fine, i can here programs start up, also can play music if i insert a CD etc so is booting fine.

I have tried different monitors although lower res ones, but still say no signal even during boot at the start where the splash screen would be. I have tried different graphics card I know work, in various PCI-E slots on the board and still i have nothing.

I have removed the battery on the motherboard to try and reset the bios (dont know if this works on Macs) and still no closer to solving this issue.

Is there any steps i could try that i havent tried yet?

Is this a common issue that has been looked at before ?

Any help would be great at the moment, also i heard that it used to occasionally show no display but a reboot would solve the issue.

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Asked On
2009-09-29 at 10:43:36ID24770930
Tags

Graphics Card

,

Display

,

Apple

,

Mac

Topics

Apple Hardware

,

Video Cards

Participating Experts
3
Points
20
Comments
14

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Answers

 

by: jhyieslaPosted on 2009-09-29 at 11:03:55ID: 25451587

Try these two things.  First off, reset the PRAM:

Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.


If this doesn't work, try turning off the Mac and unplugging all power from it for 5 minutes.  Then plug it back in again and restart.

 

by: James_22bPosted on 2009-09-29 at 11:27:03ID: 25451805

I have tried that and its still the same hmm....

Never known anything like it, super annoying

 

by: jhyieslaPosted on 2009-09-29 at 11:37:29ID: 25451895

If you have the OS X install CD, try and boot from that and see if you get any video.

 

by: James_22bPosted on 2009-09-29 at 11:45:27ID: 25451992

Good idea, had'nt thought of that will give it a go and let you know how i get on cheers

 

by: jhyieslaPosted on 2009-09-29 at 11:52:14ID: 25452050

If you do see video when you boot from the install CD you may have corrupt software.  You most likely you will need to do an Archive and Install.

 

by: James_22bPosted on 2009-09-29 at 11:57:18ID: 25452104

Also it has 2 x 500GB drives in it, not being familiar with Mac Pro's how do they ship as standard ? Will they be RAID'd ?

 

by: nappy_dPosted on 2009-09-29 at 18:27:21ID: 25454912

I had the same issue with some of the Macs in one of my studios. The card is dead. I hope you have the Applecare warranty. Time to call your local service center for a replacement.

I had 3 video cards replaced within two days.

 

by: nappy_dPosted on 2009-09-29 at 18:29:25ID: 25454922

Oh yeah, I proved it was the video card by swapping the hard drive into another machine and it worked just fine.

If you have another machine try that.

 

by: James_22bPosted on 2009-09-30 at 01:40:13ID: 25456571

The card works fine in other machines

 

by: nappy_dPosted on 2009-09-30 at 02:00:06ID: 25456663

Does the system hard drive work fine in other computers too?

 

by: jhyieslaPosted on 2009-09-30 at 04:57:29ID: 25457575

I don't think that typically the disks are in a RAID config, but honestly I've not purchased a Mac Pro with that config so don't know for sure.

 

by: nappy_dPosted on 2009-09-30 at 04:59:24ID: 25457596

When you purchase a Mac thae drives are not raided.  They come pre-installed on a single drive and the other drive is empty.

 

by: AGoodKeenManPosted on 2009-09-30 at 21:27:47ID: 25465973

Does the card work in other machines with the OS version? I have had this problem before when the Video card had been upgraded, but the boot CD did not have drivers for that card, so no video.

 

by: James_22bPosted on 2009-10-01 at 01:33:07ID: 25466813

Well the Mac Pro was 3 months out of warrenty but after too much wasted time trying to sort this I gave Apple a call and explained its only just out of warrenty and a £3k computer shouldnt break etc, well end result was they are fixing it free of charge as a goodwill guesture.

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