Blue Screen and Sound Problems, In Desperate Need of Assistance

Question

About a week and a half ago, my computer officially stopped showing anything on the display when I tried to start it up. It had been doing it on and off for a long time, but I would eventually get it to display. Not this time...
My husband and I took our 30" Cinema Display and G5 tower to the iStore. The display was tested, and it worked fine. The associate said the problem was the video card.
After doing much research, I decided upon the flashed GeForce 7800 GS, per the suggestions of japamac on this forum. After I received and installed it, the display worked again and everything seemed great! It came with a CD with a patch on it, saying it was for *10.4.9 or later*, so I installed the patch and ran the permissions command. I had to go on a business trip immediately as the permissions command was running, so I left the computer to do it's thing, knowing it would sleep after a while.
When I got back home from my trip, I eagerly hopped on my computer. I attempted to awake it from sleep, however it froze. I was not able to tell if the permissions command ever finished completely.
I restarted the computer and everything seemed fine. A few hours later, my husband hopped on the computer about to test the new card on a game, but it froze before he could do anything. We restarted the computer, and that's when the blue screen issue started.
I tried resetting the PRAM, starting it up on the install disc (which didn't work), I tried holding down the S key (which also didn't work), and I tried holding down shift for Safe Boot.
The Safe Boot works, in fact I'm on my G5 right now. I did the permissions command again, thinking that it must've not ran all of the way and the permissions were broken. When it finished it gave me a massive list of "permissions differ"s with 10 "Warning: SUID file "____" has been modified and will not be repaired" messages at the end.
I contacted the seller on ebay, who ended up telling me the patch was only for Tiger, despite the file saying "or later". I really thought I messed up the permissions badly from that and tried running the permissions repair, but that did not help.
Thinking I had no other choice, I backed everything up and I reinstalled Leopard (choosing to Archive). After it finished reinstalling, the computer restarted and it booted up normally. I thought my problem was solved! However, once I let it sleep and came back later, it was frozen. I restarted and had the blue screen problem all over again, to my disappointment.
I tried restarting, the PRAM, the permissions (which did not list those SUID warnings anymore)... There was once that I restarted and it gave me the blue screen, I tabbed twice, hit enter, and entered my password though I couldn't see anything. I heard the computer moving like it was logging in. I pushed the power button on my display, and magically the screen displayed my desktop with the "Are you sure you want to put your computer to sleep?" window.
However, this only happened once, and afterward I noticed an issue when I tried to wake the computer from sleep. It would try to wake up, then go back to sleep, try to wake up, go back to sleep... So I contacted the ebay seller again, explaining what had happened and that it made me think it is an issue with the card itself, not permissions. (Fearing that if it is permissions, I would have to reinstall the OS again, but choose to erase the disk this time.) I asked if the seller knew anything about this.
The seller contacted me back saying, "Hello again, yes, wake from sleep is a common issue of many modified cards for Mac , so you better turn it off if you are not use it, its better for both the video card and power supply of your G5,
hope you understand about it , thanks". Well, that really would have been nice to know in advance... but regardless, the more important issue is the blue screen on startup.
On top of all of this, when I tried to watch a video tonight I noticed the sound was not working. I made sure it wasn't muted, I made sure the optical cable was connected, nothing. I restarted, nothing. I did not have any problems whatsoever with the sound before this, and I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the card (I wouldn't think so), or that something needs to be reinstalled since I reinstalled the OS. The System Prefs > Sound, Is not finding any devices.
I've restarted the computer so many times since the initial failing of the video card, I really hope all of the restarting hasn't damaged anything. As old as my Mac is, it's been working perfectly normally until the graphics card went out. After that, it's seemed like everything is falling apart. Thank you for reading my long history of difficulties, and I hope someone (maybe japamac?) can help me!

Answer 1

Hi-
I understand why you would suspect the latest hardware addition, and the conflicting/misunderstood advice given by the seller isn't helping.
I don't know of any cards that have "known" issues with sleep from the flashed realm.
Of the 10 different makes and models that I use or have used, flashed by myself or others, I have never seen an issue with sleep.
This includes 2 different Geforce 7800 GS cards.
The most common reason for a blue screen at boot is an incompatible Login or Startup item.
These are disabled during a Safe Mode boot.
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/startupitems.html
As for the Geforce 7800 GS, there was a patch for OS 10.4.9 only. This was to allow for the proper reporting and use of the appropriate OpenGL engine.
After 10.4.11, and in Leopard, the OpenGL engine is properly selected for the card.
Since this is simply a reporting issue, and not a performance issue, the patch is not a mandatory thing.
There is an issue with the ROMs used in some Geforce cards that causes a boot delay (a blue screen) for up to 6 minutes.
Most guys don't use those ROMs anymore, but I guess that someone may not have bothered to get the new ROM.
Removing the AppleHWSensor.kext from /System/Library/Extensions will correct this issue.
This, however, is historically a G4 issue only.
There are a couple possible scenarios that I think may apply to you:
1- The card is overheating, thus the occasional success or Safe mode only boots.
Check that the fan is spinning.
2- The auxiliary power is not connected, or has a poor connection.
Sometimes the pins on a Molex adapter (the female side) are so tight that they push out, rather than allowing the male pin in.
Conversely, a stretched out female pin would not properly contact the male pins of the graphics card.
Double check connections at the optical drive and at the graphics card.
While inside, reseat the graphics card.
3- If the card was prepared for use in a G4 by cutting the traces of pins #3 and #11, this can cause problems in the G5.
Most cards work fine, but some Geforce cards complain.
As well, if the pins were taped, the tape should be removed for use in a G5.
http://themacelite.wikidot.com/pins-3-and-11
If the traces are cut, return the card.
If the pins are taped, remove the tape.