Mac Pro Worries

Hello,
I've had my Mac Pro about a month. When I first got it I tried Migration with my iMac. This didn't work. After looking on the forums I see I would have been better off not trying it at all. Anyway, I transferred everything manually. The Pro, for most the part runs fine, but I've had a few issues that worry me particularly this early on. (I've owned Macs for over 20 years). Some things that have happened:
1. It wouldn't shut down. (once)
2. It crashed. (once)
3. At times it runs slow (the color wheel grinds away - daily)
4. On start up there is this weird thing happening with the screen. I took this digitial image of the screen. This happens after the apple appears and before the login screen. You can see the image here: http://www.sweetthursdayweb.com/mac_screen.php
My computer:
Mac Pro: One month old
500 GB Harddrive
Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro1,1
Processor Name: Dual-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP11.005C.B04
SMC Version: 1.7f8
Serial Number: G87220K9UPZ
My Questions:
1. Could the failed migration have damaged something?
2. I am often running a lot programs at the same time. I.e. Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop, Parallels (windows xp), Word, Entourage, Bridge, iTunes, etc Do I need more RAM?
3. Anything I should do at this point?
I use the disk utility and run sudo periodic daily, weekly, monthly and also update the prebinding from the commmand line.
For the most part, it works fine, but I'm worried that these issues may be indicative of a problem that will get worse or that possibly something needs immediate attention.
Your thoughts and advice will be appreciated.
Regards,
Glen
Mac Pro, MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.9) iMac PowerPC G4

Glen - IMO - you are way short on RAM - 4GB - 6GB would make a difference with all those apps open at the same time. I would probably do an erase and reinstall of the OS and apps - kind of a pain but would eleminate the worries about migration effort having mucked up the works. Also - once stable - I tend to leave things ALONE.
FWIW - under 10.4.10 - I can not put my new MP to sleep from the Apple menu or activate screen saver under Expose - not sure what to do with that one !!

Similar Messages

Where can high-power video cards be installed on a first-gen Mac Pro?

I have a first-gen Mac Pro with a Radeon X1900 XT in Slot-1 and a Geforce 7300 GT in Slot-4. The x1900 XT powers a 30" monitor and the 7300GT powers 2 x 20" monitors. The 7300GT card died and is being replaced with an 8800 GT.
Now it seems fairly obvious that for gaming the 8800 GT is superior to my X1900 XT. Ideally I'd like to just throw my new 8800 GT in Slot-1 and use it for my 30" monitor and then run the 2 20's off the X1900 XT in Slot-4. The problem with that is that the x1900 XT is a huge card and physically won't fit in Slot-4 because it runs in to the hard drives above it.
*Now, on to the questions / clarification:*
_Question 1_: Is the first-gen Mac Pro the same as the new Mac Pro in that high-power cards can only be used in Slot-1 and Slot-2? If so, why does it come in the standard configuration of:
Slot-1: x16
Slot-2: x1
Slot-3: x1
Slot-4: x8
It would seem that Apple purposely did this so you would run 2 high-power cards in Slot-1 and Slot-4 and keep them away from each other for heat reasons. The new Mac Pro has x16 bandwidth on Slot-1 and Slot-2 and it would make sense why they say to only install high-power cards in Slot-1 and Slot-2 for it.
_Question 2_: PCI-e configurations. There are a few ways I could tweak the configuration of the expansion slots to make this setup work. I'm curious as to which you would think is best:
*Option 1 (default PCI-e config, only works if a high-power card can be installed in slot 4):*
Slot-1: x16 - Radeon X1900 XT - 2 x 20" monitors for minor tasks / programs
Slot-2: x1
Slot-3: x1
Slot-4: x8 - GeForce 8800 GT - 30" monitor for major tasks / gaming
Now, the first issue is can the 8800 even run in Slot-4 due to the supposed power problem? If so, would there be a difference in performance for gaming at x8? I know this is backwards because you'd want the "primary" card to run on x16 but that's just not possible with this PCI-e configuration. If there is a difference in performance would an 8800 GT at x8 still run significantly faster in games than an X1900 XT a x16? I'd think so, but that's assuming the x8 isn't a real bottleneck.
*Option 2 (the only solution if the cards have to be installed in the first 2 slots):*
Slot-1: x8 - GeForce 8800 GT - 30" monitor for major tasks / gaming
Slot-2: x8 - Radeon X1900 XT - 2 x 20" monitors for minor tasks / programs
Slot-3: x4
Slot-4: x4
You still have the issue of the 8800 only running at x8 (if it even makes a difference, not sure). The benefit I see here is that instead of the X1900 XT dumping all of it's heat in to the 8800 GT (since heat rises) you have the 8800 GT on the bottom where it might run cooler. The X1900 XT would then also be limited to x8 but it's not even being used for gaming so it wouldn't matter at all. The X1900 XT is huge and would cover up Slot-3 but I don't use the other 2 slots so I don't mind.
*Option 3 (only works if Slot-3 can actually power an X1900 XT):*
Slot-1: x16 - GeForce 8800 GT - 30" monitor for major tasks / gaming
Slot-2: x1
Slot-3: x4 - Radeon X1900 XT - 2 x 20" monitors for minor tasks / programs
Slot-4: x4
This seems ideal only because this is the only setup that can get the 8800 to run at x16. The issue now is can Slot-3 run a high-power card? The card doesn't really NEED the power since it's just for running basic apps and not gaming. Again, the X1900 would cover up Slot-4 but it's not being used so no worries there.
*At the end of the day, the most important thing to figure out is:* where can high-power cards be installed in a first-gen mac pro? Once we know that we can figure out Question 2. The instructions that come with the 8800 GT say it can be installed in any of the 4 slots, but I don't know if I really believe that.
Thanks in advance for your help!

Thanks for your help, I think we've beat this horse to death :P. I'm glad I got it all figured out though.
Now the only question is if the gaming performance of the 8800 is actually enough better than the X1900 to warrant making it my "primary" video card. As long as Adobe CS3 apps don't rely on core image like some of the Apple Pro apps do I think it will be fine. If they do I'd have to probably just stick with the X1900 since I use CS3 every single day and only play video games once a week if I'm lucky.
What are your thoughts on the X1900 vs the 8800 GT for CS3?
Edit: This just occurred to me... Since I'm going to have to run them as x8, x8, x4, x4 there isn't really going to be a "primary" card since neither will be at 16x. I guess I could technically just plug my 30" monitor in to either one of them depending on what I feel like doing. If I'm going to play a game I just plug in to the 8800 and if I'm working I plug in to the 1900. The computer is up on the desk so moving the monitor from one card to the other takes about 10 seconds. I could just plug 1 20" monitor in to each so there's always a free DVI port on either one.
It's not the most elegant but I guess it would be a good compromise if I wanted the "best" performance in either situation. I realize the Radeon 3870 is probably the best of both worlds but I really don't want the noise. I already modified my 1900 with this after 6 months of listening to the lawn mower that was the stock 1900 cooler: http://www.arctic-cooling.com/vga2.php?idx=147
I'm just hoping the 8800 isn't too loud .

Best mac pro for websites

What do realistically need to setup a professional website. Mac Pro suggestions...

What do realistically need to setup a professional website.
How long is a piece of string?
Seriously. There are so many variables here.
For a start, 'professional' doesn't really say anything. There are professional, highly-designed, focussed web sites that target niche markets and may only see a few occasional hits. Then there are professional mass-market web sites that see billions of hits per month (e.g. YouTube). To say you want to setup a 'professional' web site doesn't mean anything in relation to the server.
Even moving on from there, 100,000 visitors doesn't mean much if they all come, look at the top (static) page and go away, when compared to 100,000 visitors who spend hours navigating through a media-rich environment that's 99% database driven with two-way, dynamic content on every page.
Pretty much any Mac, including the Mac Mini, can serve literally millions of hits per day if you're only dealing with static content. If you're dealing with dynamic content with a database back-end then that ups the ante significantly. Add multi-megabyte file downloads (such as video or audio files) into the mix and you have another bottleneck again.
Or maybe by 'professional' you mean you need something that's always available, so you're talking multiple servers for redundancy with automatic failover capability between them. That adds to the complexity
Or maybe by 'professional' you mean something that looks good and has a good user experience. For that you need a good web designer than understands modern web design - the actual platform its served off is largely irrelevant for that.
Typically you'll find your network bandwidth is your major constraint before you start to sweat on the server hardware. It doesn't sound like you have that set yet, which worries me a little. You're not planning on hosting this out of your house are you? If so have you considered the issues of power availability/reliability? network reliability? cooling? etc.
Few network providers offer significant service level agreements for residential connections. Many often prohibit running servers there anyway. You may need to step up to a business-grade service but at that point you might as well consider a hosted solution, or even a cloud-based solution which will let you scale based on your actual traffic needs and take care of much of the heavy-lifting for you.
So in short there are many variables here. You haven't provided enough information to be able to answer your question in any detail. It's all just speculation at this point.

Which new Mac Pro for Logic?

Well, they're out and on the AppleStore and I have about £2800 burning a hole in my pocket...
My question is, for that money I can configure either an 8-core machine running at 2.26GHz, or a quad-core running at 2.93GHz. Can anyone tell me which route is likely to be better for running Logic with lots of tasty plug-ins? I've budgeted for 8Gb of RAM and a second hard drive for sample data, so it's just the processor(s) left to decide on.
At the moment I'm running it on a 1.83GHz Core Duo MacBook Pro, where it limps along painfully, so I don't really have any experience of how well it utilises extra processing cores. I'd welcome any advice.

Hey MIke I agree that some thought should given to technology 5 years down the road but you are making my point about chasing technology. Its all a guessing game. Look at TVs. Look at phones. Etc.
Technology is moving so fast that you have to just use your gear in the moment and hope for the best.
It is not realistic in 2009 to predict 5 years down the road. Its just a big guess. What about the Mac pros that come out in 2 years. Will they make this years new Mac Pro obsolete? People will be having this same discussion in 2 years? They might not even make a desktop in 5 years. Look at the power of laptops now. Desktop sales are very weak and if this trend continues they will fade. I bought my 8 core almost a year ago and I would have had to wait a year if I chose to chase technolgy. When I bought my Apogee Ensemble I did think to myself that great they will probably release a new Ensemble with more Mic inputs. But I am glad I got it and use it and no worries. We are at the mercy of Apple so they will dictate the future and they arent going to tell consumers their 5 year plan anyway. Ok I will shut up.

No more Mac Pro, Apple you're killing me

I waited 6 years where I work to get a Mac. We finally did and my work life put me on cloud 9. Have been a Mac user my whole life. I do audio production for TV and work on about 5 projects a day. I work on news stories, 5 minute documentary testimonies, 30 min weekly shows, and even 2 hour productions. I have Nuendo, Final Cut and Premiere open ALL DAY. My Mac Pro just keeps on chugging along all day, no worries. The big highlight of my life is I wrote over 90 Applescripts and use 20 EVERYDAY. These Mac feature really allows me to go home without a headache or carpal tunnel.
With Apple killing the Mac Pro, my workplace will be forced to go back to using PC's............I am seriously thinking about changing my career. My output will decrease. Stress will go up because I wont have automation to mount servers, rename files and move files. Servers will become 144.33.65.1 instead of "VideoTape". I thought the death of Steve was bad, this is even worse. I've been a loyal Mac advacate since 1988. Just got my 1st iPhone. I have converted so many people to the Mac. I love my 17" Macbook Pro, I do Lightwave 3D, Motion, FCP, and so many other things on it. My work life is headed for the toilet. Crash........Crash........Crash.............wait.........I have to manually retype all the file names in this production. My stomach is churning just thinking out it.
Ouch. Thanks Apple.

I'm in the video industry, so I share your concerns.
However, Apple has not yet done or said anythng. All that's happened is Apple Insider has reported on a rumour to (succesfully) stir the pot and get some page views. No-one knows anything.
In a few years when you can get a thunderbolt 4 slot PCI box, hook it up to a macbook pro, and you have the functional equivalent of a mac pro, then maybe it goes away. But I don't think that day is today.
Well, I hope not.

Mac Pro Power Overload? 4890

So I recieved my 4890 today and made it work fine in my Mac Pro Win & OSX with 2nd superdrive as power source.
Then I went ahead and installed a Accelero Twin turbo cooler. I took power from the second superdrive for the cooler in addition to powering the card itself.
Upon boot I had no display, no fan movement for 5 sec then all the fans in my mac pro started climbing in speed and stopping on 100% like a turbo jet.
So black screen and no matter what card I use (4890, 8800gt, 7300gt) with superdrive power disconnected, still black display and full tilt fans.
Is my power supply broken? did I somehow overload it?
im guessing this is a issue for my apple store but in a last attempt on saving alot of cash and 2weeks without computer I am asking you guys.
mac pro 2006 btw

First off, the 2006 mac pro PSU is 1000 watts; it would take a lot more than that to overload your psu. Moreover the 4890 is more power efficient anyway, so it would consume less than say a 4870.
It could be though, that you are overloading the power dedicated for sata. Why are you connecting the 4890 through the superdrive power anyway? Use the aux 6 pin pcie connectors. The optical drive power should only be used if you +have to+, like if you're running a crossfire setup, and even at that it's "iffy" (although someone on macrumors has a stable crossfire setup going like that).
The fact that this has somehow "bricked" the system, even after disconnecting everything and reinstalling an apple oem card, though worries me.
Using a 4890 under OSX requires messing natit.kext files, etc. something a lot different from just flashing a card. In this sense flashing is a lot cleaner.
I wonder too though if you should take this to the apple store or not. They might not even help you, and you'll waste a trip of lugging a boulder around. That's the one problem with flashing, hacking, etc. you're on your own if things go south.
On the brightside though, have you inquired macrumors members about this. Throw up a post there, if anyone can help they can.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=661681

Mac Pro (Early 2008) - Question about swtiching startup hardrive

I have a Mac Pro (Early 2008), let's call her A, that I have been using non-stop but both its video card and a set of memory sticks have failed. My buddy bought his Mac Pro at the same time, let's call her B, but he barely used it. I want to keep on using a Mac Pro so I bought my friend's machine B, with the intention of using some of its parts or even use it as is, because as I mentioned, he barely used it throughout these years and is working fine.
Would it be possible to take the start up hard drive from A and place it on B? Like I said, they are both from the same generation and share pretty much the same configuration, except B, my friend's, came with a better video card (he ordered it that way).
Thank you so much for your help on this matter,
Juan.

Hello The hatter,
Please let me know what to do?
I decided to go for option B and now I am running my friends Mac Pro. Uploaded all my software and and back to work. Only that I noticed that this machine now stalls a bit at start up (gray logo, no spinning wheel for a while).
I discovered that even though I installed a new set of memory sticks, now the machine only recognizes Riser A (Top?) with 2GB (1GB x2) and listed as EMPTY the Riser B (Bottom?). I know they are supposed to go in pairs...so I am so tired of dealing with so many issues and worries with so much work to get done.
I decided to order a new set from OWC of matching (hopefully) sticks to place them on the Riser B (Bottom?) ASAP and see what happens?
What do you think?
Help please, I have been following your posts because I can tell you are extremely experience on the matter and I need such help more than ever before.
Thanks a million!
Juan

Lion designed for MacBooks and iMacs, not Mac Pros?

Seems to me that most of the major features of Lion only benefit folks using trackpads, which means mainly MacBook and iMac users. If you're a mouse-user all that built-in swiping and tapping is useless. To some degree, the same is true with Air Drop,great if you're mobile, but not so necessary otherwise. So, since I do 95% of my serious computer work on a Mac Pro, I see no benefit in upgrading to Lion. The only features that seem relevant are some of the lesser touted features like auto-save and maybe Mission Control, although that seems a bit meh to me.
Anyone care to tell me why I should invest $29 in this alleged upgrade?

Nostatic1
I upgraded, had a look and then decided to go back to Snow Leopard. Lion was a bit buggy for a start, but like you I have a Mac Pro, and do a lot of design type work, not as a profession though. Auto save worries me, as I want full control over when I save when designing stuff. To have to go back through lots of saved versions to get to the one I want to keep would seem to me to just be creating more work for me. As I understand it, it only works in apps that are adapted to use it, so my old CS3 would not do it, but that direction worries me if I don't have control over it.
A lot of the new features can be switched off if you don't like them, which is what I did, so why upgrade? The new iCal and Address Book are horrendous looking too!!! Gaudy is the term that comes to mind. So is the full screen version of Photo Booth. Those types of apps look OK on the iPhone, but look horribly out of place on a Mac, where they have already taken all the colour out of the program window borders to leave a pale grey. I couldn't bear to look at them, and had to replace those bits of the apps with graphics of my own.
My advice is not to do anything for at least a while. It seems that an awful lot of posts in this forum are people wanting to know how to alter Apple's defaults and to switch things off. I am hoping Apple is watching and taking notice.
It seems to me that Apple has taken the success of the iPhone and iPad as its inspiration to change the Mac. I have an iPhone and I find the apps like address book that reopen where you closed them a pain. Usually I don't want that same person again, and I have to navigate back to my groups, then out again to get to the right person. It would be much simpler to always start at groups. I cannot imagine doing serious design work with my finger on an iPad. The two should remain separate entities.
This is the first upgrade that I have reverted from in 18 years as a Mac user, and the first time I am really getting worried that Apple is going off in the wrong direction - and the first time that Steve Jobs is not at the helm. I don't have a good feeling for the future.

Can't reset PRAM on 2008 8-Core Mac Pro

My Mac Pro has been behaving weirdly for a while, and since it's been years, I figured I'd zap its PRAM. But it doesn't work.
I have an Apple wired keyboard, connected directly to the Mac Pro (no USB hub). But when I restart the Mac holding down cmd-opt-P-R, it's ignored -- it goes straight to the desktop as usual. No cycling of boot-up and no multiple chimes.
Any ideas why?
(Yes, definitely command and not control. I'm a Mac vet.)

Hi JAso, no worries. glad to help. Yes try and crank up your MP 2008 on another file system with OSX on it. Keep that OSX pure.. no unneeded apps.. duct the basic OS and any S?W updates / maintenance - repair the disk permissions and reboot of the new OSX.. - make user/pwd jaso .. etc.. be as quick and lean as you need. Keep as maintenance starter
What to look for from restart of new FS ( memory stuck / FW disk etc):
spritely start up and login.. just like out of the box
fast login to new clean user/
restart it a few times to resolve any "struth that fast!" anomalies...
What to do next if the former is true...:
well it's likely your MP's h/w is healthy and as reliable as ever and..
main file system is a bit buggered and can USUALLY be corrected... (but not always)
the OSX OR the localised goodies in ~/ that you use and a bit crook (r.s.), stale, plotted, bloated and possibly corrupt.
Else.. hmm the MP might need some surgery. The main file system's storage hardware (Macintish HD et al) might be slightly crook.
Anyway all of the is and the really cool things you can do to fix the S/W structures to make you mc kick along is easy to do.
AND.. read this with vigour and enthusiasm..
contrary to many of the sheepish and parroted posts in these forums there is usually NO NEED TO REINSTALL the OS. to fix these slowdown things!
use available tools to perform basic clean up and some surgery
one or two commercial ISV software.apps you MIGHT optionally purchase to perform filesystem tune ups beyond what OSX offers.
Anyway mate.. see if you can sort out a small OSX standalone system on an external spinning disk .. preferably SATA, eSATA, FW800 .. rear of that .
Oh and is you have a spare FW MAC,, fire up the MP2008 in TARGET MODE (hold 'T' key at startup), slip in a FW 800 cable between each and off you go.. You can checkout the MP's file systems from other Mac.
More Opinion: ALSo Recovery Partition if you have it. Often there's can be unavailable or as corrupt.
THere's tonnes of ways to check this out...WITHOUT whacking th existing OS... thats a subsequent resort.
Post your results for others to see.
Warwick
Hong Kong

Mac Pro 4,1 (Early-2009) - PCIe Fan Broken?

Hi Everyone:
I had a day off today and decided to do a bit of cleaning as its been a while (quite a while as far as my Mac Pro is concerrned).
I shut it down, unplugged all the cables and placed it on the table.
I removed the side cover, processor tray, all four drive bays, the GPU, and the PCIe Fan.
I blasted everything with compressed air or give it a nice wipe, much better!
I placed everything back inside the case and booted it up. It sounded slightly off, but I was going to check everything anyways. I looked at iStat Menu's and noticed that "Expansion Fan" was rated at 0rpm. Not good.
Maybe the sensor got damaged? I removed the side cover and looked at the fan, it wasn't spinning.
I unplugged everything, reset the SMC and tried again. Same thing. I reset the PRAM, same thing.
I removed the 1st and 2nd drives, took out the fan and resetted it very slowly until I heard a nice click.
Powered it up again and it still won't come to life.
I have two worries:
1. Did I damage the fan?
2. Did I damage the connector on the motherboard?
I'm most definitely out of Applecare (the machine is just over 3 years old, about 2 months over )
I'm horrified to think what an out of warranty logic board replacement would cast me just to get this fan fixed.
How important is this fan? I've only got one PCI card inside (the HD 4870) and its fan works fine.
Thoughts?
- D

Daphoid wrote:
...I definitely need to get this fixed. The question is do I lug it into an apple store (awkward) or do I replace the fan and see if that solves it. Or third, do I have a local company do a house call (comvienent but more expensive).
Back on track with the right Mac Pro version, maybe there's a fourth possibility, ugly but functional. The PCIe area fan in the '09 and '10 Mac Pros is a different setup from the the earlier ones. The early ones had the fan at one end of the PCIe area, forcing air through and out the back. The '09 fan has a space next to it on the door side so the PCIe space isn't pressurized in the same way. If the fan isn't working, you could attach a larger fan on the outside of the front grill and power it separately. If anything, that might be an improvement by forcing the air through. It wouldn't adjust for actual internal temperature but it would help cool the cards, HD's and video card. The non-functioning fan would be in the way but the air pushing through would get the job done.

Cannot send email from 3 accounts Mac Pro

My brand new Mac Pro cannot send email using Gmail, Shaw, or iCloud. At times I can send a simple test message, other times I cannot send. It seems the more data in the email, it for sure cannot be sent. The sent messages get stuck in the Out Box. Full green lights, no red lights in the connection diagnostics window. Any help in this regard will be much appreciated.

thank you for your reply, I did this with the same problem. Turns out that I went to FAQ section and went to the "Sharing" section of "system preferences" and changed my computer name by removing all spaces and apostrophe where it lists my computer name under Mac Book Pro, and problem solved.

Using a serial Wacom tablet on a Mac Pro

I have a good Wacom tablet with serial port interface that I would like to connect to a Mac Pro.
Is there some way to do this? Is there any sort of serial to usb adapter or would that not work with a Mac Pro?
Thanks for any advice.

I don't think so. See these knowledge base articles from Wacom:
http://www.wacom.com/faqs/knowledge_search.cfm?id=67
http://www.wacom.com/faqs/knowledge_search.cfm?id=185

Mixing Memory Mac Pro 2.66 Xenon

Hello all!
Alright I am trying to figure the best configuration that I can afford for a memory upgrade to my Mac Pro. I am looking to spend somewhere south of $200.
I currently have the following memory configuration (3GB):
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1: 1 GB
DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2: 1 GB
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1: 512 MB
DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2: 512 MB
I wanted to expand it quite a bit more and see on NewEgg that they are charging appx 65.00 for (2 x 1GB) and 80.00 for (2 x 2GB). It's definitely a better price per GB to get the 2 x 2GB but would I see a large performance increase?
I have been reading on the message boards that it is best not to mix memory but it is suggested to fill all the slots with the same size memory.
I guess it just kills me to take out all of my existing memory to put in just the 4GB of new memory.
Could anyone provide any suggestions?
Thank you for your time in advance!

You have 3GB, which is on the lite side.
The ideal for that model is 4 DIMMs.
Without knowing if you are a light photoshop, or what you use it for, Apple calls 4 x 1GB for FCP (and audio apps) "symmetrical memory."
And I would look at 4 x 2GB and pull your 3GB, maybe sell it once you know the new memory is fine after a month.
Are you seeing page outs? multiple swap files?
Go to folder: /var/
Maybe you are better off with faster drives, new boot drive or for scratch. A WD 10K 150GB VelociRaptor for $180 even.

Is my mac pro's nVidia 8800gt dead. B&W lines across my screen only

Hi, I run a Mac Pro 2008 oct core system. The specs are as follows:
dual 2.8GHz quad core processors
Snow Leopard with all software updates
16GB RAM DDR2 (Pre-DDR3 mac) (apple certified RAM, so won't break my warranty)
Hard drives are set in two raid arrays, there are four 1.5 TB drives, each set to pairs of raid 0 for 3 TB drives. One raid array is set to time machine the other is my startup disc.
dual DVD RW drives
N-Videa 8800GT graphics card (Shipped with my mac)
using a DVI to HDMI adapter to connect to a 40" Samsung LCD TV as a monitor (has always worked flawlessly)
I have upgraded a lot of the parts myself and have a fair amount of knowledge of how to do my own upgrades. My system today crashed on me after waking from sleep mode and attempting to use the web. Now when I try rebooting it gives me a screen that is even lines of black and white, nothing else. I do get the Apple beep noise like normal so my assumption is it isn't going to be the memory. I have cleaned off, reseated, and tried different slots with my graphics card, and both DVI ports, same effect. I am pretty sure this is the graphics card demanding to be replaced, which I have considdered upgrading anyway in the past. Most of my computer activities involve watching HD quality movies and TV shows and playing games with high graphic requirements at maximum settings, so using a top of the line graphics card is to be expected.
What I am posting here for is just getting a confirmation that other people agree with me that this is the problem so I do not waste my money on a new graphics card. Please let me know opinions, I would like to have my computer running swimmingly in the near future. Thanks in advance, I appreciate any help I can get.
-Jacob

Most people often seem to think that after a system freeze they don't need to repair their boot drive.
Over the years, Disk Warrior stands out as indispensable.
ie, don't rely on the restart alone to repair and fix, and you probably don't want to trust and rely on just Apple First Aid.
Boot from another drive and run Apple First Aid followed by Disk Warrior; keep backups of your system you can boot from. Clone your system with SuperDuper. Clear out system caches.
You don't need to buy Apple RAM and its prices to have certified RAM, Crucial and others are fine. Sometimes even better.
I like a fsst, small, boot drive and keep it just to OS/Apps; everything else, media files, data, whatever, on other drives. Multiple backups and redundancy. TimeMachine doesn't benefit or perform any faster with RAID, I've tried just to see.
I would slice off some space for an emergency boot drive so you can OPTION boot to that and run First Aid and other maintenance.
Then worry about hardware, and maybe run some hardware tests.
And for a good "is it software or hardware" do a clearn install of Apple OS and updates (only) - needs less than 30GB.

Can't Get MacBook Pro and Mac Pro to Network

I have a MacBook Pro (2008 - 2.5 Ghz. Core 2 Duo with 4 Gb of RAM running OS X 10.6.7) that I have been connecting to my Mac Pro (2005 - 2 2.66 Ghz Xeon with 20 Gb of RAM running OS X 10.6.7) through an Ethernet switch on my school's network. This has worked without a hitch for years, but when I upgraded to 10.6.7 recently, the MacBook and Mac Pro fail to network. On the MacBook Pro, the Mac Pro's icon doesn't show in the shared area, and on the Mac Pro, I can see the icon for the MacBook Pro, but when I click on the icon to connect, I get the message that "Connection Failed There was an error connecting to the server (name of my MacBook Pro). Check the server name or IP address, and then try again." I have tried a direct connect using the "Connect to Server" under the Go menu on both machines, using their IP addresses, but no luck. Is there something I need to re-set to get these two to talk again? I have other Macs on the same network that my MacBook and my Mac Pro can see, and both machines can connect to them. They just can't connect to each other.
Thanks in advance for any ideas you might have on how to fix this.

I fixed the problem by re-setting the default values for my VirusBarrier X6 anti-virus program.

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