Screen artifacts - MacPro GeForce 8800 GT

My brand new MacPro (2x 2.8GHz, 2GB RAM, 1x GeForce 8800GT) crashes continuously during Boot camp (v2.0) start up after showing lines of artifacts at the top of screen. Some other times the screen from grey becomes pink with inverted colors.
Installing the most recent Nvidia Drivers and cleaning the card connections from dust did not solve the problem. Any idea please? I am very disappointed with my first Mac

A few more informations:
My computer is a Mac Pro 2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon - Model identifier is MacPro2,1

Similar Messages

Slow Screen Updates - MacPro, Nvidia 8800, and 30" Cinema HD

I've noticed some truly odd behavior from my rockin' box. The cursor update is really sluggish as I draw over an image. The lasso, paintbrush... well every tool chugs along at about 10-15 fps as I edit an image. It feels incredibly laggy (I'm using CS3).
I've also noticed that Quicktime doesn't play any movie smoothly. Even though Quicktime Player Pro reports a movie is playing back at 30 fps, the screen clearly isn't keeping up (it's maybe displaying 15-20 fps).
Has anyone else run into this?

Did you add the 8800 card sometime after you bought your Mac Pro, or was this something that's been going on from the start? There are some problems reported with the card using Apple's Motion.

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT and 10.5.7

The OpenGL problems with the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT video appear to be fixed in 10.5.7.
No screen artifacts, no screen redraw issue so far.

Very nice. My 3d objects no longer turn white while painting on them or manipulating them, though painting into the surface appears to be considerably slower than it used to be.
edit: I have an m8600GT, but had OpenGL issues which are resolved nonetheless.

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT & OS X Server v10.5.

I just received and installed my NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT into a 1st Gen MacPro.
Works great in 10.5.2 Leopard but when I boot up to Leopard Server I get the grey restart screen!@#$
I put the old ATI video card back in and Server boots just fine!@##$
I tried the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT in two other slots and pulled out some other cards for fun, but no boot$#%^^&*&
Anybody else have this problem???
Calling Apple Tech Support now... I will post their answer soon.
Cheers

Hello and welcome to the Apple Discussion boards!
Well, the honest answer is that it will work but I think that quite a few 'features' might not be convenient/functional to use if you travel with the laptop.
There is nothing that stops Server from being installed on it. If it is just that this is your 'desktop' machine and normally does not leave the network it is currently attached to, it would be more than adequate. In other words, 'Tinkering' will be fine for this setup, but any type of 'serious' serving might overwhelm the HD (it is 'smaller', lower rotational speed, possible long term effects of 24 hour uptime use et al) but everything else will work as intended.
Peter

24" iMac GeForce 8800 GS Pixelated Display

I bought a refurb Spring 2008 24" iMac with the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS video card from the Apple online store almost a month ago now. Worked brilliantly until yesterday afternoon when the display suddenly went all pixelated, with a funny aqua coloured wash effect over parts of all windows, the menu bar and desktop. The desktop background image shadows are all pixely and blocky (as if it'd switched to 256 colours or resolution had suddenly reverted lower than default is the best way I can describe it). The drop shadows are all pixelated too and parts of the desktop background seem to pulse... It happens, sometimes a few minutes after a bootup, but usually almost immediately, booting from the internal disk and my external backup disk, from the install DVD, and also if I boot in safe mode. Given this I don't think it's a software or driver issue.
I've run hardware check from the supplied 10.5.4 DVD, both the short and the long runs, and it found nothing. If I shut it down and leave it for a while (like an hour or overnight) it'll come up and work fine for a few minutes, then the display will flash several black horizontal lines for a second or two and then the display will switch back to the pixelate/low res mode again. When it happens the Displays preference pane shows the correct 1920 X 1200 setting, millions of colours, and the Display Profile is set to iMac as it should be (and changing to another profile doesn't help).
It seems possibly temperature related as leaving it powered down for a while seems to fix it temporarily but the iStat Nano widget shows the CPU/GPU temps are only about 43-47C when it goes crazy, so it doesn't seem to be particularly high (and I'm usually only doing some web browsing when it happens, no games or videos playing or anything). The machine seems to work fine aside from the messed up display, I can launch apps and work with them when it's happening.
The machine came with 10.5.4 installed and I updated it to 10.5.6 via software update and used Migration Assistant to copy my user data and apps from my MacBook Pro.
I've reset parameter RAM and SMC with no change in behaviour. The only new software installed recently was the iPhone SDK about three days before it started playing up and I also installed Scribbles drawing program several hours before it started misbehaving (but I wasn't using Scribbles at the time it broke and I've since removed it with no change).
Has anyone seen this problem before? Is it a faulty graphics card as it appears or could it be something else given that hardware tests found no problems?

Wow, this is bizarre. I got home today and I have the exact same issue, except I have a mac mini, so it is obviously the original video card. I thought it must be that somehow the video card got damaged, but now I think whatever has caused your problem is related to mine.
I booted in safe mode and the video was clear, there are some hardly noticable artifacts when dragging a window but that is probably due to the safe mode driver. I really don't know what to think. Maybe the video card got messed up or maybe it is in the driver. But you have to admit that it seems beyond coincidence that we would both have the save video issue on almost the same day, even though we have different hardware setups, maybe something else is going on.
Please let us know what is response you get!
Cheers.
-Sam

Radeon 2600 beats GeForce 8800 -- again

I was doing some tests comparing two iMacs, one with the Radeon 2600 Pro and one with the GeForce 8800 GS. The test was to import a movie file into iMovie, which renders thumbnails of each segment of the video.
The iMac with the Radeon completed the thumbnails faster even though it had a slower CPU clock (2.8 vs 3.06GHz). Huh?
The same thing happened when I encoded a DVD project into a disk image using iDVD. This required it to render an animated welcome screen. The iMac 2.8 with Radeon 2600 Pro beat the iMac 3.08 with the GeForce 8800 GS!
Scratching my head, I decided to try the same two tests on a Mac Pro 3.2GHz 8-core. When the Radeon 2600 XT was installed, the Mac Pro completed the iMovie and iDVD tests faster than when the GeForce 8800 GT was installed.
Apparently the GPU is handling at least a portion of both tasks -- and the Radeon 2600 handles its portion better than the GeForce 8800. And to add insult to injury, the Radeon 3870 will be shipping within a week.
Message was edited by: rob_ART to correct spelling.

Thanks for the information. I am considering to replace my standard mac pro first generation video card by a ge force 8800.
I am using the mac pro mainly for D 200 raw file editing on 30 inch ACD screen. I jjust wondered if yoyr results are also applicable for my situation.
Any comments
Iemke

New iMac 24 " GeForce 8800 flicker : sharing a solution

Just in case you face the same problem I have had with a new 24" iMac equiped with a GeForce 8800 GS. I faced a flickering of rectangular areas on the screen in certain applications, the worst being Capture NX 2, but also while scrolling the iTunes Store pages. The problem also implied the smearing of text lines while scrolling rapidly (with the mouse center button) web pages or text files.
I did a safe boot and noted the problem had disapeared. I de-activated Snapz Pro as a starup item and am now working w/o the problem any more. I thought I'd share this. I will contact Ambrosia Software to inform them.

Hello, maybe you've seen the other topic on this board about rectangular areas that flicker.
I'm wondering what exactly you mean with a 'safe boot'? And this Snapz Pro was an application you installed yourself?
Could you do me a favour and go into iTunes, then activate visualisation (apple+T i think) and at view go to visualisation and then options.
You'll get a prompt box. Now check if the OK button is flickering, if so I guess the problem is still there but now in a less annoying way. (will upload a video later on)
When I look at the other topic I'm getting more and more the idea that this is a hardware problem not a software one. Alltho it has been gone for a while but now it's back, really weird and such a trigger.

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS issue

I have a 24 inch iMac with a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS video card. The computer is out of warranty.
A while back I noticed that, while playing World of Warcraft, the computer would have a sort of graphical glitch and then freeze up.
This happened a few times, infrequently, until finally the computer would not start at all.
At the startup screen with the apple logo, the wheel would spin a minute, then pixels would appear all over the screen and it would freeze. The screen would then turn to a bright orange color and stay that way.
I took it in to the mac store, where I was told the video card had failed.
They replaced the video card, which I had to pay for, due to the computer being out of warranty.
I have had the new video card now for about two weeks. I just loaded World of Warcraft for the second time on it. After playing for less than 20 minutes, the screen glitched out (pixelated flashes) and then froze.
I am now afraid to play the game.
I have never had the computer freeze while doing anything else.
Considering I just spent $600 to replace the last video card, is there anything I can do to figure out what exactly is causing this problem?
Thanks.

Hi Riley71
I'm not sure what you were charged $600 for, but I would take it back and either ask for my $600 back or that it be fixed correctly.
Dennis

Will the new 3GHz iMac (24") with GeForce 8800 be good for Aperture v2?

hi all.
I've just seen the specs on the new iMac and I'm interested. I was resigned to buying a Mac Pro but found it difficult to justify the cost because I'm not a professional photographer. the new iMac might be good enough at a much more justifiable cost.
I wonder if anyone has information or opinions regarding the following.
Will the glossy screen be a nuisance? There is stray light in our living room where I use my computer although we do have venetian blinds on both windows. (don't bother suggesting using the computer in another room. this is Hong Kong where space is scarce and expensive.)
Will 3GHz/4GB be significantly faster than my 2GHz/2GB iMac for Aperture operations? (Aperture was not included in Apple's test comparisons)
Will the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS card be beneficial to Aperture use?
Will the FireWire 800 be significantly faster than the FireWire 400? on my iMac, transfers to/from my external SATA disks run at only a dismal 13MB/s rather than the ideal 40MB/s. is it my iMac's limited processor power, or a limiting factor with having only 2GB of RAM and a scad of applications open, or a problem (concerning caching) with Leopard's copying routines?
for future reference, would the Aperture library saved on the internal SATA drive be faster than if it was saved on the external SATA drive connected via FireWire 800?
your input and information would be appreciated (and it's probably going to be a common question).
sincerely,
Gregory

Gregory Rivers wrote:
Will the glossy screen be a nuisance?
My expectation (every workspace is different as are individual perceptions) is that the reflective issues of the iMac's glossy screen would be very tolerable. What many (not all) graphics pros including me find intolerable is the fact that glossy displays add contrast and saturation to images. However many, perhaps most, non-graphics-pros prefer the added contrast and saturation, which is why Apple uses those displays. Each individual must do his/her own side-by-side comparisons and determine personal preference.
Will 3GHz/4GB be significantly faster than my 2GHz/2GB iMac for Aperture operations?
Yes.
Will the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS card be beneficial to Aperture use?
I believe yes, but that is just a guess since I do not know the card well. Certainly picking an iMac for Aperture usage I would choose the top 24" with the 8800 GS card
Will the FireWire 800 be significantly faster than the FireWire 400?
Yes.
...for future reference, would the Aperture library saved on the internal SATA drive be faster than if it was saved on the external SATA drive connected via FireWire 800?
Yes. Best IMO will be to have the AP Library on the internal drive but with Referenced Masters on external FW800 drives. The top iMac allows up to 1 TB internal drive size. Since drives slow as they fill, order a large drive and keep it less than half full to optimize operation.
...is it my iMac's limited processor power, or a limiting factor with having only 2GB of RAM and a scad of applications open, or a problem (concerning caching) with Leopard's copying routines?
Pretty much everything impacts AP performance, so the more things you optimize the better. The maximum 4 GB RAM of iMacs, although quite workable, will always be limiting. Good policy is to restart or at least close as many irrelevant applications as necessary prior to an extended Aperture work session.
Steve Weller, builder of the excellent <http://www.bagelturf.com/index.html> Aperture website, discusses speed improvements here:
<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1273934&tstart=75>
If you ever do run into performance issues, work to dial in on each of the performance tweaks he discusses.
As an aside, I too like the MBP (ideally 17" matte screen) as preferable to the iMac because of the portability. Unfortunately cost may make that an unacceptable choice, but I cannot overstate the huge benefits of portability.
Good luck!
-Allen Wicks

Yet another problematic iMac 24" - 3.06Ghz - Nvidia GeForce 8800 GS

My iMac 24" (Early 2008) - 3.06Ghz - Model A1225 with the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GS card does not work properly.
I purchased my machine in September of 2008 and the issues began about four years later, in late sprin of 2012.
When the screen/display/video problems started, I got blue or pink screen startup failures, beachballing, crazy static lines through the screen, sometimes beeps or screen flickers. All of this started four years after buying it—and it is NOT unreasonable to expect a $3200 machine to last far more than four years.
When my machine stopped working I spent hours over doing diagnostics, reseating the RAM, a reinstall of the OS, all to no avail.
Digging for information on the Internet pointed to so very many other owners of this machine type having the same problem! But the cost to repair the card, as reported time time again, was close to $900. Angry and bitter, I boxed up my machine and started saving—and went back to using my 20” white G5 iMac (no problems with this machine, thank heavens!).
Is there any recall movement in effect? I don’t want to have to pay 900 or so dollars to repair a video card that is inherently defective!
Nvidia recently admitted to having produced lots of faulty Geforce cards for their laptops but also stated that there could be other products with similar faults (http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1045810/000119312508145974/d8k.htm). They have set aside about $150 million to redress the matter.
There is a UK forum dedicated to helping laptop owners with problematic Nvidia cards get help and they have started fielding quesitons from iMac owners, as well (
http://www.nvidiadefect.com/apple-imac-24-early-2008-imac8-1-defect-geforce-8800 -gs-t3813.html).
Is anyone else an unhappy owner of an early iMac 24" (Early 2008) - 3.06Ghz - Model A1225 with the Nvidia Geforce 8800 GS?

After a lengthy long-distance call to Apple Tech Support, both agents I spoke to told me that this is the first time they have heard about this issue. There are no repair protocols in place for this make and model of iMac with these issues.
I asked the senior of the two again, just to clarify, if this was the first time he heard about such a problem and he said yes. I then asked him if he knew the subject was being discussed here on the Apple Support Communities forum and he said that this forum is for users and is not used by them. I asked him if he thought it would make sense for Apple Techs to be up to date about common repair issues being discussed on Apple's own forums, and he said that he can't speak for Apple. I then asked him his opinion about the matter and he said, "I suppose so."
The "suppose so" line told that that I would get nowhere with him. I just hope the authorized repair center I visit is more up to date about this problematic iMac build that Apple's own Tech Support staff are.
Shame on you, Apple!

IMac Nvidia GeForce 8800 GS Drivers

I am running XP Professional via Boot Camp. I run XP so I can play America's Army since it is a Windows only based game. The problem I am having is when I expand Americas Army full screen it completely locks up my iMac and I have to hold down the power button to reset it.
I have been told by several people that the problem is from the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GS drivers. I tried to up date the graphics drivers from Apple's and Nvidia's website with the latest driver. When I try to install the graphics driver from the setup file, it gives me the following error.
"The NVIDIA Setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit."
Here is the location where I downloaded the driver from.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp175.19whql.html
Here is a link to America's Army on the support forums.
http://forum.americasarmy.com/viewtopic.php?t=279590
Any help is appreciated.
Message was edited by: allen2680

Hey guys,
I encountered problems renaming the nv4 disp file that allen sent me (drivers still would not install)...so instead of replacing the original nv4 disp.inf file in windows, I opened the nv4 disp file allen sent me, copied the text, and pasted it in the original nv4 disp file in the NVIDIA folder after deleting the text of the original file and saved it...after that, the new drivers installed without a hitch...have yet to test whether or not the infinite loop is gone or not in Age of Empires 3 though...will keep u updated...thx for the file allen!

New IMac GeForce 8800 GS Graphics card questions

I am considering buying a new IMac 3.06 Intel Processor with 500 GB HD, 2GB RAM, Geforce 8800 GS Graphics Card and 24 inch display.
Will this computer be able to run Windows Vista Aero Glass with all features turned on via Bootcamp software included with Jaguar?
Also does anyone have any information on this GeForce 8800 GS card? I've tried googling it and keep getting sporadic results of Geforce GTS and Geforce GTX cards but nothing about this GS card!
I want to run Vistas AeroGlass and the games I'm interested in playing are WOW, Oblivion, Battlefield 2142 & COD 4.
Can the new IMacs with this GeForce 8800 GS handle all this?

I have the AL iMac 2.4GHz w/ 1GB RAM and the Radeon 2600 w/ 256. Running XP in BootCamp I can run COD4 @ Max and is very playable (not necessarily full throttle) w/ plenty of action on screen. Also the PREY demo works just about as good. If I go to 1600x1200 it will run flawlessly.
WoW will play great on Leopard (though I've had a few freezes in game:::not sure if this is Mac update related or patching for WoW itself). You can also max WoW out and it runs smoother than COD4 (WoW is older) but for the beauty of the game and smoothness tune it a bit and you are cool. And yes AAx8:)
Can't wait until I go to the Corsair 4GB kit w/ 4-4-12 cycle:):):P

Banding Issues with GeForce 8800

Hi,
I just installed CS4 Production Premium on a new Mac Pro. The system specs are:
2x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
10GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
2x 1TB SAS drives
Samsung 30" Syncmaster 305T Plus
OSX 10.5.6 (both OSX and CS4 are up to date)
When I was working in After Effects, I noticed some dramatic banding issues when lighting a scene. I was curious, so I created a gradient and the same banding was visible. I tried creating a gradient in PS, AI and Flash: same results. Consistent across all CS4 products, and the image depth (8bit, 16bit or 32bit) doesn't affect it at all. Applying a blur effect to any image also produces banding.
I tried finding some gradients through Google image search. They look fine in Firefox, but when I open them in Photoshop the banding once again pops up. Same in Preview to some extent, but not as drastic.
Two other guys in my office are running CS4 with the same monitor. We're running identically calibrated color profiles, and working in the same color space. They have no problems. The only difference between their setup and mine is that they're using Macbook Pros.
Things I have tried: turning OpenGL on/off and toggling the individual GPU settings, working in all available color spaces, working with variable DPI, using another monitor, changing the synchronized color space through Bridge, changing the conversion options (dither, engine, etc), changing the color management policies, working in CMYK/RGB/Gray/Lab, changing the pixel aspect ratio, altering the scratch disks and memory allocation, dumping my CS4 preferences and starting over... none of this affects the banding. A 16bit 72DPI image that's a straight black to white gradient consists of nothing more than 12 or so very visible steps. I'm starting to wonder if this is a graphics card issue.
All the work I'm doing is for screen, so printers don't factor into the equation. I'd appreciate any tips or suggestions anyone can offer.

Well, one thing I notice is that attempting to open the linked .png in Photoshop, it has an embedded "SyncMaster" profile.
Opening it in Photoshop CS4, maintaining that profile, I see banding (although very subtle in the second (bottom) example). The top example exhibits a stippled effect at the band edges at 100% scale.
Opening it and converting it to Adobe RGB 1998, I see almost no sign of banding in that bottom example.
Opening it as is in Preview, I see the banding again.
Creating a new radial gradient in Photoshop CS4, 1300 pixels wide, #666666 to #000000, at 100% scale, it is a smooth transition with the barest hint of banding. Also, my #666666 is noticeably lighter than in your example.
Offhand, I'm not sure which factors affect your workflow. But I doubt it is your video card unless it is set for, say 16 bit or 8 bit...
Neil

Illustrator screen artifacts

Hi!
I've been having a problem with a screen artifacts on Adobe Illustrator CC.
whenever I select an object and try to drag it/scale it up or down, I get grey "squares" just covering my entire screen.
The squares disappear when I mouse over them (erasing them pixel by pixel..)
this problem only occurs in Illustrator (though I work on Photoshop and After Effects just as much).
I tried contacting Adobe, who remotely controlled my computer.
Sadly, the issue wasn't resolved since I've been told that it's not a bug, and maybe it has something to do with the graphic card and its preferences.
btw, this happens on 2 differant computers - my own, and my co-worker's...
i'm using INVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 card
Can anybody help us figuring out this thing..?

Have you tried the latest driver from Nvidia?

CS4 screen artifacts

Hello!
When I open an image in CS4 at less that a size that fills up the entire frame, I get these blue and red blocks of screen artifacts. When I increase the image size to fill the scree, then reduce it, they are gone. And subsequent images do not have the problem.
Not a biggie, but not inspiring either...
MacPro 2.5GHz 4GB OSX 10.5.5
(dual monitor, but it does it on either...)
-David

David:
Which video card do you have? And are you using Open GL/Advanced Drawing?
Bigger Tiles may well be causing the problem try removing or disabling that plugin.

Screen artifacts - MacPro GeForce 8800 GT

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for