ATI Radeon 9000 Card Quits!
I’ve never had a video card actually die until this weekend.
I was performing some video editing and DVD burning on my MDD PowerMac G4 when I noticed that the lighting on my Cinema Display was uneven. The top part of the display was fine but the bottom seemed to be darker. The little power button light on the display was flashing short, short, long. Looking that up on the Apple Support website, it recommended I disconnect and reconnect the display. So, I powered down the PowerMac, disconnected the display from the IOGEAR switch, and disconnected the cable to the PowerMac from the switch. As I went to reconnect the PowerMac’s ADC cable to the switch, a small spark jumped between the two. I reconnected the display to the switch and powered up the PowerMac. Nothing. No video at all.
Boy, oh boy! If I blew that display….!
Not sure what was going on or exactly what had caused it, I disconnected the monitor from the ADC switch, hooked it directly to the PowerMac, and booted the machine again. No joy. I shut it back down, pulled out my extra Cinema Display out of the closet, and tried it. No joy! That was good news. That meant the problem didn’t lie in the display but in the PowerMac.
Hoping the problem laid in the video card, I swapped out the PowerMac’s ATI Radeon 9000 video card with an older Radeon 7500. I hooked up the spare Cinema Display to the PowerMac and booted it. It worked like a champ. I then powered down the machine and hooked up the original Cinema Display, and it too worked like it was supposed to.
Well, spending $130 for a new Radeon 9000 is a lot better than losing a $1200 display. (Well, that’s what it cost me when I bought it.) I’m grateful that’s all it was.
I was performing some video editing and DVD burning on my MDD PowerMac G4 when I noticed that the lighting on my Cinema Display was uneven. The top part of the display was fine but the bottom seemed to be darker. The little power button light on the display was flashing short, short, long. Looking that up on the Apple Support website, it recommended I disconnect and reconnect the display. So, I powered down the PowerMac, disconnected the display from the IOGEAR switch, and disconnected the cable to the PowerMac from the switch. As I went to reconnect the PowerMac’s ADC cable to the switch, a small spark jumped between the two. I reconnected the display to the switch and powered up the PowerMac. Nothing. No video at all.
Boy, oh boy! If I blew that display….!
Not sure what was going on or exactly what had caused it, I disconnected the monitor from the ADC switch, hooked it directly to the PowerMac, and booted the machine again. No joy. I shut it back down, pulled out my extra Cinema Display out of the closet, and tried it. No joy! That was good news. That meant the problem didn’t lie in the display but in the PowerMac.
Hoping the problem laid in the video card, I swapped out the PowerMac’s ATI Radeon 9000 video card with an older Radeon 7500. I hooked up the spare Cinema Display to the PowerMac and booted it. It worked like a champ. I then powered down the machine and hooked up the original Cinema Display, and it too worked like it was supposed to.
Well, spending $130 for a new Radeon 9000 is a lot better than losing a $1200 display. (Well, that’s what it cost me when I bought it.) I’m grateful that’s all it was.
posted by Andy Foster at
3:24 PM
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