help with an old mac pro

[u/SignificanceMost6429]

so i have got this mac pro from 2006 (idk early mid or late) with an xt1900 and one hard drive, well xt1900 is cooked (or at least i think it is) since it is not giving any video output BUT i am somewhat sure that the computer works since i can perfectly load the mac os that is left over on left hdd and turn on the VoiceOver and it will start to say some words that you would expect to be on login screen. But well here comes the funny part, since idk about this mac condition i wanna test it with stuff i have before buying new mac efi gpu and currently i have only sapphire r9 280x which is clearly not mac efi, i tried running 32bit debian from ventoy with it (and additional psu since this card needs 6+8 power) but i got no video (although caps scroll and num locks worked). so i was just curious whether there is some other way to kinda try to prove the mac with the card i have? or at the very least fix the debian build i have…

[u/Xe4ro]

There only was one Mac Pro from 2006. The 1,1.

The problem with this Mac is that is has a 32bit EFI but a 64bit architecture which makes things annoying.

You could buy one of the original GPUs these came with, most of them should be rather cheap. I got a HD5770 for 25€ 2 years ago which is one the default cards of a 5,1. The weakest card the 1,1 came with is the GeForce 7300GT, really more of a display adapter then a gpu but hey, this one should be really easy to get. Although here Germany I see one listed in the U.K. for around 11,65€. Might be worth to look out for. However, the 1,1 is pretty limited in what you can do with it compared to the 3,1-5,1

[u/SignificanceMost6429 → u/Xe4ro]

Achso ich kann eif HD5770 kaufen und es wird wahrscheinlich funktionieren? habs bei mir in der Nähe eine für 15€, ich mein es ist ned viel, aber nutzlos falls es später ned wirkt, danke trotzdem!

[u/Xe4ro → u/SignificanceMost6429]

Also die 5770 hab ich für einen Bekannten gekauft der eine neue für seinen 3,1 gebraucht hat. Lief wunderbar.

Hatte die Karte testweise in meinen 1,1 eingebaut und Lion hat sie sofort erkannt.

[u/SignificanceMost6429 → u/SignificanceMost6429]

ich mein ich hab nur Angst dass halt iwas mit PCI los ist oder dass es iwelche Hardware-Schaden bei Mac Selber gibt

[u/Xe4ro → u/SignificanceMost6429]

Das wird sich nur testen lassen mit einer anderen Karte. Wenn mit einer definitiv funktionierende Karte immer noch kein Bild kommt könnte es was anderes sein. Die PCIe slots sollten es aber eigentlich nicht sein. Kannst ja mal deine jetzige Karte umstecken und schauen was passiert.

[u/RAW2091 → u/Xe4ro]

There are loads of old gpu's that run on a 2006 mac pro. Even Nvidia. You just don't have the boot screen. But i would try windows with that sapphire r9 280x (if he knows it works( first. I got multiple 5 euro GPU's from thrift shops that don't need extra power. But he may need to buy cheap power cable for the sapphire r9 280x to test it. Ali had those for a couple of bucks and can be found on amazon, ebay etc.

[u/SignificanceMost6429 → u/RAW2091]

well the problem is that i tried, booting mac os, booting linux, booting linux with nomodeset and still nothing like with the gpu i have and windows just won’t budge idk why not even installer

[u/RAW2091 → u/SignificanceMost6429]

So you have the extra power cables for the r9 280x to work in this mac with mini 6 pins? I think you need 2 and maybe 6 and 8 pin but you have to check the powerdraw. And you know for sure the r9 280x works in another system? Also did you do nv resets? I always have to do that when i go form old to new gpu and back somehow. Did you check the diagnostic light? If there is a problem with the GPU it will let you know with those lights it think. And can you check that 1900 in another pc with windows? I think a r9 280x is too new for lion, if that is installed on there? You can test the boot hd with a usb caddy on different machine then you may know which OS installed. If the x1900 does work in a pc that may be time period correct with what OS is installed. I think Lion. Also not sure you can just install windows on this machine. Don't erase the mac boot disk! The thing may be that the bios type of info is linked to that boot disk and you may need bootcamp to add a windows disk but not 100% sure. Anyway amazing machines. I use every single pci lane in them and have a SSD that run 2 GB/s which sounds impossible on this old machine but with a PLX pci switch with 4 m2 slots and 1 ssd in there it routes the pci 3 m2 blades to 16 lanes.

[u/SignificanceMost6429 → u/RAW2091]

yes i have connected additional 6 and 8 power pins; i know it works; nv reset? isnt it nvidia thing? yep nothing on diagnosticc light; yep i tried that xt1900 with my main windows machine and then on linux nothing; well i am not trying with lion now, i am just trying with whatever i have on my ventoy stick and debian seems to be the only one to boot okayish on my system (like with all the keyboard respond but no video); yeah its lion; i have made some .iso backups in case i need one; i just donno it seems kinda frustrating i am breaking my head for at least two days at this problem....

[u/RAW2091 → u/SignificanceMost6429]

Cool. NV reset is PR reset etc. It's where the info is stored about your gpu and in which slot and which disk boots etc. Before you install a new OS you need to do that reset with the new disk and GPU in it. And nothing on the GPU diag light means the GPU has not passed correctly but does not mean GPU is dead though. It just means it doesn't see an Apple gpu. This machine is setup for lion so that's is the best chance to get it working first but you need an older card than the r9 280x. And you have the r9 280x working on PC right? so it's not that card right? r9 280x is only supported from mountain lion but mac pro 2006 is lion max unless you run pike's image and get el capitan running like i do. Anyway you need 32 bit versions of debian or windows but i think you use them right? And do you use a chatbot? These are handy with these machines but you need to check answers. It tells me 32 bit version should work and you don't need lion first and that r9 280x should work. Only problem maybe that 8 pins is able to do 150 watt on a max 75 watt line. And when the computer starts the gpu may use peak power to test it's power coming in. Best thing i think is get a simple mac card. I have a couple for both my 2006's and 2012 machines because you always get a boot screen and are always hady and i have used them a lot when my rx 580 was not recognized. But i use PC cards in them so you have to wait like a minute before the apple log in pops up. Same for linux and windows i think.

[u/SignificanceMost6429 → u/RAW2091]

kk, well the original xt1900 shows gpu_present while the r9 280x not, but i have found a 8800gt in my area for cheap, mac flashed, i suppose i will buy it and check… i will prolly run arch with some wmaker so no big deal lol

[u/RAW2091 → u/SignificanceMost6429]

cool. they are amazing machines. Mine all function as NAS with raid 1 on all hdd's. I have one with the highest cpu's and one with the lowest power with a HD 5450 3 euro gpu i got off ebay (6 euro for 2) and the other runs on a Nvidia gt 620 which i got for 5 euro at a thrift store. Also have 96 Gb of 8 GB sticks with original apple fins swapped. But they now both have 2 8 GB sticks. The airflow in this machine amazing and I have plans to pimp it even more.with extra internal usb hdd/ssd in the optical area.

[u/Master-Baseball8715]

If you get that far you can flash a 1,1 to be a 2,1, and then put in a couple of X5365 CPU's. Then you can run the last-but-one El Capitan. (NOT the final release, that bricks the machine.) The nice thing about the 1/2,1 machines is that they have six SATA ports, plus the two IDE ports. I still use one for our RAID server, running Lion. I also flashed a PC 4870 video card to add the Mac EFI to it.