Forcing MacPro 1,1 to run Mountain Lion?

[wvandyck]

DO NOT under any circumstances put that ATI Radeon HD 5770 in a MacPro 1.1 or
2.1 build machine. It will burn up your video slot and mess with your memory slots or damage your power supply.

Lion will not run on a MacPro1,1 without an updated video card. The ATI was the recommended card of choice for the Mac Pro1,1 when Lion was released (July 2011) and has been working flawlessly since then.

http://store.apple.com/us/question/answ ... CAAHJJY4TC

[cgs]

DO NOT under any circumstances put that ATI Radeon HD 5770 in a MacPro 1.1 or
2.1 build machine. It will burn up your video slot and mess with your memory slots or damage your power supply. It draws too much power for those machines in 6 to 8 months you will experience the machine cutting off for no reason at all and rebooting itself...

That seems strange... the 5770 is probably the most popular video card upgrade for the Mac Pro 1.1 and 1.2, and has been for years. I've never heard of such a problem. I know quite a few folks who have been using this combination for way longer than 6-8 months, and there are countless other examples across the net. I use a 5770 in my MP 1.1 and researched it extensively (couple months) before going that route, I never came across any information about power issues.

Were you using the booster cable with your card (which provides additional power to the card)? Do you have any links about the power issues with this combination? I obviously have a vested interest in this and would be very interested if there's any information out there on a known/verified issue.

Thanks!

[ronjams]

I speak the truth as to what happened to me. The ATI HD 5770 which I still have is really designed for a 64 bit architecture. It is not until you get to a 3,1 build or a 64 bit motherboard (which earlier machines are not key word here is motherboard) can the power supply distribution setup can handle the draw of power required by this video card; remember its supposed to handle 3 video monitors. I believe one of the variables in all of this how much ventilation does your machine get?-mine wasn't getting enough. The other one is dust if you want your device to last a longtime get it cleaned every 6 months to a year depending on the environment you're in. This applies to every laptop, Ipad, desktop out there and finally the video card itself caused the demise of my machine.

[cgs]

ronjams, were you using the power booster cable with your 5770?

I don't doubt your story. However one or two isolated incidents doesn't mean there's an inherent issue with the 5770 in early Mac Pro's. This has been a very common and popular configuration for years, and I have never heard of or read any other examples of this happening. The early Mac Pro's can handle the 5770 just fine as long as the power booster cable is used. As you said, there were other issues at play when your Mac Pro malfunctioned, including overheating due to lack of ventilation and the accumulation of dust.

[James Steele]

ronjams, were you using the power booster cable with your 5770?

Good question. I know you have to have the extra power cable which you attach from the motherboard to the the card because the slot itself doesn't have enough power for the card.

[billf]

<I followed this tutorial to install the recommended ATI Radeon HD 5770. No problem. Except I couldn't get the music out of my head for days!>

DO NOT under any circumstances put that ATI Radeon HD 5770 in a MacPro 1.1 or
2.1 build machine. It will burn up your video slot and mess with your memory slots or damage your power supply. It draws too much power for those machines in 6 to 8 months you will experience the machine cutting off for no reason at all and rebooting itself. Another symptom is the machine will over heat!!

I've had this card in my 1,1 for several years and not had this problem.

[ronjams]

To answer a question about having the power boost cable attached to the motherboard, yes I did have it connected.

[James Steele]

Okay... so I was feeling saucy tonight and I did it!



I essentially cloned my main Lion boot drive to another drive in my MacPro1,1. Then, removed the drive, put it on a sled that would fit my MacPro4,1 (they're different) and then booted from off a Snow Leopard partition containing the ML installer as well as the modified "boot.efi" file. (It would not let me run the ML installer booted from Yosemite.)

I then essentially "upgraded" my Lion drive... I did NOT reformat first or anything like that. Once the install was finished, and it restarted, I held down the Option key, chose the Snow Leopard volume again and then followed the instructions to replace the old "boot.efi" file with the new one using Terminal. It got a little hairy as the "boot.efi" file in the "... coreservices" folder did NOT want to be replaced or deleted. I finally figured out how to remove the "locked" status in Terminal and then was able to drag the new "boot.efi" over in the finder and it finally allowed me to replace it. I then immediately shut down, took the drive out, put it back on the sled for the MacPro1,1, popped it in and then booted with the Option key down just to be SURE it booted from the ML drive the first time.

It booted in verbose mode which was a little scary, but I was patient and then it came up! Mountain Lion! First thing that hit me was something barked at me to install Java which I did, and then Spotlight started indexing which made it unresponsive for a bit... but now! Hey... it's working. Haven't tried messaging yet (which is what I really want... but we'll see.)

[James Steele]

Well, I'll tell you what... couldn't get iMessage to work. Apparently that's just a no go, so rather than risk something unsupported like that, I restored from my Lion image.

[SixStringGeek]

OK, now I gotta try this because I have a 2,1 lying around doing nothing at all.

It would be cool to have a second DP at home rather than my studio (which is not at home but rather at my office).

[James Steele]

OK, now I gotta try this because I have a 2,1 lying around doing nothing at all.

It would be cool to have a second DP at home rather than my studio (which is not at home but rather at my office).

What's the last supported OS for a 2,1? Is it Lion like the 1,1? DP8 doesn't need anything higher than that does it? Not sure why you'd want to bother. I really wanted to get the ability to message iPhones on my 1,1 and Apple removed that from Lion, hence wanting to go to ML, but Messages won't work on the 1,1 running ML... iTunes won't let you log into the Messages app. Somehow Apple is blocking it.

[ronjams]

Just wanted to give an update since the disaster I had earlier in May 2014 and again in mid September with same machine(both were 2007 model with a 2,1 build 3Ghz processor) both died with identical problems except with the second machine it had the stock video card. I kept both machines in my new desk which has(2) set of racks on the left and right. The mac pro was kept on the left side where I believe it just was not getting enough ventilation. I since bought another machine early 2008 cause that's what I could afford at the time. I since put the machine out in the open near the desk and after about almost 4 months no problems heat related but I made sure that after the installation of the ram, video card,etc. I took and had it cleaned very thoroughly like when the machine came off of the assembly line. So now I'm back in business with DP but I want a faster machine but it won't be a trash can mac. I don't like what apple is doing with their design. I'll leave it there for now. At least I have other options. :D

[Phil O]

Slightly off topic here, but I thought this would be a good place to ask. The video card in my MacPro 1,1 died. What are your thoughts on a Mac 1,1 compatible replacement card and who sells them? Seems there's controversy surrounding the 5770. No?

Phil