Think Fatal Flaw: My 6800 Nightmare

slugheadslughead
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I've stumbled upon a fatal flaw with the NVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra.



Apparently, it cannot boot off a copy of OS X without the driver installed. It will kernel panic right at the end of the Apple Boot logo.



This wouldn't be a problem, aside from you can't boot off an install CD either without taking out the 6800.



Here's a blog entry I made about my nightmare, it's also in another thread but this post has lots of pictures:

http://www.blargatron-systems.com/?s=blog&a=151510399

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    cjoncjon Posts: 20member
    slughead, do you know if i can download the drivers for the 6800 from the internet?



    i was lucky enough to get a 6800 from macsolutions because the guy who ordered his G5 wanted a radeon 9800 instead, so macsolutions had the 6800 they took from the G5 in their store room. i didnt think of asking them for an installation CD for it...



    i'll ask them tomorrow, but was wondering if you knew a place i could get the driver in the meantime...
  • Reply 2 of 6
    slugheadslughead Posts: 1,169member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by tonton

    As they say, RTFM.



    "This means that should I ever need to reinstall my OS, I will be unable to do so without taking out the 6800."



    Yes, that's a problem. It sucks. Apple will surely fix it when new install CDs are pressed.



    But had you even LOOKED at the manual, you would have avoided all of the frustration of trial and error. This aspect is entirely your fault, not Apple's.



    True. As I said in another thread, it was my bad, I was stupid; my fault.



    However, I'm still glad I DIDN'T follow the instructions. Now I KNOW that the problem exists.



    I can imagine a year from now if my HD crashes (knock on wood) and I need to reinstall.



    Thank God for stupidity, otherwise we wouldn't know about this problem.



    I have since read the manual, and it says NOTHING about the Mac OS X install CD crashing. Perhaps they are unaware of the problem or perhaps the manual was rushed too quickly.



    Either way, I put up this article to make sure everybody knew about this. You all are most welcome. I want my hero cookie now
  • Reply 3 of 6
    nomad g5nomad g5 Posts: 28member
    Hey thanks for this post. You brave people are going to save my a$$ when my 6800 comes in.



    Thanks again,

    Christian
  • Reply 4 of 6
    cjoncjon Posts: 20member
    definitely don't put the 6800 in your Rev A 2.0Ghz G5 without those drivers installed first. many kernel panics later, I've spent the entire day trying to rebuild/fix/recover my boot drive. techtool's going very slow. hopefully i can recover everything, and then install the drivers.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    rotellerotelle Posts: 9member
    I didn't install the software drivers for the 6800, but I'm running 10.3.6R20 (the latest beta) which apparently has the drivers needed. Performance, at least as judged by Marine Aquarium screensaver is up from about 250 fps with all settings at max on a new Apple 23" LCD to about 400 fps and for video-intensive apps, everything's much "snappier." I'm a happy camper, although the card is so big it's a bit difficult to fit properly in the slot.
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