Odds and Ends: ATI X800XT: ROM update startup issues; Knowledge Base updates

ATI X800XT: ROM update startup issues MacFixIt reader Mark reports some issues with a just-released ROM update for the newly shipping, high-end ATI Radeon X800XT.

Mark writes:

"Last night I ran the new ATI X800XT ROM Update on my Powermac Dual 2.0 G5 where I had recently installed one of these ATI cards.

"The update ran perfectly and then told me to restart, which I did. However during the boot up, the grey screen came tumbling down with the usual 'You need to restart your computer...' message. I was about to do just that, but then it suddenly went to the blue loading screen and started loading the final OS components. [...]

"This morning things are very bad. First boot the system gave the grey screen again, but then continued to boot, but when in the OS, the top bar never came up and the mouse would not move. After a reboot, the same again, but this time the bar came up, but the mouse could still not move. The mouse button worked, as did the keyboard, but no movement. Upon a third boot, the grey screen came down with two levels of grey (imagine two stage curtains, one slightly lower than the other) and this time the system did not get past this point. One more try gave me the same result, so I have turned it off and now need to find a way to either back rev the firmware or possibly remove the ATI ROM Xtender in the system extensions folder. I'm just guessing, but I wonder if the new firmware and the ROM Xtender are not happy together as the new firmware is designed to do the same job with or without this file?"

Note that the new ATI ROM update is intended to eliminate need for the ATI ROM Xtender file.

If you are having a similar issue, please let us know.

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