NVidia 6800 graphics card: Startup and wake-from-sleep issues

Last week we resumed coverage of issues starting Mac OS X when an NVidia NVidia GeForce 6800 card is installed. The issue affects not only standard installations of both Mac OS X Client and Mac OS X Server, but also the startup installations used by a number of third-party utilities including TechTool Pro, as well as Apple's own Hardware Test CD.

We've now received reports of an additional issue -- an inability to properly wake from sleep -- when the NVidia card is present.

MacFixIt reader "Bearclaw" is the latest to describe the issue:

"Immediately after updating to Mac OS X 10.3.8 on my Dual 2.0 GHz Power Macintosh G5, I experienced an inability to wake from sleep: the computer froze every time and required a hard restart. Moreover, the restart times were often lengthy and occasionally resulted in another freeze, requiring a re-restart. In addition, I soon developed an inability to restart the computer from my secondary internal hard drive which has 10.3.8 installed, and was chagrined to discover that I also could not restart from the OS X 10.3 CD that came with the computer. I was still able to restart from an external Firewire drive and the primary internal HD.

"After much experimenting, I was able to solve the wake-from-sleep issue by removing my NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT video card (which has been modified by the addition of an Arctic Cooler fan kit) and replacing it with the stock ATI Radeon 9600 XT that came with the machine. Waking from sleep is now not an issue."

The NVidia 6800 DDL is currently still offered by Apple has a build-to-order option on the Power Mac G5.

If you are experiencing similar issues, please let us know.

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