I recently received 3 Mac Pros: 2x 1,1 and 1x 3,1. They were sold as is, so issues were expected. Given that the 3,1 is the most interesting of the bunch, I want to get that one working.
The 3,1 came with a 2600XT and some 8GB of RAM I believe. Sadly, when booting either my Leopard or El Capitan bootable, I encounter issues. With Leopard I can reach the language selection screen of the installer, but I only see that for a mere second. After that the display turns off. With the El Capitan installer, I reach the 'black screen' at about 3/4ths of the loading bar. There is no 'no signal' on my display either, just a black screen. It seems fans turn off as well, and it enters a standby mode, because the front LED is still on. DIAG leds vary between 2, 7, 8, 9 and 7, 8, 9.
Yes, I did the command-option-p-r (PRAM reset I believe?) and the 'disconnect mains, press power button 15 sec to bleed'. I also replaced the CR2032.
First idea was to swap the GPU. I replaced the 2600XT with a 7300GT, but that gave me no display at all. I later read that the 7300GT may not be supported on the 3,1, so I bought myself an HD5770 1GB Mac edition. This has the same behaviour as the 2600GT, sadly. Interestingly enough, putting the 2600GT into one of the 1,1s, I also reach a dropped display output just when the language chooser of the Leopard installer appears.
Second idea was the RAM being faulty. I swapped around a whole lot of RAM, reseated it etc, but that also had no change. I still cannot boot the 3,1 to the installer.
My hunches then are as follows:
- Bad PSU. However, I do see a boot splash, so it seems odd that it cannot run something as simple as the installer.
- Broken front I/O. If the power on button keeps hanging, it might explain why it dives into stand by/psu trickle. However, that does not explain why the installer always crashes at the same spot.
- Driver issues. That would explain why the installer always crashes at the same spot - due to some weird incompatibility.
- General hardware failure, indeterminable. Speaks for itself.
I do have to say, these Macs have no drives in them. However, given that I can boot the 1,1s with the 7300GT fine with no fixed drives, I'm assuming that may not be the issue.
If anyone has any interesting tips, I'm all ear! And if necessary, I could always try to Frankenstein one of the 1,1 PSUs into the 3,1, if that means I can reach the installer. Don't think the lack of amperage will be beneficial in the long run, given the HD5770 and 2x QC Xeons.
EDIT:
Just put the HD5770 into a 1,1 and booted with Lion. Same behaviour. I see the gray Apple, I see the spinning wheel and after that boom, no display output anymore. Given that I see this behaviour in the 1,1 ánd 3,1, could it then really be the lack of storage that prevents these Macs from booting?
Used this USB stick on the different 1,1 - that worked fine. That's one of the 1,1s with the 7300GT.
This is the last thing I see before the Mac shuts itself off. I have done the SMC resets.
EDIT 42:
Okay, so now the 1,1s both consistently boot into the Lion installer, don't know why. Seems that part is solved now.
What remains is the 3,1. It keeps on shutting down during boot, sometimes early in the process, sometimes late in the process. Could that be simple dust?
The 3,1 came with a 2600XT and some 8GB of RAM I believe. Sadly, when booting either my Leopard or El Capitan bootable, I encounter issues. With Leopard I can reach the language selection screen of the installer, but I only see that for a mere second. After that the display turns off. With the El Capitan installer, I reach the 'black screen' at about 3/4ths of the loading bar. There is no 'no signal' on my display either, just a black screen. It seems fans turn off as well, and it enters a standby mode, because the front LED is still on. DIAG leds vary between 2, 7, 8, 9 and 7, 8, 9.
Yes, I did the command-option-p-r (PRAM reset I believe?) and the 'disconnect mains, press power button 15 sec to bleed'. I also replaced the CR2032.
First idea was to swap the GPU. I replaced the 2600XT with a 7300GT, but that gave me no display at all. I later read that the 7300GT may not be supported on the 3,1, so I bought myself an HD5770 1GB Mac edition. This has the same behaviour as the 2600GT, sadly. Interestingly enough, putting the 2600GT into one of the 1,1s, I also reach a dropped display output just when the language chooser of the Leopard installer appears.
Second idea was the RAM being faulty. I swapped around a whole lot of RAM, reseated it etc, but that also had no change. I still cannot boot the 3,1 to the installer.
My hunches then are as follows:
- Bad PSU. However, I do see a boot splash, so it seems odd that it cannot run something as simple as the installer.
- Broken front I/O. If the power on button keeps hanging, it might explain why it dives into stand by/psu trickle. However, that does not explain why the installer always crashes at the same spot.
- Driver issues. That would explain why the installer always crashes at the same spot - due to some weird incompatibility.
- General hardware failure, indeterminable. Speaks for itself.
I do have to say, these Macs have no drives in them. However, given that I can boot the 1,1s with the 7300GT fine with no fixed drives, I'm assuming that may not be the issue.
If anyone has any interesting tips, I'm all ear! And if necessary, I could always try to Frankenstein one of the 1,1 PSUs into the 3,1, if that means I can reach the installer. Don't think the lack of amperage will be beneficial in the long run, given the HD5770 and 2x QC Xeons.
EDIT:
Just put the HD5770 into a 1,1 and booted with Lion. Same behaviour. I see the gray Apple, I see the spinning wheel and after that boom, no display output anymore. Given that I see this behaviour in the 1,1 ánd 3,1, could it then really be the lack of storage that prevents these Macs from booting?
Used this USB stick on the different 1,1 - that worked fine. That's one of the 1,1s with the 7300GT.
This is the last thing I see before the Mac shuts itself off. I have done the SMC resets.
EDIT 42:
Okay, so now the 1,1s both consistently boot into the Lion installer, don't know why. Seems that part is solved now.
What remains is the 3,1. It keeps on shutting down during boot, sometimes early in the process, sometimes late in the process. Could that be simple dust?
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