MP 1,1-5,1 2009 Mac Pro Failed SSD boot drive

[covrc]

I have 2009 Mac Pro that will not reboot.
OS 10.13.4
3.46 6 Core Xeon
48 Ram
Nvidia GTX 980



My SSD start up drive failed, and I petitioned one of my internal drives in restored the back up boot drive from time machine. When I restart now, I get A gray screen and a series of text followed by a progress bar that quits as soon as it starts. I took a small movie of the start up and this is the frame showing the message before the fail.

I am not sure what next step is?
Thanks.

 

[Snow Tiger]

Have you tried booting your Mac with a different boot device ? maybe your current drive is corrupted .

If not , what do your CPU Tray and Backplane Board diagnostic / error LEDs look like ?

 

[tsialex]

I have 2009 Mac Pro that will not reboot.
OS 10.13.4
3.46 6 Core Xeon
48 Ram
Nvidia GTX 980
View attachment 903153 View attachment 903154 View attachment 903155


My SSD start up drive failed, and I petitioned one of my internal drives in restored the back up boot drive from time machine. When I restart now, I get A gray screen and a series of text followed by a progress bar that quits as soon as it starts. I took a small movie of the start up and this is the frame showing the message before the fail.

I am not sure what next step is?
Thanks.

You are using an ancient and very buggy BootROM, MP51.0085.B00. APFS support of this version is terrible. The console text showed is because you have a MVC flashed GPU, no? NVIDIA MVC flashed GPUs show it while on the boot process.

Your first step is to update your BootROM firmware with a clean install of 10.13.6. See what you have to do on the first post of the thread:

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...

forums.macrumors.com

While your GPU is not supported after 10.13.6, you can still use it for upgrading to 144.0.0.0.0, just pay attention on the notes.

 

[covrc]

You are using an ancient and very buggy BootROM, MP51.0085.B00. APFS support of this version is terrible. The console text showed is because you have a MVC flashed GPU, no? NVIDIA MVC flashed GPUs show it while on the boot process.

Your first step is to update your BootROM firmware with a clean install of 10.13.6. See what you have to do on the first post of the thread:

MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)

Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...

forums.macrumors.com

While your GPU is not supported after 10.13.6, you can still use it for upgrading to 144.0.0.0.0, just pay attention on the notes.

Thank You for such great detail information. I am so over my head with. Problem solving this. I will check out that thread you sent. Appreciated Greatly
[automerge]1585867739[/automerge]

Have you tried booting your Mac with a different boot device ? maybe your current drive is corrupted .

If not , what do your CPU Tray and Backplane Board diagnostic / error LEDs look like ?

This above my ability to discuss. have no idea what Tray BB diagnostic or error LEDS you refer to.
Thanks

 

[Snow Tiger]

Thank You for such great detail information. I am so over my head with. Problem solving this. I will check out that thread you sent. Appreciated Greatly
[automerge]1585867739[/automerge]


This above my ability to discuss. have no idea what Tray BB diagnostic or error LEDS you refer to.
Thanks

With the Mac Pros , if a factory internal red LED stays on it means trouble .

Your Mac has three banks of diagnostic / error LEDs , two on the upper left backplane and one on your single processor CPU Tray .

Backplane Board : diagnostic LED banks are circled in red . You need to press the DIAG LED button to activate the indicators . Some lights will turn on by themselves if there is a problem ( like an overheated CPU ) .

Here's what they mean :

Upper bank :

OVTMP CPUA ( over temp indicator for CPU A )
OVTMP CPUB ( over temp indicator for CPU B )
PSU PWROK ( Power Supply is OK )
5V STBY ( Back Plane board is OK )
3.3V ( No light installed )
1.5V ( No light installed )
1.05V ( No light installed )


Lower bank :
SYS PG
PLT RS ( No light installed )
X1 PG ( No light installed )
EFI DONE ( firmware loaded indicator )
GPU OK ( EFI graphics card is OK )
5V ( No light installed )
RSM RST ( No light installed )

During normal operation , the PSU PWROK is green , the 5V STBY is amber , the SYS PG is green and the EFI DONE is green .


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CPU Tray . Your single processor CPU Tray has one bank of four red LEDs , one for each memory slot . If the red LED is lit it means a failed memory module , slot or both . Healthy indication is no LED is lit .

 

[covrc]

WOW. Not a clue they existed. Will start weeding through.
i have thought about just going with a 2019 iMac.

 

[covrc]

With the Mac Pros , if a factory internal red LED stays on it means trouble .

Your Mac has three banks of diagnostic / error LEDs , two on the upper left backplane and one on your single processor CPU Tray .

Backplane Board : diagnostic LED banks are circled in red . You need to press the DIAG LED button to activate the indicators . Some lights will turn on by themselves if there is a problem ( like an overheated CPU ) .

View attachment 903177

Here's what they mean :

Upper bank :

OVTMP CPUA ( over temp indicator for CPU A )
OVTMP CPUB ( over temp indicator for CPU B )
PSU PWROK ( Power Supply is OK )
5V STBY ( Back Plane board is OK )
3.3V ( No light installed )
1.5V ( No light installed )
1.05V ( No light installed )


Lower bank :
SYS PG
PLT RS ( No light installed )
X1 PG ( No light installed )
EFI DONE ( firmware loaded indicator )
GPU OK ( EFI graphics card is OK )
5V ( No light installed )
RSM RST ( No light installed )

During normal operation , the PSU PWROK is green , the 5V STBY is amber , the SYS PG is green and the EFI DONE is green .


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CPU Tray . Your single processor CPU Tray has one bank of four red LEDs , one for each memory slot . If the red LED is lit it means a failed memory module , slot or both . Healthy indication is no LED is lit .

[automerge]1586134490[/automerge]
Whew...Ok...I tried rebooting again.....nothing. I took photos of the the Diagnostic LEDs

First set was with the GTX 980 and the recently dead SSD Boot drive.
I have partitioned Bay4 drive to be the new boot drive.
Note Third image was with the dead SSD drive with an intermittent RED light.
[automerge]1586134699[/automerge]
I then removed installed the old GT120 adding to the GTX980 and Dead SSD. I got the same lights as above and no start.

I then removed the dead SSD and the GTX980 and got the LEDs below.

[automerge]1586134930[/automerge]
and after 7 or 8 cycles, she booted and here I sit typing on her.
How can I test the GTX980 to see if it still works. It had been flashed/modified for Mac and was ALWAYS twitchy.

Do I and if so How Do I update the BootROM Firmware.....if that is even something I should/needs to be done. Thanks.
Here is the first page of the error report.

 

[tsialex]

Do I and if so How Do I update the BootROM Firmware.....if that is even something I should/needs to be done. Thanks.

Already told you what to do back on post #3

2009 Mac Pro Failed SSD boot drive

You are using an ancient and very buggy BootROM, MP51.0085.B00. APFS support of this version is terrible. The console text showed is because you have a MVC flashed GPU, no? NVIDIA MVC flashed GPUs show it while on the boot process. Your first step is to update your BootROM firmware with a clean...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[covrc]

Error Report
Sorry such crappy pix but I took a movie just in case something else went wrong, These are clips from the movie.

 

[Snow Tiger]

Thanks for the pictures - they are a bit on the small side , but I was able to interpret them by deduction .

In your last post with diagnostics LEDs , the picture on the left does not have its EFI DONE LED green . This Mac should not be working at all . It has some problem that needs to be addressed ( like removal of one or more failed or incompatible components ) .

The picture on the right does have its EFI DONE LED green , which means your Mac should basically be working unless there is some other problem . I'd use the hardware configuration that displayed these LED banks results and build up your system from there .

Any lights on third party PCIe Add On cards should be disregarded , since we don't know what they mean - a red LED on a PCIe card may simply mean it is receiving power and not that it is failing .

As Alex pointed out , you need to update your System firmware . But if the process is interrupted with a power failure you run the risk of bricking your Mac . Basically , this means your logic board will die and its firmware chip will then need to be manually removed and reprogrammed . Most users would find a logic board replacement more convenient . So , you want your Mac to be stable first before you undertake this operation .

 

[covrc]

Thanks For replying. Some of the lights were blinking on and off but once I removed the 980 Video Card and reinserted the GT 120, my computer finally booted up.

 

[Macschrauber]

Make a backup of your Mac Firmware as long as its alive.

http://dosdude1.com/apps/ROMTool.zip

With Romtool (dump rom), password is rom

Rootless must be off for doing this

For Rootless off:

Boot into recovery, go in terminal, type csrutil disable

For Rootless back on:

Boot into recovery, go in terminal, type csrutil enable

 

[covrc]

Make a backup of your Mac Firmware as long as its alive.

Index of /apps/

Romtool, password is rom

Rootless must be off for doing this

Boot into recovery, go in terminal, type csrutil disable.

Redo this after you did your rom backup and type csrutil enable.

Thank for writing.

Make a backup of your Mac Firmware as long as its alive.
(Don't know how to but will learn)

Index of /apps
(got it)

Romtool, password is rom
(Understand)

Rootless must be off for doing this
(Not a clue)

Boot into recovery, go in terminal, type csrutil disable. (as in Boot in Recovery Mode)
(type csrutil disable and then do what?)

Redo this after you did your rom backup and type csrutil enable.
(redo what? and when?)

Thanks for trying
to help.

 

[tommy chen]

boot into recovery and type in terminal csrutil disable
and return

then type reboot and return
(or set the sartup volume in recovery mode for restart)

after the restart safe your bootROM with romtool

you do not need go back into recovery to enable SIP
only nvram reset on your keyboard after next restart

 

[Macschrauber]

Thank for writing.

Make a backup of your Mac Firmware as long as its alive.
(Don't know how to but will learn)

Index of /apps
(got it)

Romtool, password is rom
(Understand)

Rootless must be off for doing this
(Not a clue)

-> backing up your rom is protected by system integrity protection, must be toggled off temporarily

Boot into recovery, go in terminal, type csrutil disable. (as in Boot in Recovery Mode)
(type csrutil disable and then do what?)

Redo this after you did your rom backup and type csrutil enable.
(redo what? and when?)

-> after using romtool you can boot again into recovery and switch sip back on.

Thanks for trying
to help.