MP 1,1-5,1 Booting becoming an issue

[AfterglowMP]

Hi everyone. My 2010 5,1 Mac Pro which I upgraded to 12 core a few years ago (2 x 3.33 ghz 6-core, 24gb RAM, NIVIDA GeForce GTX 1080 8192MB, High Sierra) is struggling to boot.

It will start after a few tries. Mostly the first few times the start up sound is heard but nothing appears on screen. It's clearly receiving current and on because the fans are spinning but nothing else is happening. Often it ends in a kernel panic and I'll power down by holding the power switch, then try again, usually in Safe Mode. Once I get it started in Safe Mode, it often stays on for the day.

Re bringing it back to health, I've powered down and then pulled out power cord and pressed the on switch for 10 seconds. I've also deep-zapped the NVRAM, holding it until the fifth chime. But the problem seems to be getting worse.

A few months ago, it had a series of kernel panics and I discovered there was some bad RAM and removed two 4gb sticks that seemed to be causing the issue (trial and error).

The Mac Pro has legacy software that I still use like old accounting MYOB app so I keep it connected to my 2022 Mac Studio via ethernet. It also has a heap of video media for my work across its five HDDs so it also acts as a glorified HDD enclosure.

The Start-Up drive is an 1TB SSD. All the others are spinning disks. Attached is a kernel panic report if that's useful.

I've had this machine since I bought it in 2010 and appreciate it's old but I'm not ready to junk it. I'm also not very technical re software (no idea what backplane is, etc) so please be patient.

Thanks

 

[tsialex]

I took a look at your crash log and two things got my attention:

1. NVRM crashes are GPU related crashes, did you tried with another GPU?
2. Samsung 870 EVO is known to cause boot issues, did you tried to remove it?

 

[AfterglowMP]

I wondered about GPU. It's been in there for a couple of years now and running smoothly. Do they wear out? I still have the older one I can try. Test this first before testing below drive?

The Samsung drive was installed in March 2022 and also ran fine. Should I clone the operating system onto a new partition on one of the other spinning disk drives in the machine to test?

Thanks again.

 

[tsialex]

I wondered about GPU. It's been in there for a couple of years now and running smoothly. Do they wear out?

Yes, 8-years old GPU.

I still have the older one I can try. Test this first before testing below drive?

You have more than one problem, one when you have a black screen at power on and another when you have a KP.

If you are having constant KPs, you will have BootROM corruption issues overtime, these lead to the black screen you are having.

Also check the RTC battery voltage with a multimeter.

The Samsung drive was installed in March 2022 and also ran fine. Should I clone the operating system onto a new partition on one of the other spinning disk drives in the machine to test?

Thanks again.

You can try, this is the easiest one to eliminate.

 

[AfterglowMP]

Cool, a few things to do over the weekend: 1) I have a cloned start-up drive I can plug into an external HDD cradle to test the SSD, 2) I'll check battery, 3) depending on previous two, I'll replace GPU.

If it's the SSD start-up drive, can it be wiped and re-formatted for other uses? Or is it kaput?

Thanks

 

[tsialex]

If it's the SSD start-up drive, can it be wiped and re-formatted for other uses? Or is it kaput?

Thanks

Like I wrote, Samsung 870EVO is not a compatible SSD with a Mac Pro and causes issues with boot.

Maybe it can work when connected to ODD bay 2 SATA connector, but is a maybe…

 

[AfterglowMP]

Depressing sequence of tests. First, checked start-up drive which proved not to be problem after booting from other external and internal drives. Then checked GPU. Finally, removed battery and checked voltage which was 2.97v. Had a replacement battery which when tested showed 3.27v. Shouldn't be much of a difference, right? For sake of testing everything, installed this new battery and hey, presto! MP sprang to life. Shut it down, restarted it, repeated a number of times. Left it, restarted. No issues at all. Big relief.

 

[AfterglowMP]

With the Samsung 870 EVO SSD, is there a diagnostic tool I can run over it to check its health? BTW I remember when I bought it, I read to avoid the Samsung 770 EVO but the 870 was okay. What about the trim issues? I don't know really what that is and how to change it. Maybe in Terminal?

 

[tsialex]

With the Samsung 870 EVO SSD, is there a diagnostic tool I can run over it to check its health?

Run DriveDX. www.binaryfruit.com/drivedx

BTW I remember when I bought it, I read to avoid the Samsung 770 EVO but the 870 was okay.

No, you are completely mistaking here since there wasn't a 770, only 870 series (SATA) and 970 series (M.2).

The issue with Mac Pros is the 870 EVO that does not survive a hot restart/reboot and have a tendency to KP, while the 970 EVO works relatively fine.

What about the trim issues? I don't know really what that is and how to change it. Maybe in Terminal?

sudo trimforce enable

 

[AfterglowMP]

Have DriveDX installed and checked it and it all seems good.