cMP 2,1 Black screen / No Startup Chime / Diag LEDs clear

[saint322]

All,

I've recently hit a dead-end diagnosing what has happened to my MP 2,1. For the past 2-years all has been running well on 10.11.6 via the boot.efi hack and an EVGA 560 GPU; however, last week (after some power outages) my mac was non-responsive. Pressing the power button does spin up the drives, you can see lights on the CDROM drives as well as the trays for the memory, and the GPU (fan spins up and everything)...what is decidedly absent, however, is 1) a start up chime and 2) any display activity.

I pulled the SSD and tested it via another computer and did a fresh install of all the necessary goodness slapped it back in only to be met with the same result.

I pulled the rescue 10.7.5 system drive (with the proper nvidia driver package for 10.7.5) and it boots fine via another computer but yields nothing in the 2,1. I also went back and set it up to auto-login but have as yet been unable to see it on the network or confirm anything is up and running.

I thought it may be the monitor. Verified it works fine via another computer.

I thought it may be the GPU. I bought a backup (EVGA 560 Ti) and have ruled that out as well.

It was only after verifying this and circling back around to the 10.7.5 rescue partition that I appreciated there was no startup chime sound. Owning macs back to the IIe, I don't remember ever experiencing silence at startup.

I am at a loss. I don't think anything is muted via the keyboard but cannot be certain as I can't get the computer to verify the keyboard is working (via volume up/down or ejecting a drive, etc). I have held the P+R+command+option to reset the VRAM but that didn't achieve anything. I am 100% stumped. In pursuing the line of thought it was the graphics card, my purchase of a 560 Ti escalated to a 3,1 tower (why spend $30 when you can spend $300) which will arrive next week but I am really hoping some kind soul can steer me toward a solution for what fate befell this 13-year-old beast of a 2,1.

I welcome all the wisdom of this wonderful community!

-Saint

 

[MIKX]

Last week I revived a friend's 2,1 by replacing the PSU - some PSU parts had melted.
Also his Samsung monitor was failing.

Look at post #10
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2007-dual-quad-8-core-3ghz-2-1-freezes-kps.2178032/

Please go to your Macrumors account and make a "signature" = tell us everything about your 2,1.

We are not mind readers

 

[saint322]

MIKX,

I very much appreciate the response. I read the thread you linked and will revisit it again tomorrow and then dive back into my 2,1. I hadn't considered the PSU because I thought those were all or none propositions. However, I can report we did have some power outages recently and though I am hooked up to a power strip it certainly is possible there were fluctuations enough to damage to some degree the power supply.

To this point, no startup chime but it does appear to power (to some degree) variety of flashing lights, drive spins up, GPU fan spins up, network wifi card lights up but I can't ever (even for a minute) confirm it is up and running.

Thanks!

-Saint

 

[MIKX]

Nice "sig" !

Good luck

 

[saint322]

If I want to determine if it is the PSU...is the better route to buy a refurbished one and slap it in myself to see or take it to the Apple Store (if they will even still evaluate unsupported hardware)? Any thoughts? I am going to examine dive in myself and see if the lights can definitively tell me anything but this is new territory for me.

Completely unrelated, I actually still have a refurb power supply for my previous G4 DP 450 sawtooth that I need to throw into that tower and see (for fun) if it brings life back to the system.

Thanks again, Mikx. And, yes, updated the sig...though it was there previously. Not sure how it disappeared. In a few days I will be adding a new to me 3,1 tower to the mix but hope to get my 2,1 up and running.

-Saint

 

[MIKX]

Personally, first I would take the current PSU out ( dont touch anything inside it ) and thoroughly blow out all the dust and clean the fan while you're at it..

 

[saint322]

That ship has sailed. I already, unnecessarily ordered a GPU and reformatted the SSD with a fresh hacked (boot.efi) install. Tomorrow I get a batch of a goodies from OWC (Macsales) with items for the G4 450MHz DP upgraded to a Sonnet Encore Duet 1.4GHz and the 3,1 tower (impulse buy) that should arrive this week as well. I genuinely enjoy the tinkering and hacking aspect of this venerable machines. Replacing the PSU on tower I'd not booted since 2000 or 2001 and having it boot right up was pretty cool. Now to update it to 10.5.x.

 

[MIKX]

why stop at OS X 10.5.x ?

Mac Pro 3,1 2008 : Pre-Installed MacOS: X 10.5.1 (9B2117) Maximum MacOS: X 10.11.x
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/specs/mac-pro-quad-core-2.8-2008-specs.html
You can install Mavericks or Yose,ite but El Capitan is USB problematic.

Mavericks is friendlier than Yosemite but Yosemite works OK.

 

[saint322]

I was referring to 10.5.x for the old-school, G4 Dual-Processor 450MHz (GB Ethernet) I pulled out of the closet and tossed a replacement PSU in this weekend. I considered it a warmup for swapping out the PSU in my 2,1 when the parts arrive.

As for the 3,1 I bought off eBay will come installed with 10.13.6 and can be hacked current.

- Saint

 

[saint322]

Okay, I have been tinkering further and can report the following.

With the system seemingly up and running. If I press the DIAG_LED two of the LEDs light up. They are as follows:

LED 1 - lights up to yellow when the button is pressed.
LED 2-7 - nothing lights up before or after pressing button.
LED 8 - lights up green.

As I read the service manual I believe that indicates the PSU is delivering trickle power sufficient to initiate the startup process, the GPU isn't functioning (I have 3 different cards to try (haven't tried them all yet), and 8 lighting up indicates EFI Good.

With this info, it would seem to indicated the PSU isn't working optimally (as you suspected originally) but I don't know if that would also potentially affect the lack of an LED lighting up as it relates to the GPU. I haven't tried the other two cards I have but am guessing if the PSU isn't fully operational then the cards may to be receiving enough power to light up at all upon testing.

Thoughts?

- Saint

 

[saint322]

I just wanted to add a few more pieces of information to the mystery of my sad cMP 2,1.

I ordered a new power supply and installed it. <<<drum roll>>> Zero change on the behavior of the tower. There remains no startup chime, never see a boot screen or login window, the GPU spins up as do the fans/drives, and the using the diagnostic LEDs...they report just as they did above with the previous PSU.

I have made a fresh 10.7.5 install and will continue to tinker but am at my wits end.

I have ruled out memory, I have tried 3 different GPUs (tested as working in other computers). I have put in a new PRAM battery (also resetting PRAM/NVRAM), and I reset the logic board via a SMC reset. Hopefully the hive-mind can give me some new things to try before taking it a service center for a $50 evaluation fee.

Thank you!

- Saint