MP 1,1-5,1 Dead RAM slot?

[mattspace]

So LED 3 for the ram status lights is showing the dreaded red. Moving the dimm from that slot, to a different one, the light doesn’t move, and it stays lit regardless of which dimm is physically installed in the slot.

We had two power outages last night, one while the machine was running, the other while it was asleep.

Presuming it doesn’t go away as a result of pulling the processors & reseating everything, or doesn’t move if I swap the processors around, can you just skip slot 3 and run the memory in slot 4, given they’re linked, and would you skip slot 7 for slot 8 as well?

 

[bsbeamer]

Did you have a UPS with surge protection connected? Some of them offer equipment protection guarantees.

Do this yet?

Reset the SMC of your Mac - Apple Support

The SMC is responsible for managing power on your Mac. Resetting it can resolve certain uncommon issues related to power or thermal management.

support.apple.com

Reset NVRAM on your Mac - Apple Support

If one or more settings stored in NVRAM don't work as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM might help.

support.apple.com

 

[mattspace]

I’ve got an in-line surge filter, but sadly not a ups. I’ve had the power unplugged for some significant amounts of time, so the smc should be well and truly reset.

Unfortunately PRAM reset didn’t fix it.

 

[bsbeamer]

Some report needing to unplug the power cable from the back of the tower, then press and hold the power button to discharge. I've never personally needed to do that with an authentic MP5,1. Might be limited to MP4,1>5,1 with the original PSU parts?

 

[mattspace]

Some report needing to unplug the power cable from the back of the tower, then press and hold the power button to discharge. I've never personally needed to do that with an authentic MP5,1. Might be limited to MP4,1>5,1 with the original PSU parts?

I’ll give it a go tomorrow and see what happens. In the meantime, any thoughts about running ram in slot 4?

I can’t believe it, but I’m having thoughts of buying an unmolested dual 2.26 as an organ donor (jeez I know classic car people who do this)... just trying to think what would be involved in salvaging the cpu tray, would the machine have to be firmware upgraded to 144.etc before I start transplanting?

 

[bsbeamer]

SMC Version (system) & SMC Version (processor tray) must match.

1.39f11 is an authentic MP5,1
1.39f5 is an original MP4,1

Mismatch and you'll get blaring fans and some other issues.

Personally would scale back RAM and avoid "broken" slots.

There have been times when a busted module made it appear the slot was broken. Changing the brand/manufacturer (different ID) throughout all modules seemed to resolve. (Swapping an entire set from one machine to another.) Only ran into this once on a client machine that was dual-booting several Windows builds. Assume it was corruption in NVRAM that likely should have been rebuilt.

 

[mattspace]

SMC Version (system) & SMC Version (processor tray) must match.

1.39f11 is an authentic MP5,1
1.39f5 is an original MP4,1

Mismatch and you'll get blaring fans and some other issues.

Personally would scale back RAM and avoid "broken" slots.

There have been times when a busted module made it appear the slot was broken. Changing the brand/manufacturer (different ID) throughout all modules seemed to resolve. (Swapping an entire set from one machine to another.) Only ran into this once on a client machine that was dual-booting several Windows builds. Assume it was corruption in NVRAM that likely should have been rebuilt.

I was more thinking from the point of view if I harvest a processor board from an original unmodified 4,1 dual 2.26, and put it in my 4,1->5,1 that’s on bootrom 144.etc, is that going to cause any mismatch issues? I’ll try moving all 3 sticks from the working processor, over to the side where the lit led was, and see if that makes it go away, but so far, it seems like any dimm in that slot comes up as failing, and doesn’t do the same when installed in a different slot.

I’d rather not drop back from 96gb to 64gb of ram - when I need it, I really need it.

 

[mattspace]

where I'm at now:

With 2 DIMMS installed (slot 1 & 2) machine doesn't POST - power comes on, there's a brief flash of red from around the right of the righthand processor (somewhere near the exhaust fan), the power supply's fans spin up a bit, but no other fans spin up and no bong - just sits there, front white led on, and quiet powersupply hum.

Seems to be the same behaviour wih 3 DIMMS (slot 1, 2 & 3).

When I install 4 DIMMS, slot 1, 2, 5, & 6, machine boots up normally, albeit with 64gb of ram.

 

[mattspace]

Pulled the GPU, reset the RTC, put it back together, and the machine is working with all ram recognised...

Conclusion: Computer's haunted.

 

[bsbeamer]

Did you do the NVRAM reset 3x times in a row?
Have you ever changed the BR2032 OEM battery?

 

[mattspace]

Did you do the NVRAM reset 3x times in a row?
Have you ever changed the BR2032 OEM battery?

Oh yeah, did the triplebong. I'm reasonably sure I've changed he battery at some stage - I've been running the machine since 2014. But, the RTC reset is listed as a "solve boot problems" fix in the technicians manual.

 

[Macschrauber]

Thumbs up for the word triplebong

will use it for sure

 

[OS6-OSX]

Conclusion: Computer's haunted.