So I am working on a 2009 4,1 Mac Pro with Dual Xeon E5520's and 8 GB RAM. About 4 months ago the PSU went down. That swap went great. No issues following the swap. Unfortunately about 2 weeks ago the mac pro went out again. This time it wouldnt show any signs of power(when the PSU went out last time I could still hear some noises indicating some power). This time zero power noises. However I did find both OVRHEAT CPU LED's to be blinking red rapidly without end. I read that they are supposed to flash once when a power cable is plugged in but they flashed over and over. So I took a look around and ended up confirming the PSU was good by using the DIAG button to get the amber light illuminated but was still unable to get the OVRHEAT LED's to turn off. Obviously it was not a heating issue as the thing wouldnt even turn on so to get hot enough to overheat was out of the question. I ordered, received and installed the backplane board w/o issue and upon hitting the power button the thing fired right up. However, after a few seconds I found that all the fans kicked into high gear and spun at what sounded like full blast. My next step was to run EFI ASD. The only errors found were related to the fans themselves. No sensors reported any issues. I called the company I purchased the replacement backplane board from to report this as I immediately thought the board to be faulty and wanted some advice in testing that. When I finally got someone who could help, which took some time, they recommended checking all sensors anyway, even though I mentioned running ASD, as well as to look for some sort of metallic, shiny tape that would somehow act or assist the sensors. I had never heard of such a part actually having a role as large as that.
Being desperate I even ordered a second replacement backplane board which still had the same fan issues. Am I crazy in avoiding "testing" the fans. I have never heard of a fan(s) causing problems like this but I guess ordering 3 fans is cheper than ordering any other part. Here are the 8 errors EFI ASD reports
1. Fan -PS Test 1 Quick Motor Test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on quickly
Error - motor is spinning slower than it should
2. Fan - Exhaust Test 1 Quick Motor Test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on quickly
Error - motor is spinning slower than it should
3. fan -Intake test 1 qucik motor test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on quickly
Error - Motor is spinning slower than it should
4. fan -pci test 2 long motor test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on quickly
error - motor did not reach target speed in time
5. fan - ps test 2 long motor test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on
error - motor did not reach target speed in time
6. fan - exhaust test 2 long motor test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on
error - motor did not reach target speed in time
7. fan - intake test 2 long motor test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on
error - motor did not reach target speed in time
8. fan - boosta test 2 long motor test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on
error - motor did not reach target speed in time
Thanks for taking the time!
Being desperate I even ordered a second replacement backplane board which still had the same fan issues. Am I crazy in avoiding "testing" the fans. I have never heard of a fan(s) causing problems like this but I guess ordering 3 fans is cheper than ordering any other part. Here are the 8 errors EFI ASD reports
1. Fan -PS Test 1 Quick Motor Test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on quickly
Error - motor is spinning slower than it should
2. Fan - Exhaust Test 1 Quick Motor Test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on quickly
Error - motor is spinning slower than it should
3. fan -Intake test 1 qucik motor test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on quickly
Error - Motor is spinning slower than it should
4. fan -pci test 2 long motor test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on quickly
error - motor did not reach target speed in time
5. fan - ps test 2 long motor test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on
error - motor did not reach target speed in time
6. fan - exhaust test 2 long motor test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on
error - motor did not reach target speed in time
7. fan - intake test 2 long motor test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on
error - motor did not reach target speed in time
8. fan - boosta test 2 long motor test
system turns on motor and verifies that the motor is on
error - motor did not reach target speed in time
Thanks for taking the time!
