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Is my Mac Pro logic board fried

Y

yakkle

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 5, 2014
5
0
San Francisco CA
OK. I have searched thru the forums some way and followed the usual troubleshooting tips but now I need to go a little further for advice.
I have a 2008 dual core mac Pro with 2 drives running 10.6 and 10.7, but still tend to use the 10.6 drive for most of my software needs.
The machine locked up a couple of times recently and I rebooted and it resumed. Up to now it's been a problem free computer.
But this most recent scenario has left it only booting beyond the Apple logo, stalls there with a grey screen(no log in screen) and no mouse cursor present.
ok, so I tried starting in safe boot.. same thing. I tried Single User Mode (fsck) and got to the FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED prompt, no change.
Also, my DVD drive seems to be acting icky so I had to install a DVD drive from another machine in order to attempt a boot from an install disc of Snow Leopard, using the device options (option key boot) to select the CD volume, but again, was unable launch from any other volume.
In addition (oddly), I am still able to get sharing access to this machine and it's present drives via sharing from my MacBook Pro.. and I can access the files etc.
So, it seems that the drives are actually functioning and readable, at least remotely.
So, I am beginning to suspect that this is really a system hardware issue with either the logic board or even the graphics card in some way (but graphics card failure would mean not screen presence whatsoever right?).
Anyway, anyone else had similar experiences or, any suggestions before I have to drag it off to the Apple store, please advise me. >:-(
 
Last edited:
Get a hold of the Apple Technician Service Guide for your year (they are online somewhere, just keep looking), and work through their troubleshooting procedures.

You probably should go through that technique of removing all drives, usb stuff, gpu, and trying to boot with the bare minimum, then add devices/memory/etc until you isolate the problem
 
CASLondon said:
Get a hold of the Apple Technician Service Guide for your year (they are online somewhere, just keep looking), and work through their troubleshooting procedures.

You probably should go through that technique of removing all drives, usb stuff, gpu, and trying to boot with the bare minimum, then add devices/memory/etc until you isolate the problem
Click to expand...

Here:

http://tim.id.au/laptops/apple/macpro/macpro_early2008.pdf

Lou
 
Not sure how a bunch of random people on the Internet are supposed to tell you if your logic board is fried. Especially when no one here has personally diagnosed the logic board and most of the people here do not have to technical ability to tell you 100% that the logic board is fried. Aside from running the Apple Hardware Test you would need to let Apple diagnose it.
 
When you are in target mode, run Drive Genius and Techtool Pro on the MP HD's. You do have utility apps on your MBP so you can do that don't you? Not saying that will solve your current problem but it sounds like you are in "run everything on it before it goes to the shop" mode!:eek:
 
yakkle said:
OK. I have searched thru the forums some way and followed the usual troubleshooting tips but now I need to go a little further for advice.
I have a 2008 dual core mac Pro with 2 drives running 10.6 and 10.7, but still tend to use the 10.6 drive for most of my software needs.
The machine locked up a couple of times recently and I rebooted and it resumed. Up to now it's been a problem free computer.
But this most recent scenario has left it only booting beyond the Apple logo, stalls there with a grey screen(no log in screen) and no mouse cursor present.
ok, so I tried starting in safe boot.. same thing. I tried Single User Mode (fsck) and got to the FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED prompt, no change.
Also, my DVD drive seems to be acting icky so I had to install a DVD drive from another machine in order to attempt a boot from an install disc of Snow Leopard, using the device options (option key boot) to select the CD volume, but again, was unable launch from any other volume.
In addition (oddly), I am still able to get sharing access to this machine and it's present drives via sharing from my MacBook Pro.. and I can access the files etc.
So, it seems that the drives are actually functioning and readable, at least remotely.
So, I am beginning to suspect that this is really a system hardware issue with either the logic board or even the graphics card in some way (but graphics card failure would mean not screen presence whatsoever right?).
Anyway, anyone else had similar experiences or, any suggestions before I have to drag it off to the Apple store, please advise me. >:-(
Click to expand...

yes it is fried.
 
brand said:
Not sure how a bunch of random people on the Internet are supposed to tell you if your logic board is fried. Especially when no one here has personally diagnosed the logic board and most of the people here do not have to technical ability to tell you 100% that the logic board is fried. Aside from running the Apple Hardware Test you would need to let Apple diagnose it.
Click to expand...

Not sure if you noticed that he's been told to strip the machine and build it back up adding components one at a time. That is the same procedure described in the actual Apple Service Guide and the same thing that Apple will do, only eventually they will charge him since this machine is not covered by Applecare.

Also, its possible that its GPU, a hard drive, RAM, or any number of other things besides the logic board. He can do a fair amount of the diagnostic process himself. That's what the random people on the internet are telling him.
 
Is my Mac Pro logic board fried - update

Firstly.. thank you all for the interest and responses to my OP. Weirdly, I was reloading this topic from my profile that I had bookmarked and it was not updating the responses to this post that followed subsequently. So, again thank you and sorry for the delay in responding.
OK. I did in fact cart the machine (MPro) off to my local Genius bar and the very helpful (as usual) tech ran an Apple networked diagnostics in the store on this machine and everything checked out fine (bar the bluetooth card??).
This does not mean that the logic board is not fried, but it is not responding in a functional way, effectively it could be partly fried, ie; a bad chip etc.
The 2 on board HD do seem to be fine, sort of, but any of the OS's could be cached.
Other thing is, we decided that the video card be the fault and this may be the first thing to test out (like with a replacement card) to see if it's just not booting into graphics mode. There are some feint yellow bands present on the LCD monitor screen when it just hangs at the grey screen.
So, because it's an older machine and it's no longer under any Apple care, the cost for replacing the LB before taxes is just under $500, (in fact a little less than I anticipated) which they can order for me.
First off, I have to get my hands on a new video card and so what functionality issues may be occurring there.
I was advised to do some further test like this myself for the mean time, as they are very backed up on repairs if in fact I wanted to leave for a more in depth hardware diagnosis at the store

In response to some of the advice given here:
OS6-OSX - When you are in target mode, run Drive Genius and Techtool Pro on the MP HD's.
yes, good advice. I was planning to run in target mode and carry out some diagnostics myself, but I unfortunately cannot locate my target Fire wire cable, so only able to network connect at the time. This of course was a problem and I did not include this is my OP.

MacVidCards - If you can share desktop, see what system profiler says about GPU
I can't seem to screen share between the 2 Macs. I assume the comatose d MPro does not have permissions set for screen sharing.
Running the System profiler from my MBP only allows me to access the same system, nothing remotely. Unless there more info on this approach that I'm not aware of.

flowrider - I will read thru the PDF you linked, thx.

I hope this post will prove useful to anyone else having similar issues.
I will update any progress made accordingly.

Many thx. Yakkle (Rich)
 
Is my Mac Pro logic board fried - update

MacVidCards
tried already.. progress bar loads about 1/4 then launches into grey screen, hangs etc.
Also, I did finally get to use my firewire cable and verify the discs from my MBP but the volumes checked out fine.
will update.. later.
 
yakkle said:
MacVidCards
tried already.. progress bar loads about 1/4 then launches into grey screen, hangs etc.
Also, I did finally get to use my firewire cable and verify the discs from my MBP but the volumes checked out fine.
will update.. later.
Click to expand...

Dude, so simple now.

Use firewire mode to make Mac Pro a giant HD enclosure.

Boot from your MP HD on your MBP.

Turn on screen sharing

Boot MP with no display connected, log in using MBP

See what it says about GPU.
 
Is my Mac Pro logic board fried - update.(Resolved)

OK. First thanks again for everybody's time and interest in this post, my on going saga regarding my Mac Pro Logic board fun fest!
Finally getting to close this chapter at last, here's the update if it helps anyone:

I managed to hook up the MPro to my MBPro via the firewire cable and ran a system verify/repair on the main drive on board of the bad MP. doing so did diagnose some system level issues with the OSX 6, but did not change the over all situation.
Could not, though, get a system prefs profile pane for the bad MP from the MBP system. Only reports on the incumbent machine itself.

Later. Got to test out my (potentially) problematic video card on a friends MPro desktop by putting my card in his machine. There was no video coming up on his machine either, whilst my card was swapped with his. This was really still inconclusive as there simply could be hardware incompatibility issues with trying this approach etc.

Then, I tested out my card (on someones advice) in another PCI slot on the LB of my MPro to see if it was a board connection issue. This time I noticed when I booted up the machine that there was some video on the screen this time beyond hardware boot, but it was more like a "Matrix-ey" type screen distortion (it literally looked like the Matrix but without the animated computer code .. ooerr)!
This was good news because I had ordered another NVidea video card online to test out, as it was now becoming apparent that this was in fact the real hardware issue.
When the card arrived I popped it in, and low an behold, Neo was out of the Matrix and back in the cruel, living world.
Looks like the old card was overworked and chose to resign from my despotic work regime.
My Mac now works fine.

Sorry for making this into something of a novella but it's been kinda fun on some level to go thru the problem solving process, and I even sorta 'out smarted' the Apple Genius bar on a hardware issue (and ended up only spending $140 instead of over $500.. Score!).
Any comments welcome.
Happy Macin' :D
Rich G.
 
yakkle said:
OK. First thanks again for everybody's time and interest in this post, my on going saga regarding my Mac Pro Logic board fun fest!
Finally getting to close this chapter at last, here's the update if it helps anyone:

I managed to hook up the MPro to my MBPro via the firewire cable and ran a system verify/repair on the main drive on board of the bad MP. doing so did diagnose some system level issues with the OSX 6, but did not change the over all situation.
Could not, though, get a system prefs profile pane for the bad MP from the MBP system. Only reports on the incumbent machine itself.

Later. Got to test out my (potentially) problematic video card on a friends MPro desktop by putting my card in his machine. There was no video coming up on his machine either, whilst my card was swapped with his. This was really still inconclusive as there simply could be hardware incompatibility issues with trying this approach etc.

Then, I tested out my card (on someones advice) in another PCI slot on the LB of my MPro to see if it was a board connection issue. This time I noticed when I booted up the machine that there was some video on the screen this time beyond hardware boot, but it was more like a "Matrix-ey" type screen distortion (it literally looked like the Matrix but without the animated computer code .. ooerr)!
This was good news because I had ordered another NVidea video card online to test out, as it was now becoming apparent that this was in fact the real hardware issue.
When the card arrived I popped it in, and low an behold, Neo was out of the Matrix and back in the cruel, living world.
Looks like the old card was overworked and chose to resign from my despotic work regime.
My Mac now works fine.

Sorry for making this into something of a novella but it's been kinda fun on some level to go thru the problem solving process, and I even sorta 'out smarted' the Apple Genius bar on a hardware issue (and ended up only spending $140 instead of over $500.. Score!).
Any comments welcome.
Happy Macin' :D
Rich G.
Click to expand...

Congrats on solving your issue. I'm wondering if I have the same issue - green squiggly horizontal lines across my screen and Mac freezes upon boot. Did typical diagnostics that you did with no resolution. I need to know where you bought your card as I'll be looking for one for my Mac Pro 1,1.
 
Congrats on figuring things out! I always get some sort of satisfaction out of being absolutely bullheaded and seeing things through until a resolution is met. Saved yourself quite some money no doubt!
 
Re: Is my Mac Pro logic board fried

Olmed
No problem. I ended up sourcing a refurbed Mac Pro 1st Gen Nvidia Geforce 7300gt 256mb Pcie Video Graphics Card from Amazon. I chose a vendor called Macblowouts (also based here in California) following a customer service call to see what the return policy was like, if I in fact ended up not needing the Video card or any possible compatibility issues.
Bar a small re-stocking fee, they said this would be fine.
Everything of course did work out fine, but I could of easily also upgraded to a better generation video card in the process, as there's still a decent number of other options out there.
Check this forum for other Mac VC recommendations.
Even though it took me a lot of effort on my part to get this all resolved, I'm glad I went this route, saving me some potentially costly repair bills and keeping third parties to the minimum. Also knowledge gained etc.
Good luck with tackling your Mac problem.
Link to this thread/post, if it helps getting feedback from any parties following this thread.
Regards
Yakkle (Rich)
 
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