Mac Pro 2004 - Dual core Start up issue

[Luseth]

Hopefully someone can help me out with this one, I'm not a fan of throwing away tech and i've had one of these from a friend, being a Windows person I thought it was worth seeing if I can get it up and running as a cheap way of deciding whether or not to switch to Mac for my next machine.

When you turn on the PC it seem's to start up like a motorbike, as if you were revving the engine. So it's trying to start. It does this for a short while and then after failing to boot up the fans will then kick into overdrive (at which point I turn the machine off).

This sounds like an issue with the start up to me so could it be one of - PRAM / SMU / PRAM battery? Does anyone have other suggestions to try? Would that be the best place to start? Then move onto maybe the hard drive & RAM?

 

[btjtaylor]

First off the first model of Mac Pro was released in 2006, machines previously to this were branded "PowerMac G5". Does the machine have one or two CD bays on the front, machines with 1 CD bay are PowerPC based, 2 CD bays are Intel based. To be honest the PowerPC based machines are pretty much useless in 2018 for modern tasks, but still good to play with for retro Mac fun

Do you hear the mac "chime"? Have you opened the side panel and checked for any red lights on the motherboard or memory cards?

 

[Luseth]

First off the first model of Mac Pro was released in 2006, machines previously to this were branded "PowerMac G5". Does the machine have one or two CD bays on the front, machines with 1 CD bay are PowerPC based, 2 CD bays are Intel based. To be honest the PowerPC based machines are pretty much useless in 2018 for modern tasks, but still good to play with for retro Mac fun

Do you hear the mac "chime"? Have you opened the side panel and checked for any red lights on the motherboard or memory cards?

Thank you for the response, my bad t's a PowerMac then and not a Pro (Have I posted this in the wrong section then?)

The idea is just to get a feel for it and whether or not I like them and to store stuff on, I have a tendency to play around with operating systems on my day to day machine so I wanted something I can store family photos and things like that on, if I like it I'm contemplating spending a bit and getting something new in the next 6 -12 months.

It doesn't get to the chime at all. It sounds like the fan is starting up, then drops off, starts up again, drops off (imagine a motorbike revving it's engine). Then after attempting that 3-4 times the fan ramps right up but the computer doesn't display anything on the screen.

I will have a look inside for any lights, I don't suppose there is a guide anywhere for troubleshooting the PowerMac's?

Thank you in advance

 

[btjtaylor]

Not got much hands-on experience with these machines but i'd try this SMC reset first

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT1436