Mac Pro 2009 dead, black screen

[goodfidelity]

So it has happened.

Mac Pro 2009, black screen no boot chime
- Upgraded with 5.1 firmware
- Tested with two different CPU cards, both verified working in other machine (4.1)
- Removed everything, unplugged power, pressed powerbutton for 30 sec
- Swapped in new battery for clock, measured 3.3V
- Tried starting with empty chassie (removed WiFi, GPU, CPU, HDD..)
- Tried starting with no disk
- Tried 3 different GPUs
- Tried removing wi-fi
- Tried holding power button to enter EFI upgrade mode but LED will not start flashing
- Caps lock LED will not light on the keyboard
- Shorting the SYS RST on the Mainboard will not reboot machine
- GPU LED not on when DIAG button is pressed
- Tried swapping in known working PSU

The machine died when processor was swapped, but its nothing wrong with processor, ram or CPU board as it works in other machine.
- Verified CPU tray working in other macine
- Verified RAM working in other machine
- Verified PSU working in other machine
- Verified GPU GTX680 working in other machine
- Verified HDD working, boots in other machine

- Diagnostic LEDs shows PSU green, +5V amber, and SYS PG green.
- EFI diagnosis LED not on
- White LED on powerbutton shows constant white light
- If i remove some RAM white LED will start flashing, so something is working.

Disks spin, fans spin, but no signal at all to the screen, no boot chime, no nothing.

Pretty much boils everything down to the main board, or does anyone have other conclusions?

It seems the mainboard is fried. Is there anything tht can be dont to fix this? Like on the old G5s by reflowing some component or stuff like that?

Or is it just to bin the machine?

Any good ideas, anyone who had similar problem, anyone who can solve this?

Pizza and beer for the answer who brings it up to life again!

As a detail i can mention the following, i dont know if it is normal. During the CPU upgrade GPU was also upgraded. Cheap ebay cables were used for the mini PCI cable.

When using a lead tester to test the cable, it shows that the leads are not at all connected the same way as the original apple cable. And upon testing 3 different cables from ebay it shows that none of them have the same pin-cable-pin layout.

Is it possible that a bad cable fried the mainboard? Maybe by shorting + to - on the PCIe cables or something like that? Might that have damaged the PCI lanes of the machine, or the GPU? I can see in this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-4-1-and-5-1-pcie-aux-power.2035519/ that there is a specific pinout. On all the cables i measured the only thing i can se that is common is that positive is on the top towards the clip, and negative is bottom row. However they seem to be all scrambled in between in these two row in patterns making no sense at all. No leads are switched between upper and lower row.

If someone else can confirm that different pinouts is normal on these cables then please let me know.

//GF

edit: found this, anyone ever tried? (desoldering, reprogramming EFI chip on mac) http://www.amibay.com/showthread.ph...-Pro/page2&s=102addb5d039e1424ac4bda7b201ae72

ebay seller for EFI Chip 2010 Mac Pro: https://www.ebay.com/itm/BIOS-EFI-F...231920?hash=item3d24d964b0:g:rQ0AAOSwMgdXzav2

 

[h9826790]

You mean the Mac is dead during the upgrade?

Or the upgrade is done some time ago, and now suddenly stop working?

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

What kind of GPU did you try with your upgrade? It's possible the graphics card pulled too much load and messed up the upper motherboard. I've read threads where people wanting to use the higher-power cards (like Titan) avoided the motherboard headers altogether. They actually modded Xbox360 PSUs to power their cards.

 

[goodfidelity]

Mac died or wouldnt boot AFTER the upgrade was finished.
Mac booted fine after EFI was upgraded, but stopped booting after rest was in place.

However the CPU board runs fine in another machine.

And the machine booted fine after EFI upgrade.

So something happened when i put all the stuff together and it wouldnt boot.

GPU is GTX680, not powerhungry at all. And runs perfect in mac pros with dual 6 pin power cables.

I dont think the GPU pulled to much power, as they are low on power and reference design with mac BIOS.

Is there anything i might have missed? I have upgraded maybe 40 machines in total, and this never happened before.
Should the EFI light turn green on the diagnosis LEDs? i have only 3 leds glowing.

And as i said, if i put the CPU board in another machine it boots perfect and runs fine. So RAM, CPU, CPU board is no problem from the upgrade.

If the GPU fried the board, how can i fix that then? Is it even fixable?

//GF

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

And as i said, if i put the CPU board in another machine it boots perfect and runs fine. So RAM, CPU, CPU board is no problem from the upgrade.

It sure seems like it might be something in the Logic board based on what you've troubleshooted so far. Have you looked at all of the various connections to the Logic board to see if they are all still properly connected? Maybe something came loose during the upgrades. Looks like used Logic boards on eBay go for around $120. Of course, there's no guarantee replacing it fixes your problem, but it does sound like you've eliminated a lot of other possibilities already.

 

[goodfidelity]

Yeah, i think i eliminated most problems. But not sure how to check the PSU vs mainboard.

PSU might be gone even if there is power on some of the rails i guess.

Anyone knows anything about corrupt EFI issues?

 

[goodfidelity]

This is the ROM chips that is located on the board. Images are for everyones information / orientation.

If anyone knows which one of these ROMs are the EFI and what the other ROM is i would be happy to have som input.

Seems there is SST chips with the SST 25VF032B 50-4C-S2AF (front) and SST 25VF040B 50-4C-S2AF(back) markings. These chips can be found on ebay.

032b ebay
032b datasheet
Some info on programming

040b
040b datasheet

programming tool

 

[tsialex]

SST 25VF032B (U8700 front) is the SPI-flash memory that stores the BootROM.
SST 25VF040B (U8201 rear) is the SPI Non-Volatile Memory Interface for the Intel 82574L Ethernet controller.

 

[verdejt]

You said you have tried the processor tray in another MacPro. Why try swapping the power supply to another machine as well. Here is a link to the technician guide. It tells you what to look for while troubleshooting various problems.

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

 

[nainesh]

Hi, Did this ever get solved? I've got the same problem with mine. Was running a 2009 machine (upgraded to 5.1) perfectly fine on Sierra. Recently tried to update to High Sierra and now the computer won't boot up. Exact same as OP. The processor tray works in another machine.

 

[goodfidelity]

Hi guys.

I bought all the equipment to unsolder the boot rom and reflash it. And when i was going for it after some help from tsi alex.. The machine just started working. I cannot explain why or how. It just did. And now it has ben running fine for a month or so.

I am pretty sure it was something with the mainboard. But i cannot say what it was. I really tried ALL things. And the it was just sitting for a month. And then it started again.

During that month all cabels from the mainboard was unplugged. Nothging connected. battery out. And then now it was just fine.

Really sick this ting.

One thing i did, that probably did NOT solve the problem. Was moving the graphics card one slot up to the second position. That was the only thing that i could think of that was different from all the 100 other attempts i did.

Anyhow. It is now officially resurrected and running good.

I now have another machine with a bad PSU that keeps burning the fuses every time i plug it in the power outlet. But after one fuse it works good =) hahahah. Dont have a single clue about what that can be, but i am sure it is the PSU.

Anyhow, dont give up. And dont forget to unplug all cables and also remove battery and just let it sit for couple of days and see what happens. You can also try to clean the connectors on the board, i dont now if that helps.

//GF

 

[goodfidelity]

Just to report back here. After this thread i did fix one MP2009 with this problem.

I did as follows:

-Removed processor tray
-take care to remove 3 cable connectors for fans and stuff, they are mounted to mainboard
-remove 2 screws for PCI fan and pull out
-undo the two fans for CPU tray, the big ones, by pulling tabs. With long flat scredriver its easy if you pull frame out a bit and just push fans from behind

When removing aluminium frame there is full access to the CHIP with EFI

- I put capcom tape around the chip to protect components around, and not let the flux run all over board
- I added some soldering flux for SMD on the chip legs
- I added alot of soldering tin to the 4 legs on each side
- I used two pcs of soldering iron with wide tips to gently push the chip bit sideways when solder melted
- I used soldering week to remove excess solder from the 8 contact pads on board, with flux on the week

Then i used the SPI programmer that i bought from ebay, and put the chip in programmer to read out the ROM held on the chip using this guide:

guide for flashrom in terminal

If you dont like UNIX you gonna hate that, but hey, its just copy paste from the webpage anyway

I made backup from original ROM to have all the serial and computer identifications, then there was a new ROM made for me. That new rom was flashed in. You can also just flash in a blank rom located inside the OSX installer.

After that i put littlebit of solder on the 8 pads on the mainboard, added flux, put the chip in place and carefully soldered it back to mainboard. this can be done with hot air or normal soldering iron with very fine tip.

Computer started again like new.

 

[dimitre]

Nice! I have a dead Mac Pro 5,1 here too
I'm wondering in reflashing the BootRom using an alligator soc-8 clip and a FTDI programmer. without desoldering the chip.
Do you know where to donwload official bootrom firmware? Maybe two different versions, latest and the one before.

Model:
Quad Core Xeon E5620 x2
MC561LL/A

two red leds blink as usual in power cord connect/disconnect
diag led only lits fourth led (ambar)

Ideas? suggestions?

 

[goodfidelity]

You cant flash while its still mounted, i tried that, and many others too. Easiest way is to use two soldering irons and remove as per instructions.

Important: First download the content on the chip, that is your serials and all that stuff.
After that there is a member here on the forum that might help you to make a new firmware from the latest versions, and he will put the serial and stuff in the file for you. Also there is plenty of instructions how to do it here, however i never tried to do it myself.



//GF