Mac Pro 2009 processor upgrade went wrong

[Machines]

Yes SLBV5

Any red lights on the CPU Tray ?

I can't recall the last time I received a dead used processor . I install hundreds every year ...

 

[flowrider]

^^^^I, and a couple of other posters have received bad CPUs. When I upgraded from W5590s to X5677s, one of the processors had a bad memory channel and wouldn't display memory installed in slot 3. That slot also displayed a red light. When I changed positions, it followed the CPU, and if I shuffled the memory sticks, the problem persisted. The seller replaced it, and all has been fine since. So, yes it does happen.

Lou

 

[sebh]

Any red lights on the CPU Tray ?

I can't recall the last time I received a dead used processor . I install hundreds every year ...

no red light. But what can it be ? with one it boots up and i was able to run a benchmark. The Mac Pro was acting like always. 2 cpus and boot sound nothing happend or it freeze or no boot sound and nothing.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^I guess a silly question, but did you move the offending CPU, now in position B to Position A?

Lou

 

[Machines]

If you had A perfect, added B and now A alone won't boot then you have buggered something.

If you did what you wrote above where you shot for the moon with all 12 and then started tightening and loosening via the "guess" method you will never get it right.

Get A perfect all by itself. Yes, you will hear some fans, nothing gets hurt. Then move on to B. I have done 3 of these, last 2 were much easier as I did A first and counted turns always.

No need to count turns of the driver , MVC . Just install the two M5 washers (2.3 mm total) on all the standoffs when you use a X56xx Nehalem with a factory IHS (the normal retail version of the chip) .

I no longer do just CPU A by itself first . Just use the washers on all standoffs and away you go .

I just shot the moon - no , Ganymede - yesterday . Installed both 3.46 hexacores and a rebuilt northbridge heatsink with custom handmade pushpin fasteners . The rebuild seems perfect and I'm running a barrage of tests on her now just to be certain . The client is an IT guy with a heavy interest in high technology , so he'll know if I mess up lol . But , washers make the job so much easier .

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^^^^I guess a silly question, but did you move the offending CPU, now in position B to Position A?

Lou

That's actually a very good suggestion and would eliminate a concern , provided the OP replicates his previous successful installation method .

 

[sebh]

^^^^I guess a silly question, but did you move the offending CPU, now in position B to Position A?

Lou

No i just came back from work. But i have to try that.
The strange thing is i removed now the B Cpu and i got still no boot up.
In the morning i was runing benchmarks with just A and i don't touch it since.

 

[Machines]

^^^^I, and a couple of other posters have received bad CPUs. When I upgraded from W5590s to X5677s, one of the processors had a bad memory channel and wouldn't display memory installed in slot 3. That slot also displayed a red light. When I changed positions, it followed the CPU, and if I shuffled the memory sticks, the problem persisted. The seller replaced it, and all has been fine since. So, yes it does happen.

Lou

Wow . I am always finicky where my processors come from , due to all the hours I have to spend on a re-build even if things go smoothly . I buy from professional computer salvage firms with great reputations . They have to know how to handle the components or they'll get damaged easily . Although , my last client actually played with a Nehalem , he had me install later, while ungrounded sitting in a sofa chair :-( It was not harmed , surprisingly . Any component subsystem fails are sure to be detected during the 2-3 day rebuild period .

 

[MacVidCards]

FWIW, I have ended up with a single CPU tray. If I run into a dodgy CPU I just toss it in there. Basically no way to install wrong.

I also have as PC logic board that uses same CPUs and RAM. Testing in that removes OSX from the equation.

 

[sebh]

I start thinking there is a Gremlin inside my Mac Pro. In the evening there was no boot up with just CPU A installed. I leave it untouched the hole night. In the morning i press the power button and it boots up!. Everything looks fine so i installed CPU B too. it boots up and i was able to do a benchmark and some restarts. Then it freeze again and no boot sound appears.
i didn't get it why it boots when i leave the mac some hours untouched when it boots and after a while no boot up arrrgh.

the pics are from the short time it worked with two.

 

[sebh]

Or its a Transformer !

 

[Machines]

I start thinking there is a Gremlin inside my Mac Pro. In the evening there was no boot up with just CPU A installed. I leave it untouched the hole night. In the morning i press the power button and it boots up!. Everything looks fine so i installed CPU B too. it boots up and i was able to do a benchmark and some restarts. Then it freeze again and no boot sound appears.
i didn't get it why it boots when i leave the mac some hours untouched when it boots and after a while no boot up arrrgh.

maybe something needs to cool off ?

did you inspect the northbridge heatsink for damage ? it should have two factory fasteners securing it firmly in place . Or the northbridge chip could have dry thermal paste after 6 years . it needs to be moist .

also, get bresink hardware monitor and check the idle and load temps of all CPU cores , both CPU heatsinks and the northbridge chip and heatsink .

not much more I can comment on until I get some solid data .

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FWIW, I have ended up with a single CPU tray. If I run into a dodgy CPU I just toss it in there. Basically no way to install wrong.

I also have as PC logic board that uses same CPUs and RAM. Testing in that removes OSX from the equation.

what PC board model do you use , MVC ?

 

[sebh]

I start thinking there is a Gremlin inside my Mac Pro. In the evening there was no boot up with just CPU A installed. I leave it untouched the hole night. In the morning i press the power button and it boots up!. Everything looks fine so i installed CPU B too. it boots up and i was able to do a benchmark and some restarts. Then it freeze again and no boot sound appears.
i didn't get it why it boots when i leave the mac some hours untouched when it boots and after a while no boot up arrrgh.

maybe something needs to cool off ?

did you inspect the northbridge heatsink for damage ? it should have two factory fasteners securing it firmly in place . Or the northbridge chip could have dry thermal paste after 6 years . it needs to be moist .

also, get bresink hardware monitor and check the idle and load temps of all CPU cores , both CPU heatsinks and the northbridge chip and heatsink .

not much more I can comment on until I get some solid data .

The Processor Board is new from Apple but maybe it was at apple for a couple of years without runing. northbrige looks brand new. But i don't put it off and check the thermal paste.

how can i check with a hardware monitor
the temps when it freeze after sometime or at login screen.
Or how can i give you more data?

 

[Machines]

I start thinking there is a Gremlin inside my Mac Pro. In the evening there was no boot up with just CPU A installed. I leave it untouched the hole night. In the morning i press the power button and it boots up!. Everything looks fine so i installed CPU B too. it boots up and i was able to do a benchmark and some restarts. Then it freeze again and no boot sound appears.
i didn't get it why it boots when i leave the mac some hours untouched when it boots and after a while no boot up arrrgh.

maybe something needs to cool off ?

did you inspect the northbridge heatsink for damage ? it should have two factory fasteners securing it firmly in place . Or the northbridge chip could have dry thermal paste after 6 years . it needs to be moist .

also, get bresink hardware monitor and check the idle and load temps of all CPU cores , both CPU heatsinks and the northbridge chip and heatsink .

not much more I can comment on until I get some solid data .

The Processor Board is new from Apple but maybe it was at apple for a couple of years without runing. northbrige looks brand new. But i don't put it off and check the thermal paste.

how can i check with a hardware monitor
the temps when it freeze after sometime or at login screen.
Or how can i give you more data?

please get bresink HM and just look quickly at the thermal sensors and case fan speeds before she shuts down .

Look at the system.log on your hard drive in Console , to see any error messages .

If possible, remove all drives from your Mac and run ASD . I cannot comment further on how to do this , so please do not ask .

Not much more I can do long distance . except :

Did you look on the backplane board's interconnect pin array to see if any pins are bent ?

Did you look on the CPU Tray's interconnect socket to determine if it is damaged or has dirt on it ?

Was your Mac stable before you attempted to upgrade the processors ?

 

[sebh]

please get bresink HM and just look quickly at the thermal sensors and case fan speeds before she shuts down .

Look at the system.log on your hard drive in Console , to see any error messages .

If possible, remove all drives from your Mac and run ASD . I cannot comment further on how to do this , so please do not ask .

Not much more I can do long distance . except :

Did you look on the backplane board's interconnect pin array to see if any pins are bent ?

Did you look on the CPU Tray's interconnect socket to determine if it is damaged or has dirt on it ?

Was your Mac stable before you attempted to upgrade the processors ?

Yeah it was super stable with 2x 4Core 2,66Ghz.
No pins bent and i also clean both sides of the cpu and it looks fine.
I will try in some hours the Hardware Test. if it's boot up

 

[Machines]

Yeah it was super stable with 2x 4Core 2,66Ghz.
No pins bent and i also clean both sides of the cpu and it looks fine.
I will try in some hours the Hardware Test. if it's boot up

What fluid or cloth did you clean the processors with ? Some of these chemicals and materials are not intended to be used on the gold contacts of chips and PCBs .

 

[sebh]

What fluid or cloth did you clean the processors with ? Some of these chemicals and materials are not intended to be used on the gold contacts of chips and PCBs .

Something from Arcticsilver i think that was ok.

 

[Machines]

Something from Arcticsilver i think that was ok.

Oh, gosh . You're not supposed to place that fluid on any gold contacts . It takes a long time to dry and requires a two part solution process. It's only for the thermal pad area (silvery copper lid ) of a processor .

A client of mine used that on the wrong side of a CPU and fried it .

From now on , just use 100 % cotton swabs , unused coffee filters (by law, they are lint free in the USA) and 91 % isopropyl alcohol .

 

[flowrider]

From now on , just use 100 % cotton swabs , unused coffee filters (by law, they are lint free in the USA) and 91 % isopropyl alcohol .

I too use Isopropyl to clean the contact side of the CPU and the contact portion of the heatsink, however I would never use a cotton swab. They leave lint. When I upgrade a machine I use a new cotton handkerchief, there is no residue. The handkerchief gives up it's life for this, but I find it works best.

I don't know how you spread the thermal paste on the CPU, but I use a credit card. I have found that method works the best.

Lou

 

[Machines]

I too use Isopropyl to clean the contact side of the CPU and the contact portion of the heatsink, however I would never use a cotton swab. They leave lint. When I upgrade a machine I use a new cotton handkerchief, there is no residue. The handkerchief gives up it's life for this, but I find it works best.

I don't know how you spread the thermal paste on the CPU, but I use a credit card. I have found that method works the best.

Lou

Cotton swabs (connector and thermal pad area) , then new coffee filter to polish it (thermal pad area only), then portable USB fan (all sides) in that order No lint , no problem ! They look shiny new by the time I'm done . Swab with alcohol (often) and moist swab with distilled water (rarely) will remove old and dried paste and particulate matter (all sides) . I always allow a long drying time appropriate for the fluid used . I haven't lost a CPU in ten years due to "operator error ."

I do the dot method with the thermal paste, unspread (the installed heatsink will spread it for me), for the processor since that paste must not evaporate under load over an anticipated three year period (I sell systems often used professionally for rendering ) . It's a little on the thick side (but much less thick than Apple, either factory or recommended field method) and I also tint the heatsinks with a very thin layer of paste spread with a "black stick" before installation .

For controller chips , I do the spread method, but a bit thick, since the heatsink is not super tightly fastened (they use pushpins) and thinly spread paste will quickly evaporate . I also tint the controller heatsink same as a CPU heatsink .

In an ideal operational environment , the paste would be thinly spread on all chips with heatsinks . And reapplied once a year . But clients and users are not likely to find that very convenient . The layer of paste needs only be microscopically thin. But then there is our old , nasty friend , Mr. Evaporation , always around the corner and ready to enter the scene .