Mac Pro 3.1 black screen and no beeps

[Tharayman]

I my first Mac Pro, second hand. It is a 2008 Mac Pro 3.1 with dual 2.8 ghz cpu. I absolutely adore the design. It is so beautyfull. But....
It powers on nicely, fans spinning, lights on the RAM boards blinking, but no picture and no beeping sounds.

-have tried moving the 2600 graphic card around,
-tried both of the DVI outputs.
-Tried two different sets of ram modules,
-resetted NVRAM

What else could I attempt? Different set of CPU`s? Different graphic card?
I should get a beep or something regardless of HDD present?

 

[solaris8x86]

I my first Mac Pro, second hand. It is a 2008 Mac Pro 3.1 with dual 2.8 ghz cpu. I absolutely adore the design. It is so beautyfull. But....

Radeon HD 2600?

 

[FlorisVN]

Have you also tried smc and pram/nvram reset already ?

 

[Alex Sanders74]

If you have another CPU handy that is known to be working, that would be worth trying. Has it ever booted for you previously or is this the first time you've tried powering it on?

Some detailed specs would help with diagnosis. See my signature.

Should have said GPU not cpu as above...

 

[Project Alice]

Could be a bad graphics card too.
However as others have said, try PRAM\nvram and SMC reset. If that is successful you should hopefully hear a chime.

 

[Tharayman]

I tried the NVRAM reset but nothing happened.
I have tried with a Nvidia 1070 card, but from what I understand there is no native bootscreen support for that one, so I guess it proves nothing? Will have to try getting my hands on some old GPU that is supported then.

If you have another CPU handy that is known to be working, that would be worth trying. Has it ever booted for you previously or is this the first time you've tried powering it on?

Some detailed specs would help with diagnosis. See my signature.

Should have said GPU not cpu as above...

This is the first time I am trying it!
Original Mac Pro 3.1 with 2x 2.8 xeons, original 320gb HDD, Radeon 2600, 8x1gb ram chips. Also tried a bigger set, but no chiming. Anything I am forgetting here?

 

[Alex Sanders74]

A GPU that supports a boot screen would be ideal. Without web drivers installed the screen will never show a login screen/desktop with your 1070 card. Have you tried booting from a clean OS install? Does the original drive have a bootable OS on it?

 

[Tharayman]

Will any HD 5870 for example work, or do I need a "original apple card" ?
[doublepost=1557840953][/doublepost]

A GPU that supports a boot screen would be ideal. Without web drivers installed the screen will never show a login screen/desktop with your 1070 card. Have you tried booting from a clean OS install? Does the original drive have a bootable OS on it?

To be honest, I do not know what the drive contains! Could take it out and ut in to a docking station.
Could a faulty HDD or faulty OS be the cause of no bootscreen and no startup chime?
[doublepost=1557841088][/doublepost]Just got word from previous owner that he made a clean install to the HDD before sending it my way. Tried and tested! I Guess the postal service must have beaten something up... But what?

 

[Alex Sanders74]

If the screen isn't powering on to show the Apple logo, this should happen whether there's a good or bad drive in the Mac. Are there any other cards in the PCI-E slots besides the HD2600 GPU you have? You should use a GPU with a Mac ROM so you can be sure you're able to see the booting process.

You mentioned there were lights blinking on the board. Where are they and what labels are beside the blinking LED? If it's the RAM slots, this could all be related to that.

 

[Tharayman]

If the screen isn't powering on to show the Apple logo, this should happen whether there's a good or bad drive in the Mac. Are there any other cards in the PCI-E slots besides the HD2600 GPU you have? You should use a GPU with a Mac ROM so you can be sure you're able to see the booting process.

You mentioned there were lights blinking on the board. Where are they and what labels are beside the blinking LED? If it's the RAM slots, this could all be related to that.

Okey. So genuine "apple cards" then!

I had a SATA card with raid, but I removed it in order to make troubleshooting easier.
Yess it is the red LED for the RAM slots. They go red when I turn on, then go out.
In between them on the motherboard there is a red LED that stays on.

 

[mikehalloran]

Have you replaced the NV RAM battery? Although Apple used the high-heat, BR2032, the common CR2032 medical battery works fine.

This is a common cause of this issue.


There’s a trick to these. If you pry up, you’ll break the thin flange holding the battery in. The flange has a slot. Use anything through the slot (toothpick works) to push the battery against the leaf spring—it will pop up when it clears the flange.

 

[Tharayman]

Just changed the battery. But the old one still had 3V in it.
I have gotten hand of two 3.2 Ghz Xeons that I was gonna try.
But doesnt this socket look damaged? Like three pins are bent the wrong way?
Perhaps I damaged them when I was changing out the cooling paste.
Will it boot with just one CPU in place?




free image upload

 

[tsialex]

Just changed the battery. But the old one still had 3V in it.
I have gotten hand of two 3.2 Ghz Xeons that I was gonna try.
But doesnt this socket look damaged? Like three pins are bent the wrong way?
Perhaps I damaged them when I was changing out the cooling paste.
Will it boot with just one CPU in place?




free image upload

Yes, it's damaged and it's the primary CPU, where you install the Xeon when you have just one.

You can repair it if it's only bent, I did it more times than I like to admit. There are threads about it, like this one Mac pro 2009 CPU Socket damage.