Mac Pro 3,1 Crash to Black Screen High Fan Speeds.

[MordecaiTheFox]

Hello! This is my first post here, was looking to get some help with a Mac Pro I acquired.
Let me give you an idea of what I did to this point.
Completely took it apart, dusted it all out, reapplied thermal paste, and removed the non functioning superdrives.
I also installed a 240GB SSD, and a 250 GB HDD.
Lastly I installed an EVGA GTX 1060 6GB edition as my gpu. I was able to get the patched version of High Sierra installed with no issues and then installed the nVidia web drivers. Everything seemed alright.
But I noticed that sometimes the machine will crash to a black screen, then all the fans kick on to high. Sometimes it'll do it right after it Chimes, sometimes 30 seconds after it hits the desktop. Then I thought it was an issue with the patched OS, so I went back to El Capitan with the original 8800GT and I haven't had the issue occur yet. Will check when I get off work though because it seems to happen the longer it sits off. I was going to try a patched version of Sierra next to see if maybe it was a high sierra issue because I really want to use the GTX 1060 I bought for it as I will be using it to edit video.

The Tech specs are as follows:
Early 2008 Mac Pro 3,1
2 Xenon 3.0Ghz Quad Cores
12GB DDR2 Ram
GTX 1060 6GB
240 GB Sandisk SSD + 250GB WD Blue

Hopefully someone out there can help me, I'd really appreciate it as I have run out of ideas aside from trying Sierra. Thanks!

Update - Each time this happens, it does chime and pass post, not once has it ever failed posting.

 

[MordecaiTheFox]

Anyone out there?

 

[h9826790]

Try run High Sierra with just the 8800GT, may be the 1060 cause the issue.

 

[Razzerman]

Like h98 says, it might be the 1060 is drawing too much power.

If that fails, I'd try the ram next - 2gb is min for hs, I think.

 

[MordecaiTheFox]

Like h98 says, it might be the 1060 is drawing too much power.

If that fails, I'd try the ram next - 2gb is min for hs, I think.

Hmm I never thought that power would be an issue would explain the random crashes though. I just assumed because it was a 1200 watt PSU that it was beefy enough for it.
[doublepost=1520378073][/doublepost]

Try run High Sierra with just the 8800GT, may be the 1060 cause the issue.

Trying that now.

 

[MordecaiTheFox]

Like h98 says, it might be the 1060 is drawing too much power.

If that fails, I'd try the ram next - 2gb is min for hs, I think.

I was trying to extract the High Sierra image I had and it crashed again. Black screen, high fans, on El Capitan and the 8800GT.
Got this from the console though right before it shut off not sure if this is of any help...

 

[Dr. Stealth]

I just assumed because it was a 1200 watt PSU

Actually it's 980 watts..... But it's completely sufficient for your hardware.

 

[MordecaiTheFox]

Actually it's 980 watts..... But it's completely sufficient for your hardware.

Oops, that was my bad...must of misread somewhere. But yea I don't see why it wouldn't be sufficient either way.
[doublepost=1520387893][/doublepost]Update: So I got it running 10.12.6 with the Nvidia web drivers and the GTX 1060. No crash yet. Ever since my last crash with the console logs above I tried running it with the original 2GB of ram that came with the system originally and its been good since. Will keep up to date. So far seems like it might be a ram issue, now I just need to find the problematic sticks.

Running 1 riser board with 2x1GB and the second riser not installed at the moment.

 

[Project Alice]

I have the same mac pro 3,1 with high sierra 10.13.3, and a GTX 1060 3GB. 2.8ghz 8 core. It's my daily and works great. You just have to make sure you have another mac you can screen share into it Everytime the os updates to update the nvidia drivers again otherwise it's a black screen. It's the FTW+ edition evga card, my mac has all 4 drive bays filled along with an ssd and a sata Blu-ray drive in the optical bay area. I haven't had any issues with too much power being drawn

 

[MartyKuhrt]

This just started happening to me about a week ago on a very similar system. Right after boot, or within a minute or two, black screen and then high fans. Hold the power button, lather, rinse, repeat. Once it gets past the first black screen, and I reboot, it will run just fine all day.

Odd thing is I have not changed anything on this system for months. It is running Snow Leopard (even though I have partitions to run everything from Leopard to El Cap, I have one piece of software I use that has me locked at SL for the moment). 10G of memory (two 2G pair sets, one 1G pair set), four 500G disks, MacPro 3,1, 2008, 2.8G, Quad-core Intel Xenon.

Opened it up and cleaned and re-seated everything, but no appreciable change.

 

[Ripper2010]

Did anyone ever solve this? I know it's old thread but seemed silly to start a new one for the same problem.
I removed all peripherals, same issue, swapped the graphics card and replaced all the ram no change, all that's left to replace is the memory riser cards and PSU.
Oh and I have formatted and reinstalled the OS with no change.

 

[kinless]

This started happening to my 3,1 over two years ago. At first it would only crash with black screen and max fan revs once a month or so, but in the last few months it started happening near daily, compromising the machine's reliability.

I just finished migrating to a 5,1 but thought I would try cleaning out the 3,1, reseating the RAM, new HDD, different GPU. I'll be darned if it did the black screen/high fan rev crash while attempting to install a fresh copy of El Capitan.

After reading a bunch of threads on the issue (everyone thought it was either software, bad RAM, bad GPU, SSD, etc. only to find out it wasn't), I'm pretty convinced that something on the motherboard itself is going bad and continuing to get worse. (I mean, these are 12 years old after all.) I would think the only solution is to buy another 3,1 board, hopefully one that was manufactured well into the production run. (My 3,1 was a Day 1 purchase). Those boards are probably cheap these days, but if it's a common issue with these aging boards, then it's probably inevitable that risk of this type of failure will only increase over time.

Might be best to migrate to a 4,1 or 5,1 if you can afford to do so.

 

[Ripper2010]

Yeah I have been looking at 2010/2012 models on eBay, but also found riser boards for £10 each and PSU for £50, would like to keep my 2008 running as it suits my needs perfectly, however.........

 

[DJ2828]

To anyone still having this issue, I can confirm that its a defective motherboard issue. I had the same issue with my system this year, and had to replace the entire motherboard. Fixed for now, but as kinless stated in his post above, its "inevitable that a risk of this type of failure will only increase over time for these aging boards".

 

[andystronguk]

To anyone still having this issue, I can confirm that its a defective motherboard issue. I had the same issue with my system this year, and had to replace the entire motherboard. Fixed for now, but as kinless stated in his post above, its "inevitable that a risk of this type of failure will only increase over time for these aging boards".

Could you please let us know more about the symptoms you had before changing the motherboard? Did you test the diagnostics LEDs?

Having a similar issue myself - black screen, loud fans. Sometimes it will boot and be fine for a few hours, other times it will go straight into black screen/loud fans from boot, seems to be pretty random.

Have taken apart and given the whole machine a good clean. RAM is brand new and reads fine if logged in to OS El Capitan and I've reset PRAM several times. Have also upgraded to Radeon HD 5770 so GPU shouldn't be causing this issue.

Interestingly, the diagnostics LEDs 2, 7, 8 and 9 (indicating no problems) show when machine is running as normal, however once the black screen/high fans occurs this goes to just LED 2 and 9.

Guessing this indicates an issue with PSU/GPU? As mentioned I have switched out the original, dusty ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT for a HD 5770 (tested and working in other machine) so I doubt this is causing the issue. Other thought is a faulty motherboard not able to provide enough power or power spikes causing this issue.

Any advice would be massively appreciated!

 

[Ripper2010]

Any advice would be massively appreciated!

Don't waste any more time or spend any money it, they are all dying, 2010's are cheap now

 

[andystronguk]

Don't waste any more time or spend any money it, they are all dying, 2010's are cheap now

I have a working 2010 already but trying to get some more life out of my 2008 too. Figured I'm too far down the investigating/repairing rabbit hole to go back now ?

Might try a logic board replacement as a last hail mary!?

 

[Syncretic]

Interestingly, the diagnostics LEDs 2, 7, 8 and 9 (indicating no problems) show when machine is running as normal, however once the black screen/high fans occurs this goes to just LED 2 and 9.

Guessing this indicates an issue with PSU/GPU? As mentioned I have switched out the original, dusty ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT for a HD 5770 (tested and working in other machine) so I doubt this is causing the issue. Other thought is a faulty motherboard not able to provide enough power or power spikes causing this issue.

Any advice would be massively appreciated!

I have no advice to offer, just some info: the MP3,1 Service Manual says that LEDs 7 and 8 (the ones that go out during your problem) are GPU Present (7) and Power Good (8). The manual contains troubleshooting steps based on which LEDs are lit/dark.

Good luck!

 

[andystronguk]

I have no advice to offer, just some info: the MP3,1 Service Manual says that LEDs 7 and 8 (the ones that go out during your problem) are GPU Present (7) and Power Good (8). The manual contains troubleshooting steps based on which LEDs are lit/dark.

Good luck!

Thanks for your help! Now to see if my machine stays booted long enough to run a firmware update...

 

[andystronguk]

Thanks for your help! Now to see if my machine stays booted long enough to run a firmware update...

Actually turns out I'm already running the latest firmware (BootROM version: MP31.006C.B05).

Guess I'm only left with the logic board replacement now? Service guide suggests that before a PS-3 power cable replacement.

 

[Dayo]

Actually turns out I'm already running the latest firmware (BootROM version: MP31.006C.B05).

The MP31 came with MP31.006C.B05 and this was never changed. That is, there is no firmware update for MP31 apart from flashing in stuff like APFS and NVMe support yourself.

 

[andystronguk]

The cMP3,1 came with MP31.006C.B05 and this was never changed. That is, there is no firmware update for cMP3,1 apart from flashing in stuff like APFS and NVMe support yourself as I have done on mine.

Ah ok, I was under the impression that this version was an update as listed on the Apple site: https://support.apple.com/kb/dl95?locale=en_GB

Thanks for the info anyway, waiting on a replacement logic board now so will report how things go once I've got it!

 

[Dayo]

Ah ok, I was under the impression that this version was an update.

Thanks for the info anyway, waiting on a replacement logic board now so will report how things go once I've got it!

I may have gotten things mixed up.

Seems there was an update but many units seems to have come with this firmware installed.

 

[andystronguk]

Just fitted a new logic board and can confirm this has fixed the issue! Now to see how long before this one goes the same way...

 

[DJ2828]

Sorry for not responding. Yea when I replaced my logic board the issue stopped as well. It could have been a malfunctioning capacitor or a damaged board from liquids or heat (over time). Hoping mine will last as well