Mac Pro 3,1 red led not the RAM ones

[El Awesome]

If you don't need GPU power, why don't you take a 8800 GT or a GT 120 for 100-200 $?

If you are sure that the GPU gave up, than that's the best thing you can do.

how did you notice the LED? Did you take away the cover while the machine was running?

 

[m1kygarcia]

If you don't need GPU power, why don't you take a 8800 GT or a GT 120 for 100-200 $?

If you are sure that the GPU gave up, than that's the best thing you can do.

how did you notice the LED? Did you take away the cover while the machine was running?

Judging ny how The computer behaves, I'm positive it could be either the PSU or logic board or even both, the Mac should boot without graphic card, and right now It does not recognize the ram.
I noticed it because after what happened last time, I occasionally opened the lid to check if things were ok with LEDs, and just close it, I didn't touch anything since I got it back.

 

[Matrixfan]

You just might give this a shot!

Hello! I also have a 2008 Mac Pro and was in the same situation with red LEDs at startup. There are some reset micro switches integrated on the logic board, at least two of them. You might want to try them, they're place and function are listed in the service manual, if I remember correctly. Also check the ram slots and the whole riser module itself, you could replug them or blow the dust off the pins and sockets. Ok, this might solve your problem, but didn't do it for me with the same symptoms.

What really was is mind blowing, and it's a real drawback of EFI not being accessible to the user at lower levels. I discovered the culprit by accident. I pulled out all my hard drives for data safety, my Mac booted. There was some kind of a more serious problem with the hfs volume that i could repair with Macdrive in another windows PC. I put back the drives, and everything was back to normal. A simple partition error brought the whole system to its knees, exhibiting the same symptoms My local apple service center couldn't say anything beyond what I described in the first part, they never had a bad Mac Pro since introduction. I was just about to dig up logic board replacement, and grind my teeth in anger because of the cost...

EDIT: I forgot to add that with the disks inside I wasn't even able to do anything as the fans behave abnormally and the boot process couldn't get started: complete halt, blasting fans, glowing LED-s. So booting from install disk to run Disk Utility was a no go.

As much I love Mac OS X and the beautiful hardware, a simple "checkdisk" type error produces a complete system halt and hardware failure symptom I had exactly the same thoughts about why investing into a platform like this, etc... I agree that in the ppc days Apple was at the forefront of pro features and software. While I love my iOS devices, I am saddened by the fact that for cutting edge video workflow a windows pc is simply a requirement as there are serious compromises on the Mac platform in terms of performance and availability.

 

[m1kygarcia]

Hello! I also have a 2008 Mac Pro and was in the same situation with red LEDs at startup. There are some reset micro switches integrated on the logic board, at least two of them. You might want to try them, they're place and function are listed in the service manual, if I remember correctly. Also check the ram slots and the whole riser module itself, you could replug them or blow the dust off the pins and sockets. Ok, this might solve your problem, but didn't do it for me with the same symptoms.

What really was is mind blowing, and it's a real drawback of EFI not being accessible to the user at lower levels. I discovered the culprit by accident. I pulled out all my hard drives for data safety, my Mac booted. There was some kind of a more serious problem with the hfs volume that i could repair with Macdrive in another windows PC. I put back the drives, and everything was back to normal. A simple partition error brought the whole system to its knees, exhibiting the same symptoms My local apple service center couldn't say anything beyond what I described in the first part, they never had a bad Mac Pro since introduction. I was just about to dig up logic board replacement, and grind my teeth in anger because of the cost...

EDIT: I forgot to add that with the disks inside I wasn't even able to do anything as the fans behave abnormally and the boot process couldn't get started: complete halt, blasting fans, glowing LED-s. So booting from install disk to run Disk Utility was a no go.

As much I love Mac OS X and the beautiful hardware, a simple "checkdisk" type error produces a complete system halt and hardware failure symptom I had exactly the same thoughts about why investing into a platform like this, etc... I agree that in the ppc days Apple was at the forefront of pro features and software. While I love my iOS devices, I am saddened by the fact that for cutting edge video workflow a windows pc is simply a requirement as there are serious compromises on the Mac platform in terms of performance and availability.

Update: I've tried to turn it on without any peripheral attached to the logic board, only ram no cd tray, card video, any hard drive and it's the same it does not boot at all T_T the diagnostic LEDs are the same trickle power ok, GPU ok, no processor errors, EFI ok, but power doesn't light up green.

I've cleaned and vacuum it, like if it there's no tomorrow lol, and no Mac love for me. I took the PSU yesterday and it doesnt smell burned or wasnt any particular fuse blown, or over heated.
I think I'm going to join the dark side and go hackintosh!!! With this computer. And get a mini server.

Edit: I'm a Spanish speakers, so yesterday I was checking Spanish forums to see if someone could help in the situation, and what I found, is lots of people having hardware issues with the 2008 model, it seems after 3.5 years of usage, the Mac starts to fail, so they are gathering serial numbers and they are gonna complain about it, as they are all in the same boat, having changed PSU units almost third times in less than a year, logic board deads. Etc. so it's actually not a bad idea to think they have a manufacture issue.

http://www.macuarium.com/foro/index.php?showtopic=308709&st=75

 

[Lou2]

Aloha,
I may have had the same problem. I have a 2008 MacPro (2.8) that started having start-up problems when it was a few months from three years old (close to end of applecare). Since I was using 16g of memory from OWC, that became the suspect, and it did turn out that some of the modules were bad. Luckily OWC has a very good return policy. Lost about 4 pairs in the following years.

A month ago, the blue light appeared in the upper left corner after a refuse-to-boot problem was solved by reseating the ram. Then system stopped booting and blue startup light in board kept blinking. Inside, there was a blue light in upper left corner of logic board. No one knew what it meant. Could have been risers or Logic board. Almost bought a macpro 15 with matte screen to replace it, but went for logic board instead. Cost $1,000 including labor (US, Hawaii). The fix worked but detected 1 stick of bad OWC memory. I had an extra pair of 2x4 memory that was brand new but had been sitting in a box for one year. I plugged it in, started it up, fans roared, and said memory failed. Sent all the failed memory back to OWC and used the original apple (samsung?) pair of 2x1 in the empty slots to give me 14g of ram. Also added a 256 ssd drive (crucial) for booting.

At the moment, the system is running fine with 14gigs of ram, mountain lion, and about four external enclosures and two monitors. I use it for teaching online, writing, and light photography and movie making. When it works, it is great and I don't have to worry about a thief running away with it. And I love the software, especially FC pro.

I want to replace it because it is untrustworthy, but at the moment, unless you want to buy a macbookpro or air, you wil be buying something about to be updated. Plus, I like a matte screen. I almost bought a refurb iMac but there is just too much reflection off the screen. Actually did order a MBPro, 15, with matte screen but refused shipment after I realized that I could hook my 2010 MBA (11) to 24" monitor and do almost everything i needed to do, even light video editing until MP was fixed. I'm guessing next MBP update will look and feel more like Air, so I'll wait.

Plan now is to hope MP and new logic board holds out until an iMac comes out with matte option or I'll go with next air (11) which seems to be evolving into a powerful little unit. or your mini option. These days it seems best to buy and be ready to sell after two years, if you can afford it.

Will post if MP goes down again. As for OWC, they do have a great warranty on memory, and it might just be something in the MP that is frying the memory, but the 2gigs of apple memory that came with the machine are still working fine.

Good luck!

 

[m1kygarcia]

Update: I've tried your method, hoping It could work for me too!. Unfortunately, it didn't T_T, I'm sure my logic board is dead!.
I'm trying to find schematics of the logic board to check continue, but is like they are not any available on the web.
I'd like to know at least wich capacitor went down, cause I'm sure, my problem is a fried board.

 

[Xpansul]

Hi!

I have the same problem, including the red led by the Airport Extreme/Bluetooth card. Took it to a Apple Authorized Service here in Honduras twice. First changed PSU, worked for a month, then again and changed GPU and 2 DIMM RAMM. I got it back 2 days ago and today failed again.

Any updates will be appreciated and I will be updating myself.

Good luck everybody!

 

[hfg]

I don't know that this will fix your problems, but every time I have had an occasion to talk to Apple Care, the first thing they have me do is to reset PRAM and reset SMC. Can't hurt to try it. There is also a small coin battery on the motherboard which may be at the end of life in an older computer and probably maintains some parameter memory for the system.


good luck with your repair ...

 

[telopereira]

[Mac Pro] - Re: Need help with Red Led (not the ram ones).

After last two years , after a long time expended with this forum and close with Apple , also expending time and a lot of money , after heard a lot of wrong sugestions, the reality is : nobody here , solved this problem without replacing de logic board and/or power supply . I decided to replace all my logic boards for MacPro early 2008 and backplane boards for Mac Pro early 2009 and mid 2010 (yes , they are with problems too) . Well , all of you expected is , that all my problems has been solved , yes they were for a time , but not enough as the old macintosh that you was running for 8 to 10 years with no problem . I have around 15 MacPro early 2008 that all have been replaced the logic board almost one time and 10 from early 2009 in the same way , more 12 from mid 2010 in the same way . With a lot of problems and still working with Apple , I discovered that for the MacPro early 2008 the problem is a voltage regulator in logic board and for 2009 and 2010 is a chipset that needs reballing , but I can't get find , after discorery and localited the problems I tried , a company or a person that knew how to fix this problems , after trying a lot of companies in Brazil , I tried in USA , but no success too . Again , the reality is : Apple is manufacturing bad products and you have to protect your investiments with Apple Care and all times that you have problems have to wait for a week or more , for a solution at Apple Assistence

 

[Qualcomm]

Please forgive me for bringing this old post up again. I understand that I am VERY late for the party.

As you guys agreed, that led really means sort of power problems. It is also true in my case.

Mine started to shut down randomly yesterday, and it would not power up any more this morning. When trying to take the psu out, I noticed that the two of the connectors under the cover plate behind the superdrive were loose. ( P1 and P2 in the image) After I replugged them, the mac works fine again, at least by far. I just cannot understand how they became loose in the box. Possibly sunlight heated it up lol?

Hope this could be useful for you who have the same problem.