MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 5,1 (2009) crashed and won't boot

[cc284]

I have a Mac Pro 2009 and successfully flashed to 5,1 and then upgraded to 2x3,33 GHz 6-Core Xeons a couple of years ago.
I also bought a new Samsung EVO 860 SSD drive, 48GB DDR3 Ram, Inateck KT4004 USB 3.0 PCIe card, and installed my MOTU 424 and UAD-2 Solo PCIe card.

Two years ago I switched to Mojave and installed an NVIDIA GeForce GT 630 2 GB that I found on eBay.
Everything worked perfectly until yesterday.
It suddenly shut down for no apparent reason. I tried to turn it on but it didn't start at all. No chime. No boot screen. Only the "click" sound when you press the power button.
I checked the diagnostic LEDs. And the 5V STBY light turned on.
At first, I thought that the PSU or Logic board might have a problem.
I removed all PCIe cards and also the GeForce GT 630.
And to my surprise, it suddenly turned on without any problems. I checked the shutdown cause in the terminal and it showed code 0 for power disconnection.

I checked every PCIe card, RAM, and SSD/HD drive.
As soon as I install the Inateck KT4004 my Mac Pro won't boot at all.
Is it possible that the Inateck card is broken and caused the shutdown and boot problems?

I'm so happy that my 11-year old Mac Pro is still working and I really hope that I don't need a new PSU or Logic board.

If anybody can help, I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[tsialex]

As soon as I install the Inateck KT4004 my Mac Pro won't boot at all.
Is it possible that the Inateck card is broken and caused the shutdown and boot problems?

Maybe your KT4004 card is shorted/fuse blown or something similar. This card is know to have flimsy USB short protection.

You can always test it with an old PC and confirm if it's defective.

I'm so happy that my 11-year old Mac Pro is still working and I really hope that I don't need a new PSU or Logic board.

If anybody can help, I would greatly appreciate it!

Unfortunately, it's a cross-flashed early-2009, a problem in itself, with a 11+ years old SPI flash memory and PSU capacitors. By now, both are near the end of the expected useful life.

SPI flash is rated to only 100000 cycles of erase/rewrite and the NVRAM part of the BootROM is constantly being erased/rewritten. The SPI flash is easy to replace for anyone that can desolder a SMD 8-pin chip, while the PSU is more problematic to refurbish, lot's of capacitors to replace.

 

[cc284]

Thank you. Yes, I will try to test it on another PC. I've also ordered a replacement card and check if the new one works.
I hope the Mac Pro still makes it this year! I just don't want to replace it with a Mac mini. I used it almost daily. It's such a remarkable piece of equipment. It's one of the best purchases I made.

 

[davegoody]

I have a Mac Pro 2009 and successfully flashed to 5,1 and then upgraded to 2x3,33 GHz 6-Core Xeons a couple of years ago.
I also bought a new Samsung EVO 860 SSD drive, 48GB DDR3 Ram, Inateck KT4004 USB 3.0 PCIe card, and installed my MOTU 424 and UAD-2 Solo PCIe card.

Two years ago I switched to Mojave and installed an NVIDIA GeForce GT 630 2 GB that I found on eBay.
Everything worked perfectly until yesterday.
It suddenly shut down for no apparent reason. I tried to turn it on but it didn't start at all. No chime. No boot screen. Only the "click" sound when you press the power button.
I checked the diagnostic LEDs. And the 5V STBY light turned on.
At first, I thought that the PSU or Logic board might have a problem.
I removed all PCIe cards and also the GeForce GT 630.
And to my surprise, it suddenly turned on without any problems. I checked the shutdown cause in the terminal and it showed code 0 for power disconnection.

I checked every PCIe card, RAM, and SSD/HD drive.
As soon as I install the Inateck KT4004 my Mac Pro won't boot at all.
Is it possible that the Inateck card is broken and caused the shutdown and boot problems?

I'm so happy that my 11-year old Mac Pro is still working and I really hope that I don't need a new PSU or Logic board.

If anybody can help, I would greatly appreciate it!

It's ALMOST CERTAIN that it's the USB3 card. I had an (older) CMP with a similar card (likely from the same Chinese factory), that caused my CMP to power-down (regardless of anything being plugged-in to the USB ports). Replaced with an on-brand PCIe card (with the exact same chipset) and it outlasted the rest of the Mac. Some of these USB PCIe cards are poor quality to say the least. Mine also had an aux power connector (for bus powered USB3 devices) that caused all sorts of power-related issues. Removed it, and used a powered USB Hub instead.

 

[cc284]

Thank you so much! That’s really good to know. I was worried because the card looks almost brand new. No visible damages or anything.