Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 5,1 just died.

M

MikeymikeT5

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 9, 2016
48
7
Good day. My Mac Pro 5,1 had a glitch yesterday, restarted and then restarted itself straight away again. After that, I couldn't make it start up at all. The machine is a 3.46 dual upgraded one, running 2TB Pcie NVME startup drive, Crucial 2TB MX300 for general storage, and other HDD's for movies (FCP). Memory is two banks of 3 Hynix Dimms.

I'm running Mojave via Opencore. I have a bootable USB stick for emergencies, along with new sortware on that USB stick. The machine would boot from it before, but now it won't even display it when I boot up whilst holding the 'Option (alt)' key.

The screenshot below is as far as it'll go when trying to boot (from recovery on another installed drive.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated?

Many thaks,

Mike.






IMG_2883 4.JPG
 
Why would you run Mojave via OpenCore - it is natively supported on the 5,1?

Have you tried booting into Safe Mode? Reset SMC and PRAM?
 
Yes same comment as sfalatko. I am running 5.1 Mojave native with 3.46GHZ version. If you have full back up you do a clean install after DL Mojave from installer. Is there a specific reason you are using open core?

Here is a recent link you can check out.

www.drbuho.com

[Direct Links] Download macOS Mojave 10.14.6 DMG/ISO File and Full Installer

Are you looking for macOS Mojave download dmg/iso/full installer? We have collected and tested some practical ways and direct download links for macOS Mojave 10.14.6 dmg/iso file, and full installer for you. Keep reading!
www.drbuho.com www.drbuho.com
 
Same remark here; from my experience, Mojave running natively is quite robust. If I were you, I would find an app to totally format the PCIe and do a clean Mojave install. Perhaps, unmounting the other disks would be safer as well.

Please, let us know about the issue of yours. It a quite general and interesting to all of us 5,1 owners here.
 
Thank you for the replies Gents, and I'm sorry, I typed 'Opencore' by mistake, as a while ago I was looking into upgrading to Monteray or suchlike. But, I didn't end up going that route, as I was kinda panicking about it.

Anyway, it's Mojave I'm running, with the patcher. The attached image here is the USB stick I have with patcher and Mojave installer, which I used a few years ago when I fitted the NVME. WHen I try and boot the machine up though, it won't even see the USB stick as a bootable drive for some reason. Even if I remove all the other drives, it still won't see it. :(

IMG_2893.JPG
 
A MacPro5,1 will boot to Mojave natively, a patcher is not needed.
What is different about your hardware configuration that requires a patched boot system for Mojave?
 
based on the message "no nvram variable" I think you just need to do a bunch of NVRAM resets. at least 5 times. so as long as you have a natively supported graphics card and a wired keyboard to hold down CMD/OPT/P/R for a while.

When was the last time you checked the PRAM battery or replaced it?
 
  • Like
Reactions: marioman38
FirDerrig33 said:
based on the message "no nvram variable" I think you just need to do a bunch of NVRAM resets. at least 5 times. so as long as you have a natively supported graphics card and a wired keyboard to hold down CMD/OPT/P/R for a while.

When was the last time you checked the PRAM battery or replaced it?
Click to expand...
Why you write (correctly) NVRAM and name the RTC battery PRAM? Since PPC times we have no PRAM battery, no more.

The nvram message is just an unset var in NVRAM. But anyway, checking battery (below 3.0 Volts, built in = replace) and clearing NVRAM does not hurt, to troubleshoot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bmoraski and FirDerrig33
Macschrauber said:
Why you write (correctly) NVRAM and name the RTC battery PRAM? Since PPC times we have no PRAM battery, no more.

The nvram message is just an unset var in NVRAM. But anyway, checking battery (below 3.0 Volts, built in = replace) and clearing NVRAM does not hurt, to troubleshoot.
Click to expand...
LOL. I guess it’s because I still love and miss my PPC Macs and it’s still habitual to write it. At one point my desk had an iMac G5 with an autobot graphic that I named “Ultra Macness” some PowerBook g4s, a PMG5 quad, MDD, and my all time favorite….2005 14” iBook G4.

In fact, if I could find another one of those that still had a good battery and worked properly; I would buy it. It would be wonderful.
 
Last edited:
FirDerrig33 said:
based on the message "no nvram variable" I think you just need to do a bunch of NVRAM resets. at least 5 times. so as long as you have a natively supported graphics card and a wired keyboard to hold down CMD/OPT/P/R for a while.

When was the last time you checked the PRAM battery or replaced it?
Click to expand...
I replaced the battery yesterday as it happens, but only held the power button during bootup. I'll try what you've suggested (holding keys down). Graphics is Radeon VII 16GB I think.
 
Thanks for the suggestions :)

The Mojave patcher... I did this when I first upgraded to Mojave in about 2019, and thought it was a necessity back then? Maybe to get the boot picker option, I can't remember?...
 
Try to boot with one of the RAM sticks only to test if those work good. Sometimes RAM sticks die and might be the reason why Mac is bootlooping or not starting
 
shadowboi said:
Try to boot with one of the RAM sticks only to test if those work good. Sometimes RAM sticks die and might be the reason why Mac is bootlooping or not starting
Click to expand...
Thank you for that suggestion. I've just tried switching ram modules, but to no avail. One other thing I've noticed... only the read CPU heatsick is getting warm. The front one is cold.
 
It is your call but I would just remove all drives except your 2TB Pcie NVME startup drive and do a clean install / creating a fresh rebootable drive. Copy all data is on the NVMe that you want to keep to a separate drive. Then, as no other drives are mounted on your Mac, your machine will have to boot into the NVMe....fingers crossed!

What PCIe card are your using? Your card is a few years old now. Parts over time go rogue sometimes.

I had boot up issues before on my SSDs using a third party board. Couldn't boot up at all like you.....thought I had a dead machine. End of the world. I could reformat by going into recovery mode and going from here. I also replaced the PCI board as it was not so expensive.

If your 2TB NVME is not mounting you could try the same process using an alternative drive testing each drive on one by one basis to see if any one of them mounts after reboot via recovery mode.
 
you might have 1 bad CPU. Those CPU's are so cheap now on Ebay. I would look for a matched pair and buy.
If thats not the problem at least you have a matched spare Pair.

make sure you buy quality thermal paste and coat each CPU well.

PS. Sequoia macOS 15 will run on your 5.1 Mac Pro.

 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: shadowboi
Thank you for he replies Gents, greatly appreciated. One of the drives in the machine is a 1TB WD Black, which has High Sierra installed. In the past, its been possible to boot from it, but in this instance, it'll show the Apple logo, and startup progress bar, but the bar won't progress. The NVME drive (in Kryo Pcie M2 adaptor) doesn't even show up let alone boot. USB stick also won't boot. (This is with one drive at a time installed).

I'm at a loss as to what's wrong, so I found another 5,1 on Yahoo Auctions (I'm living in Japan) which was quite cheap, so I purchased that yesterday. That machine is running 2 x 3.06 6 core processors, and has three drives installed, with High Sierra, Cataline, and Sonoma installed on each respective drive. So, I'll have a play with that and decide which OS to upgrade to after that, and will use the machine to establish whats wrong with mine. I'll keep you guys posted on the outcome in a few days... :)

Thank you once again for all your help, greatly appreciated.
 
MikeymikeT5 said:
but in this instance, it'll show the Apple logo, and startup progress bar, but the bar won't progress.
Click to expand...
OK this is a good sign.

I had a similar problem with a similar set up and symptoms..... computer worked fine then one day the NVME failed to boot, but old drive with Yosemite would work.

The basic trouble shooting method is:

  1. remove/disconnect all attached hard drives, PCIe cards and USB/Firewire peripherals. But leave the High Sierra drive in the Mac.
  2. Reinstall old GPU if you still have it. Dont worry if not.
  3. try to boot High Sierra
  4. reset NVram hold the P+R+ALt+Command buttons. try a deep clean buy holding the buttons until the machine restarts 5 times
  5. Check/replace the RT clock battery
  6. SMC reset = disconnect power cable hold power button for 10 sec
In my situation this cleared whatever glitch was preventing the system from booting and then I could reinstall all the peripherals.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back