MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro A2189 Wont Boot. No start up screen. No Chime. Fans turning.

[Svenmanofmystery]

Hello everyone I have an old Mac Pro which I love. A2189 EMC 2314 2x2.66 Quad Core Intel Xeon Flashed to 5.1 running the latest version of catalina from an SSD960 EVO.
Since I bought this machine used on the auctions I have had start up problems, with varying OS, Catalina Mojave ect. I would press the power button. There would be a click and nothing. Then wait 20 seconds press the power putt on again and it would start. Or disconnect the power from the mains and it would start.
I had it running fine for a few weeks. Left it on standby and it wouldn't come off standby. I pulled the mains. It wouldn't start. I put the original GPU back in Nvidea Gforce GT120 so I could see the boot screen. It booted into Catalina and I thought all was good. I swapped the GPU to my RD-RX560-E4GB card , hit the button, all the fans turned and the hard drives spun up but no picture on the screen.

Now that is all I get. The white power light comes on the front. No Chime. Fans turn on inside the machine. Hard drives spin up. SSD light comes on. But no boot.

I have tried the following.
Put the original GT120 GPU back in. No effect. Changed the GPU to a different slot on. No Effect.
Pulled the hard drives and tried booting SSD only. No Effect.
Moved the SSD slot. No Effect.
Removed the SSD and tried the hard drives. No Effect.
Removed most of the 24GB of ram down to two sticks. No Effect.
Tried different ram. No Effect.
Removed and reinserted the CPU tray. No Effect.
Tried to boot into recovery. However I think there is no power to the USBS. My mouse is a gaming mouse. It will change color when powered on. However non of the USBs front or back light up the mouse.
I have an apple wired keyboard. It seems not to boot into recovery but maybe that is due to lack of power from the USBs?
I have tried the Apple manual. But honestly I cant understand the steps. I have included the diagnostic lights.
When I power the unit I get the 5V STBY light for 0.5 secs as described. OverTMP CPUA and B Red.
Pressing the diag button I get PSU power on Green. 5v STBY on. Green. Next set of lights. SYSPG Green. EFI Done. Green. GPU OK Green.
However no chime and no boot screen. Just spinning fans on the GPU and in the bays. The Hard drives turning. The SSD light on.
So I'm not sure what to do next.
Something seems dead but im not sure what.
Please help I love my old Mac!

 

[Macschrauber]

Check Northbridge Rivets.

Bad CPU Upgrade.

For other tests you need parts, best would be a 2nd machine to swap parts. For diagnosing dont matter 4.1 or 5.1

Maybe you hunt for a cheap single MP4.1

Could be PSU, Prozesssor Board, Backplane. Simply everything.

 

[MIKX]

De-Dusting & Northbridge temp reduction in Dual CPU cMP 4,1 & 5,1

( NOTE : I feel that both Northbridge temp reduction AND de-dusting/de-clogging the cheesegrater DUAL CPU cMPs deserves a separate thread to embrace the concepts. Northbridge cooling requires that all that hot air be efficiently extracted from the CPU case...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[krakman]

Have you tried resetting the PRAM?

HOld Cmd alt P R at startup

 

[MIKX]

 

[Svenmanofmystery]

Check Northbridge Rivets.

Bad CPU Upgrade.

For other tests you need parts, best would be a 2nd machine to swap parts. For diagnosing dont matter 4.1 or 5.1

Maybe you hunt for a cheap single MP4.1

Could be PSU, Prozesssor Board, Backplane. Simply everything.

I haven’t upgraded the cpu. They are stock as they came. But thank you.
[automerge]1582890511[/automerge]

View attachment 896527

Tried that. Fans are turning. Power light is on steady. Drives spin up. No chime. Nothing in the screen. Thank you for your suggestion.

 

[krakman]

Recently I have seen a number of threads appearing with similar symptoms. it all sounds like the backplane is dying, after all the computers are 10 years old now.

As someone else mentioned perhaps your Northbridge rivets have failed, you can check this by removing the processor boad and wiggleing the metal fins to see if there is excessive play. The heatsink is held in by plastic rivets which degrade over time, if the rivets break then you will have problems using the computer. search this forum for northbridge rivet failure

It also might be corrosion on a connector or component which is causing a short circuit.

The fact the your status LEDs light up suggest all is not lost and you may be able to get it up and running again.

 

[Snow Tiger]

Well , after a decade of being in use , the cMPs primarily have these causes for System failures :

1 ) Dust accumulation , especially in the PSU .

2 ) loose data and power connectors .

3 ) broken Northbridge ( NB ) controller heatsink push pin fasteners .

4 ) dried thermal paste on the CPU , NB controller and GPU heatsinks .

5 ) @tsialex has stated the logic board firmware chips are failing due to excessive number of writes .

6 ) and , of course , the old standby - a permanently broken part that must be replaced .

Solution to keeping these ten year old workstations online involves :

1 ) Tear down the entire System and clean all the components and chassis one item at a time . Use a compressor at 60 PSI at 6 inches , distilled water and perhaps an ultrasonic cleaning tank . Dry parts throughly before powering up again .

2 ) Re-assembling the System will allow a visual and mechanical inspection of many loose or failing parts .

3 ) Replace the factory NB Controller heatsink push pins if they have failed due to thermal fatigue . Either replace with unbroken factory pins or learn to make your own . These are proprietary push pins . Push pins are used because the NB chip expands and contracts ever so slightly depending on use and the heatsink must rise and fall ever so slightly to properly cool that silicon . This also prevents the die from cracking . That is why push pins ( they have springs ) are used as opposed to other types of fasteners that secure the heatsink in one position permanently .

4 ) Use thermal paste that is not only fresh but better than factory . I recommend Arctic MX4 . It has high thermal conductivity ratings , it is not electrically conductive and has excellent 8 year durability .

5 ) Failing firmware chips are much more difficult for the average workstation user to cope with . Probably a logic board replacement is the best solution . A Matt chip replacement would be convenient , but they cost as much as a logic board replacement . Desoldering the failed factory chip and replacing it with a brand new ( and properly programed ) chip would be a task for the more experienced user .

6 ) Once your Mac is clean , a front chassis cMP air filter is strongly recommended made by Trans International

TransIntel

The company has a hard time keeping these in stock , so if you have a fleet of Macs buy some extras .

7 ) Using a surge protector , line conditioner and UPS unit suitable for personal workstations is recommended as a preventative measure .

8 ) Use MFC to run your System fans at the appropriate speed to improve component durability by keeping everything properly cooled . Use this utility in conjunction with a program like Bresink's Hardware Monitor to gain real time access to System sensors .

These are the basics . The cMP is a remarkably user friendly computer when it comes to servicing and upgrading . Grab the service manual and learn all about it . These machines are built like tanks and I personally think they have a serviceable lifespan of around 25 years .

 

[Svenmanofmystery]

Recently I have seen a number of threads appearing with similar symptoms. it all sounds like the backplane is dying, after all the computers are 10 years old now.

As someone else mentioned perhaps your Northbridge rivets have failed, you can check this by removing the processor boad and wiggleing the metal fins to see if there is excessive play. The heatsink is held in by plastic rivets which degrade over time, if the rivets break then you will have problems using the computer. search this forum for northbridge rivet failure

It also might be corrosion on a connector or component which is causing a short circuit.

The fact the your status LEDs light up suggest all is not lost and you may be able to get it up and running again.

I have checked the rivets. It seems they are intact. I also as I was taking the machine apart to check the rivets did an attempt at 1cpu start. No luck. I will post the pictures of the Northbridge heat sink.

[automerge]1583011613[/automerge]

I have checked the rivets. It seems they are intact. I also as I was taking the machine apart to check the rivets did an attempt at 1cpu start. No luck. I will post the pictures of the Northbridge heat sink.

The Northbridge was runn up to about 70 something degrees and then the system would kick in the fans and it would quickly cool down. Mostly when I was putting the system under some load.

Is there a way to check the backplane?
Is it worth fixing or should I sell it for parts?? This is my problem now. Also I have to ship this from Japan to the uk next month. Hmmmmmm.

 

[krakman]

over the weekend i finished updating a 2009 4.1 to 5.1 and Catalina, this was my print station Mac which was used to print on a epson 4900 17inch roll printer.

Suddenly this mac which had been stable for years kept crashing and restarting almost every 10 to 30 mins!!!!

last week i changed the processor and this weekend I fitted a Radeon rx460 gpu that had been on the shelf for over a year

the processor was OK because i had installed that previously and it worked fine for over a week so the culprit must be the GPU

after hours of troubleshooting I pulled the gpu and used a old ice lolly stick to clean the PCIE pins. i use ice lolly stick because they are made of soft wood and easy to hold.

I started rubbing the contacts, they were rough and had a lot of friction but after a few seconds they were clean and smooth.

I refitted the card and the mac has been running all night without a hitch.

I assume i had touched the pins with oily fingers or just environmental factors caused grime to build up on the contacts resulting in a bad connection.

Maybe you could try cleaning all your connectors - SATA, GPU and any other pcie card?

 

[MIKX]

I have checked the rivets. It seems they are intact. I also as I was taking the machine apart to check the rivets did an attempt at 1cpu start. No luck. I will post the pictures of the Northbridge heat sink. View attachment 896770
[automerge]1583011613[/automerge]

The Northbridge was runn up to about 70 something degrees and then the system would kick in the fans and it would quickly cool down. Mostly when I was putting the system under some load.

Is there a way to check the backplane?
Is it worth fixing or should I sell it for parts?? This is my problem now. Also I have to ship this from Japan to the uk next month. Hmmmmmm.

Your CPU tray needs a thorough de-dusting after which it WILL run cooler.

De-Dusting & Northbridge temp reduction in Dual CPU cMP 4,1 & 5,1

( NOTE : I feel that both Northbridge temp reduction AND de-dusting/de-clogging the cheesegrater DUAL CPU cMPs deserves a separate thread to embrace the concepts. Northbridge cooling requires that all that hot air be efficiently extracted from the CPU case...

forums.macrumors.com

Use a longhaired, soft bristled non-conducting brush . . .like this

Then use canned air.