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Mac Pro boot issue! possessed? HELP!

T

thomaszr

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
8
0
I have a Mac Pro (2.8GHz Xeon (Quad-core) Harpertown A1186) and it is acting up. Before I hire a preist to do an exorcism, I figured I would post the issue here.

When I push the button:

Sometimes it will boot, sometimes it won't.
Sometimes when it does boot the white light by the switch comes on, most it does not.

Sometimes when I push the button on the front the fan runs for a few seconds and then quits and nothing...

Other times I will not hear the fan anymore and the "WALL-E" boot noise plays. & Occasionally the fan sounds like a tornado.

Sometimes after a few boot attempts I will unplug it and try again in a few hours and it will boot. (most times with no white light by the switch)

If I can get it to boot I can repair permissions and restart. When this happens, if the white light by the button was on it will be on again after the restart. If it was not on when it booted, it will not come on after a restart.

Last night, it was on (with no white light by the button) I was repairing permissions and the fan started running full blast and I noticed it had crashed.

Not sure if it is related but I noticed the white light by the button flashes for an instant when the power strip surge protector is turned on.

Any ideas anyone?
 
or maybe press command+option+p+r at boot and holding those keys down until you hear the "wall-e boot noise" (giggles). It's called startup chime btw.
 
Thanks for the fast reply!

what is/how do I do the apple hardware test?
 
beto2k7:

I did the "command+option+p+r" and it booted (white light above the button and all) for a few minutes and then suddenly shut off and the fan went into tornado mode.

It sounds and feels like it's running backwards (blowing out the front) or something...
 
interslicer:

Thanks for the link.

Hopefully I can get it to boot and stay up long enough to try the hardware test
 
elvisizer; I can't do everything on the SMC reset list without being able to boot up.

Seems like the things I have done would have done it.

I've even tired putting the video card in another slot & replacing the battery on the mother board.

and it still won't boot!

ARGH!

The fan I hear running when I push the power button is on the video card. (not sure if that's relevant or not...
 
Hmmm... Bad RAM or poor RAM connectivity?

Try reducing the amount of installed RAM. If it persists, swap the Installed RAM for the modules you removed. Check the RAM and the riser cards for tarnished edge connectors. Clean them if they're tarnished.

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/MacPro_Early2008_MemoryDIMM_DIY.pdf

Remove any hardware not required for testing including internal hard drives. Try a different keyboard & mouse.

Good luck! :eek:
 
What a nightmare!

I ended up needing a new mainboard and cable that connects the hard drives to it.

The "know it alls" wouldn't listen when I told them it wasn't fixed right.

They said the reason for it only seeing 2 of the 4 hard drives was that 2 of them must me damaged.

It took 5 trips back to the apple store for them to finally get it right.

Argh!

Thanks to all for the help.
 
I've got a similar problem that I've had with 2 different 2.8 Quads.

When I boot up/restart it sometimes hangs at the first screen that shows the boot options.

I have 3 hard disks and a USB hub and no idea what has caused this.

Obviously (because of 2 diff machines) a fundamental problem with the MP boot procedure.
 
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