MP 1,1-5,1 MAC PRO (EARLY 2009) Freezing up

[bigjim28]

Hello. I have a MAC PRO (Early 2009) that is running OS 10.11 and I had this computer since 2009 and has been running great ever since. But I just noticed it started to freeze up. The screen would freeze. I could still move the mouse around but I couldn't click on anything and the keyboard wasn't working. I held down on the power button to restart. After it started up again it was okay. But this has happened twice in the last few days and I'm not doing anything different or using any new programs. I've been on OS 10.11 since 2017. So I'm not sure why is suddenly is doing this. I know recently my speaker on the MAC monitor is going out. Not sure if it is just the monitor. If anyone can help I would appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[tsialex]

Did you tried Apple Hardware Test to see if it detects any problems? You can install it following this instructions, remember to use the MacPro5,1 version if your Mac Pro BootROM firmware is cross-flashed to MP5,1.

GitHub - upekkha/AppleHardwareTest: Apple Hardware Test Download Links

Apple Hardware Test Download Links. Contribute to upekkha/AppleHardwareTest development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[bigjim28]

No I didn't but I'll try this. Thanks for answering my post. I appreciate it.

 

[tsialex]

No I didn't but I'll try this. Thanks for answering my post. I appreciate it.

Install DriveDX too, maybe it's one of your Mac Pro drives that is dying.

DriveDx - the most advanced drive health diagnostics and monitoring utility

DriveDx - the most advanced drive health (S.M.A.R.T.) diagnostics and monitoring utility. Save yourself the data loss and downtime that is associated with unexpected SSD and HDD failures. Don't worry about losing your important data, music, and photographs.

binaryfruit.com

 

[G10]

Hi -
I am wondering if anyone help me out or point me to a thread that can help me troubleshoot my random freezing of mac pro-2012.
I have a Highpoint 7101 Card with 1 Samsung 970 pro as my boot drive and other 2 west digital nvme drive on raid 0 as my storage.

My computer would freeze for about 10 to 15 seconds or so and unfreeze itself. The mouse in the meanwhile is moveable but does not respond to any clicks. This freezing happends more often after reboot/start up then later on lets say afew hours.
I tried to look in the console but I am not too talented enough to understand it
I tried to do an apple hardware test in the following instruction but that doesn't work as the computer doesn't boot in that test mode. While pressing the letter D the computer just doesn't respond and since I have upgraded my GPU to RX 570, I am not able to see the progress bar.

Please help.

 

[tsialex]

Hi -
I am wondering if anyone help me out or point me to a thread that can help me troubleshoot my random freezing of mac pro-2012.
I have a Highpoint 7101 Card with 1 Samsung 970 pro as my boot drive and other 2 west digital nvme drive on raid 0 as my storage.

My computer would freeze for about 10 to 15 seconds or so and unfreeze itself. The mouse in the meanwhile is moveable but does not respond to any clicks. This freezing happends more often after reboot/start up then later on lets say afew hours.
I tried to look in the console but I am not too talented enough to understand it
I tried to do an apple hardware test in the following instruction but that doesn't work as the computer doesn't boot in that test mode. While pressing the letter D the computer just doesn't respond and since I have upgraded my GPU to RX 570, I am not able to see the progress bar.

Please help.

You need an Apple OEM GPU to run AHT/ASD, borrow one and run both diagnostic tools.

 

[msh]

I had a similar problem on my MP 5.1 only under Mohave. Turns out it was the Firefox browser; soon as I switched back to Safari no problem. It was probably a recent auto update to Firefox that did it. Now you may have a hardware problem but it could be some app that was recently autoupdated as it was for me.

 

[G10]

Thanks, @tsialex. @msh How did you find out that it was firefox causing your issue?

 

[msh]

Thanks, @tsialex. @msh How did you find out that it was firefox causing your issue?

Just trial and error. It has now been over a week since I ceased using Firefox - not a single freeze. But it is hard to be absolutely sure as it could have coincided with something else I did.

 

[G10]

Hi @tsialex -
I found my old GPU ATI radeon HD 5770, installed it rebooted but now i don't see anything on the screen.
the older GPU is connected via a DVI to HDMI adapter to my monitor and I also tired connected to my tv. no luck with any progress screen. just blank screen . I switch back to my newer GPU and now i dont have anything.. the mac does boot with the chime and then nothing to see...... what am i doing wrong ? Any help is kindly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[G10]

Also, I can't seem to find any links to older mac os like Mojave.. I read about the opencore method and was going to give it a try but i don't have Mojave installer file did apple remove it

 

[tsialex]

Hi @tsialex -
I found my old GPU ATI radeon HD 5770, installed it rebooted but now i don't see anything on the screen.
the older GPU is connected via a DVI to HDMI adapter to my monitor and I also tired connected to my tv. no luck with any progress screen. just blank screen . I switch back to my newer GPU and now i dont have anything.. the mac does boot with the chime and then nothing to see...... what am i doing wrong ? Any help is kindly appreciated.
Thanks

Check if at least your GPU is recognized, connect via screensharing and open SystemInformation.

You can download every macOS release since Yosemite directly from Apple. Just search site:apple.com Mojave download. Btw, you have to use an older macOS release than the one you want to download.

 

[G10]

Thanks @tsialex, I used your search criteria "site:apple.com Mojave download". Those links are all forwarded to the app store and after a few minutes that app store would time out. See screenshots.

However, after constant trying one in a while, the app store would show the OS and I was able to download mojave.
Can you please elaborate on this "Btw, you have to use an older macOS release than the one you want to download."

 

[tsialex]

Thanks @tsialex, I used your search criteria "site:apple.com Mojave download". Those links are all forwarded to the app store and after a few minutes that app store would time out. See screenshots.

However, after constant trying one in a while, the app store would show the OS and I was able to download mojave.
Can you please elaborate on this "Btw, you have to use an older macOS release than the one you want to download."


View attachment 1666454

View attachment 1666456

App Store errors are common when there are new releases of macOS, since Thursday MAS is unstable, but your problem start from the fact that you can't download Mojave from Catalina. You have to use an older version than the one you want to download, for example, boot High Sierra to download Mojave.

If you can't use an earlier version of macOS to download, the only way is to use installinstallmacos.py or similar.

GitHub - munki/macadmin-scripts: Scripts of possible interest to macOS admins

Scripts of possible interest to macOS admins. Contribute to munki/macadmin-scripts development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[G10]

Thanks very much. I am happy that I was able to image Mojave onto a USB boot disk and then do a disk repair.
Then I rebooted to targe disk brought me back to operational.
Thanks @tsialex