Mac Pro keeps crashing upon startup

[ad0mas]

Hi all, I have a 2008 Mac Pro3,1, 2.8GHz model running Mtn. Lion. Since I started doing some heavy rendering, I bought extra RAM for it which was FB-DIMM 800mhz- same as stock. But once I booted it up, it kept getting stuck on the apple logo. Here's what I've done so far:
Reset PRAM- no change
Booted into Safe Mode- the spinning wheel below apple logo just hangs
Booted into Single User mode- the fsck says "Incorrect amount of thread records" and is unable to repair the volume
Booted into 10.8 Recovery partition- Kernel Panic at apple logo
Booted from CD- kernel panic at apple logo screen
Removed both HDDs and booted CD- still KP
Swapped the RAM around, put in the stock graphics card, unplugged absolutely everything, tried swapping things around with no luck.
The only successful thing so far is- I took a windows hdd and put it in mac and it booted into system recovery perfectly but crashes upon starting normally.
Please help as I must have it working for projects

 

[Macsonic]

Hi all, I have a 2008 Mac Pro3,1, 2.8GHz model running Mtn. Lion. Since I started doing some heavy rendering, I bought extra RAM for it which was FB-DIMM 800mhz- same as stock. But once I booted it up, it kept getting stuck on the apple logo. Here's what I've done so far:
Reset PRAM- no change
Booted into Safe Mode- the spinning wheel below apple logo just hangs
Booted into Single User mode- the fsck says "Incorrect amount of thread records" and is unable to repair the volume
Booted into 10.8 Recovery partition- Kernel Panic at apple logo
Booted from CD- kernel panic at apple logo screen
Removed both HDDs and booted CD- still KP
Swapped the RAM around, put in the stock graphics card, unplugged absolutely everything, tried swapping things around with no luck.
The only successful thing so far is- I took a windows hdd and put it in mac and it booted into system recovery perfectly but crashes upon starting normally.
Please help as I must have it working for projects

Sorry to hear about your problem. If you can try to recall the activity or tasks you were doing before the crash happened so as to find out the cause of the problem. Or have you tried removing the newly purchased ram and just have your old ram installed?

 

[watson10]

I agree with the user above, remove new RAM and boot with old only.

 

[ad0mas]

I synced my iPod via iTunes as far as I remember. And sorry, forgot to mention, I did remove the new RAM and it still kept KP'ing :/

 

[NOTNlCE]

I synced my iPod via iTunes as far as I remember. And sorry, forgot to mention, I did remove the new RAM and it still kept KP'ing :/

Reseat all the RAM, there's a chance you have a riser short or something like that. I would burn myself a Linux LIVE CD and run a RAM test. Any chance you can snap a picture of the Kernel Panic?

 

[ad0mas]

I have reseated all of it and checked it. I think it's more of a software issue since I booted windows no prob but I don't get why it KPs when I boot from CD with HDDs removed. Anyways, here is a pic of KP when booting from 10.6 CD.

 

[NOTNlCE]

I have reseated all of it and checked it. I think it's more of a software issue since I booted windows no prob but I don't get why it KPs when I boot from CD with HDDs removed. Anyways, here is a pic of KP when booting from 10.6 CD.

That's not actually the kernel panic, that's just the indicator. Boot holding Command+V for a verbose boot so you can determine which part of your computer OS X is having an issue with.

 

[OS6-OSX]

If you have any questions pertaining to ram placement:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/0/MA430/en_US/MacPro_Early2008_MemoryDIMM_DIY.pdf

 

[ad0mas]

While Verbose booting from CD
After ir displayed the last line it just hanged

 

[ad0mas]

And this is Verbose boot from HDD. After failing to repair the volume 3 times it just gives up. I am really confused because the only choice left is clone my empty HDD from an existing mac via target disk mode since I can't boot from a retail DVD. I'll give it a try tomorrow and see how it goes.

 

[ad0mas]

Quick update- tried to boot from a working imac via firewire in target disk mode- stuck on spinning wheel below apple logo
Connected both disks via firewire to imac- empty one shows up as is, macintosh hd shows up as a disk drive but fails to mount. I've asked someone to try and repair it and I'll have another update tomorrow hopefully.

 

[NOTNlCE]

Quick update- tried to boot from a working imac via firewire in target disk mode- stuck on spinning wheel below apple logo
Connected both disks via firewire to imac- empty one shows up as is, macintosh hd shows up as a disk drive but fails to mount. I've asked someone to try and repair it and I'll have another update tomorrow hopefully.

Sounds like a hardware issue for sure. I would re-seat the RAM risers, GPU, and other peripherals and give the system a nice blow-out with some compressed air. Once fixed a "dead" G5 Quad with an air compressor only. If that doesn't do it, I would bring in a tech as you have said. Good luck.
-N

 

[ad0mas]

In conclusion it is most likely the graphics card problem. Looks like the GT 8800 failed and after reading some forum threads, I'm not the only one anyways, I might order a replacement mac graphics card from eBay and I'll post an update once I receive it.

 

[ad0mas]

SOLVED. I reinstalled the OS and booted with the GTX 650, even though it didn't show the boot screen, I sucessfully booted into mavericks with full 12 gigs of ram showing up in system profiler! so happy! Turns out it was, in fact the graphics card. Thanks for the help, guys!

 

[NOTNlCE]

SOLVED. I reinstalled the OS and booted with the GTX 650, even though it didn't show the boot screen, I sucessfully booted into mavericks with full 12 gigs of ram showing up in system profiler! so happy! Turns out it was, in fact the graphics card. Thanks for the help, guys!

Glad it all worked out. Congrats on your new video card!