Mac Pro won't boot up

[Bmxlee]

Mac Pro 2.1 won't boot... nothing at all
I have (had) an upgraded Mac Pro 2.1 running 10.7.5. I tried to update it using SFOTT but I just could not create the patch for the thumb drive. It kept failing on finding the OS installer or something. Anyway, I never got any further than that. Perhaps I set it up wrong because my OS hardrive name had changed for some reason.

I digress...

For what ever reason I ended up restarting the Mac. From that point nothing happens. The white light comes on, and hard drives start spinning, but that is it. No chime, screen never receives a signal, safe mode doesn't work, recovery mode doesn't work, power cycle doesn't work, pulling hard drives doesn't work, and various other key commands.... you guessed it, doesn't work!

I have contemplated the idea of a boot disk, but seeing as I can't even get to the stage where I can choose what to boot from I don't think that is a viable option.

It later occurred to me that I have the original graphics card which is not compatible with this upgrade. I have now fitted a ATI Radeon HD 5770 1gb. I was hoping it would fix the issue, but obviously not.

I am still new to Apple, it's not been long since I made the transition from Windows.

If anyone has a solution that would be amazing. If I have to wipe and reinstall, is it possible to upgrade during that process or will I have to install lion first? Thanks!

 

[ActionableMango]

I would start with an SMC reset but I doubt that will work. No chime means that it is not even passing POST. This wouldn't be a software problem.

Follow the hardware troubleshooting procedures in the technician's manual. There is a DIAG button and a series of diagnostic LEDs. I am not familiar with the 2,1, but I believe there is a bank of diagnostic LEDs on the logic board near the power button, plus one for each CPU, and one for each memory slot.

 

[Bmxlee]

Thanks for the reply! You've helped me make a bit of a breakthrough. I don't have the manual but I did investigate the leds and I have two lit, Cpu a and Cpu b. What does this mean?

 

[ActionableMango]

Thanks for the reply! You've helped me make a bit of a breakthrough. I don't have the manual but I did investigate the leds and I have two lit, Cpu a and Cpu b. What does this mean?

I can only speak for 5,1 Mac Pro, where it means the processor is in an overtemp state. I do not know what it means for a 2,1. It might mean overtemp, fail, or it might even mean everything is fine.

Unless someone else with more knowledge can chime in, you really need to find a PDF of the 2006/2007 service manual. It will explain all of the LEDs and the procedures for using them. Some of them are dependent on pressing the DIAG button and may have different meanings based on the button state.

 

[Bmxlee]

I have solved the issue! Removing the CMOS battery and booting worked. I then put it back and now it's all good again.

Now I have another issue. I managed to create a Yosemite drive using SFOTT, but now the Mac won't boot any disks at all. I can load my windows partition in safe mode (it's set as my main boot disk) and I can load disk recovery mode but that's it. Otherwise the Mac makes the chime sound every 25 seconds with a blank screen.

 

[Bmxlee]

Anybody?

It just keeps chiming with a blank screen. Pram reset didn't work, Smc didn't work. I cannot reinstall lion from disk recovery mode as it's not available from apple anymore, and I can't use a time machine backup as I didn't have a spare 600gb to back it up to. Has anybody got a solution?

 

[kschendel]

Did you replace the cmos battery or just put the old one back in? I'd replace it and see how you get on from there.

 

[Bmxlee]

I just put the old one back in. That doesn't seem to be the problem however. I put the old graphics care back in and now I can see a black screen with a white apple logo with white text that appears for a moment and then it restarts again. It says something about Debug (panic) and stuff about Kernal.

When I created the SFOTT drive it mentioned that I'd have to add the kernel manually but I there was no info on how to do that.

 

[Bmxlee]

Anybody?

 

[kschendel]

I still think you should replace the cmos battery. Other than that, it sounds like it's broken. You could try the usual voodoo ... removing and reseating all memory and connectors.

 

[ActionableMango]

Anybody?

Well you are stuck in a reboot loop. Basically the computer starts up, does a POST, does the chime, then the OS starts to load up, does a Kernel Panic at some point, and reboots. Then the cycle starts all over.

Important information is what the Kernel Panic says. Also, booting in verbose mode will show what happens right before the KP. These are both possibly huge clues, but you need to share them--otherwise we could guess all day long at the hundreds of possibilities.

Another problem is that most of us here aren't using SFOTT so even with the error messages we might not know what's going on. So you might also cross-post this issue in a different forum. I wouldn't know which one, but probably wherever people are talking about SFOTT and implementing it.