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MacPro reduces to crawl

machenryr

machenryr

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 25, 2016
748
101
I don’t know what to do here. I posted a similar post in the OS 10.12 forum and got no response.

This problem seems to be internet mostly but I’m seeing other strange things, like external drives continuously going offline and back on.

I’ve called Comcast for troubleshooting twice with a service guy coming over. Couldn’t find anything. Replaced the modem and some wires.

I’m thinking of replacing the OS drive. It’s a 2TB that only has about 550GB available but I had to reclaim about 200. The internal drive is a spinning SATA. I’m thinking of replacing it with a 4 TB SSD. But before I spend $700 I want some educated guesses that this might be my problem. I’m not sure why the internet would be so slow to respond from bad sectors on a hard drive. Continually I can’t download a simple 15 MB file. Pages won’t open or take 10-15 MINUTES to open. Comcast speed test seems to be in the acceptable range except it takes about 20-40 seconds of sputtering before it even starts.

Help!!!!!

2 MacPros 2009/2010 5,1 3.46 GHZ. 10.12.6.
 
Sounds like a failing hard-drive. Rather than going all in on a 4TB SSD have you considered getting a small SSD (120GB) or another hard drive, reinstalling the OS to that and seeing if the symptoms are alleviated?
 
TheIguana said:
Sounds like a failing hard-drive. Rather than going all in on a 4TB SSD have you considered getting a small SSD (120GB) or another hard drive, reinstalling the OS to that and seeing if the symptoms are alleviated?
Click to expand...

The problem is I have two MacPros that share the same modem and exhibit the same slow internet.
 
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I think what I’m going to do is buy a 2TB SSD and manage my files better.
 
Are ALL of your drive bays full?
Here's my suggestion... The Mac Pro has 4 drive bays, 6 if you count the optical bays. Why would anyone spend that kind of money on an SSD? What are you doing that you need SSD speed on every file you own? Stick in a 500GB SSD for like 70 bucks, and get a 4TB HDD for one of the bays (or as many as you like).

In my current Mac Pro setup; a 3,1 early 2008 model I have 4 HDDs installed in the 4 drive bays. Two of them are as big as 3TB and 4TB. In my optical bay, I have 2 optical drives AND a 2.5" SATA 240GB SSD, plugged into one of my extra SATA ports the 3,1 has (3,1s use IDE for optical drives). This SSD is my boot drive, and holds things I use rather frequently. All the other crap lives on the 4 HDDs.

What else is slow aside from the internet? If it's just the internet, then it's the internet connection not the Macs.... And unless both macs have OS installations that were cloned from eachother, software problems on both the machines are unlikely.
Comcast speed test is bias IMHO. Also speedtests aren't always accurate. Sometimes, or rather most of the time it is the server you're connecting to. Have you rebooted your modem and router? ISP's can also have problems at their physical host site, or traffic could be "backed up".
 
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Yes, I’ve rebooted the modem many times. And thank you for your answer. I hear you. I DID get a couple of 2TB SSDs. But I already had a 500 I formatted and installed the basic OS and Apps on so I was ahead of my own game. Lol. 10.12.6

I have all 4 bays plus one optical, where the 500 GB SSD drive is, taken up with drives. Three 2TB Regular, one TB SSD. 5 internal drives. Maybe I’ll put another in that extra optical. I forgot about that. But I’ve been cloning them, so there’s one drive and then a clone. Those four drives - two then cloves of them. I can change this since in the many years I’ve been doing this I’ve never had an emergency where I’ve had to resort to it. I’ve had weirdnesses where I grabbed something or booted but haven’t had a drive crash YET where I had to use the clone. I can do this where external spinning drives.
 
The internet still seems slow. A bit zippier but it still hangs.
 
So I have a recording studio. Does it make more sense to have the SSD on the applications and OS, or for the audio? It’s moot now I suppose since I got the extra SSD. I was supposing that the apps and OS would be fine on a spinning drive which looking back seems misguided.
 
machenryr said:
So I have a recording studio. Does it make more sense to have the SSD on the applications and OS, or for the audio? It’s moot now I suppose since I got the extra SSD. I was supposing that the apps and OS would be fine on a spinning drive which looking back seems misguided.
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I would say the applications and OS should be on an SSD.

You are also open to the option of using PCIe based storage as well, if you have available slots. External storage is also an option. I believe FW800 is still used widely among audio professionals.
 
I now have a PCIe slot that can be open. I’ll give that a whirl.

I’ve almost gotten rid of my FireWire peripherals. FW800?
 
Is the problem with the internet speed now marked as done? If not, take your mac to a friend and try the same test there on a different connection. Or connect it via a 4g modem or something. I don't think that two macs can produce the same error without the modem being involved.
 
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If you have a WiFi hub then download the speedtest.net app on your phone and test the internet with WiFi on. Then go to speedtest.net on your browser on the Mac pro an run the test again.
 
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Larvas said:
Is the problem with the internet speed now marked as done? If not, take your mac to a friend and try the same test there on a different connection. Or connect it via a 4g modem or something. I don't think that two macs can produce the same error without the modem being involved.
Click to expand...

This should be easy if a pain. We have two internet accounts with the same provider - Comcast. The studio is in the backyard a little distance from the residence. I can just bring my Mac to the house. I’ve been avoiding. Bad back.
 
Connect your phone to it and teether the 4g internet from it, try again to surf and download files, if it works fine, it's your internet, if it doens't work fine, it's your hdd.
 
There are two general categories of issues:
- Throughput
- DNS - domain name resolution
Throughput is easier to measure. Get a tool to measure local network performance between your two Macs. I used "Network Speed Tester" to diagnose my network cross platform, but just a file copy might tell your whether you have a problem. If the local network is good, then use an Internet network speed test to check the throughput. This will use a single IP test server and tends not to be impacted much by DNS. If there is a problem with that you need to work with your ISP. Resetting the router/modem is a good starting point.
If it looks like you have good Internet bandwidth test performance, you likely have DNS lookup issues.
Try manually setting your DNS in your network preferences panel to bypass the ISP and router. I use 1.1.1.1 with 1.0.0.1 as a backup. If that does not work you need ISP help.
 
Thank you. I’m not sure what this means. Sorry. It’s still crawling. I’m actually trying to update the OS from Sierra to High Sierra on two SSDs on the same MacPro. But as i said earlier I have another almost identical MacPro on HS running through the same modem crawling exactly the same. I can’t update the OS because the internet connection is so slow. I can’t even log in to macrumors right now. I’ve kind of devoted the day to installing HS on a new blank PCIe SSD. I was actually coming to macrumors to remind me how to install a bootable clean install OS on a blank drive. But i can’t get there now.

Luckily I do have another account in another spot in the main house. But I have to bring the MacPro and the Monitor which is a huge PITA. I’m avoiding that.

So it makes me nervous messing with the DNS address stuff, mainly because I don’t really understand what it is.
 
Larvas said:
Connect your phone to it and teether the 4g internet from it, try again to surf and download files, if it works fine, it's your internet, if it doens't work fine, it's your hdd.
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What do you mean teether the 4g internet? My iPhone has no problem connecting with the internet via WiFi. But how do I connect through the Ethernet/modem. Ok. I have a MBP I’ll try before I pull everything out.
 
That’s what I’d think. I had Comcast here and have been on the phone with them twice. They can find nothing wrong.

BUT I SUSPECT I may have found the common connection. Feeling maybe stupid. The two MacPros share the same monitor. Im using a StarTech switcher. The display and USB for keyboard. How can that — I don’t see why that would effect the internet speed, but I don’t see any other commonalities. But I’ll try it out.
 
That the problem could be in the switcher just didn't make sense to me. Someone call out if your know something, but I abandoned that.

I brought a MacPro and monitor into the house that has a different internet account and it seems to be working fine. Zippy.
 
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Clearly it’s not failing drives. I’ve replaced them from spinning to SSD. I took the MacPro and Monitor to the house that has a different internet account and it was zippy. Back to the studio and it’s crap again. Calling Comcast again.
 
machenryr said:
Clearly it’s not failing drives. I’ve replaced them from spinning to SSD. I took the MacPro and Monitor to the house that has a different internet account and it was zippy. Back to the studio and it’s crap again. Calling Comcast again.[/
What age is your modem/router? ATT gave a single band modem/router less than a year ago. The spinning beachball appeared out of the blue. I requested a newer dual band one and and am speeding along twice as fast now. I also have a 2017 MacBook Pro with 16G ram. My internet speed was 50MB and still slow. ATT replaced it at no charge. Ever since the release of Mohave I have been running slower that High Sierra. Also try different browsers that are lean and mean. Good luck. In retrospect, you could have a nasty virus that would exhibit these symptoms.
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How do I disconnect from Dropbox? The Dropbox menu icon at the top says continually it’s syncing 1,218 files. It’s said this for a week or so! Then I see notification for a security code I can use to finish signing in but I’m signed in. I suspect this might be the problem. Hacking? Glitch? Did I do or not do something stupid? Is this what’s hanging it up? I’m not sure how to log out.
 
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