Resolved MacPro1,1 being unstable after installing ElCapitan (and modified boot.efi and so on)

[Baldung99]

EDIT: Well turns out that I should have watched Greg Hrutkay's series more thoroughly. Apparently ElCapitan simply doesn't like 512MB or 1GB FB-DIMMs. I'll set it to resolved for now.

I've got a MacPro 1,1 MA356LL/A - the original "quad core" with two dual-core Xeon CPUs.

I followed Greg Hrutkay's video tutorials where he gave an El Capitan image and showed how to restore onto an HDD and using a modified boot.efi file. It all seemed to go fairly well - until it didn't. It started crashing randomly and I'm at a bit of a loss. I'm not using a stock GPU (I think this particular model came with an nVidia 7300GT and currently has a Radeon HD3870 - I mean not much of an upgrade, but still) so that leaves the RAM and CPU or something else. How do I go about troubleshooting it?

After re-watching some of Hrutkay's videos, I notice he mentions once that he's doing it on a MacPro 2,1. Is that the problem here? Could I possibly make the MacPro "think" it's the 2,1 model?

Lion still works fine, so all is not quite lost.

 

[Petri Krohn]

I've got a MacPro 1,1...

El Capitan image... modified boot.efi file... It started crashing randomly...

How much RAM do you have? Using 0.5 GB FB-DIMMs causes the patched El Capitan to kernel panic. You need more memory or larger DIMMs.

Could I possibly make the MacPro "think" it's the 2,1 model?

Yes. You can flash a Mac Pro 1,1 with Mac Pro 2,1 firmware.

 

[Baldung99]

How much RAM do you have?

4GB total, in 1GB FB-DIMMs.Two in riser A (slot 1 and 2) and the rest in riser B (slot 1 and 2).

Yes. You can flash a Mac Pro 1,1 with Mac Pro 2,1 firmware.

Would it help, though?

 

[EugW]

How much RAM do you have? Using 0.5 GB FB-DIMMs causes the patched El Capitan to kernel panic. You need more memory or larger DIMMs.

I saw that video but I believe he said that even 1 GB DIMMs are a problem too. My machine with 1 GB DIMMs was stable in El Capitan. I have the OEM Mac Radeon HD 5770. (I took out the 512 MB DIMMs just because I don't need them.)

[EDIT]

Nope. I got a kernel panic when doing some benchmarking with 512 MB DIMMs installed. Removed the 512 MB and 1 GB DIMMs and replaced them with 2 x 4 GB DIMMs, and after that all was fine.

[/EDIT]

About the only issue I noted with proper memory in the proper configuration is that my idle temps for memory were higher when all DIMM slots were populated. So I took out the smaller DIMMs anyway, leaving 4 slots open and my idle temps for memory dropped lower. With 4+4+2+2 after some usage the memory temp climbs to around 70C and then stops there at idle. With 4+4+2+2+1+1+1+1, with usage eventually the temps will increase to 80C. So there were more times when the fans might increase in speed.

But in both scenarios it was still stable. Mind you, I was not editing video or stuff like that. However, repeated Cinebenching was not an issue.

How consistent were the kernel panics and were memory temps high? What type of memory? All my memory has proper Apple-approved heat sinks and I run the hottest modules in riser A DIMM slots 1 and 2 which the Mac firmware monitors.

OTOH, if I put OEM 1 GB Apple DIMMs in riser A slots 1 and 2 and third party 4 GB server DIMMs in other slots, the machine would crash after heating up. To make it work I’d reverse the configuration and it would be stable, but with higher memory temps and the fans ramping up more frequently. That’s why I now only run the RAM with the big heat sinks.

Here are my results after lots and lots of testing.

"OEM" meaning any RAM with Apple-approved heatsinks but not necessarily truly Apple OEM. All have temp sensor.
"Server" meaning any RAM with just the basic heat spreader. Most have temp sensor but some do not.

A1 - OEM 4 GB
A2 - OEM 4 GB
A3 -
A4 -
B1 - OEM 2 GB
B2 - OEM 2 GB
B3 -
B4 -
Stable, temps relatively low, fans always quiet. This is what I run now. 12 GB is good enough for my usage.

A1 - OEM 4 GB
A2 - OEM 4 GB
A3 - OEM 1 GB
A4 - OEM 1 GB
B1 - OEM 2 GB
B2 - OEM 2 GB
B3 - OEM 1 GB
B4 - OEM 1 GB
Stable, temps higher, fans would increase speed a bit more often, although usually stayed slow enough to be quiet. I just knew the temps and fan speeds were higher because I was monitoring them with Macs Fan Control.

A1 - OEM 1 GB
A2 - OEM 1 GB
A3 - Server 4 GB, with temp sensor (but sensor not being utilized in this slot)
A4 - Server 4 GB, with temp sensor (but sensor not being utilized in this slot)
B1 - OEM 1 GB
B2 - OEM 1 GB
B3 -
B4 -
Crashes! (I can get it to work if I leave the case open and don't stress it too hard, so it appears to be temp related.)

A1 - Server 2 GB, no temp sensor
A2 - Server 2 GB, no temp sensor
A3 -
A4 -
B1 - Server 2 GB, no temp sensor
B2 - Server 2 GB, no temp sensor
B3 -
B4 -
Crashes in just about everything. If the ambient room temp is low and the case is open, I can boot into El Capitan but even just with light usage it will then crash. To my surprise, the fans are always at minimum rpm. My assumption was that the Apple firmware would default to full fan speed mode, but it doesn't. The default is minimum speed if it doesn't detect memory temp sensors. However, Lion is much more forgiving than El Capitan. I could surf a while and do light activities in Lion before running into problems.

A1 - Server 4 GB, with temp sensor
A2 - Server 4 GB, with temp sensor
A3 -
A4 -
B1 -
B2 -
B3 -
B4 -
Stable, but temps increase quickly, and fans often ramp up to be annoyingly audible. Even just the boot process ramps up the fan.

A1 - Server 4 GB, with temp sensor
A2 -
A3 -
A4 -
B1 - Server 4 GB, with temp sensor
B2 -
B3 -
B4 -
Stable, but temps increase quickly, and fans often ramp up to be annoyingly audible. Even just the boot process ramps up the fan.

A1 - Server 4 GB, with temp sensor
A2 - Server 4 GB, with temp sensor
A3 - OEM 4 GB
A4 - OEM 4 GB
B1 - Server 4 GB, with temp sensor (but sensor not being utilized in this slot)
B2 - Server 4 GB, with temp sensor (but sensor not being utilized in this slot)
B3 - OEM 2 GB
B4 - OEM 2 GB
Stable, but temps increase quickly, and fans often ramp up to be annoyingly audible. Even just the boot process ramps up the fan.

These are the fan speeds at idle after just booting up in the last configuration. With my first configuration using only OEM type RAM with the proper heatsinks, CPU_MEM is 500 and EXHAUST is 600.

Most of these configurations were tested on my MacPro1,1 flashed to 2,1 with 2 x dual 2.66 GHz. However, the last configuration was only tested on my original 2,1 with 2 x quad 3.0 GHz.

I found that once the fans hit about 900 rpm, they were audible over background noise, and the faster it gets above 900, the more annoying it gets.

 

[MIKX]

I have a genuine 2,1 dual Ive upped for a friend running El Capitan 10.11.6 4 x 1 gb RAM and running an EFI flashed HIS HD 5870.

I removed one of the CPUs to keep it cooler and lower power.

It runs very well in El Capitan and Win 7.

 

[EugW]

I have a genuine 2,1 dual Ive upped for a friend running El Capitan 10.11.6 4 x 1 gb RAM and running an EFI flashed HIS HD 5870.

I removed one of the CPUs to keep it cooler and lower power.

It runs very well in El Capitan and Win 7.

You went through all the trouble to halve its performance?!?

How much cooler does it run? How much power do you save?

I have a 1,1 flashed to 2,1 but still running 2 x dual 2.66 GHz, and later picked up a 2,1 running 2 x quad 3.0 GHz originally found in the garbage, and I was surprised to learn that the second one runs just as quietly as the first one with low to moderate usage (eg. surfing, email, streaming videos).

If I had known the dual 3.0 GHz X5365 (120 W TDP) would run so quietly, I wouldn't have ordered the 2.33 GHz E5345 (80 W TDP) that I did to upgrade the flashed 1,1, and would have ordered the 2.66 GHz X5355 (120 W TDP) instead. The latter are actually cheaper and are local.

 

[MIKX]

cMP 2,1 's use a lot of electricity, much more than either 4,1 & 5,1 cMPS.

This El Capaitan 2,1 is only going to be used for a restaurant's bookkeeping in a small, hot, cramped Japanese office with no air conditioning for about 30 mins a day.

No need for more speed.

 

[EugW]

cMP 2,1 's use a lot of electricity, much more than either 4,1 & 5,1 cMPS.

This El Capaitan 2,1 is only going to be used for a restaurant's bookkeeping in a small, hot, cramped Japanese office with no air conditioning for about 30 mins a day.

No need for more speed.

I agree, no need for more speed, but under those conditions, there wouldn't really be that much more power usage if you left the second CPU in.

Each CPU idles at about 25 Watts, so over 30 minutes, that's only 13 Watt-hours. Even you double that to add some cushion to the calculation, then that's 25 Watt-hours per day, or 750 Watt hours per month. That works out to about 15-30 yen per month (depending upon the rate charged), tax included.

 

[MIKX]

What about the HEAT ?

The 2,1's other CPU was no good, so not worth the effort. A clean, well looked after 5,1 WOULD be worth the effort.

Everything is working perfectly and anyway, this is getting offtopic.