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Mid-2010 Mac Pro 5,1 Major Power Issue

dosdude1

dosdude1

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Feb 16, 2012
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I just recently acquired a Mid-2010 Mac Pro 5,1, and it is now having a major issue. When I initially got it (a few hours ago), it worked perfectly fine. However, after letting it sit awhile unattended (while I was in another room flashing an AMD Radeon HD 5870 graphics card I got for it), I come back to find it in the state you see it in these pictures... The Power LED is on, and both CPUA and CPUB Overtemp LEDs are lit red. There is no other activity whatsoever, no fans spinning, hard drive doesn't start, nothing. I then unplugged it, and plugged it back in, to find that it did this the instant I connected power to the machine's PSU. I tried jumping the SMC reset pads on the board, which also didn't do anything. It does not respond to the power button at all. I'm really at a loss here, so if anyone has any idea of what causes this issue, please let me know. This machine has a single 2.8GHz quad-core Xeon CPU (and single CPU board as well).
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My hope is you don't have a bad logic board, or even a botched CPU upgrade. Any lights on the processor board? I'm going to recommend some basic steps here, might help narrow it.

SMC reset: (I know you touched the pads, but give it a hoot) Unplug the power cord from the back of the computer, wait 15-20 seconds. Plug it back in and you should see the two overtemp led's momentarily flash, that is normal. Press the power button, what happens? Does it hang on overtemp again?

Remove the processor tray and try turning it on. What does it do? Better result? It might be time to take a closer look at the processor board by removing the heat sink and verifying the processor/thermal compound is good and no bent pins. Clean it up, new compound, reinstall.

Could also reduce to "minimum system configuration"

Disconnect all PCIe cards, hard drives, optical drive, airport, bluetooth, pram battery, PCIe fan, CPU tray, processor cage and disconnect front panel board. Basically, disconnect all cables from the logic board except the power supply. (page 34) http://tim.id.au/laptops/apple/macpro/macpro_mid2010.pdf. Basically you start the computer by touching the two pads, and start slowly verifying each component.
 
This is all it does, and doesn't change no matter which pads you short or what components are present in the system.
 
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If you've tried all of the above with no change, and it does that as soon as you plug it in, it seems to me you're dealing with a failed logic board here. Can't imagine anything else that would cause that to happen.

Can you contact the seller for a return?
 
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My suggestion is don't do anything but contact the seller. If you damage anything by yourself, the seller will have reason not to refund.
 
Ok, well this was interesting... I let it sit unplugged and without a PRAM battery installed, and when I plugged it in this morning, it started working! Been using it for about 20 minutes now without an issue.
[doublepost=1475331355][/doublepost]Nevermind, after about 30 minutes of use, the system just randomly shut off and did the exact same thing again. Since I didn't pay that much for this machine, I'm just going to order a new logic board, which should fix the issue hopefully.
 
dosdude1 said:
Ok, well this was interesting... I let it sit unplugged and without a PRAM battery installed, and when I plugged it in this morning, it started working! Been using it for about 20 minutes now without an issue.
[doublepost=1475331355][/doublepost]Nevermind, after about 30 minutes of use, the system just randomly shut off and did the exact same thing again. Since I didn't pay that much for this machine, I'm just going to order a new logic board, which should fix the issue hopefully.
Click to expand...

That right there sounds like a failing/failed logic board :(. Just went through the same thing with my friends 2009. Had to get a new backplane board on eBay, so far so good. I was able to produce that same result for a week or two, but after that, nothing would happen at all: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/4-1-power-issue.1991897/.

If you can get it to stay on long enough and have access to apple hardware test, you could attempt to verify.
 
rawweb said:
That right there sounds like a failing/failed logic board :(. Just went through the same thing with my friends 2009. Had to get a new backplane board on eBay, so far so good. I was able to produce that same result for a week or two, but after that, nothing would happen at all: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/4-1-power-issue.1991897/.

If you can get it to stay on long enough and have access to apple hardware test, you could attempt to verify.
Click to expand...
Do you know if I can put a 2009 board in there? The 2009 ones are much cheaper, and they seem to be exactly the same. I read in some eBay listing, though, that the fans would run at full speed if I used an '09 board... Not sure what would cause that (maybe the 2010 CPU tray?) but it doesn't seem right.
 
dosdude1 said:
Do you know if I can put a 2009 board in there? The 2009 ones are much cheaper, and they seem to be exactly the same. I read in some eBay listing, though, that the fans would run at full speed if I used an '09 board... Not sure what would cause that (maybe the 2010 CPU tray?) but it doesn't seem right.
Click to expand...

They're close to the same but different with SMC firmware. A 2010 tray will not work on a 4,1 Backplane board and vice versa, a 2009 tray will not work on a 5,1 backplane board. Fans go crazy because of SMC.

Agree with pastrychef
 
pastrychef said:
Return it. You don't know what other problems it may be hiding.
Click to expand...
I bought the machine as-is, as I intended to fix it if it had any issues... Luckily I found a new 2010 backplane board on eBay that works for a good price, so that should hopefully solve the issue.
 
Have you considered that maybe the CPUs are overheating? Pull the heat sink off and check to ensure that there's thermal paste, that it's sitting correctly, etc. Maybe the CPU fan isn't working.

If you can, let it cool down, boot it and immediately install smcfancontrol (or any other temperature monitoring tool) and watch the temp to see if it's reasonable all the way until it shuts down.
 
bplein said:
Have you considered that maybe the CPUs are overheating? Pull the heat sink off and check to ensure that there's thermal paste, that it's sitting correctly, etc. Maybe the CPU fan isn't working.

If you can, let it cool down, boot it and immediately install smcfancontrol (or any other temperature monitoring tool) and watch the temp to see if it's reasonable all the way until it shuts down.
Click to expand...
It's not, this happens regardless of whether or not the CPU tray is installed, and usually happens when the system's cold.
 
When I added a usb hub to my mac pro 2010, it would start for about 3 seconds and then shut down fans and do nothing after that. Unplugging hub resolved it.
 
Hi,

I have Mac pro mid 2010, 5,1 quad code model. It was working fine since 2010. few days back there was red light near CPU heatsink, but it disappeared when cleaned all dust and it start working again. Next morning when I switched on again, it's dead, no light, no sound, no fan movement, nothing is happening.
  • When connecting the Mac Pro to AC power, the LEDs for OVTMP CPUA and OVTMP CPUB briefly flashes red and also momentarily flash red immediately after the Mac Pro is disconnected from AC power ( note 1 & note 2, page no. 34 )
  • after pressing DIAG LED button on board, the 5V STBY LED illuminates
This indicates the Power supply and Logic board is fine. The power button was giving problem from last 1-2 months, I need to press sometime 2-3 time to start the system.

MAIN ISSUE
I have tried to jump the SYS PWR pads to start the mac pro as (shown in the video, possibly on correct power-on pads), but no result. Can someone please suggest what is the best solution or what might be the main cause?

here is the video link


Thanks
 
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hi did you find the solution for this issue?


jennymc said:
Hi,

I have Mac pro mid 2010, 5,1 quad code model. It was working fine since 2010. few days back there was red light near CPU heatsink, but it disappeared when cleaned all dust and it start working again. Next morning when I switched on again, it's dead, no light, no sound, no fan movement, nothing is happening.
  • When connecting the Mac Pro to AC power, the LEDs for OVTMP CPUA and OVTMP CPUB briefly flashes red and also momentarily flash red immediately after the Mac Pro is disconnected from AC power ( note 1 & note 2, page no. 34 )
  • after pressing DIAG LED button on board, the 5V STBY LED illuminates
This indicates the Power supply and Logic board is fine. The power button was giving problem from last 1-2 months, I need to press sometime 2-3 time to start the system.

MAIN ISSUE
I have tried to jump the SYS PWR pads to start the mac pro as (shown in the video, possibly on correct power-on pads), but no result. Can someone please suggest what is the best solution or what might be the main cause?

here is the video link


Thanks
Click to expand...





hi did you find the solution for this issue?
[doublepost=1519308800][/doublepost]hi did you find the solution for this issue?
 
arash99 said:
hi did you find the solution for this issue?








hi did you find the solution for this issue?
[doublepost=1519308800][/doublepost]hi did you find the solution for this issue?
Click to expand...


I'm having the exact same issue for a 2009 machine. I'm at a loss whether I should start by replacing the Power Supply or the Logic Board.

Did you guys have any results diagnosing / fixing this?

I posted the issue on the Apple forums and no conclusive answer:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/34068996?ac_cid=op123456#34068996
 
Adamb123435 said:
I'm having the exact same issue for a 2009 machine. I'm at a loss whether I should start by replacing the Power Supply or the Logic Board.

Did you guys have any results diagnosing / fixing this?

I posted the issue on the Apple forums and no conclusive answer:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/34068996?ac_cid=op123456#34068996
Click to expand...

Last year I had three 2009 mac pros die like this within a matter of days of each other.

I live close to the sea and i think during winter the salty damp air corroded the electronics.

I tried fitting a new power supply to one of the machines... it would start up then die about 10 mins later suggesting the backplane is at fault.

It was cheaper just to buy working 2009 mp from ebay and just swap the drives and GPU
 
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arash99 said:
hi did you find the solution for this issue?



I am having the same issue. I get two red lights and the 5v light. So this really indicates it is not the logic board? My Mac Pro 5,1 was working just fine and all of sudden it shut off.

I noticed a few weeks ago I attached a second monitor to my graphics card and it shut off automatically, but I was able to turn it back on no problem. It might have done that one more time, but it had not done that for three weeks until I turned it on just to send an email.

I want to say that it tried to automatically install Mojave which I specifically told the mac pro not to do automatic updates, but it has done it on its own before which is weird, so I guess that command doesn't work, but I don't know if that is the issue.




hi did you find the solution for this issue?
[doublepost=1519308800][/doublepost]hi did you find the solution for this issue?
Click to expand...
 
Hi to all and sorry for reviving old post.
I’ve acquired a Mac Pro 5,1 2010 and after a day it failed in a similar way. Bring it home, removed video card and cpu tray and blowed dust of whole machine. Put it all together, new ram (spare 4xGB from old server, same speed) an powered on.
Started full fans and thought of ram issue and unplugged power. Reseat old ram and never again power up.
Diag button shows 5v standby, removed rtc battery (exactly 3v), power pads on board do nothing, smc reset put cpu red lights on and off when released.
Tried removing board and cleaned connectors with isopropyl alcohol, same on processor board. Shorted Pwr_on pins on power supply outside and it started ok.
I was thinking on smc issue, found microcontroller datashet but no boardview or schematic, and don’t know startup procedure of smc in order to test it.
On the board measured low ohm resistors near power supply connectors (usually used as fuses) and all where ok.
Anyone could give me a hint?

Thanks a lot and forgive my possible gramatical errors, english is no my native language.
 
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unboludoalegre said:
Hi to all and sorry for reviving old post.
I’ve acquired a Mac Pro 5,1 2010 and after a day it failed in a similar way. Bring it home, removed video card and cpu tray and blowed dust of whole machine. Put it all together, new ram (spare 4xGB from old server, same speed) an powered on.
Started full fans and thought of ram issue and unplugged power. Reseat old ram and never again power up.
Diag button shows 5v standby, removed rtc battery (exactly 3v), power pads on board do nothing, smc reset put cpu red lights on and off when released.
Tried removing board and cleaned connectors with isopropyl alcohol, same on processor board. Shorted Pwr_on pins on power supply outside and it started ok.
I was thinking on smc issue, found microcontroller datashet but no boardview or schematic, and don’t know startup procedure of smc in order to test it.
On the board measured low ohm resistors near power supply connectors (usually used as fuses) and all where ok.
Anyone could give me a hint?

Thanks a lot and forgive my possible gramatical errors, english is no my native language.
Click to expand...
EFI done led is lit when you press the DIAG button (start with page 33 of the Technician Guide, you can get it here #19)?

Maybe you just have a bricked backplane…
 
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