MP 1,1-5,1 MP5.1 shuts down during boot sequence

[Jegriva]

Hello. My 2010 Mac Pro, with 10.13.6 fully updated, tonight has decided to shut down at the startup, during the boot sequence with the Apple logo.

what steps do I need to take to understand the cause of it? May it be the hard disk dying? I have Time Machine and Bootcamp on different hard disk.

may be something heavier like CPU or RAM?

The closest Apple point that still (theee years ago) used to repair MP5.1 is 80km from me, so I'd prefer to solve the issue by my hand.

 

[crjackson2134]

You have provided very little information about your machine configuration. Please provide details about your hardware.

If possible, try to boot into verbose mode and see where it stops.

Try another boot drive. Surly you have backups...

 

[defjam]

First steps are to remove everything that is not necessary to boot the computer. Any extra hard disks, expansion cards, etc. should be remove. If the system boots you can reinstall items one at a time in an attempt to identify the failing part.

If that doesn't resolve the issue then most likely your filesystem is corrupt which might be the result of a failing hard disk. You can boot from the OS media and run Disk Utility to test the filesystem and attempt a repair (as mentioned earlier, ensure you have a backup first). If that fails you could attempt to reinstall the OS. If that fails I would try reinstalling the OS on a different hard disk.

 

[Jegriva]

You have provided very little information about your machine configuration. Please provide details about your hardware.

If possible, try to boot into verbose mode and see where it stops.

Try another boot drive. Surly you have backups...

I have the stock ATI 5770 and the Sonnet Allegro PCIE USB 3.1. I'll try booting it up with just one hard drive at a time this weekend.

 

[MIKX]

Jegriva

We know very little about your cMP.

Perhaps you could go to your Macrumors member profile and make a SIGNATURE to tell us how your cMP is setup. Doing this saves members from having to guess = a courtesy to your fellow members.

My " sig " is at the bottom of this post as an example.

 

[Jegriva]

Maybe anecdotal, but the day before I coiuldn't turn on the Mac anymore, Time Machine told me it couldn't finalize the backup. I've used the SOS function on disk utility on the backup drive and it did find some errors and it repaired it.

But maybe it was the OS drive that it was dying.

 

[bsbeamer]

Install DriveDx and check for errors.

DriveDx - the most advanced drive health diagnostics and monitoring utility

DriveDx - the most advanced drive health (S.M.A.R.T.) diagnostics and monitoring utility. Save yourself the data loss and downtime that is associated with unexpected SSD and HDD failures. Don't worry about losing your important data, music, and photographs.

binaryfruit.com

 

[Jegriva]

Install DriveDx and check for errors.

DriveDx - the most advanced drive health diagnostics and monitoring utility

DriveDx - the most advanced drive health (S.M.A.R.T.) diagnostics and monitoring utility. Save yourself the data loss and downtime that is associated with unexpected SSD and HDD failures. Don't worry about losing your important data, music, and photographs.

binaryfruit.com

How can I install it if the machine doesn't turn on?

Tonight I will try to boot the Bootcamp partition, I need to connect the old Apple keyboard.

 

[bsbeamer]

Test drive(s) in another machine. If there are errors, you'll clearly know from DriveDx report. Can report errors in external devices if the feature is enabled/installed.

 

[Jegriva]

Test drive(s) in another machine. If there are errors, you'll clearly know from DriveDx report. Can report errors in external devices if the feature is enabled/installed.

I don't have other Macs lying around, and I can't find if there are Windows or Linux binaries.

 

[kohlson]

If I understand the symptoms correctly, there is a possibility that the 5770 has failed. I've seen the following on 2 MPs in my ecosystem: Turn on, POST chime, seems like it will boot, but nothing. We swapped in another video card (GT120, and 5870 on different systems) and all was well.

I'm not saying this is it - could be lots of things. But if you can borrow a card that will work, this is something to consider as you diagnose.

 

[Jegriva]

Ok, turning the mac on with keyboard and pressing Alt or Cmd+R does nothing.

I listened closely, it seems that when the bar under the apple goes halfway, the Mac turns itself off in an "ordinate" way. I can hear the fan winding down, see the light dimming itself before the beast shut down.

Next I'll try to booting it up without the Sonnet Allegro, maybe that's the cause. I have it for a month, but maybe it dislodged itself a bit from the PCIE slot.

 

[defjam]

What if you remove everything (all RAM, all hard drives, all PCIe cards, etc. Anything easily user removable) from the system and attempt to power it on? Will it remain on?

 

[Jegriva]

What if you remove everything (all RAM, all hard drives, all PCIe cards, etc. Anything easily user removable) from the system and attempt to power it on? Will it remain on?

I'd try that, for sure!

I want to thank all the community. Where I live there is only just one Apple store which is in the historical centre (so high parking fee), it's basically a glorified phone store, and they don't want to touch an vintage mac even with a stick.
I don't know what I'do without this forum.

 

[Silencio]

I've had that happen to a few systems running macOS 10.12.6. In all cases, I ended up reinstalling the OS over the existing system and that brought everything back.

I have a feeling I was running into that Google Update bug that was trashing /var directories on some of my systems that didn't have SIP enabled.

Google says its update software is crashing some Macs, here's how to fix

Today, Mac video professionals began reporting that their computers were crashing, with many attributing the problem to Avid software. Google instead...

9to5google.com

 

[Jegriva]

Update: removed the Sonnet Allegro, didn't change anything.

Removed alle the 3 hard drives. The mac stays on and I get this screen.

So, may I presume is not a CPU/GPU/RAM malfunctioning, and just and hard drive one?

next, I'll try to boot with one hard drive at a time.
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I've had that happen to a few systems running macOS 10.12.6. In all cases, I ended up reinstalling the OS over the existing system and that brought everything back.

I have a feeling I was running into that Google Update bug that was trashing /var directories on some of my systems that didn't have SIP enabled.

Google says its update software is crashing some Macs, here's how to fix

Today, Mac video professionals began reporting that their computers were crashing, with many attributing the problem to Avid software. Google instead...

9to5google.com

I don't have AVID and I don't use Google Chrome (but I cannot deny with 100% certainty that I don't have it installed and I just never use it). Firefox guy.

also, I have High Sierra.
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Ok, I must have lost track of the hard drive numbers, because the hard drive in the Tray 1 turned out to be the Bootcamp drive and... it booted up alright. Alone.

I didn't know the Mac could boot the Windows partition if it doesn't find the other drives!

 

[Jegriva]

Booting up with the Time Machine drive bring the Recover OS. I may reasonably think, at this point, that my main hard drive must had failed.