Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

My Mac Pro trashcan won't display on my monitor and the fan is going HAM

seenew

seenew

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Dec 1, 2005
1,569
1
Brooklyn
I brought my Mac Pro home from the office tonight for the weekend-- something I have done several times before, keeping it in a padded camera bag that fits it snugly. No drops, no bumps, even took a car home instead of the subway.

Now that I've plugged it in and connected it to my Thunderbolt display, it won't show anything on the screen. It's not a blank screen or anything-- it's just as if the monitor weren't connected. However, all the peripherals plugged into the display lit up when I connected it (my wacom tablet and a hard drive). The display just stays off.

More worrying is that the fan is blowing at full force as if it's rendering something huge. I got the startup chime and the power lights around all the ports, but like I said, there's no picture to see.


I did recently have the graphics card upgraded (swapped from a different machine at work) but that was several days ago and I have been using it with no problems since then.

I've also plugged in my laptop to the display, and it works (that's how I'm viewing MR currently).




I'm terrified. This beast was like $10k and it took me forever to convince the accounting team to buy it. Any ideas? One time I couldn't get my MacBook to work with the monitor and it was because a driver was out of date. Doesn't explain why the fan hasn't stopped blowing for the last 5-10 minutes.

Edit: I'm running Yosemite, but since I can't get the display to connect I can't tell you what version.
It's a 2.7GHz 12-core with 64GB of RAM (2x32GB OWC) and the dual 6GB video cards.
 
seenew said:
how can I do that if I can't see what's supposed to be displayed? Is it just keyboard commands?
Click to expand...
PRAM: hold the Command+Option+P+R buttons while the system is booting, you should hear a second chime indicating that the process was finished successfully.
SMC: unplug the machine, wait 5 seconds, hold the power button for 15 seconds, wait 5 seconds, plug it in and power it on
 
seenew said:
how can I do that if I can't see what's supposed to be displayed? Is it just keyboard commands?
Click to expand...

As Garirry points out, display is not required for these 2 reset.

For full PRAM reset, Keep all 4 buttons down until you hear the 4th chime.

Since you has fan's problem, I will prefer to do the SMC reset 1st, and see if it clear the problem. And then follow by the PRAM reset (if require).
 
I'm wondering if it might be an upgrade gone wrong. Switching out a GPU in a nMP is not a simple task.
 
linuxcooldude said:
I'm wondering if it might be an upgrade gone wrong. Switching out a GPU in a nMP is not a simple task.
Click to expand...
It actually was pretty simple, you just need the right tools (I watched it, I didn't perform it)

Resetting both of those didn't work. Resttomg the SMC did nothing. Resetting the PRAM resulted in a power down after the startup chime, but then it never rebooted. I should also note that it takes about 5-7 seconds for the chime after I press the power button. Pretty gross.
 
seenew said:
that's what I was afraid of. Will they say I voided the warranty by swapping?
Click to expand...

I guess you have not much choice. Even though no warranty, they can still fix the machine, but just charge you for the service. And it may be still cheaper than try to fix it by yourself (unless you know exactly what's happening and able to get cheap spare parts).

Anyway, let's say we now suspect a faulty GPU. If I were you, I will simply put the original GPU back in. If the machine run again, then the new GPU may be faulty. Since you said it's from another machine. You can put that back in as well, and see if it works again. If this cause another machine unable to boot, then you can take that one to Apple. As long as you didn't damage anything, the Mac Pro should still covered (it seems they don't really care that the thermal paste was replaced, but just check for physical damage).

Most likely your Mac Pro won't be covered by the warranty if the hardware is changed, so I will swap the original GPU back in

1) for diagnostic purpose
2) to maximise the chance of getting warranty cover

And if the original card can't boot the machine, than you have to take your Mac Pro (in stock config) to Apple and let them fix it (and hopefully the other one still working).
 
seenew said:
that's what I was afraid of. Will they say I voided the warranty by swapping?
Click to expand...
if you didn't damage anything, then it should be alright. When I sent mine for replacement, I had already upgraded the CPU and SSD myself. So just keep quiet until they asked you :p
 
after swapping them back myself and both machines working fine, I've concluded it must've been a loose connection. sigh.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back