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fdutra

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 7, 2023
6
1
Hi, new here and would like to thank you all for doing such a great job,,, looking for repair help so if there is a central place to go first let me know. Mac Pro, 2010 5,1 single CPU, radeon 5770, 2 SATA + 1 SSD startup, 32 gb ram began acting sluggish so rebooted. Chimed and powered up to the point where it was ready to load the Sierra OS and monitor went blank with HDs still spinning. Replaced graphics card with a new radeon 580 destined for Mojave upgrade so I knew it wouldn't show the boot sequence,,, same thing, blacked out at about the point where the OS would be expected to load. Same thing with another 5770 from my other dead 2010 5,1 with cpu issues. Replaced the battery and tried booting into other backup drives with OS's on them, SMC resets, Pram resets, reseat ram multiple times. Then it got worse and would not accept any keyboard commands most of the time, though would usually show the question mark folder with all HDs pulled. Processor light would flash on and stay off as expected as well as the diag lights. Stripped it down to just the backplane, wifi, and bluetooth card with all lights working as expected according to the "Apple Technical guide (2010)" I'd suspect bad HDs except the screen blacking out at OS loading point behavior is the same when booting into all three, though honestly haven't used my backups in forever as the system has been rock solid. Tried replacing the entire cpu/ram sled with the one from the other computer with the processor light on and no boot and it worked fine as far as no light on and booting to OS load before screen blackout. At my wits end and have ordered another one from ebay only to have the seller leave town for a week before shipping. Day trading and losing $ trying to work from my laptop,,, the thought was to have 2 machines ready to swap out,,, Help please!
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,637
28,409
Have you tried booting from the recovery drive?

And if you have not, try that.

I'm just wondering if you can get to the OS recovery screen without the monitor(s) turning off.
 

fdutra

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 7, 2023
6
1
They are no longer showing up since the symptoms have worsened, although they were on the initial breakdown though I never tried them. I will keep trying if/whenever I can get the computer to accept the option command on powering up,,, thx
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,637
28,409
They are no longer showing up since the symptoms have worsened, although they were on the initial breakdown though I never tried them. I will keep trying if/whenever I can get the computer to accept the option command on powering up,,, thx
OK. I know you've said you've tried a few SMC resets. I just want to verify you followed these SMC reset steps for a Mac Pro.

1. Shut down the device and disconnect it from the power supply
2. Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds
3. Release the button
4. Connect the computer to the power source again and restart as usual

This resets USB ports as well, which might be why your keyboard is not registering. But if you've done what I mention above - then it's something else.
 

fdutra

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 7, 2023
6
1
Thanks on that SMC tip, never knew and know the keyboard is responding as expected. Tried the recovery on one of my backup drives and it has loaded to the recovery screen. Should I proceed with a reinstall of Mac OS ?
The reason I didn't go with my boot SSD drive is that it is showing an OS version number of !0.2 vs 10.6 which is on the rest of the backup drives.
 
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eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,637
28,409
Thanks on that SMC tip, never knew and know the keyboard is responding as expected. Tried the recovery on one of my backup drives and it has loaded to the recovery screen. Should I proceed with a reinstall of Mac OS ?
The reason I didn't go with my boot SSD drive is that it is showing an OS version number of !0.2 vs 10.6 which is on the rest of the backup drives.
This might be a bit of work, but I'd first try just a generic install from the recovery to a spare drive. See if you can boot off that (without your monitors going blank).

If you can, then it means (to me) that your primary OS is screwed up. I'd try and reinstall the OS on your primary drive.

I believe High Sierra, which you mentioned you were using, is 10.13. So, you may need to find a USB installer if High Sierra is not the recovery version you're using..

I do know that no Intel Mac ever ran OS X 10.2. That'd be Jaguar and way before the time of Intel Macs.
 
Last edited:

fdutra

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 7, 2023
6
1
GIGO,,, meant to say 10.12.2 on SSD and 10.12.6 on the other 3 backup drives. Ran disk utility repair on all 4 drives and now the SSD is showing up as 10.12.6 on disk utilty as expected for OS Sierra.

I just restarted and now the boot drive/SSD is still reading Recovery 10.12.2

Will do an erase reinstall on one of my backups as suggested,,, Thx for your patience and help, will pay attention to what I type going forward.
 

fdutra

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 7, 2023
6
1
OK that isnt working.
GIGO,,, meant to say 10.12.2 on SSD and 10.12.6 on the other 3 backup drives. Ran disk utility repair on all 4 drives and now the SSD is showing up as 10.12.6 on disk utilty as expected for OS Sierra.

I just restarted and now the boot drive/SSD is still reading Recovery 10.12.2

Will do an erase reinstall on one of my backups as suggested,,, Thx for your patience and help, will pay attention to what I type going forward.
That's not working, stymied by "To download and restore macOS, your computer's eligibility will be verified with Apple" loop. Clicking on "Continue" doesn't do anything but close the dialog box, clicking on the install masOS Sierra window brings the dialog back up. Any advice welcome. Would swapping a HD from my old computer work? thinking it hasn't been updated in over 2 years but pretty sure it has Sierra on it.
 

fdutra

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 7, 2023
6
1
OK that isnt working.

That's not working, stymied by "To download and restore macOS, your computer's eligibility will be verified with Apple" loop. Clicking on "Continue" doesn't do anything but close the dialog box, clicking on the install masOS Sierra window brings the dialog back up. Any advice welcome. Would swapping a HD from my old computer work? thinking it hasn't been updated in over 2 years but pretty sure it has Sierra on it.
My old computer has been masquerading as a repository for dead drives, or at least ones with no recognizeable OSs on them. Was thinking about making a bootable usb drive but discovered that both Usb ports are dead on my macbook so will await the arrival next week of a 2012 5,1 with 2 SATAs before attempting your suggestions,,, Thx for the help!
 
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