MP 7,1 Need Serious Help: Flashing Orange Light

[appkingpin]

Hi, I am in need of serious help. My Mac Pro 2019 has been acting up - Mac OS has been sluggish and in attempt to fix this, I tried resetting NVRAM via Safe Mode. When I first ran "sudo nvram -c" I got some errors and I did a search and on stackoverflow or some other side, someone had a similar command line error and suggested something like "sudo nvram -c reboot" (sorry not the exact command line). After running this line, the Mac Pro immediately restarted, but then never booted back up. Now I just have a constant flashing orange light (1 flash every second).

I attempted a DFU mode revive, which said it was successful, but afterward the Mac Pro restarted again with the flashing orange power light... anyone have a suggestion...

 

[Regulus67]

Now I just have a constant flashing orange light (1 flash every second).

Looks like it is a memory error

https://support.apple.com/en-my/101647 the support page has images so you can see, and compare the error message to your system

 

[appkingpin]

Wow, I would not have expected that... I have 6 DIMMS, took out Channel 1 and Channel 12 just to see and now boots up normally! I would not have expected it to be a DIMM issue as I thought I corrupted the firmware. Thank you so much. Will see if the Mac Pro works before trying to replace one of the bad DIMMs. Not sure if I just got lucky that the DIMMs I removed could be the bad one.

 

[Regulus67]

Not sure if I just got lucky that the DIMMs I removed could be the bad one.

I am very happy to hear it boots up normally again

 

[appkingpin]

The strange thing is the Mac never crashed, for the past couple of months there are times it is super sluggish and I thought it was some application causing this. Last night it was very slow and even typing was delayed. That is when I attempted to clear NVRAM in Safe Mode using

sudo nvram ResetNVRam=1 && sudo reboot

Immediately the Mac Pro shut off/rebooted but only got the flashing orange light. I never knew a bad RAM can cause sluggish performance but not crashes. Anyway, thank you again @Regulus67. Hoping this helps someone else with a slow Mac.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

When things get 'weird' bad memory and bad cables are often a cause. It's crazy to me how well systems can struggle through with bad memory or cables, yet act weird.

ECC memory almost makes this worse.

What is weird is that apple doesnt have an OS level flag saying something like "dude, youre getting a lot of ECC memory errors. check that out...".

 

[Regulus67]

ECC memory almost makes this worse.

No bluescreen here, that is remarkable. We are so "used" to crashes caused by faulty memory sticks without ECC.

What is weird is that apple doesnt have an OS level flag saying something like "dude, youre getting a lot of ECC memory errors. check that out...".

Does Windows have any warning in such cases?
I am not surprised macOS doesn't. The only Apple machines with ECC memory was (as in the past) the Mac Pro line-up and the iMac Pro. Right?

But I am very impressed how useful Apple made the status indicator light patterns on top of the chassis 🥰

 

[mattspace]

But I am very impressed how useful Apple made the status indicator light patterns on top of the chassis 🥰

Would have been nice if they'd made the white power indicator also indicate sleep / wake status, but we don't need to worry our pretty little heads about that. Father knows best.