MP 1,1-5,1 No Boot Screen

[Mac Jack 7]

Hi!

I have a Mac Pro 5,1 tower from mid 2010. I've been following tutorials on updating the OS. I've currently got OS Mavericks and wanted to upgrade to OS High Sierra. As instructed, I put the OS High Sierra installer on a USB drive, provided info to the Terminal, and attempted to install. (I did not use a patcher.) I gave it over an hour to install but it didn't seem to happen.

Now I've got no boot screen. When I hold down the power button, the light does a flashing sequence but I get no chime or gray Apple screen.

Any ideas on how to clear this and get a boot screen? The machine doesn't boot and there's no window to allow me to choose a drive.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks! - Mac Jack 7

 

[Mac Jack 7]

NO BOOT SCREEN - Update

I now have the machine powered up. The power light is on and the disk tray is staying open. Still no activity on the screen.

 

[DeltaMac]

Which graphics card do you have installed in your MacPro?

 

[Mac Jack 7]

I currently have the original ATI Radeon installed. I had tried installing a new AMD RX 580 and I still had no activity on the screen.

 

[Mac Jack 7]

When I press the power button and release, the power light comes on and goes out. If I hold the power button down for an extended period of time, the power light comes on, goes through a series of flashes at various rates, and then the disc tray comes out, the power light stays on, and the screen is black. There is no activity in the computer - no fans, nothing. I understand this is called "The Black Screen of Death." It seems common among those who have attempted an upgrade to O S High Sierra. Any input is welcome. Thanks.

 

[tsialex]

Seems you have a brick, you have four options to get it working again:

1. MATT card + BootROM reconstruction service, so you can flash back your own Mac Pro BootROM image repaired/reconstructed.
2. If you can solder SMD, brand new SPI flash programmed with your own Mac Pro BootROM image repaired/reconstructed.
3. 2nd hand replacement backplane.
4. barebones 2nd hand Mac Pro, install your PCIe cards/RAM/disks.

The only thing that you can do right now is to try NVRAM bypass:

1. disconnect the power cable from the PSU,
2. uninstall the RTC battery from the holder with a lot of care to not break the positive terminal,
3. then with the RTC battery uninstalled, connect the power cable and see if you can boot.

This procedure bypass the NVRAM, if you can boot, this can be repaired flashing a reconstructed BootROM image.

 

[Mac Jack 7]

Seems you have a brick, you have four options to get it working again:

1. MATT card + BootROM reconstruction service, so you can flash back your own Mac Pro BootROM image repaired/reconstructed.
2. If you can solder SMD, brand new SPI flash programmed with your own Mac Pro BootROM image repaired/reconstructed.
3. 2nd hand replacement backplane.
4. barebones 2nd hand Mac Pro, install your PCIe cards/RAM/disks.

The only thing that you can do right now is to try NVRAM bypass:

1. disconnect the power cable from the PSU,
2. uninstall the RTC battery from the holder with a lot of care to not break the positive terminal,
3. then with the RTC battery uninstalled, connect the power cable and see if you can boot.

This procedure bypass the NVRAM, if you can boot, this can be repaired flashing a reconstructed BootROM image.

Many thanks. I've got some learning to do.

 

[Mac Jack 7]

I uninstalled the RTC battery and held down the power button. No boot. When I replaced the battery and started again, the fans came on full force, the power light stayed on but still a black screen but the disc tray doesn't keep coming out.

 

[tsialex]

I uninstalled the RTC battery and held down the power button. No boot. When I replaced the battery and started again, the fans came on full force, the power light stayed on but still a black screen but the disc tray doesn't keep coming out.

No chime?

 

[Mac Jack 7]

No chime?

No chime.

 

[tsialex]

No chime.

DIAG LEDs?

 

[Mac Jack 7]

Have to take a look.

 

[Mac Jack 7]

The power LED made a quick sequence of flashes and stopped. Before uninstalling the battery, it also went through two slower sequences. I also noticed that it's the heat sink tray (CPU) fans that are running fast and the GPU fan.

 

[Mac Jack 7]

Also, not seeing LEDs flashing on the heat sink tray or on the logic board.

 

[tsialex]

EFI_DONE is lit or not? If is off or blinking, you have a brick.

 

[Mac Jack 7]

Will check. Thank you.

 

[Mac Jack 7]

Please pardon my ignorance, I'm not a computer bench tech.

When I pressed the DIAG LED button on my Mac Pro 5,1, a green light appeared left of the button. Above the button, to the left, two LEDs in the column illuminated: a green and a yellow. But there was only darkness on the EFI_DONE light.

As far as it being a brick, could a bench tech repair it? Is there anything that can be done to resurrect the computer (replacement boards) or is it all toast? It's a shame, it's got a new six core CPU and new RAM.

 

[tsialex]

Please pardon my ignorance, I'm not a computer bench tech.

When I pressed the DIAG LED button on my Mac Pro 5,1, a green light appeared left of the button. Above the button, to the left, two LEDs in the column illuminated: a green and a yellow. But there was only darkness on the EFI_DONE light.

As far as it being a brick, could a bench tech repair it? Is there anything that can be done to resurrect the computer (replacement boards) or is it all toast? It's a shame, it's got a new six core CPU and new RAM.

You have your answer already on post #6…

1. MATT card + BootROM reconstruction service, so you can flash back your own Mac Pro BootROM image repaired/reconstructed.
2. If you can solder SMD, brand new SPI flash programmed with your own Mac Pro BootROM image repaired/reconstructed.
3. 2nd hand replacement backplane.
4. barebones 2nd hand Mac Pro, install your PCIe cards/RAM/disks.

 

[Mac Jack 7]

Thank you.

 

[Mac Jack 7]

Quick question. Attempting an O S upgrade install using a USB drive, how does it do damage to the logic board? Is it something inherent with O S High Sierra?

Looking to avoid future problems if I install a new logic board/backplane.

Thanks.

 

[tsialex]

Quick question. Attempting an O S upgrade install using a USB drive, how does it do damage to the logic board? Is it something inherent with O S High Sierra?

Looking to avoid future problems if I install a new logic board/backplane.

Thanks.

High Sierra requires a firmware upgrade and Mojave require another one too. The most probable is that you had a failure while doing that or your BootROM become corrupted while doing the install (requires a lot of writes/erases inside the BootROM NVRAM volume).

 

[Mac Jack 7]

Thanks. Good info.

 

[Mac Jack 7]

OK. What if the EFI DONE light DOES come on, green for half a second, but the fans are on full speed, there's no chime, and a black screen? Would this still indicate that I need a new Logic Board?

 

[tsialex]

OK. What if the EFI DONE light DOES come on, green for half a second, but the fans are on full speed, there's no chime, and a black screen? Would this still indicate that I need a new Logic Board?

Before buying anything, test your CPU tray with a working Mac Pro.

Fans going full RPM is a sign that the CPU tray SMC is not working correctly or detecting a failure.

 

[Mac Jack 7]

Thanks again.