MP 6,1 No display

[ftalbot]

Hi. I left a Mac Pro 6,1 (D500 GPU) in sleep mode for a whole weekend. It was running Sonoma with OCLP. On the following Monday, it wouldn't wake and I forced it to reboot. I heard a chime, but I got no display. I tried using different monitors, each Thunderbolt port with a HDMI adapter, zapping the PRAM, booting from a USB disk, removing the NVME and booting from a Monterey install USB disk. Each time, I have the regular boot chime but no display. Am I correct to assume that the GPU has failed? Are there other solutions I could try? Thanks!

 

[pischu12]

Oh no I am feeling your pain .....

Would the boot chime present even if the display card was bad ? Hmmmmm.... Did you by any chance try the "old fashion: unplug press the power button for 10 + seconds replug and see what happens?

Could it have anything at all to do with the PRAM battery - not these ones but the very very old Powerbooks sometimes would be dead to the world if the PRAM battery was south ( probably not - shot in the dark ) ;

"If" desperation hits only "if" ..... maybe using one of the online tutorials in opening your beautiful MacPro and replacing thermal paste and etc ?

I have a D500 too - would you know which year it is from by the serial number: https://checkcoverage.apple.com/

 

[pischu12]

Hi. I left a Mac Pro 6,1 (D500 GPU) in sleep mode for a whole weekend. It was running Sonoma with OCLP. On the following Monday, it wouldn't wake and I forced it to reboot. I heard a chime, but I got no display. I tried using different monitors, each Thunderbolt port with a HDMI adapter, zapping the PRAM, booting from a USB disk, removing the NVME and booting from a Monterey install USB disk. Each time, I have the regular boot chime but no display. Am I correct to assume that the GPU has failed? Are there other solutions I could try? Thanks!

Also

If you are using the HDMI out... maybe use the alternative thunderbolt through a "display cable" out or vise vera use a straight hdmi cable ?

This might help ( repair manual )

https://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/mp-2013-late-pdf.909835

SMC reset ?

 

[ftalbot]

Interesting the suggestions. I'll check the battery and look at the troubleshooting manual you shared. Thanks!

 

[tsialex]

MacPro6,1 RTC battery voltage is easy to check, since there are a test point for the positive of the battery and you can get GND from a screw nearby. The problem is when you need to take it apart to replace the battery.

Don't forget that you need to re-install a BR2032 battery, do not use a CR2032 battery, the heat inside will cook and discharge the CR2032 in weeks time.

 

[ftalbot]

The battery is OK. I checked all Thunderbolt ports with two different video adapters. The status LED on the motherboard are all green. I reseated every connectors I could (GPUs, IO board, power).

When I turn it on, it does show up on my network but all form of sharing where turned off when it was still working. I'll try to move the NVME drive in a MacBook Air of the same era, reinstall macOS and enable ssh and screen sharing. If this doesn't work, I think I'll be officially stumped.