Old 2009 Mac Pro - waving or drowning?

[Monocle]

Thanks for all you help chaps. The problem did in fact turn out to be caused by a dodgy and dying graphics card. I'm delighted to report that I now have the old girl back with me running a much better Nvidia GTX 970. Couldn't be happier, particularly as I've successfully sidestepped the new iMacs with their pretty well welded-in everything. Also huge thanks to UK based Create.pro and Lewis at Brighton's very own themac-man.co.uk . You Americans are great but it's good to see we have some home-based talent too!

 

[TonyK]

You had me on pins and needles waiting to see the cause of your ills. Glad a new video card fixed things. My wife has a 4,1 and loves it. When she thought it was dying or worse, dead, she got a MBP and while it is nice she realized she really wanted Jupiter (her computer name) back and in working order. Fortunately it was a power supply which was easy enough to replace.

 

[Mattww]

Glad to hear you are back up and running.

That's the nice thing with these machines, the build quality and when something does go wrong - the easy and normally affordability of a repair. Something I'll miss when eventually moving on.

 

[Monocle]

Interesting you should say that Tony. The repair techs told me that most of the old Mac Pros coming into their shop have fallen prey to a power supply problem!

To be honest Matt I was surprised at just how many things could be replaced and upgraded to modern standards...but perhaps I'm simply showing my ignorance? Normally I'd have to look online at your side of the Atlantic at OWC etc (I did buy a 960GB Mercury Accelsior E2 card from them in 2014) these thankfully these Create.pro chaps seem to do the business over here too. Not quite sure I'll ever need their overkill `Titan' graphics card but if they can keep me clear of the barely upgradable 27" iMac, I'll be delighted. At one low point I did ask a Mac reseller about that model and was horrified to be told that Applecare would not cover a meltdown of the welded-in hard drive!

 

[nigelbb]

At one low point I did ask a Mac reseller about that model and was horrified to be told that Applecare would not cover a meltdown of the welded-in hard drive!

That is utter bollocks! Of course Applecare will cover a hard drive failure.

 

[h9826790]

Interesting you should say that Tony. The repair techs told me that most of the old Mac Pros coming into their shop have fallen prey to a power supply problem!

Another thread just touch this topic not long ago. From another member's professional experience. 99% is the capacitors inside the PSU fail. That's not Apple's fault, they already use pretty high standard capacitors. However, the capacitor is very temperature sensitive, every 10C warmer, it's life will drop 50%. Once the capacitor dry up, it die, which will cause the PSU malfunction. Luckily, almost any electronic repair shop can fix it easily by replacing the capacitors with a reasonable price. Anyone have basic electronic skill may even fix the PSU on their own.

 

[Monocle]

That is utter bollocks! Of course Applecare will cover a hard drive failure.

Er, nicely put! I have to say that I was more than a little surprised when he came out with that. They are a pretty big outfit with a number of shops and chat like that isn't exactly going to win them sales. That being said, the thought of spending £2000 and only being able to swap out the RAM was hardly inviting...

 

[Mattww]

I think it's hard to justify because the rate of progress on the desktop has been pretty slow in these last years so these old machines when upgraded (which is far cheaper) can match the performance of a maxed out iMac in most areas.

The iMacs have faster single core performance with the newer chips, Thunderbolt if you have a specific need for it and a really fantastic screen and you can get support.

However with upgrades on a 09 or later Mac Pro you can match the SSD performance, install USB 3.0, have a faster GPU and better the multicore performance and even install over 30TB of storage these days if you want..

 

[TonyK]

Hey,

I believe the UPS had a dead or failing battery and as a result during a power outage it kept trying to keep the computer running or restarting and that was the major issue. It took nearly a year for the PS to finally die. But it is operating now and she loves that system.

Interesting you should say that Tony. The repair techs told me that most of the old Mac Pros coming into their shop have fallen prey to a power supply problem!

To be honest Matt I was surprised at just how many things could be replaced and upgraded to modern standards...but perhaps I'm simply showing my ignorance? Normally I'd have to look online at your side of the Atlantic at OWC etc (I did buy a 960GB Mercury Accelsior E2 card from them in 2014) these thankfully these Create.pro chaps seem to do the business over here too. Not quite sure I'll ever need their overkill `Titan' graphics card but if they can keep me clear of the barely upgradable 27" iMac, I'll be delighted. At one low point I did ask a Mac reseller about that model and was horrified to be told that Applecare would not cover a meltdown of the welded-in hard drive!