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Processor possibly died... any suggestions?

M

marklight

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 6, 2006
316
0
I have a 2008 Two 2.8 GHz (E5462) Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Harpertown" Mac Pro. It wouldn't boot up completely the other day so I took it to the Apple store and I was told that a processor was most likely dead and that it was going to cost 800 dollars per processor to replace it.

They told me I could just replace one but they couldn't guarantee that just one processor was dead and also they mentioned if they put in a new processor with the bad processor, it might mess up the new one or something?

Anyways, I'd like to keep my mac pro and I'd like to not spend 1600 dollars just to replace the processors.

- I remember when buying this model that there was an option to purchase a Mac Pro with just a single quad core 2.8 processor. If I remove the bad processor from my mac pro would it then work again (assuming just one processor was bad), or can I not just use a single processor with my mac pro?

-If the above will not work, are there any cheaper processor(s) I could buy that would work with this model (2008).

Thanks for any help!
 
i think it will work with only 1 cpu but wait till the experts confirm this here :)
 
I found it fishy too -

They told me at first it was my ram (which I upgraded with non-apple ram). The rep made some comment how my ram was crap etc etc, and when he tried to put in some apple ram the computer actually was worse off hahaha. but yea, i find it strange that it would be my processor as well. i didn't over clock it or anything like that and i've never messed with it.

does anyone know of any site that would have instructions on how to take out/replace a mac pro processor?
 
It is really unlikely the processor died without some other fault causing the issue, like a bad fan or a motherboard short. Do you have an authorized Apple servicer nearby?
 
marklight said:
does anyone know of any site that would have instructions on how to take out/replace a mac pro processor?
Click to expand...

This has been discussed numerous times here and there are even how-to videos on YouTube. It's really easy.
 
If I were you go look for a OSX disk and boot up from there, If it boots up fine and went to the install screen then your hard drive is messed up.

you can only do so much in overclocking a mac , I think theres a program where the 2.8 can go 3.2 and it is not worth it.

cpu sells for an average $250. used
 
killerrobot said:
Have you ran an Apple Hardware test? That will let you know whether let you know what's wrong with it.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1509
Click to expand...
One would hope that an AASP would have done that already. There are several threads in the Mac Pro forum on replacing processors. The majority of them are for the 2006 model but the process should not be terribly different. YouTube has some videos as mentioned earlier and there is always Xlr8yourmac.

The biggest concern would be the CPUID.
 
surely, no CPU, no boot. Isn't there a set of beep codes for basic hardware failures on start up? There used to be. Yeah, agree, boot from DVD and see what happens.
 
MP 3.1 won't boot = check graphics card, first step to do.
Both stock cards (2600XT and 8800GT) were producing this exact symptom after failure.

OP: remove graphics card and try. If you'll get the "bong" and you'll hear that HDD is working - it's the card.
 
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