MP 1,1-5,1 Ram placement in slot 1 and 3 - will this work OK?

[bmoore262]

I've had an issue with my fans running at max. By swapping my ram (4x2gb) I found if I omitted slot 2 , the fans run at normal speed.

So atm I have 6 gb of ram which is not enough. All of my 2gb dimms seem to be OK. But anything in slot 2 is a no go. ( with all 4 dimms installed it show 8gb total but fans run at max.)

My plan is to purchase 2x 16gb ram dimms and install in slot 1 and 3.

Will this work OK?

I have a MP5,1 single quad core upgraded to a single hex core. ( mid 2012 ).

 

[MarkC426]

 

[bmoore262]

View attachment 1952088

Yes - I know what the preferred placings are. It's just that slot 2 is not really available for me with two sticks.

I thought perhaps someone on here might know what the difference in 'performance' might be, with a 1 and 3 config.

Cheers.

 

[MarkC426]

Maybe something here of use:

Mac Pro 4,1 to 5,1 RAM slot 1 not recognized

Just did a 4,1 to 5,1 upgrade on my 2009 Mac Pro running 10.11.6 El Capitan. All is well EXCEPT that RAM slot 1 isn't recognized. Before: 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 2 x 2.26GHz quad-core After: 2009 Mac Pro 5,1 2 x 3.33GHx (x5680) hex-core Firmware update went fine. Both CPUs are recognized in...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Soba]

Yes - I know what the preferred placings are. It's just that slot 2 is not really available for me with two sticks.

I thought perhaps someone on here might know what the difference in 'performance' might be, with a 1 and 3 config.

Cheers.

I noted from your posts in another thread that you were trying to troubleshoot problems with temperature sensors not reading accurately (or not reading at all). Is this the same system? I strongly recommend continuing to troubleshoot the main problem instead of working around it; if there is a fundamental problem that's causing your fans to rev up, it's probably going to cause other problems even if you try to work around it with RAM placement.

 

[bmoore262]

I noted from your posts in another thread that you were trying to troubleshoot problems with temperature sensors not reading accurately (or not reading at all). Is this the same system? I strongly recommend continuing to troubleshoot the main problem instead of working around it; if there is a fundamental problem that's causing your fans to rev up, it's probably going to cause other problems even if you try to work around it with RAM placement.

Yes , your're correct about my temp sensors. This MP I bought new in late 2012. It worked well for 6 years then basically stopped. It sat around for 3 years then I decided to either fix it, or maybe Hackintosh it or get rid of it.

I purchased a mac mini M1 which is great and decided to try to get this one working again. I sourced a used backplane and installed it and it came to life again. It is working well atm aside from those issues ( some missing temp sensors ).
I also installed a 6 core cpu and metal Gpu.

Basically if the machine dies again I won't be too worried. I'll do what I can but I suspect a component on the processor board (maybe) has gone bad. I don't really want to spend anymore money on it.

I'm not really sure what else I can do as I have already spent quite a bit of time on it. As I said, it's working OK just a few hiccups ( so to speak ).

 

[Soba]

Yes , your're correct about my temp sensors. This MP I bought new in late 2012. It worked well for 6 years then basically stopped. It sat around for 3 years then I decided to either fix it, or maybe Hackintosh it or get rid of it.

I purchased a mac mini M1 which is great and decided to try to get this one working again. I sourced a used backplane and installed it and it came to life again. It is working well atm aside from those issues ( some missing temp sensors ).
I also installed a 6 core cpu and metal Gpu.

Basically if the machine dies again I won't be too worried. I'll do what I can but I suspect a component on the processor board (maybe) has gone bad. I don't really want to spend anymore money on it.

I'm not really sure what else I can do as I have already spent quite a bit of time on it. As I said, it's working OK just a few hiccups ( so to speak ).

Understood!

I didn't follow the other thread too closely, but I didn't see any mention of running Apple Hardware Test (AHT) or Apple Service Diagnostic (ASD) on your system. If you haven't done so, these might provide some specific clues about what's going on.

GitHub - upekkha/AppleHardwareTest: Apple Hardware Test Download Links

Apple Hardware Test Download Links. Contribute to upekkha/AppleHardwareTest development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Apple Service Diagnostics, Apple Hardware Test, and Mac Test Pro 2001 - 2010 - loremipsum.info

January 2001 – Apple Hardware Test for Power Mac G4 Cube version 1.1 – Download G4 Cube, will not work with any other computer. January 2002 – Apple Service Diagnostic 062602 1.0 XServe – Download XServe July 2002 – Apple Hardware Test for iMac version 1.2.2 – Download Apple iMac, Apple eMac...

www.loremipsum.info

 

[bmoore262]

Understood!

I didn't follow the other thread too closely, but I didn't see any mention of running Apple Hardware Test (AHT) or Apple Service Diagnostic (ASD) on your system. If you haven't done so, these might provide some specific clues about what's going on.

GitHub - upekkha/AppleHardwareTest: Apple Hardware Test Download Links

Apple Hardware Test Download Links. Contribute to upekkha/AppleHardwareTest development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Apple Service Diagnostics, Apple Hardware Test, and Mac Test Pro 2001 - 2010 - loremipsum.info

January 2001 – Apple Hardware Test for Power Mac G4 Cube version 1.1 – Download G4 Cube, will not work with any other computer. January 2002 – Apple Service Diagnostic 062602 1.0 XServe – Download XServe July 2002 – Apple Hardware Test for iMac version 1.2.2 – Download Apple iMac, Apple eMac...

www.loremipsum.info

I will give that a go. I tried to run it before but it would not work. I've just seen this:

"If however, you reinstalled an older computer from scratch, the diagnostic tools might no longer be available. Unless you have the original disks that came with your computer, there seems to be no way to restore the AHT."

I have the original hdd with the preinstalled OS ( not in the MP atm ) though I can't remember the password for it. It's been a few years since I used that one. I've been using a ssd with an OS I installed on it.

I see Github have a workaround so I'll try that.

 

[bmoore262]

Understood!

I didn't follow the other thread too closely, but I didn't see any mention of running Apple Hardware Test (AHT) or Apple Service Diagnostic (ASD) on your system. If you haven't done so, these might provide some specific clues about what's going on.

GitHub - upekkha/AppleHardwareTest: Apple Hardware Test Download Links

Apple Hardware Test Download Links. Contribute to upekkha/AppleHardwareTest development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Apple Service Diagnostics, Apple Hardware Test, and Mac Test Pro 2001 - 2010 - loremipsum.info

January 2001 – Apple Hardware Test for Power Mac G4 Cube version 1.1 – Download G4 Cube, will not work with any other computer. January 2002 – Apple Service Diagnostic 062602 1.0 XServe – Download XServe July 2002 – Apple Hardware Test for iMac version 1.2.2 – Download Apple iMac, Apple eMac...

www.loremipsum.info

Using AHT on a bootable usb I received the error " 4SMC/1/40000000: SMC".

I found an older post on this forum which describes it pretty well ( ie my experience also ).+

Troubles with Mac Pro 4,1 dual CPU board SMC

Hi all, I just acquired a dual CPU board for my Mac Pro 4,1 with the intention to later replace the installed 2.26G Xeon chips with X5690s and swap my original single 2.66Ghz CPU board. I had already upgraded the firmware to 5,1 , migrated to Mojave, both SMC (main board and CPU tray) are at...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Warrington]

what the difference in 'performance' might be, with a 1 and 3 config

There will be no difference. Those CPUs have three memory channels, corresponding to slot 1, 2 and 3. If one of the memory channels is not used (slot 2 in your case) there is absolutely no problem.

You will only have to make sure those 2x 16gb ram dimms are dual-rank and not quad-rank. A quad-rank module counts as two loads and things become more complicated.

 

[Soba]

Using AHT on a bootable usb I received the error " 4SMC/1/40000000: SMC".

I found an older post on this forum which describes it pretty well ( ie my experience also ).+

Troubles with Mac Pro 4,1 dual CPU board SMC

Hi all, I just acquired a dual CPU board for my Mac Pro 4,1 with the intention to later replace the installed 2.26G Xeon chips with X5690s and swap my original single 2.66Ghz CPU board. I had already upgraded the firmware to 5,1 , migrated to Mojave, both SMC (main board and CPU tray) are at...

forums.macrumors.com

Glad we're getting somewhere!

If you'd like suggestions on next steps, I suggest posting this information to your other thread; it will probably get more attention there.

 

[tsialex]

Using AHT on a bootable usb I received the error " 4SMC/1/40000000: SMC".

Did you had an AppleOEM GPU installed, and only the AppleOEM GPU, when you tested your Mac Pro with AHT?

 

[bmoore262]

Did you had an AppleOEM GPU installed, and only the AppleOEM GPU, when you tested your Mac Pro with AHT?

No, I had a GT630 installed. So I should try it again with the 5770 ?

 

[tsialex]

No, I had a GT630 installed. So I should try it again with the 5770 ?

Yes, see if the same error happens again.

AHT/ASD will fail with a SMC sensor error if you are testing with a non AppleOEM GPU, even if it's a MacEdition card or MacEFI flashed.

 

[bmoore262]

I just tried with my original card and ended up with the same result ie "4SMC/1/40000000: SMC".

So I'm presuming a possible hardware fault on the processor tray (?).

When I did the test this time , it was slightly different from before as AHT did a quick hardware ( config? ) check and then I was to commence the test. Though as before it picked the above error basically immediately.

 

[tsialex]

I just tried with my original card and ended up with the same result ie "4SMC/1/40000000: SMC".

Ok, I'll take a look at the ASD error table tomorrow to see if we can narrow down this error.

So I'm presuming a possible hardware fault on the processor tray (?).

Probable. Do you have access to another CPU tray to install and confirm?

When I did the test this time , it was slightly different from before as AHT did a quick hardware ( config? ) check and then I was to commence the test. Though as before it picked the above error basically immediately.

There are both normal and extended tests, maybe you started with the extended before?

Anyway, what matter is that you confirmed that the SMC error related to testing your Mac Pro with a non-AppleOEM GPU is not your problem.

 

[bmoore262]

Do you have access to another CPU tray to install and confirm?

No, unfortunately not.

 

[bmoore262]

There will be no difference. Those CPUs have three memory channels, corresponding to slot 1, 2 and 3. If one of the memory channels is not used (slot 2 in your case) there is absolutely no problem.

You will only have to make sure those 2x 16gb ram dimms are dual-rank and not quad-rank. A quad-rank module counts as two loads and things become more complicated.

Thanks for that. I knew slot 1 and 2 are the preferred placement for two dimms. I thought there might have been a performance 'hit' by varying that ( in my case 1 and 3 ).

This is the ram I have ordered -

Samsung 2*16GB 32GB PC3L-12800R DDR3-1600 240pin ECC RDIMM Server Memory​

( 2Rx4 ). I hope I have selected the correct or usable dimms.

 

[MacAttack5.1]

I believe I made a mistake. Can you guys help me? I have a couple Mac Pro 5,1 projects and in my haste I bought Samsung 128GB (16x8GB) PC3L-12800R ECC Server RAM Memory - M393B2G70BH0YK0 for $70.

I am starting to think this won’t work on my 5,1 3.33 X 2 cpu. Did I mess up? What is hands down the best RAM to use. I got confused with 10600 then the upgrade to 13333.

 

[tsialex]

I believe I made a mistake. Can you guys help me? I have a couple Mac Pro 5,1 projects and in my haste I bought Samsung 128GB (16x8GB) PC3L-12800R ECC Server RAM Memory - M393B2G70BH0YK0 for $70.

I am starting to think this won’t work on my 5,1 3.33 X 2 cpu. Did I mess up? What is hands down the best RAM to use. I got confused with 10600 then the upgrade to 13333.

Should work fine, it will downgrade from 1600MHz to 1333MHz.

M393B2G70BH0-YK0(DDR3) | DRAM | Samsung Semiconductor Global

RDIMM M393B2G70BH0-YK0(DDR3). Find technical product specifications, features and more at Samsung Semiconductor.

semiconductor.samsung.com