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Randomly-restarting Mac Pro

Pakaku

Pakaku

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Aug 29, 2009
3,307
5,029
I'm having troubles with my 3.2GHz Mac Pro, and having trouble figuring out what is going on. It will randomly restart for no reason, and is effectively useless at the moment. The thing is nothing ever happens consistently.

It doesn't restart after a specific amount of time. Sometimes the front LED will flash after it restarts, most of the time it does not. When it does flash, an LED inside might light up on a RAM slider, or both, or even on the motherboard itself, but that's never consistent either. Sometimes nothing lights up. A fan even revved up pretty loudly one time, which was unnerving to say the least.

I ran the (quick) Apple Hardware Test and it didn't find anything wrong. I couldn't run the extended test because, surprise, the Mac restarted on me.

My biggest suspicion is the PSU might be bad. Some of my PC buddies have also suggested replacing a BIOS battery, but since it's a Mac, that might be different or not even the case.

If there is a better way to test more of the hardware, such as the PSU I'm suspicious about, that would be nice to know. If it definitely is the PSU, advice on how to replace it and what to replace it with would be great. Would I just any old PSU (with the right/better wattage), or a special Apple-approved PSU?
 
Pakaku said:
I'm having troubles with my 3.2GHz Mac Pro, and having trouble figuring out what is going on. It will randomly restart for no reason, and is effectively useless at the moment. The thing is nothing ever happens consistently.

It doesn't restart after a specific amount of time. Sometimes the front LED will flash after it restarts, most of the time it does not. When it does flash, an LED inside might light up on a RAM slider, or both, or even on the motherboard itself, but that's never consistent either. Sometimes nothing lights up. A fan even revved up pretty loudly one time, which was unnerving to say the least.

I ran the (quick) Apple Hardware Test and it didn't find anything wrong. I couldn't run the extended test because, surprise, the Mac restarted on me.

My biggest suspicion is the PSU might be bad. Some of my PC buddies have also suggested replacing a BIOS battery, but since it's a Mac, that might be different or not even the case.

If there is a better way to test more of the hardware, such as the PSU I'm suspicious about, that would be nice to know. If it definitely is the PSU, advice on how to replace it and what to replace it with would be great. Would I just any old PSU (with the right/better wattage), or a special Apple-approved PSU?
Click to expand...


I am having exactly the same problem with a 3/1 3.2 Mac Pro. I am running 10.8.3 as well.

The last time I had issues like this it was a memory riser, which was replaced. The Tech and I also suspected the logic board as well though.

I fixed permissions, ran Disk Warrior, ran Tech tool Pro, zapped Pram, reset SMC, mem test { setting all } etc with no change and all passed.

Not sure how to test the PSU, but I read somewhere the flashing light is usually a ram issue.


This is my kernel panic report which I am posting as I guess our problem is probably the same one Pakaku and could help us both.


Sunday April 14 2013



Interval Since Last Panic Report: 44984 sec
Panics Since Last Report: 1
Anonymous UUID:

Sun Apr 14 15:10:12 2013
Machine-check capabilities 0x0000000000000806:
family: 6 model: 23 stepping: 6 microcode: 1547
Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X5482 @ 3.20GHz
6 error-reporting banks
threshold-based error status present
Processor 0: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:
restart IP valid
machine-check in progress
MCA error-reporting registers:
IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid
IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid
IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200001084200e0f valid
MCA error code: 0x0e0f
Model specific error code: 0x8420
Other information: 0x00000010
Threshold-based status: Undefined
Status bits:
Processor context corrupt
Error enabled
Uncorrected error
Processor 1: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:
restart IP valid
machine-check in progress
MCA error-reporting registers:
IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid
IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid
IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200001080200e0f valid
MCA error code: 0x0e0f
Model specific error code: 0x8020
Other information: 0x00000010
Threshold-based status: Undefined
Status bits:
Processor context corrupt
Error enabled
Uncorrected error
Processor 2: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:
restart IP valid
machine-check in progress
MCA error-reporting registers:
IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid
IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid
IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200000084200e0f valid
MCA error code: 0x0e0f
Model specific error code: 0x8420
Other information: 0x00000000
Threshold-based status: Undefined
Status bits:
Processor context corrupt
Error enabled
Uncorrected error
Processor 3: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:
restart IP valid
machine-check in progress
MCA error-reporting registers:
IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid
IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid
IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200000080200e0f valid
MCA error code: 0x0e0f
Model specific error code: 0x8020
Other information: 0x00000000
Threshold-based status: Undefined
Status bits:
Processor context corrupt
Error enabled
Uncorrected error
Processor 4: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:
restart IP valid
machine-check in progress
MCA error-reporting registers:
IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid
IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid
IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200001084200e0f valid
MCA error code: 0x0e0f
Model specific error code: 0x8420
Other information: 0x00000010
Threshold-based status: Undefined
Status bits:
Processor context corrupt
Error enabled
Uncorrected error
Processor 5: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:
restart IP valid
machine-check in progress
MCA error-reporting registers:
IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid
IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid
IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200001080200e0f valid
MCA error code: 0x0e0f
Model specific error code: 0x8020
Other information: 0x00000010
Threshold-based status: Undefined
Status bits:
Processor context corrupt
Error enabled
Uncorrected error
Processor 6: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:
restart IP valid
machine-check in progress
MCA error-reporting registers:
IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid
IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid
IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200000084200e0f valid
MCA error code: 0x0e0f
Model specific error code: 0x8420
Other information: 0x00000000
Threshold-based status: Undefined
Status bits:
Processor context corrupt
Error enabled
Uncorrected error
Processor 7: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:
restart IP valid
machine-check in progress
MCA error-reporting registers:
IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid
IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid
IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid
IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200000080200e0f valid
MCA error code: 0x0e0f
Model specific error code: 0x8020
Other information: 0x00000000
Threshold-based status: Undefined
Status bits:
Processor context corrupt
Error enabled
Uncorrected error
panic(cpu 4 caller 0xffffff80072b8709): "Machine Check at 0xffffff7f88ed6cf7, registers:\n" "CR0: 0x000000008001003b, CR2: 0x000000010747e000, CR3: 0x000000005b2e1000, CR4: 0x0000000000000660\n" "RAX: 0x0000000000000000, RBX: 0xffffff8027a95800, RCX: 0x0000000000000001, RDX: 0x0000000000000000\n" "RSP: 0xffffff81d8a33ae0, RBP: 0xffffff81d8a33b10, RSI: 0x0000000000000001, RDI: 0xffffff81cde27148\n" "R8: 0xffffff802955a1c8, R9: 0x7ffffffffffffffe, R10: 0xffffff802954d148, R11: 0x0000000000000246\n" "R12: 0x0000000000000001, R13: 0xffffff802780f940, R14: 0x0000000000000000, R15: 0x0000000000000148\n" "RFL: 0x0000000000000046, RIP: 0xffffff7f88ed6cf7, CS: 0x0000000000000008, SS: 0x0000000000000010\n" "Error code: 0x0000000000000000\n"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2050.22.13/osfmk/i386/trap_native.c:280
Backtrace (CPU 4), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff81cdda5ec0 : 0xffffff800721d626
0xffffff81cdda5f30 : 0xffffff80072b8709
0xffffff81cdda60a0 : 0xffffff80072cddaf
0xffffff81d8a33b10 : 0xffffff7f88ed012e
0xffffff81d8a33bf0 : 0xffffff7f88ecf515
0xffffff81d8a33ca0 : 0xffffff80072b8fdb
0xffffff81d8a33cc0 : 0xffffff800722f1c3
0xffffff81d8a33d00 : 0xffffff800722dc81
0xffffff81d8a33d60 : 0xffffff800722d9f3
0xffffff81d8a33da0 : 0xffffff800754e1fb
0xffffff81d8a33e10 : 0xffffff800754d82b
0xffffff81d8a33f20 : 0xffffff800754d3e4
0xffffff81d8a33f50 : 0xffffff80075e063a
0xffffff81d8a33fb0 : 0xffffff80072cdd23
Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement(196.0)[3EAB23E7-81DF-30FE-905C-7108BAF13F96]@0xffffff7f88ecd000->0xffffff7f88ef5fff

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: SystemUIServer

Mac OS version:
12D78

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 12.3.0: Sun Jan 6 22:37:10 PST 2013; root:xnu-2050.22.13~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 3EB7D8A7-C2D3-32EC-80F4-AB37D61492C6
Kernel slide: 0x0000000007000000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff8007200000
System model name: MacPro3,1 (Mac-F42C88C8)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 152410928395
last loaded kext at 66607969871: com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9.5d0 (addr 0xffffff7f88ef9000, size 36864)
loaded kexts:
com.nvidia.CUDA 1.1.0
com.eltima.ElmediaPlayer.kext 1.58
com.bresink.driver.BRESINKx86Monitoring 9.0
at.obdev.nke.LittleSnitch 3916
com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9.5d0
com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC 1.60
com.apple.driver.AppleTyMCEDriver 1.0.2d2
com.apple.filesystems.autofs 3.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAHardwareConfigDriver 2.3.7fc4
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 2.3.7fc4
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 3.5.10
com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl 1.1.11
com.apple.GeForce 8.1.0
com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet 1.0.0d1
com.apple.iokit.CSRBluetoothHCIControllerUSBTransport 4.1.3f3
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager 4.1.3f3
com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X 7.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleMCEDriver 1.1.9
com.apple.nvidia.NVDAStartup 8.1.0
com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 1.6.0
com.apple.driver.ApplePolicyControl 3.3.0
com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin 1.0.0
com.apple.driver.CSRHIDTransitionDriver 4.1.3f3
com.apple.driver.PioneerSuperDrive 3.1.7
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 3.5.5
com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 404
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 2.3.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 5.5.5
com.apple.driver.AppleIntel8254XEthernet 3.1.1b1
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 4.9.6
com.apple.driver.AppleFileSystemDriver 3.0.1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless 1.0.0d1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib 1.0.0d1
com.apple.BootCache 34
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 2.5.1
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPIIXATA 2.5.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 5.5.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI 5.2.5
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 1.5
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.8
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 1.9
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.6
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient
System Profile:
Model: MacPro3,1, BootROM MP31.006C.B05, 8 processors, Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 3.2 GHz, 8 GB, SMC 1.25f4
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285, PCIe, 1024 MB
Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1, 2 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x802C, 0x475232444632474258384D54383030510000
Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2, 2 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x802C, 0x475232444635363732384D543830304E3930
Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 3, 2 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x802C, 0x475232444635363732384D543830304E3930
Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 4, 2 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x802C, 0x475232444635363732384D543830304E3930
Bluetooth: Version 4.1.3f3 11349, 2 service, 11 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: CLEAR, Ethernet, en0
PCI Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285, sppci_displaycontroller, Slot-1
Serial ATA Device: ST3320820AS_P, 320.07 GB
Serial ATA Device: WDC WD1500ADFD-00NLR5, 150.04 GB
Parallel ATA Device: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-112D
Parallel ATA Device: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-112D
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, apple_vendor_id, 0x8206, 0x5d200000 / 2
USB Device: PTZ-630, 0x056a (WACOM Co., Ltd.), 0x00b1, 0x5d100000 / 3
USB Device: Hub in Apple Extended USB Keyboard, apple_vendor_id, 0x1003, 0x3d200000 / 2
USB Device: Apple Extended USB Keyboard, apple_vendor_id, 0x020b, 0x3d230000 / 3
FireWire Device: built-in_hub, 800mbit_speed
 
Mac Kiwi said:
This is my kernel panic report which I am posting as I guess our problem is probably the same one Pakaku and could help us both.

...
Click to expand...

I don't even get a kernel panic or anything, it just reboots and acts like nothing happened.

And when the LEDs lit up inside, it would always be one riser or the other, never consistent. So I'm skeptical about blaming the risers, but at this point it could be anything.
 
Do you have SMC fan control installed?
If so watch CPU temps.
If they run too hot it can cause a restart. This is a protection in Xeon CPU's.
If they do run higher than 90 F this could be it.
Removal, re-seating, and new thermal grease could fix this.
 
I was having very similar problems with the same system as yours, I also thought it was a PSU problem. I was given some advice to remove your risers, ram, video card and HDD's and clean everything also reset the SMC and PRAM. I thought it was silly to think that just by doing that it would fix my problem but it did, all is back to normal.

I had a ram problem in the past that was causing problems and as soon as I isolated the bad ram and removed it all was good again. But in my ram situation the ram was passing hardware tests but the computer thought the problem was with the riser card, it was a tricky one to figure out that it was really just bad ram

Sorry to hear about your problem I know how frustrating the situation can be.

Good luck
 
violst said:
I was having very similar problems with the same system as yours, I also thought it was a PSU problem. I was given some advice to remove your risers, ram, video card and HDD's and clean everything also reset the SMC and PRAM. I thought it was silly to think that just by doing that it would fix my problem but it did, all is back to normal.

I had a ram problem in the past that was causing problems and as soon as I isolated the bad ram and removed it all was good again. But in my ram situation the ram was passing hardware tests but the computer thought the problem was with the riser card, it was a tricky one to figure out that it was really just bad ram

Sorry to hear about your problem I know how frustrating the situation can be.

Good luck
Click to expand...

I remember that thread:D
 
Definitely sounds like HW, not software.... so don't spend a lot of time with fixing permissions and all the other SW things.

Do monitor the temps. Either with SMC Fan or IStat .... it is an easy non-invasive thing to do.

To start, the easiest thing to do is to remove half the RAM.... see if the problem persists. If it does, then remove the other half and put the 1st half back. This will immediately isolate the problem as being the RAM, or eliminate it as a culprit. I don't know if your Mac Pro has one or two riser cards, and whether it will boot with only 1 riser card (if you have two cards) but it can't hurt to try. It is an easy thing to try, and may indicate or eliminate the riser cards.

The trick is to change one thing at a time, starting with the easy stuff. With computer HW problems you don't usually "find" the problem so much as eliminate all the other possibilities. You start with the easy stuff, and methodically go through every possibility.

If the RAM and riser cards check out, then remove all the peripheral cards - if you have any besides the video card.

Try this experiment too. Boot your Mac Pro, set it to log into your user account automatically. Restart the system, and then don't touch it. Will it restart even if it's just sitting there? If it does reboot, then the next step is to remove the video card and restart the system. It will boot to the desktop (even though you can't see it). You can still tell if it will restart or not... and this will procedure will either eliminate or indicate that the video card is the problem.

If you are still having the problem you are looking at the logic board or the PSU probably. But at least at this point you can confidently say that you have eliminated everything else. If you decide to take it to a repair shop, you can tell them what you have done so far, and they won't need to go back over your steps.

Finally.... Though this should have been first... is there any chance this system is still under AppleCare? That should be the 1st thing you check. In which case you simply backup the HDDs and take it to Apple.

Good Luck.
 
try running Rember to test the RAM - it'll run cycles and if your computer restarts during that, then it may help isolate a bit further. there may be better apps these days to do the same, but think it's still freely available.
 
Got it

So, this is lovely. It was the RAM after all. I had three pairs of 1GB and one pair of 2GB, and it turns out one of the 2GB sticks was faulty somehow.

I ran the Mac with all six 1GB sticks, and it was perfectly fine all day. I ran it with just the 2GB sticks installed (split across the sliders, not paired on one), and it didn't even last a minute before restarting.

Looks like I'm going to have a talk with the OWC crew tonight...
 
Randomly-restarting Mac Pro

I've been through a similar episode twice in the last 10± years and in both cases my hub had gone bad. So easy to check - totally circumvent your hub. If all OK, Then upgrade to a better hub - I have found hopefully reliable comparison tests, ratings and recommendations online. ;)
 
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