Upgraded Mac Pro problems still....

[Gav Mack]

Could be, but one thing perhaps to mention. Sometimes the restarts are sudden. Sometimes audio keeps playing, I can move the mouse but can't click. If the PSU is malfunctioninging you would expect that there are only complete shutdowns or not?

If it's not the PSU I suspect the logic board I'm afraid, the random symptoms you've said today seem to indicate it. Not GPU or even Mac Pro related but with a very similar Xeon architecture on a Dell Poweredge server. I upgraded that a few years ago with new CPU and faster ECC RAM to run SBS 2008R2 and more users. I had similar but not identical glitches ie randomly which after much scratching of heads and analysing the BSOD logs we traced down to the northbridge. It was under warranty so we stuck the original CPU and ram back in and got the board changed. Worked fine with the upgraded parts once Dell had swapped the mobo out.

I hope I'm proved wrong and some other bright spark on here can help you find the solution though!

Hang on I've thought of one last resort lol. if you don't want to buy a new logic board one thing you could try as a final throw of the dice is removing the logic board, placing it perfectly flat, sticking a weight on top of the northbridge and blowing a heat gun around the northbridge in case it's a slightly dodgy solder connection and reflowing the solder back. Will have to mask any plastic bits off securely with tin foil and heat proof tape! I've done similar before though not to the poweredge box or even a Mac Pro!

 

[Pjotr28]

Well that's a rather dirty operation. I've done it on an old iMac wit GPU problems. But to do it on my working machine is a bit scary. I'll try the firmware flash again. New OS. Take everything out and in. And if that gives no solution I use the 4870 for now and save for the nMac Pro.

Thanks.

 

[ActionableMango]

I remember at least 2-3 people including Macvidcards have found that the 2009 CPU heatsink installation can be extremely finicky and causes all manner of problems from wild fan speeds to memory slots not working. Just a slight change like loosening one of the screws a quarter turn fixed the problems. Basically the heatsink on the 2009 needs to have perfectly level pressure.

Here is one of the threads that talk about it. Might be worth a read I think from page 2 and on.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1457999/

I can't find the other thread I was thinking of, but the person couldn't get his upgrade to work at first; he eventually needed to completely loosen all of the screws, then turn each screw one rotation each, moving from screw to screw, to ensure even pressure at the end.

 

[Pjotr28]

I read the threads before doing the swap. Some people are mentioning the thermal pad. The pink strip on the heatsink. I didn't do anything with that. Could this cause problems?

 

[MacVidCards]

I read the threads before doing the swap. Some people are mentioning the thermal pad. The pink strip on the heatsink. I didn't do anything with that. Could this cause problems?

I imagine it could. There are little chips around the edge that were connected to heat sink by thermal pad. When you put in taller CPU they no longer make contact with heat sink.

That said, I know someone who has upgraded several as a business and he wasn't doing anything about them. I had purchased a giant sheet so I gave him the rest.

The only way to find the source of your woes is to test things using scientific method. Change one thing at a time and note effects.

As mentioned above, I found that when I had my 5680s finally both appear, I then found that a few RAM slots had gone invisible. So as much as I hated playing with fire I unscrewed all of the screws and obsessed on feeling when they started threading and EXACTLY counting the turns.

When I finally had ALL 8 (old MP had TWICE AS MANY RAM SLOTS AS NEW ONE) show up over multiple boots, I walked away.

For some RAM to be invisible, had to mean some of those pins were mis-aligned or not connected.

Did we ever find out WHY Apple went lidless with 2009? If it was for better thermal conductivity.......well there's another machine with thermal concerns.

Ideally you need another machine to swap parts with. Move CPU tray to machine #2, where does problem go? Consider what your time is worth and look at renting a 2nd machine. You could completely solve in under an hour with 2nd machine.

 

[Gav Mack]

Well that's a rather dirty operation. I've done it on an old iMac wit GPU problems. But to do it on my working machine is a bit scary. I'll try the firmware flash again. New OS. Take everything out and in. And if that gives no solution I use the 4870 for now and save for the nMac Pro.

Thanks.

I said it was the last resort!

Having seen the next two posts you may want to do mvc screw methods, replacement pads buy the Phobya ones which offer the best thermal transfer and cut to fit. Use sterile talc free gloves for everything thermal.

Also OSX Kernel panics I've found aren't detailed enough compared to windows and its BSOD's to troubleshoot a problem, 64 bit Microsoft Windows may actually help lol...

 

[MacVidCards]

FWIW, screen frozen, mouse moving and sound continuing or repeating sounds a lot like GPU crash. But if a pin that connects PCIE to CPU weren't in good contact.....

 

[Gav Mack]

FWIW, screen frozen, mouse moving and sound continuing or repeating sounds a lot like GPU crash. But if a pin that connects PCIE to CPU weren't in good contact.....

If it was a PC running Windows you would definitely be Watson but in this place I happily defer to you Sherlock

 

[Pjotr28]

Short update in my investigation concerning a sudden death and screen freezing Mac Pro upgraded with w3680 and GTX 680

Did a complete new install a couple of days ago. Everything seemed fine. Could play some heavy games. FCP X worked with existing projects. After effects worked. No problems so far.

Then today I had to capture some XD Cam footage. Installed the Sony plugin. Imported and screen freeze. I decided to try it again, everything was imported fine. When I tried to export a video another screen freeze. I can't find any crash logs because I have to force a reboot.

So I decided to bring back in the old 4870 again. No problems so far.

ps I heard about some troubles with wacom drivers I use an Intuos3. But on the other hand everything works fine with the 4870.

 

[Pjotr28]

Ok, tried everything. Swap, reswap, redid the firmware update. Let it run on original ram, let it run on additional ram. Still getting kernel panics especially when running FCP X.

Perhaps one last try. I've bought the CPU w3680 second hand on Ebay. According to intel cpu test on bootcamp it's running fine. But could it be that the CPU has been modified and if so is it possible to bring it back into the original state?

 

[666sheep]

But could it be that the CPU has been modified and if so is it possible to bring it back into the original state?

There's a small chance that you've bought an engineering sample. These sometimes can go nuts, especially in Mac Pros. Production version of 3680 should be marked SLBV2. ES were Q3VH and Q4EH IIRC.

On the other hand, has something been changed in KP logs or they still point on graphics card/Nvidia drivers?

 

[Pjotr28]

Thanks it's marked SLBV2. So it should be the production version.

 

[Pjotr28]

To finish this thread. Bought my self a Sapphire 7950 it's working fine without any problems until now. I think my mac just doesn't like Nvidia cards.....