Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Very strange Mac Pro Problem.. Need help

Joshuarocks

Joshuarocks

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 12, 2011
364
1
Somewhere in Cyberspace
Hello,

I am hoping someone can shed some light on this problem I am having.. 6-core Mac Pro.. all temps are normal. Apple Service diagnostic reports everything is fine. Apple Hardware Test reports no problems.

PROBLEM: Went to install on a dedicated hard drive Snow Leopard 10.6.4(original disk media which came with my 2010 Mac Pro). Installer succeeds and finishes.. Now the problem comes up as follows:

Once I go and register my computer and setting up my account and password(all before the desktop), I get the spinning beach ball of death, along with the fans kicking in(not too extreme), forcing me to do a force shutdown. I then arrive at the desktop. All programs in the Applications folder run, EXCEPT for:

ichat and skype. I try to click on ichat and skype and I see the spinning beach ball again.. I notice my CPUS are at 100 percent load due to loading up skype and or ichat.

What is wrong with my Mac Pro? I attempted to try another hard drive and the same thing happens. This is indeed a very strange problem. Memory checks out fine and passes on both testing of apple service diagnostic and apple hardware test.

I am out of options here.. what could the problem be? I am going to attempt to install the updates to Snow Leopard and go to 10.6.7 and see if that solves the problem.

At this point I am a little concerned.. as this has never ever happened to me before. I hope someone can shed some light as to why the last part of the snow leopard installer where you put in your account information and it sets up the account, then goes into a spinning beach ball.

Thanks,

Josh.

Again, just to recap what is going on.. AFAIK, the 10.6.4 installer completes.. then I hear and see the snow leopard/leopard movie(beginning movie showing the OS running).. I go to select my keyboard layout, which is US. Then the next screen says if I want to migrate anything over. I select no for that. Then put in my airport SSID and password for airport configuration. Lastly, I go and put in my account information for the OS to set up my account and thats where the spinning beach ball happens.

This causes me to FORCE RESTART my system.. the good news is that once I force restart it takes me to the desktop and everything is normal. I can click on all applications, EXCEPT FOR SKYPE AND ICHAT. When I click on skype, I notice my CPUs are at 100 percent load and can't get out of the program unless I do a force quit.. same for ichat.

Again, what could the problem be? Memory is fine, processors of course, are fine.
 
According to what others have posted here, the tests you ran on the memory are not adequate tests. Try memtest.

If you aren't inclined to try memtest, you can pull half the RAM and see if you have the problem still. If you do, swap the RAM.

Remove all extra cards and USB devices and see if you still have the problem.

You make it sound like a fresh install, but then mention Skype doesn't work right after installation. I didn't think Skype came installed with OS X? Did you actually format the hard drive before reinstall?
 
Ok, I think I resolved the issue

ActionableMango said:
According to what others have posted here, the tests you ran on the memory are not adequate tests. Try memtest.

If you aren't inclined to try memtest, you can pull half the RAM and see if you have the problem still. If you do, swap the RAM.

Remove all extra cards and USB devices and see if you still have the problem.

You make it sound like a fresh install, but then mention Skype doesn't work right after installation. I didn't think Skype came installed with OS X? Did you actually format the hard drive before reinstall?
Click to expand...


Turns out to be an incompatibility between the mac pro and the Kanex MDP-DVI adapter.. everything else is fine.
 
I believe I read in another thread your Mac Pro was originally a 2009 and you made the conversion to 2010 by changing the Logic Board and Daughter Board... If that's the case the Install Discs that came with your Pro won't have the needed drivers to successfully install the system on it. Maybe the video adapter you mentioned was purely coincidental. May wanna look into it further.
 
I'd patch your boot disk from an external. DL and run combo installer on external boot and point to Mac Pro internal. I think you did that or something close enough. Is it OK after patching?
 
beto2k7 said:
I believe I read in another thread your Mac Pro was originally a 2009 and you made the conversion to 2010 by changing the Logic Board and Daughter Board... If that's the case the Install Discs that came with your Pro won't have the needed drivers to successfully install the system on it. Maybe the video adapter you mentioned was purely coincidental. May wanna look into it further.
Click to expand...

The good news is I DO have the 2010 Mac Pro discs.. but this isn't the answer though.. as I said its a strange problem.. I mainly got the adapter for my PM G5 Quad which has DVI ports.

You don't wanna know how I was able to pull off getting the 2010 discs.. and now I have so many of them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back