MP 1,1-5,1 What Maintenance have you done to your Mac Pro 4.1 5.1 today?

[Matty_TypeR]

Today was maintenance day for my Mac pro 5.1

Stripped it down and took logic board out, cleaned the Board and replaced the SPI chip. Soldered a new chip on the logic board with a rebuilt Rom provided by Tsialex. I had already been running the new rom but this was my last mac to replace the SPI chip on. As it was 12 years old i thought it might well have been written too many times over the years so replaced it. like all flash memory they cant last for ever. So just like it came from factory now, never switched on before.

Changed PSU from AC bell to Delta electronics version, re did the Pixlas mod on New PSU. cleaned and re lubed all the fans and re assembled and then repasted both CPU's and north bridge heatsink with thermal grizzly K all back together now and working 100% with a nice loud start up chime the first time booted.

A good few hours spent on it today but well worth the effort. Hopefully good for a few more years yet!

 

[avro707]

Took the Sonnet card and NVMEs out of the 5,1 and installed in brand new 7,1. Put away the old 5,1.

I have acquired two more X5690s to try in the old 5,1 to see if they get it running again - it appears to have a dodgy CPU giving NMI errors (checked Northbridge, temps all less than 60ºC)

 

[OldMacPro2]

Wow…sounds like 100k mile overhaul. I thought I was doing good to open up the (new to me) MP 3,1 and vacuum out some dust bunnies. Props to you Matty-TypeR 👍😎

 

[mikas]

I shut down my cMP for my short trip to abroad. Came back and it didn't boot. Tried a few times, and no. Thought that can't be the end of it, can it.
Changed the battery and up we are again, with all the daily routines.

Did a short blow to internals too while I was at it. Some dust came out as always.

 

[Matty_TypeR]

All maintenance keeps your mac's running as they should. dust and fluff prevents proper cooling and can soon clog up vital cooling inside.

Battery replacement is very important, but always use a BR2032 battery, the CR2032 battery's don't last long. check voltage to make sure it's at least 3v if lower replace.

Northbridge heatsink sprung plastic retaining clip's go brittle and snap with age, they never snap at the same time so the heatsink then parts company with the heatsink being pulled down on one side causing NB over heating and instability.

Mac pro fans can become very noisy, groaning, rattling all kinds of noise. on the back of the fan's are grey colour stickers to match fan colour, remove sticker and oil the fan's bearings but replace sticker with tape to keep the dust out. If the bearing's are shot, you can remove the tiny clip holding fan shaft and replace the bearings if needed.

The PSU is a vital in keeping your Mac stable and running, and they also suffer with dust and fuff build up. the only way to clean properly is to remove the PSU and use can of air or compressor to blow the fluff and dust out. will help to keep it cool and could prevent failure. DO NOT TAKE APART THE PSU TO CLEAN UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING! high voltages remain inside!!!. You can no longer buy these PSU's new and like all components they can fail or become unstable just with age.


One of the big failures for Mac Pro's is the boot Rom, this SPI flash chip contains all the info and identifier's of hardware in your Mac pro. these rom's can get corrupted and fail, which means you will end up with a brick and a Mac pro that will not boot. if this happens the SPI flash chip needs to be removed from the logic board and reflashed with a clean boot rom or working boot rom saved from your Mac pro as its unique to your Mac pro. Romtool is a download that can do this, save your boot rom file incase you need a reconstruction. please read all instructions regarding using romtool before doing so.

We are lucky on this forum that some are skilled enough to reconstruct boot rom's to be better than new with all the latest updates available for your Mac pro. When purchasing 2nd hand Mac's you have no idea on the condition of the rom, whats been loaded in hardware upgrades or software installs like Windows as an example.

A friendly PM to Tsialex the boot rom genius could save your Mac pro from becoming a brick. plenty of threads regarding bootrom's so well worth a read. We know these machines are getting aged, but looked after they can still run quite happily for many years yet.

Good luck to all, keep them running!

 

[OldMacPro2]

A lot of good info in that post!

When I read the words "Mac pro fans can become very noisy, groaning, rattling..." I laughed.

Thought you were talking about the "Mac Pro Fans" that hang out on this forum, not the actual fans in the tower case.

Question - Does the Mac Pro 3,1 have the same SPI flash chip issue?

I did a search on the forum and all the results were talking about the Mac Pro 4,1 - 5,1.

 

[Matty_TypeR]

A lot of good info in that post!

When I read the words "Mac pro fans can become very noisy, groaning, rattling..." I laughed.

Thought you were talking about the "Mac Pro Fans" that hang out on this forum, not the actual fans in the tower case.

Question - Does the Mac Pro 3,1 have the same SPI flash chip issue?

I did a search on the forum and all the results were talking about the Mac Pro 4,1 - 5,1.

Sorry to say i know nothing about the Mac pro 3.1 so cant comment as i never owned one. And groaning Fan's, well i guess it applies as most come on here only when they have issue's, So groan they might but help is mostly available from knowing user's.

 

[OldMacPro2]

True, this forum is an excellent place to learn. Without the many posts and occasional advice that I’ve received I would clueless.

 

[ddhhddhh2]

Congratulations! Glad to see that it will continue to serve.

 

[OS6-OSX]

Took it in for a tune up!

 

[OldMacPro2]

An almost complete, low spec, MP 4,1 just showed up in my home lab. I need to do the 100,000 mIle maintenance that Marty_TypeR is recommending. 👍

Where do I order that SPI chip?