Q: Power Mac won't boot up
Hi, Folks! I've had this Mac Pro 2.8GHz since 2008 and rarely had a problem. Last night, the clock was wrong (for the first time ever); it said it was a few hours later than it was. And I couldn't reset it in System Preferences. I re-booted and the cycle began:
-I get the grey screen, with the Apple and the spinning wheel. This lasts for about a minute
-The screen goes black, the CPU winds down and it starts up again.
-I get the grey screen, with the Apple and the spinning wheel. This lasts for about a minute
-The screen goes black, and so on...
It sounds like it's pushing a rock up a hill and instead of reaching the top, it suddenly falls off the side and has to be pushed up again--only to fall off again. The fans are working and I hear the usual start-up noises--but not much else.
I've booted from the Install Disk and run Disk Utility (it repaired some things, but to no avail). I've run a Hardware Test, which it passed. I've zapped the NVRAM. No luck.
I've run out of options. Any suggestions?
(BTW, I'm in Brooklyn and therefore got hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. However, we never lost power--and I actually had my computer and power strip off during the worst of it. What happened to me last night was a good two days after the storm had passed.)
Thanks!
Mac Pro 2.8GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
Posted on Nov 1, 2012 5:51 AM
Stephen,
If the Seagates have been working well for you, by all means just drop another in the bay one slot. All the machine wants to see is a bootable startup disk, brand does not matter. The OWC drives I have been buying - have no idea of who actually manufactured the drives inside the enclosures. They work great, are fully compatible, so I just keep going to that source. Seagate, Wetern Digital, Misubishi, etc., if they work then go with what you like. You can hear horror stories about every drive on the market if you listen to enough people
The suggestion about asking TekServe if they can image your old drive on the new was just an idea to save you the time and effort of reinstalling software and data from the old drive...if it can be done at a reasonable price, just a thought.
Ralph
Posted on Nov 2, 2012 6:48 AM