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Level 1

5 points

Unexpected Freeze, Hang, Shut Down

This has been happening for a while now and I still haven't gotten to the bottom of it.

At least a couple times a day, my Mac Pro (OS 10.5.7) will simply freeze completely with no mouse/keyboard control or it will just shut itself down. Doesn't seem to be any connection to a particular application running. I can be simply composing an email, browsing in Safari, working in Photoshop, or pretty much anything. A couple times it even happened within a minute of restarting with no applications running. It's also happened after I've left the computer alone for a while and the screen saver is stuck.

If I happen to be listening to something in iTunes the music will stop and sound like it's in an endless loop playing a split second of the song.

Every time my only solution is to shut power off an on again. I've tried waiting for many minutes, but nothing happens. Luckily, I haven't lost any important work, but I know it's bound to happen sooner or later.

I contacted Apple and got the suggestion to clear my Library caches and Safari cache, etc... I even went through the time to re-install using my original OSX disc and subsequently re-installing all my drivers. That seemed to fix the problem but not really because it started happening again a couple days later.

Any help out there???

Thanks.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.7), MacBook Pro, original iPhone

Posted on Jun 19, 2009 4:06 PM

43 replies

bill 45

Level 1

0 points

Aug 11, 2009 11:06 PM in response to bill 45

why has the geek apple squad found a patch for it this realy *****

Alexandre

Level 3

854 points

Aug 11, 2009 11:19 PM in response to smilingdog

Hi smilingdog,
Had I seen the article earlier, I would have put the freezes you were describing down to RAM (memory) but you seem to have solved it by default and the graphics card appeared to be the culprit. There is a possibility of dust (which easily gets it anywhere), and quite rightly, you have possible overloading your (basic) card, something I did on my first Power Mac and had similar freezes.
I run the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT with great results (the performance of the Radeon simply didn't look good enough to me even on paper).
I trust you returned your machine and get it fixed 🙂
Good luck.

smilingdog Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 11, 2009 11:49 PM in response to Alexandre

Thanks everyone!

It may take a while to get things straightened out, but I'll keep this forum posted whatever happens.

Alexandre, do you know if the NIVDIA card you mentioned will work on my MacPro 1.1 Dual Core 3GHz with 6GB of RAM and a 1.33GHz bus speed?

BTW - I just opened up the chassis and blew out a bunch of dust with some compressed air, reseated the video card and the RAM cards. I'm going to keep the 2 displays for now. Only change one thing at a time. See how it goes, but I sense a new video card of some sort might be in my future.

Aug 12, 2009 3:01 AM in response to smilingdog

You could try running the Hardware Diagnostic. Insert your Mac Pro Install disk and hold Option (alt) immediately after the startup chime. You'll be presented with a set of boot options. Run the Diagnostic utility and make a note of any error codes it throws up. This will help Apple to find the fault quicker.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509

Alexandre

Level 3

854 points

Aug 12, 2009 10:16 AM in response to smilingdog

Hiya,
glad you managed to get at least rid of the dust. Well, the upgrade (you got a first gen Mac Pro it seems) is in theory possible with an upgrade kit. Example here: http://www.powermax.com/parts/show/q40749
It seems to be unavailable (checked a couple of other sites); also it may not without hitches it appears; but a starter would be this:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=471059&page=3
also, a "solved" discussion http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9918710&tstart=0

Hope this helps.

Good luck 🙂

smilingdog Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 12, 2009 4:50 PM in response to Daniel Ebeck

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for your reply.

That was one of the first things which was suggested and I already tried it to no avail.

smilingdog Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 12, 2009 4:53 PM in response to Alexandre

Hey Alexandre,

Thanks for those links. I'll check into it. I really need something that can support 2 displays. Do you know offhand if this "kit" will accomplish that?

smilingdog Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 12, 2009 4:56 PM in response to smilingdog

BTW - since I gave the card a "blow" job 🙂 ... for the dust that is, I haven't had a crash or hang which is unusual. Yesterday, I had it happen about 10 times.

Not saying the problem is solved. I'm sure it's not, so I'm still on the hunt for a different video card.

Alexandre

Level 3

854 points

Aug 12, 2009 10:19 PM in response to smilingdog

Hiya smilingdog,
well, you are smiling. Great1 😉
There is a support article from Apple that might be of interest:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2809 It checks compatibility with the Apple DVI to Video converter

(essentially it lists graphics cards compares graphics cards for Mac Pros.)

smilingdog Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 16, 2009 1:50 PM in response to Alexandre

Thanks for that link Alexandre. And thanks to everyone who chimed in here!

Well it's been 3 or 4 days without a crash or a hang compared to dealing with it multiple times on a daily basis. I'm now pretty confident that my assumptions were correct about my video card. Seems like getting rid of the dust really helped to keep the card cool and solved my problems.

Maybe I'll hold off on getting a new video card since I'm trying to save money right now. I guess I can deal with getting out the can of compressed air every once in a while. Bites but it's cheap 🙂

smilingdog Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 16, 2009 1:51 PM in response to smilingdog

I guess I came up with the solution on my own, but this forum was very helpful in eliminating some likely causes.

Alexandre

Level 3

854 points

Aug 16, 2009 10:14 PM in response to smilingdog

That sounds like good news 🙂
If - hopefully there is none - you find a further
crash, at least you are more confident as to the
cause (dust, RAM or video card). The only thing
I'd consider, is something like RAID: simply done
by loading a second HDD with Leopard, then via
migration assistant copying the lot (all your apps
mail, prefs etc etc). Provided the old OS is good,
migration assistant works a dream. Apart from
entering a few serials again (e.g. dreamweaver,
CS) there is no problem; it might tell you that
you are already registered but as it's a valid one,
there is no problem whatsoever.

All the very best, and hope you can get by without
spending your shillings 😉

NB: just changed the 10.5.7 to 10.5.8 (combo of course)
perfect

Message was edited by: Alexandre

Oct 4, 2009 12:26 AM in response to smilingdog

Hi,

I have a question. How did you fix your problem? My Mac Pro has the same symptoms since day one. Did you change your grafic card or something else?

The Macpro suddenly put my first hard disc into sleep mode. SMC Reset and all that what I should do, didn't work.

My Mac Pro also freezes, when I connect a wacom tablett via USB. It's a really strange problem. The tablett works on my mac mini, mac book pro, but not with my mac pro.

So, how did you solve your problem?

Thanks!
-Jens

Unexpected Freeze, Hang, Shut Down