jrbuuck

Q: My Mac Pro spontaneously restarts

Over the last couple weeks my computer has suddenly and repeatedly restarted itself without warning while I was using it. It's as if the power was flipped off for a fraction of a second. I checked the power cables, of course, and they're fine. My house has good electrical and no other appliance has behaved like this.

What possible trouble could this behavior indicate? I'm making sure I've got everything backed up in case it goes down for good.

Thanks

MacPro G5 (aluminum), Mac OS X (10.5.7), 2 x 3 GHz Quad Core

Posted on Jul 30, 2009 12:16 AM

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Q: My Mac Pro spontaneously restarts

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  • by The hatter,

    The hatter The hatter Sep 13, 2011 3:09 AM in response to Giggle Cream
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Sep 13, 2011 3:09 AM in response to Giggle Cream

    Proof read? "reseating" RAM was waht was intended.

     

    Same for Risers

     

    I think it depends on which model year as to how best to reset SMC.

    2006-7 had a mechanical reset button.

     

    They use to say unplug for 10 minutes. Found that often people needed full overnight esp. if 2008 and there was no SMC reset button.

     

    Then the instructions were to unplug and hit power button for just 10 seconds. That makes some sense and more like what we did with G4s.

     

    My Mac is totally off line, no power coming in, every single night but that does not reset or do anything.

     

    Zapping PRAM would be of dubious value.

     

    I would focus on your power (circuit and what runs on same), your UPS if you have one and being too small and not 850W/1000VA.

     

    Trouble is that even if there is a problem iwth older Macs, you won't see an SMC or EFI firmware update.  No BIOS update for you.

     

    Focus on a stripped down, no external cables and peripherals; drivers; and if you want to, try a clean OS with just Apple updated.

  • by menthol22,

    menthol22 menthol22 Sep 19, 2011 5:24 PM in response to jrbuuck
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Sep 19, 2011 5:24 PM in response to jrbuuck

    I'm in the same boat as most of you: Mac Pro, early 2008, same symptoms, gotten a lot worse over the last couple of weeks. I *don't* want to buy a new computer. I don't want Lion. If I knew what was wrong, I'd be willing to pay to have it fixed, but I certainly don't want to pay for new stuff that won't fix the problem.

     

    Pretty annoying and depressing.

  • by rmahoney,

    rmahoney rmahoney Sep 21, 2011 7:04 AM in response to menthol22
    Level 1 (50 points)
    Sep 21, 2011 7:04 AM in response to menthol22

    Hello all. Just wanted to relay my experiences here. I had the same issue about a year ago. Random restarts for no reason. Back then, I "sorta solved/delayed" the problem by pulling both riser cards, reseating all the RAM chips, and resetting the SMC controller (I forget how that was done because it's been so long. Have to look it up again.) I'm not saying this is "the" solution, but doing that definitely reduced the number of incidents to the point I considered it "solved". I went at least a year with no issues, but I finally had a random restart last night. I'll see if it persists/gets worse and whether doing the same process "delays" the issue again or not. I'll report back if so, assuming I haven't switched to a Linux box by then.

  • by AaronZisman,

    AaronZisman AaronZisman Sep 22, 2011 2:06 PM in response to jrbuuck
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Sep 22, 2011 2:06 PM in response to jrbuuck

    bomp, bomp, bomp, and another one's down, another one bites the dust...

     

    Hey All-

     

    My Mac Pro has been at Tekserve in NYC for a week now. Talked to the tech today and he's gonna swap in a new motherboard (for 532 plus labor) if it still has problems they won't charge me for the board. I am a bit concerned that this is an intermittent problem and may work fine until I get it back, which could suck. The beginning of this week they were saying they couldn't get it to restart. As much as it ***** to pay for this out of warranty at this stage of the game I just need to get back to work...I'll keep you guys updated.

     

    Here's my situation: Mac Pro 2,1 (april 2007), the infamous Radeon 1900xt (which apple refused to replace) been running it for about 4 and 1/2 years virtually non stop. I've had some minor problems: DVD drive replaced under applecare a few times, the Radeon overheated the machine another time (Tekserve essentially airgunned it under applecare) but the restart problem hadn't really occured until last week. It would randomly restart every 5 minutes or so. No heavy computing going on, I didn't even need to be sitting in front of it. So I pulled the gfx card and ram blew them out with compressed air, reset the SMC, no luck. Took it in to Tekserve they said disk problems. Brought it home wiped the drive and restored from Time Machine.

     

    This time as soon as I launched chrome and played a youtube it would crash. It's now back at tekserve under diagnostics for going on 6 days now. I get the impression that the tech is replacing the logic board more out of the fact that he doesn't know whats up than he's sure it's the problem...

     

    With all the posts about this problem I suspect apple *does* know about it but it's probably cheaper to claim plausible deniability than face the possibility of a class action lawsuit. This seems to be happening to too many of us to just be a run of bad motherboards. Especially as it seems to occur across different revisions of the Mac Pro line.

     

    Like all the rest, I'll keep you updated. I need to be in front of this machine almost every day for work so if it flakes out again in a few months I'll let y'all know...

  • by The hatter,

    The hatter The hatter Sep 22, 2011 2:44 PM in response to AaronZisman
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Sep 22, 2011 2:44 PM in response to AaronZisman

    FBDIMMs suffer heat fatigue

     

    X1900s you know about, and suprised if you haven't put 5770 in.

     

    Start fresh, don't restore, zero a new drive and clean and 'maybe' import.

     

    Keep boot drive cloned.

     

    Keep any data and media off the boot drive.

     

    EFI and SMC firmware even if they needed it, was last updated in Aug 2007 and never since. And bugs or fixes would have to be in the micro kernel and OS changes.

     

    Quad G5s LCS failures did allow some to qualify or get replacements, and how some people came to be owners of Mac Pro.

  • by Giggle Cream,

    Giggle Cream Giggle Cream Sep 23, 2011 10:42 AM in response to jrbuuck
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 23, 2011 10:42 AM in response to jrbuuck

    OK - it's been a week now and no restarts. Here's what I did.

     

    I unplugged everything and took the side cover from the machine. I vacuumed it out (it was pretty dusty even though I did it 6 months ago) and I also slid out the memory cards from their slots (I have two), they are the things with the red LED lights on.

     

    I gave them a good clean of dust and replaced them.

     

    Restarted and so far a stable machine. I do get the odd screen flicker so I reckon in all honesty this is a temporary fix, but hey, a week with no restarts is a week well lived!

     

    Try it folks.

  • by Robert P,

    Robert P Robert P Sep 23, 2011 10:50 AM in response to Giggle Cream
    Level 1 (35 points)
    Sep 23, 2011 10:50 AM in response to Giggle Cream

    Hi Giggle Cream, if your memory card is showing lit LEDs it means that you have a problem with the ram modules

    each card has four LEDs representing the memory modules front to back, to show you which module is faulty

  • by Giggle Cream,

    Giggle Cream Giggle Cream Sep 23, 2011 10:53 AM in response to jrbuuck
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 23, 2011 10:53 AM in response to jrbuuck

    No they are not on. Just a test flash when it starts up.

  • by Eddie Ski,

    Eddie Ski Eddie Ski Sep 23, 2011 11:19 AM in response to jrbuuck
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Sep 23, 2011 11:19 AM in response to jrbuuck

    If some of these solutions work, great. But I fear there is something wrong with the 3.0Ghz models in that this issue is not ram, not the ram modules, not the powersupply but the processors and logicboard. And that the models are out of warranty, with the issue being so isolated that it is under the radar of a Quality Program.

    I understand if its an Intel XEON flaw that is not documented, nor worth the issue to them.

    However I would like to replace my MacPro with another, later model and OT, where are the new ones???

    (you know, like with ATI 67xx cards, Tbolt ports (2x), USB 3.0 (I wish), and 8-16 i7 cores ...)

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Sep 23, 2011 11:26 AM in response to Eddie Ski
    Level 9 (61,332 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 23, 2011 11:26 AM in response to Eddie Ski

    where are the new ones???

     

    Speculation about un-announced Apple products is not acceptable here.

     

    For speculation of that sort, go here:

     

    http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac_Pro

  • by Eddie Ski,

    Eddie Ski Eddie Ski Sep 23, 2011 11:39 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Sep 23, 2011 11:39 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Grant,

     

    Posting links to rumor sites is not acceptable here.

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Sep 23, 2011 12:16 PM in response to Eddie Ski
    Level 9 (61,332 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 23, 2011 12:16 PM in response to Eddie Ski

    Quick, Eddie Ski -- write down that link before someone reports me and it is removed.

  • by markdz,

    markdz markdz Sep 26, 2011 9:46 AM in response to jrbuuck
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 26, 2011 9:46 AM in response to jrbuuck

    My Mac Pro 3.1 w/ 2 video cards (@ 5k) started the loop last week. I did everything i could, unplugged, reset, pram, you name it. After i swapped out the memory i did get it to run for about 10 minutes, than nothing since. Not even off the boot disk.

     

    I was told it was the mother board by the IT service my company uses. I will bring it to apple this week to see if i can still squeeze in the warrenty.

     

    My applecare ran out within this past year. I would have bought more apple care for the 5k system if it was offered.

     

    If i need to replace the mother board, how will i know if the processors are ok?

     

    My lesson learned if this is costly, not to buy the top of the line, just buy smaller units knowing it will fail after the warrenty. Much cheaper that way in the long run.

     

    Mark

  • by CDPlayer2,

    CDPlayer2 CDPlayer2 Sep 27, 2011 1:46 AM in response to jrbuuck
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 27, 2011 1:46 AM in response to jrbuuck

    Hi everyone, here's my contribution and experience so far...

     

    MacPro 2,1, 2x3GHz, started the vicious loop a few months back. I managed to prolong its agony by bumping up fans, but eventually it woulndn't even get to login screen (and thus wouldn't start the smcFanControl). And yes, it isn't a HDD or software problem - it does the same thing if booted from a DVD. SMC reset didn't help, of course.

     

    What I have tried so far:

     

    1. Cleaned it up. Really well. By taking out all fans, etc.
    2. Replaced power supply. Nope, not it.
    3. Memory? Nope, not it - tried various combinations of original and 3rd party. No effect.
    4. Taken it to Apple for out of warranty logic board replacement. They did it, then called me and said "nope, not the logic board. It's CPUs, both of them, and it'll be $2.4K, please". I said thanks and took the machine back.
    5. Yesterday a pair of replacement CPUs have arrived (picked up a pair for $500). Switched the CPUs, and - nope, not CPUs. Still reboots, exactly as before.

     

    The only hope I have now that it's the TIM - I didn't change it, it's still the original liquid metal whatever-it-is. And by looks of it, its health presently is less than optimal.

     

    Anyway, ordered a tube of good quality stuff (Antec Formula 7), will get it in next couple days and give it a try.

     

    If it *is* TIM, then it kind of makes sense - from what I understand, qualities of a TIM could degrade over time, and the deteriorating behaviour (resets become more frequent once they started; bumping up fans helps situation temporarily) maps nicely to the what the machine actually does.

     

    Anyway, if you're at wits' end (I certainly am almost there) - try changing the TIM. I suspect it will take a bit of effort to get rid of the old stuff (maybe very fine sandpaper will be required), but at this point it is really clutchung at straws.

  • by Leon Buijs,

    Leon Buijs Leon Buijs Sep 27, 2011 3:27 AM in response to CDPlayer2
    Level 1 (11 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 27, 2011 3:27 AM in response to CDPlayer2

    What the heck is a TIM? (liquid metal?!)

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