Mac Pro 3,1 black screen then fans on full

I have extensively researched this and from all accounts no one has ever found a fix - even with multiple known good GPU / various MacOS versions / new RAM / strip down and full cleaning (one guy even replaced the motherboard and PSU to no avail)

I have tried running it headless (physically removing the GPU(s)) and accessing via VNC viewer (thus eliminating GPU entirely) but still the same issue - after a period of time from accessing the login screen the mac will go black screen (there is an audible single 'tick' inside the case when this happens but no one has ever seen a LED warning inside the case if they have had the side off ....) then about 10 secs later the fans go on full throttle (default) and the only way to restart/shutdown is via the power button or the mains plug. As to whether the machine will restart ok or not, it seems entirely random; I have had a clear month of uptime or worst case scenario a wasted day of trying to get it running for more than a few seconds before the black screen.

...these 2008 Mac Pros still offer further usable life if this can be sorted out, so if you have experienced this and beaten the problem please save me and many others (it seems to be a very common issue!) from turning these well designed Mac Pros into landfill/reclamation.

My suspicions lie more with how the OS handles the hardware but it will in that case probably be something that has changed in everything OS since possibly Mavericks.

Safe boot makes no difference.

**Putting an Ubuntu drive in it and booting from that makes the issue go away completely**

I look forward to hearing from you if you can help or even tell me your experiences trying to troubleshoot this frustrating issue.

Many thanks

Andy

Posted on Jan 2, 2021 2:10 AM

Top-ranking reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

140,261 points

Posted on Jan 2, 2021 7:37 AM

Panic Reports are stored at:

/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports

If you copy and paste that string into:

Finder > Go menu > Go to Folder

it will take you to where those reports are stored.

They are named with Date&Time and end in .panic

You can post the entire report here, by using the “additional text” Icon in the reply header (looks like a paper with writing).

Please don’t post more about 20 lines of any other types of reports — they are interminable, and any information useful for this purpose is on the first screenful.

There are three quick take-aways from any panic report.

1) The panic-reason,

2) the extensions present at the "scene of the crime", and

3) the BSD process in which the problem occurred.

One more item that is important is the names of any third-party Extensions you have added. They are shown FIRST in the extensions loaded section

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Similar questions

65 replies

Apr 20, 2021 8:47 AM in response to Andrew Beardsmore

You may not be finished debugging yet.

¿Got panic reports with no graphics card present? Post them for readers to take a look at. Maybe there is something else there.

Jan 2, 2021 4:12 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

any of these look interesting ? - no .panic files ...by the way those awd files are a mess to read- it looks like console isn't up to the job... I miss the days of BBEdit which seems to be able to open and read anything ;-)

e.g.

'ã×òê.$90AA9F3C-A72F-CCC9-C4E0-A18FD9C282B0 (¡0: MacPro3,1B15G22010ZUser`z Ó»®÷ê.( 0¬)

Ã ®÷ê.zy ¸Þê.(à0) ¸Þê.ê ¸Þê.VF;L@Ú ¸Þê.¢ 2(0RR

X¸Þê.`hpx'

Jan 3, 2021 3:35 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks Grant - good to hear - ...out of interest, do you think there is anything there likely to suggest further replacement parts will be necessary? - If I am shopping I may as well get everything at once

[I can make the actual log files available for you if needed/ or scan for specific sections as per your earlier advice here and on the other thread I saw your advice for a 3,1 owner - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6305424]

Jan 22, 2021 10:26 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Given the high price of replacement power supply units none of which would’ve been actually new, (phrases such as “pulled from a 24/7 server”!!!) I decided to buy a 5,1. When people on eBay are being realistic about the price of such an old power supply unit I will revisit the machine, or possibly sell it myself on eBay for parts sooner- thanks for your help

Jan 30, 2021 6:40 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi Grant

Hope this finds you well - curiosity got the better of me and in spite of my nice new (to me) 5,1 I went for a gamble on the psu and bought one from MacFinder in IPswich (but on their ebay site).

It arrived promptly and well packaged and for a slightly reduced price (I offered 20% less and we settled on £10 off)

All well and good, and the machine started up fine with the new PSU in it.

45 minutes later and the exact same issue occurred.

What do you think I should try next ?

All the best

Andrew

Jan 30, 2021 6:43 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

PS - is there anyway I can be sure it is definitely another bad PSU ? - my thinking is that if one was to buy a batch of these old mac pros and start them up then they'd appear fine .... it's only after a period of time the shutdown occurs.

I expect the ebay seller will now say it is a bad logic board .....

Jan 30, 2021 8:48 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Grant - have added a few more replies but think I may have done them as replies to myself as didn't realise we were now on page 2 ;-)

P.S. what did you mean by "One more item that is important is the names of any third-party Extensions you have added. They are shown FIRST in the extensions loaded section" (it was a while back you mentioned this) - where do I find this? system profiler?

Jan 30, 2021 9:54 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Yes - thanks - I think the multiple times those drives have been through crashes I am not surprised they are a mess - I am hoping the one with time machine back ups on it is ok !

So repair from within Disk utility ?

Feb 3, 2021 5:00 PM in response to Andrew Beardsmore

The no-Entry/prohibitory sign is shown when the drive appeared to be bootable, but part way through the boot-up process, a major component is found to be defective, the wrong version, or missing.

When the drive is completely not suitable for booting, it would not show up in the boot-picker, or you would end up with the blinking question mark.

Feb 16, 2021 10:49 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly.

Where does it show that ?

Curious as that's unexpected - on that 4TB WD Green HDD I have never installed anything newer than El Cap which is as far as I think you can upgrade macOS on the 3,1

(FYI that El cap drive has not been in any other machine than the 3,1 until recently when I put it in the 5,1 with Opencore Big Sur to move my docs over; at that point of course it asked me to verify permissions on the El Cap drive - which I did - could that have anything to do with it ? This would have occurred before I attempted to boot the 5,1 from the old El Cap drive.

I'm guessing that there is no way Big Sur would have been able to change the file system on the El Cap drive..

thanks

Andrew

Feb 16, 2021 10:52 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

...STOP PRESS

I think I see the source of confusion - El Cap is an upgrade on the Yosemite 2 HDD.

Big Sur is on the Macintosh SSD highlighted in that screen grab from disk utility - it is a 1TB NVMe PCIe mounted SSD and is the main drive in the new 5,1

My apologies for the confusion.

Feb 21, 2021 4:21 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi Grant

There has been an intersting development of note; I booted up the Mac Pro 3,1 and got busy on Friday - it has remained at the login screen powered up (no crashing / fan noise /black screen etc) for three days ..... if it was a logic board issue is there ANY reason why not having logged in to my user account would have prevented it from crashing?

Thank you for all your help so far; desperate not to have to strip for parts and eBay this very clean and previously dependable workhorse even though I have a 5,1 now ....

Andrew

Mar 9, 2021 12:48 AM in response to Sailordoom

Hi Sailordoom

Still AOK in the different slot ? My setup worked fine using GPU in slot 2 (still 16x) for a few days then one night early hours of the morning the usual crash and fans on full.

**But the improvement from a few minutes or hours to a few days is very interesting ...

Apr 8, 2021 12:18 PM in response to Sailordoom

So even with the new motherboard, before you did the checking of the graphics drivers you were still experiencing shutdowns? So possibly nothing wrong with the first motherboard? I agree it’s likely to be a combination problem where factors accumulate and push designed operating ranges (temp/voltage) beyond what the firmware thinks is acceptable

Apr 8, 2021 12:21 PM in response to Andrew Beardsmore

I guess my first question is the most pertinent, as I don’t believe a thermally stressed motherboard (dry cracked solder etc) is ever going to do anything other than get worse (unless you’re running it in a server fridge)

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Mac Pro 3,1 black screen then fans on full