apple mac pro a1186 it chimes on start-up but no display

Internet Recovery is NOT available in ROM in most Macs before 2011 models. So you will need to explore this list of other possibilities.

When your computer was released, the way you launched the required Utilities (including Disk Utility and Installer) was to use the ones on the Release software DVD. if you have a model-specific version for your model (unlikely) or a Full Retail 10.6 DVD, you use its Utilities, boot and install that version, then use Software update to get to 10.6.8 with all updates, which is the version that can reach out to the Mac App store for the first time and download and install a later version.

10.11 El Capitan is a recommended waypoint, even if you expect to install a later version, because it has an improved Mac App Store that makes getting later versions much easier.

The next source of Utilities is the Recovery Partition on the boot drive. If your drive spins up, even if not MacOS bootable, it may still have a usable recovery partition. To get there, try invoking recovery with Command-R or hold Alt/Option at startup and see if the recovery partition shows as a potentially bootable drive.

Recovery Partitions up through 10.12 Sierra can be found with the Startup Manager (Alt/Option boot). At 10.13, if an SSD boot drive is used, the format is transitioned to APFS. The Recovery partition is present, but it is inside the APFS container, and the Startup Manager on an older Mac may not be able to find it.

The next source of Utilities to consider is any MacOS 10.6 or later versions on any additional drives or clones you may (or may not) have lying about, even if they are from another Mac. You can use those Utilities to ERASE a new drive, and start the installer to place MacOS on the new drive.

The next source to consider is a Time Machine backup drive. Versions from 10.7.3 or later are said to contain a Recovery Partition that could be used to ERASE a new drive and run Installer to place MacOS on a new drive. Time Machine backups created in MacOS 11 Big Sur or later are APFS format, and APFS format backup drives do NOT have a Recovery partition.

Two Mac solutions:

With certain combinations of new and old Mac, you can use Target Disk mode to repair, erase, and install on the drive of the old Mac, by treating it as a disk drive on the new Mac.

Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode - Apple Support

You need to get to at least 10.9, and then apply all software updates. Then you will be upgraded to Safari 9, which is the oldest Browser that can make an httpS: internet connection today.

this site has direct download links for 10.10 Yosemite and 10.11 El Capitan that do NOT require proper encryption (will work with your installed 10.8)

How to download and install macOS - Apple Support

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so here's the rub. that graphics card does have Apple firmware, so it does not support Mac boot screens. So you get no startup picture, no startup manager, no diagnostics, nothing until your Mac is fully up and running. and if it does not get there, you get no help in finding out why.

source:

https://blog.greggant.com/posts/2018/05/07/definitive-mac-pro-upgrade-guide.html

But IF you could get past that, the card itself does support MacOS 10.9 and later, and supports Metal, so could support through 10.14 Mojave.

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A1186 looks up to silver tower, original through 2008 models. Do you know what model-year? 2008 models can run 10.11 El Capitan.

a very typical failure is failure of the graphics card, but sub-failures of individual interface have been seen. DO NOT replace like-for-like or you will be right back here too soon. a slight upgrade in technology can provide MUCH more stability.

You can use any monitor. Readers can advise about how to adapt the card outputs to display inputs. Resolutions of most cards will be limited to 2560 by 1600 max.

What MacOS do you/ can you run?

Yes, I’d pay heed to what Grant Bennet-Alder has posted here, but add my “2 cents”… start with the basics… could be the pram battery has gone flat… it’s on the backplane, just under the graphics video card… they usually last about 5 years… maybe change it, either a BR-2032 ( official replacement ) or CR-2032( easier to find) and try resetting the smc/pmu and zapping pram 3-4 times on startup, per this link:-> https://www.macworld.com/article/224955/how-to-reset-a-macs-nvram-pram-and-smc.html

see how far that gets you…

John b

Yeah, okay, so you changed the pram battery- didn’t work, and you tried resetting the smc and zapping the pram 3-4 times- didn’t work, so i guess your graphics card is toast/hooped/broken… maybe check ebay/local vendor groups eg fb marketplace for a replacement card… either mac native/mac flashed us fine… i got a radeon hd 7950 ( 6 GB of vram ) for $300 CDN with postage . Maybe you can do better on the price ?

john bp

Okay, kev1964, I’ll try to help you… yes, you can, in theory, put any PC graphics card in there of the general type you mentioned, but until the MacOS loads you won’t see any screen at all, so for troubleshooting not so good..there are ways around this, eg OpenCore/OCLO but these are considered “hacks” and won’t be supported here… as for a boot disk, any SATA II hard drive or SSD of pretty much any size will work, but you’ll have to enable TRIM on the SSD.. Gregg Gant has an ultimate upgrade guide out there( https://blog.greggant.com/posts/2018/05/07/definitive-mac-pro-upgrade-guide.html)

so— Mac flashed or Mac native will be fine… i recommend the 7950 HD I recommended as it works in 2008 Mac pro’s and if you can find one with 6 GB of VRAM it should be a good enough performer

John b

You can immediately use a minimal Apple-firmware GT120 card, and since it has Apple firmware, it WILL show Mac boot screens. It does not need any additional power. it does not have a fan. But it is not much of a 3-D graphics card.

if you will be running higher than MacOS 10.6.5, good card to install install is a modest-priced used Apple-firmware ATI/AMD 5770 card, which supports one older display on its DVI-I dual-link output (with direct VGA capability there are well, with adapters) AND supports up to two more displays on its two Mini DisplayPort outputs. it requires ONE aux power cable internally, But that is not very difficult to add. Drivers are in MacOS 10.6.5 and later.

The 7950 JohnB suggests is a more-capable "Big Brother" of the 5770, but may be harder to find and cost more.

The simplest thing a MacPro 2012 or older can do, PROVIDED its has a Mac-firmware graphics card installed and working, uses only the ROM-resident Startup Manager.

Hold the OPTION key at startup, and your Mac should draw a gray screen (not completely BLACK like powered off), and over the next several minutes will add an icon for each potentially-bootable device detected (by brute force). When the first scan is completed, whether any such devices are found or not, the on-screen wait cursor will turn into an ordinary pointer.

This function does not require ANY drives to contain anything, and you can even remove all drives and it will still work as described.

When installing MacOS, every Mac uses a stripped-down minimal system named MacOS Base System. MacOS Base System is extremely likely to work because it does not require ANY added display Drivers.

However, MacOS Base system REQUIRES Mac EFI firmware graphics card to display boot-up, start up, and Installer screens.

The way around this issue is to install a Mac-firmware graphics card. That is what Readers advised you to do early-on. if there were an easier work-around, we would have told about the work-around.

If you had a different Mac, that was around the same age, you could place your drive in an external enclosure. Then you could install and set up MacOS, ready to go. Then transplant that working boot drive into your Mac Pro silver tower, and it would show its first readable screen at the longin prompt.

yes, that is a Mac-Firmware card since it says Apple. it will show boot-up screens. it has DVI-I with VGA alternative, and two Mini DisplayPort outputs.

Drivers for use in running macOS were first available in 10.6.5.

I posted this above:

if you will be running higher than MacOS 10.6.5, good card to install install is a modest-priced used Apple-firmware ATI/AMD 5770 card, which supports one older display on its DVI-I dual-link output (with direct VGA capability there are well, with adapters) AND supports up to two more displays on its two Mini DisplayPort outputs. it requires ONE aux power cable internally, But that is not very difficult to add. Drivers are in MacOS 10.6.5 and later.

Most graphics card require at least one additional "aux" Power cord. The 5770 requires one additional six-pin aux power cord, in addition to the power it draws from being properly plugged into one of the first two PCIe slots.

if you do not have a cord from your old card that you could just move over, Readers can help you find one.

Sorry, not grant , but assuming you have a usb wired keyboard+ mouse plugged into your Mac, restart and hold down “Option” key on keyboard… dunno if that’ll work with such an old Mac and MacOS?? If you have snow leopard dvd, restart, hold down “c”key on keyboard and put snow leopard dvd into drive label side up