Mac Pro Only Boots in Safe Mode - GeForce 7300 issue?

FBDIMMs fail. There are cheap high quality on Amazon USA $29 2x2GB even if just t test with - a quad set 8GB would be ideal.

The Apple OEM I had from Aug 2006 got too hot and failed and not worth having really (I had 4x512MB)

The new ones should run cooler, you want 65*C not 75*C (anything over 70*C shortens their life)

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT4433

http://www.amazon.com/BUFFERED-PC2-5300-FB-DIMM-APPLE-Memory/dp/B002ORUUAC/

Hardware Monitor

http://www.bresink.com/osx/HardwareMonitor.html

Any DIMM positions showing empty, but actually containing a module, contain a failed module.

You are at risk of having too little working memory in your Mac to have Mac OS X be stable and fast.

Thanks, just bought that double pack. If this solves my problem, I might go for another pack. I will let you guys know and thanks again to both of you!!

I received the ram, added it and took out the failed ones, but I still have the same problem, FYI:

Memory Slots:

ECC: Enabled

DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1:

Size: 2 GB

Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM

Speed: 667 MHz

Status: OK

Manufacturer: 0x8551

Part Number: 0x463036313031302020202020202020202020

Serial Number: 0x01055B27

DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2:

Size: 2 GB

Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM

Speed: 667 MHz

Status: OK

Manufacturer: 0x8551

Part Number: 0x463036313031302020202020202020202020

Serial Number: 0x01056B18

DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1:

Size: 512 MB

Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM

Speed: 667 MHz

Status: OK

Manufacturer: 0x830B

Part Number: 0x4E54353132543732553839413842442D3343

Serial Number: 0x15B12634

DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2:

Size: 512 MB

Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM

Speed: 667 MHz

Status: OK

Manufacturer: 0x830B

Part Number: 0x4E54353132543732553839413842442D3343

Serial Number: 0xE4892843

DIMM Riser A/DIMM 3:

Size: 1 GB

Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM

Speed: 667 MHz

Status: OK

Manufacturer: 0x05F7

Part Number: 0x000000463732323842353245353636374600

Serial Number: 0x00000000

DIMM Riser A/DIMM 4:

Size: 1 GB

Type: DDR2 FB-DIMM

Speed: 667 MHz

Status: OK

Manufacturer: 0x05F7

Part Number: 0x000000463732323842353245353636374600

Serial Number: 0x00000000

DIMM Riser B/DIMM 3:

Size: Empty

Type: Empty

Speed: Empty

Status: Empty

Manufacturer: Empty

Part Number: Empty

Serial Number: Empty

DIMM Riser B/DIMM 4:

Size: Empty

Type: Empty

Speed: Empty

Status: Empty

Manufacturer: Empty

Part Number: Empty

Serial Number: Empty

I ran verify disc utilities to verify disc and it gave me this message:

The volume Macintosh HD was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.

Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use Disk Utility to repair this disk.

I have run disc utilities before and sometimes it comes uf fine, with no problems, sometimes like this. Problem is that it won't boot with the install disc, so I can't run disc repair that way.

Your arrangement could be improved.

4 or 8 DIMMs for symmetrical memory

2x512 is not buying you much / they are old / they should be kept below 70*C

Boost the fan speed minimum default for one thing, monitor temps

move the 2 x 1GB to B1:B2

Leave all the 3:4 slots empty

And yes those are excellent sets from Amazon, and 6x2GB would help.

You should ALWAYS have bootable clone backups plus a small emergency OS X system volume (30GB is more than enough, you can even try adding it to one of your backup drives).

If nothing else and lacking backups and clone, might be rare situation where you need to invest in

doing a clean install on a drive partition / buying 3rd party

you can't tell us WHAT OS you are runnning and what DVDs you have.

Maybe you need to buy/download and SAVE Lion installer (before running) to flash drive and setup on separate drives. Or order 10.6.3 DVD $30 - if you have ATI 5770 you need 10.6.5 or higher of course. Otherwise NO reason to not boot DVD.

One situation where you cannot: boot drive is really badly corrupt directory etc, in which case pull the drive, boot. Put the drive in FW/USB case and power on afer systen boooted. Empty FW/USB enclosures @ OWC www.macsales.com or Amazon

Not sure if I understand everything you said, but will google myself through your post. I will move around the Dimm's, but I have no idea how to boost the fan speed and if I find that the ram actually fixed the problema nd I can keep woring with this computer, I would def. go for more of those Dimm's, but if it's something else, I might need to safe the money for now. Don't know how to go about having a bootable clone back up and what that means. I have my hard drive backup on an external drive through time machine, but that's probably not what you mean. Don't really get the clean install..3rd party thing.. Sorry, I am not very educated when it come to this as you can tell.

If by ATI 5770 you are referring to my graphics, I didn't change any of the original and have

NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT, which is why I started up in this thread. I am on OS 10.6.8 and my install disc is 10.4.7. I also have the Snow Leopard 10.6 disc, but I think that was just an upgrade, so while I tried using it to boot, I am not sure if it would work.

SmcFanControl 2.x www.macupdate.com

$29 to have a good 4GB set of RAM? no brainer to me. take out all the others.

no I mean use CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner on MacUpdate also) to clone and have bootable volume / install clean OS to to 30GB volume (shrink and create)

NEVER have just one backup set.

So forget the OEM DVD and use the 10.6.x DVD. There is no such thing as a retail upgrade DVD with Apple. It cannot be an OEM DVD from another user or computer, it would cause all kinds of mischief.

Moved dimm's to slots 1&2, removed old half gig rams, so am on 6gigs right now. Tried rebooting with 10.6 and just got grey screen

I do agree that $29 for 4gb is a no brainer, and that's why I ordered them right away, thing for me is this: it didn't fix my problem, so before I go out and order more ram, I'd rather get to the bottom of this..if I can. Just curious:

I ended up in this thread, because I googled what was going on with my computer- only booting in safe mode, weird graphics (lo rez) grey screen with two mouse icons when trying to boot normally, hardware test coming back fine, etc..and I have no idea, why the graphics card would effect my computer in that way, but why did you guys rule that out as a problem?

Is there a way of finding out if my Geforce 7300 is busted, without buying a new one for $300 and taking the chance of it not being the problem? I feel at that point, I might as well buy a new mac mini..not that I have the money right now, but saying investment wise might be a better idea?

Obviously I would prefer to just fix this one at low cost ; )

I am using my Mac for music production with Logic 9 mainly, is the mac mini even a good alternative, or do I have to go for the $2000 and up options, if all fails here?

Thanks again for your help

What I said, what I do anytime I buy new RAM:

REMOVE _all_ of the OLD RAM.

And yes forget using those 512's, and ADD back one set at a time after you see if you can boot a virgin system from your DVD.

I received the ram, added it and took out the failed ones, but I still have the same problem

Too bad you can't find something, anything, to boot with as far as GPU.

MACVIDCARDS ebay is great and he hangs out on MacRumors forum : Mac Pro

You should be able to boot from 10.6 DVD with no disk drives installed or present.

You should reset the SMC at this point. Hit power on button for 10 secs with ALL cables and power disconnected, then hook up only mouse/kb.

You would do well with faster and more cores and some SSDs. No I would avoid the Mini. Maybe the iMac.

For the cost of 2.9GHz iMac you could get into a 2010 2.8GHz $1800 that at least lets you add SSDs, GPU, RAM and a 6-core 3.33 as well ($620 for that).

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC560LL/A/refurbished-mac-pro-28ghz-quad-core- intel-xeon

realize you had the new RAM but didnt try with just it and just a raw or no hard drives

so to get this right, as I won't be able to follow up with you once I start going down the suggestions:

remove ALL old ram, only start up with the new 4gb, boot with 10.6 dvd..what do you mean with virgin system?

MACVIDCARDS means you think I should consider a new graphics card?

How would I boot with no disk drives installed or present..I get there by what you explained with the 10 sec power on button? I am seeing this correctly: hit the button with no power cable conected??

what's SMC, what are faster and more cores and SSD's?

I can't afford to buy anything that is in the $1800 and up price range, honestly, I don't even have the money to buy the mac mini right now, but looking forward, how long, IF I were able to get my mac pro running again, how long will I have until it's done and outdated? From what I understand I can't even upgrade to mountain lion with it as is

$180 for Apple 8800GT from macvidcards, only good source today

it works and does more now than it did

apple today issued security updates for 10.6.8

I don't see the need - yet - that ML is a "must"

A used special on the mini as a 2nd backup system and if you do need iPhone/iCloud or something

You can run Lion of course.

YOU DO NOT NEED HDD to boot from a DVD. Insures it does. You can also use "D" on startup and your OEM 10.4.x DVD with Apple Hardware Test and see.

I try to put $250/month into computer upgrades, next system so I do have a nest egg if needed.

"system" is not just one part. All the bottlenecks. Slow old hard drives, low performance from your 4-core system.

You know by now what SSDs are - they have been around since 2008. Moving things to different drives, having a dedicated fast (SSD) for scratch... all help, along with having "enough plus" of RAM.

S = system M = Management C = Controller

And you can buy or assemble a Windows PC for $900 that would "kick" and run like a champ with an i5 4-core and GTX 660 and 16-32GB RAM. And earn its keep maybe.

This might be a stupid question, but here it goes:

My wife has a macbook pro. Could I safely connect that to my computer and run disk utilities from her ?

When I say safely, I mean that she needs that computer for work everyday all day and I can't risk doing anything that might mess her computer up as well