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MacPro3,1 (2008) gets a blinking white light but sometimes does start up, what's going on?

Hello,

I've got a MacPro3,1 (2008 model) that up until 3 days ago was working fine.

I haven't moved the Mac from its physical location, haven't installed any new hardware or even connected any new devices to it but upon restarting I now get a blinking white LED light and no video.


So I looked around the forums and most results pointed towards bad ram, since I've got 16GB of ram 8 dimms 2GB each it took a while to reseat them all properly but even after reseating them I still get the same issue. A calmly blinking white LED light of the power button (1sec interval).


The odd thing is that none of the riser cards show any of the usual red lights that would turn on if the ram was faulty/not set properly, and then once I force the computer to turn off holding the power button and turn it on again, sometimes the Mac will start up again (not all the time, it may take 3-5 tries).


Does anyone have a clue on why this would always happen when restarting/starting the Mac but that it would then take a force shutdown and a few tries and then starts up again?


Also, during the startup (when it does startup) the Mac won't accept any keyboard input (to try bring up the hardware test or go into the boot manager or even resetting the PRAM by holding ALT+SHIFT+R+P is not possible).

Mac Pro (early 2008), Mac OS X (10.6.7), 8X2,8Ghz,ATI 5870,16GB RAM, SSD

Posted on May 30, 2011 3:59 AM

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Posted on May 30, 2011 6:31 AM

Try resetting the SMC by shutting down and unplugging the power cord for at least 15 seconds. If that doesn't work, you have a hardware fault.

6 replies

May 30, 2011 9:27 AM in response to meemorize

To use the Startup keyboard shortcuts most reliably, be sure your keyboard is connected to a USB port directly on the chassis, not on a display or other Hub. The second USB port is provided only as a convenience for EITHER left or right Apple mouse (or device that uses Less Power). Adding a second device in the unused keyboard port or using a device that draws too much power will cause flaky problems.

Mar 7, 2013 2:37 PM in response to meemorize

I have had this problem on and off for several months now and have exploredthe whole gamut of suggested fixes. I have a Mac Pro Early 2008, 10.8.2 12Gb/2 x 2Tb/5770 (apple) graphics card with Dell U2711 27" monitor. I fixed the problem a few months ago by deleting the file://localhost/Users/desmondf/Library/Preferences/com.apple.systemuiserver.pl ist which worked well for a while. Two days ago it came back with a vengeance. I tried reseating RAM, PRAM 5 times, SMC rest, Diskwarrior, permissions repair, fsck in SUM and repair disk from the recovery partition. Nothing worked. Then I remembered reading somewhere that this was a video problem, so I unplugged the DVI lead from the 5770 card, waited a while and screwed it back in - problem solved!


I understand that when 10.8.3 finally is released (13 beta's so far) there are some video driver fixes in there, so hopefully that will create a more permanent solution.🙂

Mar 7, 2013 2:56 PM in response to Desmond Foulger

The following table lists the new tones and their meaning:


Tone(s)Description
1 tone, a 5-second pause, repeatNo RAM installed
3 successive tones, a 5-second pause, 3 successive tonesRAM does not pass data integrity check
1 long tone when holding down the power buttonFirmware upgrade in process. SeeAbout firmware updates for Intel-based Macsfor more details.
3 long tones, 3 short tones, 3 long tonesFirmware restoration from CD in process. See About the Firmware Restoration CD (Intel-based Macs) for more details.


The iMac from this article tends to sound tones, The Mac Pro just flashes the light. The information conveyed is the same.

Dec 19, 2014 12:13 PM in response to meemorize

I just encountered this issue on my Early 2008 Mac Pro 3,1. I have 6GB total of Ram 2x2GB + 2x1GB on the two daughterboards. My computer had been running fine for years, and today I was cleaning up my desk and opened the mac to get all the dust out. During the dust removal, I took out both daughterboards and blew them off separately, and also removed the ATI 5770 video card. Upon putting it all back together, no startup tone at all, just the power light blinking steadily at roughly once per second.


I removed the upper RAM daughter board, and the machine booted as normal. I then looked into the upper RAM daughterboard slot on the motherboard, and saw that I had inadvertently crammed wads of dust into the slot when I re-inserted the board. After thoroughly blowing the dust out of this slot itself, all was back to normal. I thought I would share this just to note that the RAM itself need not be bad, nor did it feel like the card wasn't seating. But it was nevertheless not making good electrical contact because of the dust in the slot.

MacPro3,1 (2008) gets a blinking white light but sometimes does start up, what's going on?

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