Mac Pro crashes everything constantly

Question

Level 1

0 points

Mac Pro crashes everything constantly

I have a 1,1 Mac Pro running 10.7.3 . Has 11 GB of RAM and a ATI Radeon HD 5770 two 1.5TB hard drives and two 55GB hard drives. Everything else is factory.

The past few weeks it has been acting weird for the first time ever.

I first noticed that it would no longer launch Aperture because it said the grahpics card did not meet minimum requirements.

In iTunes, it won't show videos (just blank screen) or album artwork.

It won't load any kind of installer app.

It won't load system preferences.

It won't load the console.

It will load the terminal.

Won't load Safari. Will load Mail.

The computer itself seems to be running at around half the normal 'speedyness'.

I've tried downloading the OS X install update to 10.7.3 to install, but the install crashes. I've tried downloading the safari update and it crashes. I tried downloading Lion again through app store and it crashes when I get to the password screen. Every option I have to try and get my computer back up.... it crashes.

I have no idea what is going on. But I am in graduate school online and I can't afford to spend 3 hours a night trying to fix this thing!

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on May 22, 2012 6:06 PM

Reply

Answer 1

X423424X

Level 6

14,265 points

May 22, 2012 6:59 PM in response to wblakec

Do a smc and pram reset.

Boot from your installer dvd (or recovery partition) and run Disk Utility to repair/verify your drives (not repair permissions).

Remove all unneeded periphials.

Run Apple Hardware Test to check some of your hardware and ram.

Try using another account.

Boot in safe mode then reboot normally.

Reply

Answer 2

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

May 22, 2012 7:01 PM in response to wblakec

What exactly happens when you try to load those applications?

Reply

Answer 3

wblakec Author

Level 1

0 points

May 22, 2012 7:02 PM in response to X423424X

I did SMC and PRAM (forgot to mention that).

Also tried safe mode boot and still couldn't install anything.

Can't run Apple Hardware test without install disk (I have Snow Leopard disk, but dunno if I can use it with Lion)

Can I boot from installer DVD (snow leopard) If I have Lion installed?

Reply

Answer 4

wblakec Author

Level 1

0 points

May 22, 2012 7:03 PM in response to Linc Davis

The icon in the dock bounce, you never see the application screen load. If you option click on the icons, they give 'force quit' on the bottom, so you know they've gone to poop.

Reply

Answer 5

wblakec Author

Level 1

0 points

May 22, 2012 7:04 PM in response to wblakec

Oh.. forgot to mention I can't use another account because...... I don't have another account. And since I can't load System Preferenes, I can't make another account.

Unless theres' a Terminal command to make a new user, cause Terminal will work.

Reply

Answer 6

X423424X

Level 6

14,265 points

May 22, 2012 7:11 PM in response to wblakec

Still failing when you boot in safe mode? Hmm.

Did you try running Disk Utility to check the drives?

Also,

OS X Lion: Use Apple Hardware Test

And you can do a "quick" memory check in place ofg AHT with Rember or run memtest from terminal (Rember is just a GUI layer for memtest).

Reply

Answer 7

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

May 22, 2012 7:08 PM in response to wblakec

It's likely that you have a hardware fault, such as a drive failure. What backups do you have?

Reply

Answer 8

wblakec Author

Level 1

0 points

May 22, 2012 7:15 PM in response to Linc Davis

Forgot to mention that even Disk Utility crashes.

I was wrong earlier, forgot I upgraded to two 2 TB drives. My second 2 TB drive is a Time Machine. I'm fully willing to do a backup install, but the problem is there's no way I can seem to get OS X Lion recovery.

I can't even download the image on a thumb drive because it crashes when I do that.

What's the next option? Network install thru my MacBook Air?

Reply

Answer 9

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

May 22, 2012 7:35 PM in response to wblakec

If you can't even boot from the recovery partition on the startup drive, you definitely have a hardware fault. You can try the Apple Hardware Test if you want, but that's most often a waste of time. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested.

Back up all data on the internal drive(s) before you hand over your computer to anyone. If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros (do this only if you know how to restore, and you have at least two independent backups.) Don’t erase the Lion recovery partition, if present.

Reply

Answer 10

wblakec Author

Level 1

0 points

May 22, 2012 7:46 PM in response to Linc Davis

The Lion Recovery partition is gone. I don't know why. First hard drive is the main drive, second drive is Time Machichine, third and fourth drives are RAID mirrors for random video work.

Reply

Answer 11

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

May 22, 2012 8:02 PM in response to wblakec

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the page that opens.

Drag or copy — do not type — the following line into the Terminal window, then press return:

diskutil list

Post any lines of output that appear below what you entered — the text, please, not a screenshot.

Reply

Answer 12

wblakec Author

Level 1

0 points

May 22, 2012 8:12 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks for the help guys. Like I said. I've had this machine for six years and it's never given me a problem. Not to mention all the other Apple machines I have.

Luckily, Terminal is one of the apps I can load without a problem. p.s. it's getting close to bedtime (I wake up at 5am for work so i might not be able to reply till tomorrow) Here's the rundown:

mac-pro:~ blake$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.5 TB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Remus 2.5 TB disk0s2

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *2.5 TB disk1

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_HFS Romulus 2.5 TB disk1s2

/dev/disk2

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.5 TB disk2

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk2s1

2: Apple_RAID 1.5 TB disk2s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk2s3

/dev/disk3

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.5 TB disk3

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1

2: Apple_RAID 1.5 TB disk3s2

3: Apple_Boot Boot OS X 134.2 MB disk3s3

/dev/disk4

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: Apple_HFS Alpha & Omega *1.5 TB disk4

Reply

Answer 13

wblakec Author

Level 1

0 points

May 22, 2012 8:12 PM in response to wblakec

Reply

Answer 14

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

May 22, 2012 8:45 PM in response to wblakec

You don't have a recovery partition on your boot drive. Your best option, if you don't want to go straight to the Apple Store, is to get a friend with Lion to run Recovery Disk Assistant and create a USB flash drive bootable into recovery.

Caution: All data on the flash drive will be erased.

Try reinstalling, and make sure you get a recovery partition this time. If necessary, repartition the drive.

OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery Disk Assistant

Reply

Answer 15

May 23, 2012 9:11 AM in response to wblakec

For comparison, here is a similar output showing two "regular" i.e., non-RAID drives. The first holds 10.6.8, the second holds 10.7.4. Note the Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650 MB partition on the 10.7.4 drive.

Last login: Wed May 23 09:36:12 on console

Grants-MacPro:~ grant$ diskutil list

/dev/disk0

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *30.0 GB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS X-Drive 29.7 GB disk0s2

/dev/disk1

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *37.0 GB disk1

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk1s1

2: Apple_HFS X7-Test 31.8 GB disk1s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk1s3

Grants-MacPro:~ grant$

Reply