2007 Xeon dual 3.0 Ghz Quad core won't boot up

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Level 3

570 points

2007 Xeon dual 3.0 Ghz Quad core won't boot up

After seeing a report on hacking, I decided to change my password and reinstall Snow Leopard. About halfway through the install, my machine tried to reboot and failed to do so. The video signal gets all weird and the machine puts itself to sleep and ends the process. I was wondering if I might have been hacked or am I just being paranoid. On the first try, I heard some weird banjo music straight out of the twilight zone. Then nothing. It just tries for a few seconds then goes to sleep.

Any advice? I have never seen anything like this in my almost twenty years of owning machines, but then I have never had a virus before.

Dual 3Ghz 8 core, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Logic Studio 9.0.2 Pro 7.2.3/Final Cut Studio 37

Posted on Nov 20, 2012 8:32 PM

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Answer 1

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thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Nov 21, 2012 6:42 AM in response to Phillip K

Whatever's going on, it's not malware of any kind.

I've never heard of banjo sounds playing, but strange sounds and beeps during the earliest parts of the startup process are generally indications of hardware issues. That plus the video signal errors you mention makes me strongly suspect you have some kind of hardware error. Are you able to boot from the Snow Leopard install disc at this point?

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Answer 2

Phillip K Author

Level 3

570 points

Nov 21, 2012 8:22 AM in response to thomas_r.

That is the Strange part. The disc is in the machine and the machine still wants to put itself asleep before booting. I was thinking of removing the Main system disc (since it seems to be the one in question) to see if it will boot from one of the others that has an operating system on it. The machine not booting off a install disk is pretty weird. would this seem like reasonable course of action?

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Answer 3

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Nov 21, 2012 10:18 AM in response to Phillip K

If you have another bootable system to try, there's nothing to lose by trying it... but I think it's likely you've got a hardware issue.

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Answer 4

Phillip K Author

Level 3

570 points

Nov 26, 2012 1:40 PM in response to thomas_r.

As you rightly figured out, I had a bad hard drive. I took the machine to a local shop and they ran Apple's diagnostics on it. After telling me which drive was bad, I was back in business. Thank you for pointing me the proper direction.

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