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Mac pro Keeps restarting itself

I was working and needed to restart my Mac pro (late 2007 model) suddenly it stopped and restarted again and so on.

I shut it off and did a safe boot, recovery boot, deleted the P-RAM with ALT+CMD+P+R and nothing works. I can not open my drive to put the install disk.

It just keeps restarting


Is my work gone? and what can I do?

iPhone 4, iOS 4.3.3

Posted on Sep 23, 2013 1:58 PM

Reply
26 replies

Sep 23, 2013 2:31 PM in response to michelfrombergen op zoom

Tthe graphic card as it could easily fail. The 2007 Mac Pro 2,1 came with 7300GT OEM and more than 7 yrs ago when that card was even "new."


You can only do Recovery if you have Lion. So that helps tell us something.

Can't stress enough, invest in some bootable backup clones.


keyboards and USB cables and devices can cause mischief if nothing else. The fact you could ZAP PRAM/NVRAM (not delete, it can't be, only cleared).


There is no install DVD for Lion, but it is useful to have made your own flash installer wtih the Lion .ESD package.


If you replaced the 7300GT in the past with say Apple ATI 5770, then no DVD exists as you would need 10.6.5+


To open the optical drive door, hold down the mouse during startup. Hold Option key also to stop the boot.


Between TimeMachine and Carbon Copy Cloner and having redundant and multiple backup sets, except for a total meltdown, you have your system and data preserved (and a UPS, we just had a 30 second outage this AM for no good known reasons... all over town).

Sep 23, 2013 2:56 PM in response to The hatter

Hi,


This sounds all very complicated to me (sorry, I am not that technical with computers) I dont have Lion but Leopard and I can not update my system because I run Protools HD7


I am starting to worry because I need to keep my work going fast. You talked to me before about the issue with that graphics card. I baked that thing in the oven. Could it be that I screwed the cooling paste in that proccess and that this all is caused by overheating?


I noticed my computer getting pretty slow and suddenly after I put in the baked graphics card I needed to log in and I could not record but only listen to my work and edit. When I was doing ''get info'' on the folder and all enclosing folders and verifying the read/write permission everything went to ****.


Does this tell you something?


is there a quick solution to start working for a few days?


Sorry if I ask dump questions, I am a composer not a technician.

Sep 24, 2013 6:35 AM in response to michelfrombergen op zoom

Cloning is easy and a great safety net.


Leopard is not supported today.


To get a new graphic card you would need 10.6.x DVD and upgraded first to use the Apple ATI 5770.


You need to find 10.6.8 versions of your software and hardware.


And to use Lion 10.7.5 you have to move to current versions probably, which is more secure and better supported but left support for old legacy programs behind.


Some backup drives and Carbon Copy Cloner will handle the backup/clone safety net.


Sep 24, 2013 11:28 AM in response to The hatter

Thanks a lot I really appreciate your help. Right now I am looking at installing OSX on an external drive to repair the ''old'' OSX.


The person that supplies my studio is guiding me thru this process now. The install disk is Tiger and I am not sure if I work with Leopard or in fact Tiger... So maybe in that case we can do a migration. Maybe I am explaing it wrong to you but somewhere in this direction I hope to find the solution.

Sep 24, 2013 11:37 AM in response to michelfrombergen op zoom

you should instead buy a DVD for Snow Leopard 10.6.3 from Apple $20-30 and setup an emergency boot partition.


I would even pull your drives and start with internal drives: one for emergency maintenance and another with 10.6.8.


Later you can use Carbon Copy to copy your old working system to a new drive and keep that handy.


Test your system and in use of 10.6.8


Using anything older than 10.6.8 should be avoided. Maybe if totally disconnected from the internet.

Sep 24, 2013 1:54 PM in response to The hatter

The main thing 10.6 left behind was no more AppleTalk Printers, and no more Direct execution of PowePC code. The most disappointed users were those running on PowerPC G4 and G5 Hardware.


Mac OS X 10.6 running on Intel processors relied solely on Rosetta emulation to run old PowerPC versions of some Applications. PowerPC support through Rosetta continued to be excellent, and there was very little that did not continue to work. Since it went completely Intel-native, it was more compact and ran faster than the previous versions.


I think you are being skittish for nothing. If you need a way to run your old AppleTalk Printers, I can share several tricks that other Users have successfully implemented, including the solution I use myself.


------


The leap to 10.7 is not nearly so benign, especially if you are running older software.

Sep 26, 2013 5:26 AM in response to The hatter

It all sounds very difficult to me but maybe if I give you the following info its more clear or maybe you can give me a simple answer because I am really not technical enough for this.


I run Leopard 10.5 on a late 2007 Mac pro with Protools 8HD. My problem is that I can not boot my comp. It keeps restarting over and over. Graphics card works fine its just that I can not get into my computer.


I can boot from the install disk, I run Disk utility, I am having two HD's and did disk repair and repaired permisions the result is that after verfiy it says that both desk seem to be okay (with green letters). Still cant start my computer.


Another problem is that I can not unlock the HD2 Harddrive. I unlock it with my password at sharing & permission and that is fine but then I can not change the custum settings into read & write. I get the error-50 and it keeps on changing back into custums all the time, so there is no way I can unlock the HD2.


I can not update my system because that would cause a conflict with Protools 8 I also really need to keep the data on the HD's else I am in serious trouble.


I did do a migration to a external drive where I installed OSX 10.5 but from here I dont know what to do next to repair the disks or the actually use my computer normal again.

Sep 26, 2013 5:39 AM in response to michelfrombergen op zoom

Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

Pro Tools Software Versions Below 8.0.3 Are Not Compatible With Snow Leopard. Pro Tools HD 8.0.3, 8.0.4, 8.0.5, 8.1, and 8.1.1 are free updates for Pro Tools HD 8 owners.


Version 8.1 and 8.1.1 support the following Mac OS X versions, on Intel-based Macs only:

Mac OS X 10.6.2 – 10.6.7 (Snow Leopard)

Version 8.0.4 and 8.0.5 support the following Mac OS X versions, on Intel-based Macs only:

  • Mac OS X 10.6.1 – 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard)

    Note: Pro Tools 8.0.4 not tested with 10.6.7 and higher

  • Mac OS X 10.5.8 (Leopard)
  • Not Tested: 10.5.5-10.5.7

Version 8.0.3 supports the following Mac OS X versions, on Intel-based Macs only:

  • Mac OS X 10.6.1 – 10.6.2 (Snow Leopard)
  • Mac OS X 10.5.5 – 10.5.8 (Leopard)
  • Not tested: 10.6.3 and higher

Please Note: Pro Tools 8.0.3 software (and higher) does not support some retired products, including:

  • Expansion|HD Chassis
  • Macintosh PowerPC Computers

Please read the EOSS (End of Software Support) Announcements for more information.


source:

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/Compatibility/en352429

Sep 26, 2013 5:53 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thank you but my Protools is fine and I dont want to update. I just need to be able to start my computer besides I do not have an internet connection on that computer.


I am running this set up since 2009 perfect without any problems and I would like to conitnue that.


Do you have any indea what could have happened because this Mac was never online or I never abused it. I just use Protools, rec, edit, mix and thats it. No funny stuff.


It started when I was moving files to an external disk. It got stuck and BAM problem was born.

Sep 26, 2013 7:40 AM in response to michelfrombergen op zoom

You need enough space on the destination drive to accomdate all that is on the source. They do not need to be EXACTLY the same size, though.


If you are lacking enough space, then, just for testing, create a small (35GB) partition on your external drive. Then try installing OS X to that using your DVD. IT's a fresh, plain installation that you don't have to use for anything. Just to see if you can boot the system with it.


It's better I think to try this with an internal drive. Can you buy a new drive? They don't really cost so much, but I understand if you don't want to spend the money. How old is the drive you are using for OS X? It's the original one?

Mac pro Keeps restarting itself

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