Early 2008 - multiple crashes, usually on startup

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Level 1

21 points

Early 2008 - multiple crashes, usually on startup

Iʻve been nursing this sick beast along for over a year, with multiple visits to the Genius Bar, with no fixes in sight. Here are the specs:

Processor 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

Memory 14 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

Graphics ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB

Software OS X 10.8.5 (12F45)

Bay 1 - Startup; Bay 2 Windows 7; Bay 3 - Time Machine; Bay 4- Windws 7 Backup

It started crashing a little over a year ago, after running well for three years. It sometimes crashes a dozen times on startup (Iʻve counted) before calming down and actually booting up. It can take a half hour to actually boot into a stable state. The other critical information is that the folks at the Genius Bar put the computer through stress tests and on each visit it performed well. However, they undoubtedly did this in an AC environment. I live just south of the Tropic of Cancer, in Honolulu, and do not live and work in an AC environment. Maybe just a coincidence but the latest series of crashes appear to have coincided with a rise in temperature (about 78 at the moment).

Here is what Iʻve already tried:

- all the recommended stuff (permissions repair, zapram, SMC reset, etc.) The reason I know it is not a software issue is that the computer also crashes when I am running Windows 7 in Bootcamp.

- I paid an electrician to create a dedicated circuit for just this computer, and then put the whole house on a Honneywell whole-house surge protector.

- I purchased an APC Back-Ups XS 1500 power conditioner to replace the surge protector I had been using.

- I downloaded a utility to control fan speed and set internal fan speed to 1500 rpm.

- After speaking with a former Apple technician, I placed a fan at the rear, blowing directly onto the computer.

That last fix actually sort of worked — for a while. However the thing has started crashing again, and now I have a small tower fan blowing directly into the front of the tower (a bit awkward on my desk) and the side cracked open, to allow heat to escape. The thing has now worked for about 40 minutes, fingers crossed.

Can someone recommend an add-on internal fan that will help with heat dispersion? I assume the issue is heat.

thanks!

Jan B.

Posted on Nov 17, 2013 11:12 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Nov 18, 2013 1:14 PM in response to Jan Becket

If you have more than one user account, you must be logged in as an administrator to carry out these instructions.

Launch the Console 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.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.

Select the most recent panic report (with a name that begins with "Kernel" and ends in ".panic") under the heading System Diagnostic Reports on the left. If you don't see that heading, select

View ▹ Show Log List

from the menu bar. Post the entire contents of the report — the text, please, not a screenshot. In the interest of privacy, I suggest you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header and body of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.) Please don't post any other kind of diagnostic report, such as a hang report.

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Answer 2

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

Nov 18, 2013 1:33 PM in response to Jan Becket

I would not put faith in your FBDIMMs or 2600XT

ATI Radeon 5770

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC742ZM/A

http://www.amazon.com/Apple-ATI-Radeon-5770-MC742ZM/dp/B003Z6QH6M

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/726537-REG/Apple_MC742ZM_A_ATI_Radeon_HD_5 770.html

How To Install and Remove Memory Mac Pro

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

2x2GB FBDIMM DDR2 667MHz @ $25

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

Windows 7 DVD has a version of Memtest that works well. Normally you would use 800MHz, 667 I recommend are cheaper and work fine.

2600's have had a lot of problems and the 5770 works better in 10.8

It is not normal to run the fans with a minimum 1500 rpm, usually 900-1100 is 'enough' to push enogh extra air for coolng. The FBDIMMs I linked run cooler and better by a good 10*C or more than older FBDIMMs. That is one source of heat.

Hardware Monitor

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

Metro Vacuum ED500 DataVac 500-Watt 0.75-HP Electric Duster 120-Volt

www.amazon.com/Metro-Vacuum-ED500-500-Watt-Electric/dp/B001J4ZOAW/

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Answer 3

Jan Becket Author

Level 1

21 points

Nov 18, 2013 8:49 PM in response to Linc Davis

Thanks for the directions to the kernel panic report. I hope you can extract some suggestions. This was the last kernel panic, although there have been many crashes since. It is a little out of my pay grade to interpret:

Interval Since Last Panic Report: 80604 sec

Panics Since Last Report: 1

Anonymous UUID:

Mon Nov 11 17:26:11 2013

Machine-check capabilities 0x0000000000000806:

family: 6 model: 23 stepping: 6 microcode: 1547

Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5462 @ 2.80GHz

6 error-reporting banks

threshold-based error status present

Processor 0: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:

restart IP valid

machine-check in progress

MCA error-reporting registers:

IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid

IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid

IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200001084200e0f valid

MCA error code: 0x0e0f

Model specific error code: 0x8420

Other information: 0x00000010

Threshold-based status: Undefined

Status bits:

Processor context corrupt

Error enabled

Uncorrected error

Processor 1: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:

restart IP valid

machine-check in progress

MCA error-reporting registers:

IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid

IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid

IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200001080200e0f valid

MCA error code: 0x0e0f

Model specific error code: 0x8020

Other information: 0x00000010

Threshold-based status: Undefined

Status bits:

Processor context corrupt

Error enabled

Uncorrected error

Processor 2: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:

restart IP valid

machine-check in progress

MCA error-reporting registers:

IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid

IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid

IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200000084200e0f valid

MCA error code: 0x0e0f

Model specific error code: 0x8420

Other information: 0x00000000

Threshold-based status: Undefined

Status bits:

Processor context corrupt

Error enabled

Uncorrected error

Processor 3: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:

restart IP valid

machine-check in progress

MCA error-reporting registers:

IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid

IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid

IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200000080200e0f valid

MCA error code: 0x0e0f

Model specific error code: 0x8020

Other information: 0x00000000

Threshold-based status: Undefined

Status bits:

Processor context corrupt

Error enabled

Uncorrected error

Processor 4: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:

restart IP valid

machine-check in progress

MCA error-reporting registers:

IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid

IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid

IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200001084200e0f valid

MCA error code: 0x0e0f

Model specific error code: 0x8420

Other information: 0x00000010

Threshold-based status: Undefined

Status bits:

Processor context corrupt

Error enabled

Uncorrected error

Processor 5: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:

restart IP valid

machine-check in progress

MCA error-reporting registers:

IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid

IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid

IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200001080200e0f valid

MCA error code: 0x0e0f

Model specific error code: 0x8020

Other information: 0x00000010

Threshold-based status: Undefined

Status bits:

Processor context corrupt

Error enabled

Uncorrected error

Processor 6: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:

restart IP valid

machine-check in progress

MCA error-reporting registers:

IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid

IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid

IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200000084200e0f valid

MCA error code: 0x0e0f

Model specific error code: 0x8420

Other information: 0x00000000

Threshold-based status: Undefined

Status bits:

Processor context corrupt

Error enabled

Uncorrected error

Processor 7: machine-check status 0x0000000000000005:

restart IP valid

machine-check in progress

MCA error-reporting registers:

IA32_MC0_STATUS(0x401): 0x1000000020000000 invalid

IA32_MC1_STATUS(0x405): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC2_STATUS(0x409): 0x0000000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC3_STATUS(0x40d): 0x0020000000000000 invalid

IA32_MC4_STATUS(0x411): 0x0000000000000011 invalid

IA32_MC5_STATUS(0x415): 0xb200000080200e0f valid

MCA error code: 0x0e0f

Model specific error code: 0x8020

Other information: 0x00000000

Threshold-based status: Undefined

Status bits:

Processor context corrupt

Error enabled

Uncorrected error

panic(cpu 7 caller 0xffffff80194b91b9): "Machine Check at 0xffffff7f9af8f3ce, registers:\n" "CR0: 0x000000008001003b, CR2: 0x00007fff78494da8, CR3: 0x000000001b9a9000, CR4: 0x0000000000000660\n" "RAX: 0x0000000000000000, RBX: 0xffffff8036acc800, RCX: 0x0000000000000001, RDX: 0x0000000000000000\n" "RSP: 0xffffff81b10f3ca0, RBP: 0xffffff81b10f3cd0, RSI: 0x0000000000000001, RDI: 0xffffff81a8966148\n" "R8: 0x1000000000000000, R9: 0x7ffffffffffffffe, R10: 0x0000000000000720, R11: 0xffffff8019a85ef8\n" "R12: 0x0000000000000001, R13: 0xffffff8036871940, R14: 0x0000000000000000, R15: 0x0000000000000148\n" "RFL: 0x0000000000000046, RIP: 0xffffff7f9af8f3ce, CS: 0x0000000000000008, SS: 0x0000000000000010\n" "Error code: 0x0000000000000000\n"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-2050.48.12/osfmk/i386/trap_native.c: 280

Backtrace (CPU 7), Frame : Return Address

0xffffff81a88e5ec0 : 0xffffff801941d636

0xffffff81a88e5f30 : 0xffffff80194b91b9

0xffffff81a88e60a0 : 0xffffff80194cf4df

0xffffff81b10f3cd0 : 0xffffff7f9af886d2

0xffffff81b10f3db0 : 0xffffff7f9af87a6e

0xffffff81b10f3e60 : 0xffffff80194ba19a

0xffffff81b10f3e80 : 0xffffff801942f35d

0xffffff81b10f3ec0 : 0xffffff801942de11

0xffffff81b10f3f20 : 0xffffff801942db83

0xffffff81b10f3f60 : 0xffffff801943e5a9

0xffffff81b10f3fb0 : 0xffffff80194b3257

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement(214.0)[C154A79F-841E-39ED-A28D-CD 20975E352D]@0xffffff7f9af85000->0xffffff7f9afb2fff

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:

12F45

Kernel version:

Darwin Kernel Version 12.5.0: Sun Sep 29 13:33:47 PDT 2013; root:xnu-2050.48.12~1/RELEASE_X86_64

Kernel UUID: EA38B02E-2B88-309F-BA68-1DE29F605DD8

Kernel slide: 0x0000000019200000

Kernel text base: 0xffffff8019400000

System model name: MacPro3,1 (Mac-F42C88C8)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 1571193280954

last loaded kext at 175406764733: com.mcafee.kext.Virex 1.1.0d1 (addr 0xffffff7f9b2c2000, size 32768)

last unloaded kext at 117627023993: com.apple.driver.AppleFileSystemDriver 3.0.1 (addr 0xffffff7f9b1d8000, size 8192)

loaded kexts:

com.mcafee.kext.Virex 1.1.0d1

com.McAfee.kext.AppProtection 1.1.0d1

com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch 75.19

com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC 1.60

com.apple.filesystems.ntfs 3.10

com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager 4.1.7f2

com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9.5d0

com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 3.5.12

com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl 1.1.11

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBDisplays 357

com.apple.kext.AMDFramebuffer 8.1.6

com.apple.filesystems.autofs 3.0

com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 2.4.7fc4

com.apple.iokit.CSRBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport 4.1.7f2

com.apple.ATIRadeonX2000 8.1.6

com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet 1.0.0d1

com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X 7.0.0

com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 1.6.3

com.apple.driver.AppleMCEDriver 1.1.9

com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin 1.0.0

com.apple.driver.ApplePolicyControl 3.4.5

com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 3.5.6

com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 404

com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 2.3.5

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 635.4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 4.9.9

com.apple.driver.AppleIntel8254XEthernet 3.1.1b1

com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless 1.0.0d1

com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib 1.0.0d1

com.apple.BootCache 34

com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 2.6.6

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPIIXATA 2.5.1

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 621.4.6

com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI 621.4.0

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 1.8

com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 1.5

com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.8

com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 1.9

com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 1.8

com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.7

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient 214.0.0

com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 4.0.39

com.apple.security.quarantine 2.1

com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 214.0.0

com.apple.driver.IOBluetoothHIDDriver 4.1.7f2

com.apple.driver.AppleMultitouchDriver 237.4

com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily 10.0.6

com.apple.driver.AppleSM

System Profile:

Model: MacPro3,1, BootROM MP31.006C.B05, 8 processors, Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 2.8 GHz, 14 GB, SMC 1.25f4

Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT, ATI Radeon HD 2600, PCIe, 256 MB

Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1, 4 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 667 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353142363245363830304600

Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2, 4 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 667 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353142363245363830304600

Memory Module: DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1, 1 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 667 MHz, 0x80AD, 0x48594D5035313241373243503844332D5335

Memory Module: DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2, 1 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 667 MHz, 0x80AD, 0x48594D5035313241373243503844332D5335

Memory Module: DIMM Riser A/DIMM 3, 2 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 667 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353642363145353636374600

Memory Module: DIMM Riser A/DIMM 4, 2 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 667 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353642363145353636374600

Bluetooth: Version 4.1.7f2 12718, 3 service, 20 devices, 3 incoming serial ports

Network Service: Built-in Ethernet, Ethernet, en0

PCI Card: ATI Radeon HD 2600, sppci_displaycontroller, Slot-1

Serial ATA Device: ST3500630AS P, 500.11 GB

Serial ATA Device: ST31000340AS, 1 TB

Serial ATA Device: ST31000528AS, 1 TB

Parallel ATA Device: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-112D

USB Device: hub_device, apple_vendor_id, 0x9121, 0xfd400000 / 2

USB Device: USB2.0 Printer (Hi-speed), 0x04b8 (Seiko Epson Corp.), 0x0007, 0xfd430000 / 5

USB Device: Keyboard Hub, apple_vendor_id, 0x1006, 0xfd410000 / 4

USB Device: Apple Keyboard, apple_vendor_id, 0x0220, 0xfd412000 / 6

USB Device: Apple Cinema Display, apple_vendor_id, 0x921d, 0xfd420000 / 3

USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, apple_vendor_id, 0x8206, 0x5d200000 / 2

FireWire Device: built-in_hub, 800mbit_speed

FireWire Device: unknown_device, unknown_speed

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Answer 4

Jan Becket Author

Level 1

21 points

Nov 18, 2013 8:56 PM in response to The hatter

Thanks for the links! The 5770 graphics card is advertised for the mid-2010 models. If you will re-confirm that it will work with my early 2008 model, Iʻll go ahead and order, along with the updated memory. I posted the last kernel panic report in response to the reply by Linc Davis - that might provide a little more context.

Posted below is a temp. readout from a utility I downloaded. Unfortunately, I do not have the experience to interpret it. Perhaps the readings are normal, perhaps not.

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Answer 5

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,535 points

Nov 18, 2013 9:17 PM in response to Jan Becket

This is probably a hardware fault, most likely a bad DIMM. However, you should remove the worthless McAfee "anti-virus" product, even if it's not contributing to the panics.

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Answer 6

Nov 19, 2013 10:21 AM in response to Jan Becket

This kernel panic report is a Machine check, uncorrected error. This is extremly likely to be an uncorrectable Memory error. In some cases you get lucky and it calls out the module. You did not get lucky here.

The panic occurred in Power Management, which is the routine that handles memory errors. This adds weight to the probability that you are facing Memory errors.

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Answer 7

Nov 19, 2013 10:24 AM in response to Jan Becket

experince of Users here confirms that the 5770 works in all models of Mac Pro. Apple says the only reason they do not recommend it wore widely is you may have probelms watching copy-protected DVDs:

Mac Pro: Using ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card with Mac Pro released before 2010

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Answer 8

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

Nov 19, 2013 11:23 AM in response to Jan Becket

The comments section on the product page; the 10s of thousands of user posts here; that it is being recommended for any and all Mac Pro models as long as the user has at least 10.6.5 (which is 99.9% and pretty much a given).

Rare to find someone recommend a product that won't and does not work (can happen). Also almost a given that Apple marketing requirements can usually be taken with proverbial grain of salt, drive capacity size, amount of RAM too, and odd that they don't or aren't clear about the minor limitation (if it even is one) - would save us a lot of time answering and confirming.

Also, that no one wants a ATI 2600XT or use one running Lion and above.

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Answer 9

Jan Becket Author

Level 1

21 points

Nov 19, 2013 11:09 PM in response to Jan Becket

Many thanks for the suggestions made here! Iʻm in the process of ordering the DIMM and the 5770. Probably a better alternative than taking the thing out behind the house and shooting it.

I may soon have a used 2600 if anyone has a use for it ...

best wishes,

Jan

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Answer 10

Jan Becket Author

Level 1

21 points

Nov 28, 2013 1:11 AM in response to Jan Becket

I replaced a set of my original 2008 1gb DIMM with a set of 2 gb DIMM and installed an ATI 5770. So far, five days later, no crashes (fingers crossed). Also, I uninstalled McAfee and the speed has improved noticeably. Again, many thanks for the suggestions. Maybe I can put off purchasing the new Mac Pro tower for another year ...

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