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Mac Pro 2.1 (Eight Core) sudden restart

So I bought this mac (pretty cheap) knowing it had the problem.


Basically, the machine will run for a few minutes and restart without notice. It'll eventually restart sooner than the previous time and so on... it'll even restart itself during the power-on chime.


I have had the "CPU A & B OVERHEAT" leds turn on on the logic board, but it's not always the case.


What I've come up with so far:

-Not a bad RAM issue. I have changed all FBDIMM sticks and swapped risers.

-Not the graphic card. I run the machine without it using screen sharing and it still restarts.

-Not the battery, I put a brand new one in.

-Multiple resets of SMC and PRAM


I have managed to install Hardware Monitor on it and I have witnessed several current and power peaks on idle:

User uploaded file

The machine crashed a few minutes after this grab.

Are those peaks and oscillations normal? If not, does it qualify for a faulty PSU diagnostic?

Also, I have noticed that the fans always seem to be running at the same speed... I got control of fans speed by installing smcFanControl but does it point to a more specific trouble?

Also, running fans full speed seem to let the machine run a little longer.

If it's a bad logic board, I'll probably have to give up on it.


My project is to troubleshoot it myself so please, don't bother suggest I should bring it to a tech or get a newer machine 😉

Thank you!

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Oct 12, 2014 5:45 PM

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Posted on Oct 13, 2014 1:19 AM

What is currently running on the Mac?

Go to Activity monitor and what is using CPU?

What are temps of the various components?

10 replies

Mac Pro 2.1 (Eight Core) sudden restart

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