HT203161: Isolating issues in Mac OS X

Learn about Isolating issues in Mac OS X
Chris Renna

Q: My 2007 Mac Pro will not work.

Powers on, get chime, then gray screen with lines on it, then black and nothing else.  Any tips?  I have tried a number of remedies suggested online but nothing has worked yet.  Thanks

Macpro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Jan 25, 2015 8:29 AM

Close

Q: My 2007 Mac Pro will not work.

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Previous Page 2 of 3 last Next
  • by Chris Renna,

    Chris Renna Chris Renna Jan 25, 2015 9:54 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 25, 2015 9:54 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Ok, thanks so much for the help.  I am just worried that I buy the replacement graphics card and then the mac still doesn't work...  The computer does work well though.  Maybe I should just get a new card...

  • by The hatter,

    The hatter The hatter Jan 25, 2015 9:55 AM in response to Chris Renna
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Jan 25, 2015 9:55 AM in response to Chris Renna

    Doing both an SMC reset and then an NVRAM "zap pram" reset can help.

    Hitting power on button while everything is unplugged is essential to reset the SMC.

     

    Then slide all the hard drive trays half way out when you do try to boot the computer.

    Sometimes it has been necessary to leave a keyboard disconnected for a long period of time and use another keyboard in the interim to get it too has NVRAM (Apple kb).

     

    http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac

     

    http://store.apple.com/us/product/FE253LL/A/refurbished-mac-pro-37ghz-quad-core- intel-xeon-e5

     

    A lot of us break those plastic pieces, it is not an essential part and still can function without

  • by Chris Renna,

    Chris Renna Chris Renna Jan 25, 2015 10:30 AM in response to The hatter
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 25, 2015 10:30 AM in response to The hatter

    I am looking at the new Mac Pro on the Apple site.  No optical drive, or am I missing something?  That would be a deal breaker for me.  Perhaps I should stick with this 07 model after all.  Any thoughts on this?  I guess I would just use an external drive.

     

    I do do a lot of video/audio editing so perhaps getting an expensive new Mac Pro would be warranted in my case after 8 years of use.  Not sure though, if anyone wants to chime in with thoughts on this.  thanks again for all the responses up to now.

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jan 25, 2015 10:34 AM in response to Chris Renna
    Level 10 (188,739 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 25, 2015 10:34 AM in response to Chris Renna

    Correct, no optical drive and only one internal drive, a fast PCLe SSD. The internal drive is used for booting.

    Apple does have quite a few used/refurbished 2013 Mac Pros.

    http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/mac_pro

    OWC has a lot of used Mac Pros

    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Apple-Systems/Used/Mac-Pro

  • by Chris Renna,

    Chris Renna Chris Renna Jan 25, 2015 10:46 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 25, 2015 10:46 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Somehow I was able to "repair disk" and it is now repairing.  Will see what happens...

  • by The hatter,

    The hatter The hatter Jan 25, 2015 10:59 AM in response to Chris Renna
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Jan 25, 2015 10:59 AM in response to Chris Renna

    I am surprised you had not done some of the upgrades already. Of course cheaper now than 4 years ago and lot of new options.

     

    If you can go with new, and your software is ready for Yosemite and can swing it, do. Even that 4-core low end.

     

    Normally what someone in your shoes (audio/video work) might do:

     

    Upgrade processors to 8-core 5355 or 5365 for under $200.

    8 x 2GB memory $100 / 4 x 4GB closer to $300

    An XP941 512GB + adapter $525 (1000MB/sec reads, 700MB/sec writes is fantastic!)  Can move to 2009/2010.

    Not a lot of choices in graphic cards

     

    A 2009/2010 would make it easier and use a 6-core 3.33GHz or 8-core 3.2GHz all the way up to 12-core 3.4GHz

     

    If you work in FCPX then dual AMD as found in nMP but D700s cost $1000 extra, a pair of latest PCIe AMDs in a 2010.

    For Adobe, then a GTX 770 or 980 series and stay with 2009/2010

     

    REPAIRING a disk is sometimes only helpful for getting files off it for backup and start over with a new drive instead where you know it is clean start.

  • by Chris Renna,

    Chris Renna Chris Renna Jan 25, 2015 11:01 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 25, 2015 11:01 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Somehow I was finally able to "repair disk" and utility told me repairs were not necessary to my startup drive.  Is that all I was supposed to check?

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Jan 25, 2015 11:08 AM in response to Chris Renna
    Level 9 (60,904 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 25, 2015 11:08 AM in response to Chris Renna

    That check should run for like five minutes. If it only ran five seconds, it just checked the partition table and nothing else.

     

    That check a few steps up from "is the plug in?"  It is annoying, but being able to complete it successfully says the I/O subsystem and the Drive is likely working properly.

  • by Chris Renna,

    Chris Renna Chris Renna Jan 25, 2015 11:25 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 25, 2015 11:25 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    It ran for a few minutes.  Not sure if I saw the other check you are talking about.

     

    I just remembered a couple of issues I have been noticing the past few months:  sometimes when I turn the computer on the keyboard does not work and I have to manually shut the computer off (hold the power button down) and then start it up again to get it working.  Also, yesterday one of my external drives would no longer be recognized until I connected it with a different cable.

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Jan 25, 2015 11:30 AM in response to Chris Renna
    Level 9 (60,904 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 25, 2015 11:30 AM in response to Chris Renna

    Those symptoms are not definitive of anything in particular. It looks like the graphics card is the source of most of your troubles.

  • by The hatter,

    The hatter The hatter Jan 25, 2015 11:39 AM in response to Chris Renna
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Jan 25, 2015 11:39 AM in response to Chris Renna

    At some point (OS X 10.7 Lion? Snow Leopard?) you could repair the top level of the drive (something like WDxxxxx) which would check the partition tables, as well as the more usual user volume pa4rtition(s) like "Macintosh OS X HDD" you might have.

     

    Cloning with CCC is well worth it and can enable doing checksum on all file copies to insure their integrity.

    http://www.bombich.com

     

    The issues you were having that would be when to begin troubleshooting and asking, AND primary part of this thread and looking into the whole "will not work" - all too often such things are unfortunately left for last for us and the poster to bring out and reference.

  • by Chris Renna,

    Chris Renna Chris Renna Jan 25, 2015 12:22 PM in response to The hatter
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 25, 2015 12:22 PM in response to The hatter

    Yea, I apologize for not remembering those earlier issues.  I believe I am running Snow Leopard 10.6.5 but I cannot check at the moment.  I just repaired the top level of drive as well and also "no repairs were necessary".  should I check the other 3 drives I have as well or just the startup drive?  thanks

  • by Chris Renna,

    Chris Renna Chris Renna Jan 25, 2015 1:51 PM in response to The hatter
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 25, 2015 1:51 PM in response to The hatter

    Now I am noticing one of my non-startup hard drives is listed as being 29 TB!  The other drives check out ok but this one drive in port 4 cannot be "repaired".  I wonder if this is indicative of some other issue besides the graphic card.

  • by The hatter,

    The hatter The hatter Jan 25, 2015 2:55 PM in response to Chris Renna
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Jan 25, 2015 2:55 PM in response to Chris Renna

    Consider not using the drive bay, and always shutdown before removing or inserting a drive into a drive bay (some think it is safe and think they got away doing so).

     

    Everyone should have a drive dock that you can easily use. You have two SATA ports on the logicboard normally not used (hard to get at) and can use with PCI extender and bracket to outside. They are only polled during startup and are also not "hot-swap."

     

    So you definitely have a problem with the drive at least and need to get it somewhere else to double check.

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Jan 25, 2015 5:48 PM in response to Chris Renna
    Level 9 (60,904 points)
    Desktops
    Jan 25, 2015 5:48 PM in response to Chris Renna

    That size information is supplied by the drive itself, so I would say you also have a problem with that drive. It is possible that it was "talking out of turn" or hanging, or doing things that may have affected other stuff.

     

    During startup, the Mac focuses on the Boot Drive only, and it is not until the login screen (or the desktop if you auto-login) that the other drives are even checked for anything. So a Bum drive 'that is not the Startup drive' should not affect Startup.

Previous Page 2 of 3 last Next