2008 Mac Pro won't boot

Question

Level 2

350 points

2008 Mac Pro won't boot

As title states, won't boot. When selecting either the HDD or recovery partition as boot device, gives "prohibited" symbol (circle w/ dash).

I have a bootable 10.8.5 disk, but it also fails to boot to it.

I am able to boot to the harddrive via target disk mode with a nearby iMac. Boots to the firewire HDD (in the Mac Pro) no problems.

Have attempted an erase and install through target disk mode. It worked, I can still boot to the HDD through the iMac, but no-go on booting from the Mac Pro itself.

It does pass POST.

Ideas?

Posted on Jun 1, 2015 1:01 PM

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Answer 1

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Jun 1, 2015 1:07 PM in response to Gnomish8

Try resetting the SMC and NVRAM/PRAM

Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

About NVRAM and PRAM

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Answer 2

Gnomish8 Author

Level 2

350 points

Jun 1, 2015 1:14 PM in response to lllaass

Thanks for the suggestion, lllaass, but still no dice. :/

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Answer 3

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Jun 1, 2015 2:16 PM in response to Gnomish8

To 'cut to the chase' a full profile of hardware perhaps?

No serial number.

Or output Etrecheck or part there of.

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Answer 4

Gnomish8 Author

Level 2

350 points

Jun 1, 2015 2:29 PM in response to The hatter

Well, since it won't boot, Etrecheck is a bit difficult to run. But, the hardware in it is:

Dual GeForce 7300 GT

2.8 GHz Q. Core Xeon

This computer did have a 1TB Seagate Barracude 7200 in it, just swapped it out to a WD Caviar 500GB and am installing the OS to that and will see if it works.

8x 1GB DDR2 RAM sticks.

Fresh erase and install, so software is bare-bones minimum. Haven't even installed iLife yet...

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