Mac Pro 2009 (4.1) won't boot - strange DIAG leds behaviour

Hello Again

Update 19042017

My Mac Pro 2x Quad core is back again !! Did a disassembly and went carefully throughout the troubleshooting step by step. Final step re seated and thermal paste with silver artic4 to both cpu also swaped them. Finally boot normal again to Mac Os Sierra new thermal paste lowered temp to more than 6 points on eacth cpus ! But after a 10 min work, a freeze again and automatic restart that never got back again. Flashing led under EFI. Decided to give a second try with the old Cpus that original came with my MacPro, result evrything is perfect and back again (no EFI corruption theory !!) Conclusion: I suppose a breakdown of one or both cpus which I bought second handed (cpu Xeon X5660) The Original Xenon e5520 my memory to 1066Mhz and working fine again I hope this helps someone out there .

By the way the troubleshooting info on the led behavior is kind of odd and not many out there it would be very helpful to know exactly the senescence in with each led comes off and on.

Many thanks to all,no matter how old or new you gadget is keep posting you experiences, they might help others this articles helped Me!

Hello all

And hello domflowers my friend I have exactly the same problem ! I guess it started when i decided to swap the cpu cages with another Mac Pro of my own, that I do not have at reach at this moment. I read that SMC Firmware must match from backplate to cpu cage, I have not check that ! In my case eventually the cpu boots and everything works fine but lately it is stuck in no boot mode!! No EFI and GPU green lights !! no startup sound no mouse light and of course no digital audio jack red light on I will disassembly check for connectors and post my finding here for any other with the same problem By the way also changes battery cell for a new one ! By the way it might be a vintage computer but it is also one of my greatest gadgets I had so much Fun working with !!

In re-reading this thread, i continue to be alarmed by this:

When I press the power button, it turns on, fans are running (not the psu fan though)

In general, the Mac Pro power supply tends to control its own fan speed, based on its own (electrical) measurement of the fan speed required. At this early stage, software that controls fans is NOT involved. If everything else worked, your power supply would melt before you got very much farther.

That fan needs to spin up at power-on.

The led on the power button starts blinking.

That generally happens when there is not enough WORKING RAM to start up.

The DIMMs used in these Macs get hotter than we have ever seen, and they tend to die. That is why the emphasis on Working in my post above.

I have a Mac Pro late 2008 - so did you change the lithium battery that keeps the date and time?

(I still have the Everything mac book - and that seems to be the first recommendation when your startup seems a bit off.)

The Status light flashing - One short flash followed by a longer period off - no valid memory

Three short flashes followed by a longer off period - failed memory.

As you have been taking things out and putting them back - check that everything is properly seated.

I did just replace the lithium battery in November - and as you have to remove the video card to get to it -- it took a few tries to get the board seated properly. (Also on my mac g4 cube -- both times i added memory -- took 2 or 3 tries for power up.)

I have a very similar problem with Mac Pro Early 2009 4,1 upgraded to 5,1 firmware CPU Tray upgrade to 3.46ghz 6 core Xeon.

All was working a couple of months ago tested well. It sat quiet for 90 days in a corner...

Now it won't chime.

No keyboard or mouse function lights.

No video.

All components tested working (including CPU tray) in another same machine and config upgrade history which I am using now very happily. 🙂

Diag LEDs tests are as expected for standby, and red flash when power cord is plugged in or unplugged.

Fans, drives, video card, all have power and function in other machine. Reseated RAM and other connections. Reset what I could with out a keyboard function, I think... 😕 Are there other tests or resets to try?

It differs starting from page 30 of the...

http://tim.id.au/laptops/apple/macpro/macpro_early2009.pdf

7. Press and hold the DIAG button.

Expected behavior:

•PSU PWROK (green), 5V STBY (amber), EFI DONE (green), GPU OK (green) LEDs illuminated
•No startup tone
•Front and rear processor cage fans (and PCIe fan, if installed) should spin slowly

For my machine the "EFI DONE" & "GPU OK" are off and it looks just like the video you posted https://youtu.be/ZmOMGe7E5is

only my front white power light does not flash, it is ON solid.

If there is some corruption in the EFI or firmware due to upgrading from 4,1 to 5,1 can I refresh the 5,1 firmware?

If I attempted to restore the 4,1, I would need to replace the older 2.66ghz chip to attempt a boot.

My 3.46 chip tray works great in another machine, should I try to find another cpu tray that has not been upgraded yet?

Does the firmware upgrade from 4,1 to 5,1 reside on the CPU Tray or Motherboard backplane, or HD Disk or a combo of one or all?

Once a firmware upgrade from 4,1 to 5,1 is complete should new Mac Pro firmware updates from Apple for a 2010 5,1 be applied like this one?

Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.5 of course you would have to be able to boot from the machine first, which at this moment I can not.

Anyone got a 2009 4,1 4core cpu tray I can try?

I expect the CPU firmware chip to be very near the CPU on the processor shelf.

You also need to check for "wobbly Northbridge heatsink" to be sure it did not break the plastic pins that hold it securely in place. No disassembly (except to slide out the processor shelf) is required to do the check.

For more info see:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/jul14/071114.html

domflowers--

My first bet, is the EFI

There is a different distinctive pattern of flashing for Bad EFI. Bad EFI is very, very unlikely.

Did you check for "wobbly Northbridge chip", described in an article linked above? the 2009 and later may develop this problem, and it masquerades as ALL the symptoms you are having -- bad EFI, Bad RAM, failure to start up properly, etc.

My very similar problem was tested for a bad power supply, by switching with a known good power supply from a 2009 dual CPU machine that shares the exact same power supply. Power supply works just fine in the other machine, so it is not that. In my case, the "wobbly Northbridge chip" should be already cleared as a potential problem because it resides on the CPU Shelf Tray which does work fine when swapped into a same model machine that is in use now. Is there another way to test the backplane motherboard logic board?

Battery: The 5v amber led indicates it;'s ok and the computer starts...

There is a 5Volt "always-on" power supply that will be present when your power supply is working and the AC power cord has power. This power supply is required to power on.

This should not be confused with the 3Volt coin cell standby battery, which must be checked separately, and for accurate readings, must be removed from its holder to check it. If the battery is too weak, stored parameters can become corrupted, and this has been known to keep your Mac from powering on.

I did not consult "the book" on this, but It seems very strange that the power supply fan does not spin at all when the case fans are spinning.