2008 Mac Pro Freezing

My 2008 Mac Pro with 16gb of RAM is freezing. No messages or panics. Just frozen. Cursor will move but that is it. Need to do a hard press of the power button to shutdown and then to restart
Need help in trying to figure what is causing the problem. It happened 2 days ago as well. No pattern I can see. Was just surfing the web

Do you have the original install DVD's? Apple Hardware test is on one of the grey install disks - that will run memory & other tests (small text explains to hold D on startup to open AHT).
Using Apple Hardware Test - Apple Support
You need to use the disks that shipped with your model, or you can try imaging one not a USB stick or burning to a CD.
This site has info & downloads. Making a bootable AHT disk can be tricky, ask if you want help with that.
https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest
Memtest can't test memory that the OS is using - it may miss more areas of the memory since OS X is using more RAM than the smaller AHT disk. Run AHT in loop mode (cmd + L) in standard & extended mode. Repeated cycles may eventually give you an error code to search for (Apple doesn't tell us what they all mean).
You should probably look at logs too but you need to start recording times of issues so you can backtrack to see what led up to the freeze. Also don't avoid doing all the basic tests (you can't just assume it's RAM)…
Verify/ Repair the boot disk.
Safe mode
OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode? - Apple Support
Remove ALL non-Apple external hardware, consider removing non-Apple internal cards or disks too.
Also Etrecheck may show you what apps are running - it's possible older software can cause issues so look for updates to any items that are installed & running as background or system extensions…
http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

Similar Messages

2008 Mac Pro Freeze/Shutdown/Slow Errors

I have a 2008 Mac Pro. I have had it since it was brand new and it has been a lemon from the very beginning. I already had the logic board replaced twice under Apple Care. I am really hoping it is not a failing logic board again. I know this generation of Mac Pro's are famous for issues.
The symptoms started about three weeks ago. At first it would suddenly just randomly restart while I was just surfing the web. No warning, no freeze, just a restart. Back then this would only happen about every 2 or 3 days. Recently the problems have increases in frequency to sometime 2 or 3 times a day.
More recent symptoms include freezing but it won't restart itself. The cursor is just stick in place on screen so I have to manually hit power button to restart. Another symptom I have noticed was it became slow as molasses. I opened activity monitor but the CPU was not overloaded and ram wasn't close to being full either. I was not rendering video simply surfing.
Here is what I have done so far. Zapped Pram multiple times. I have restarted and used Disk Utility to repair all disks. I have unplugged all cables and power to reset SMC several times. Under system information Diagnostics tests passed. Ram all seems ok. Hard drives smart status all report fine. About a year ago I had issues as well but that was easier to diagnose. It was a bad video card and before my computer would crash the monitor would get screen artifacts. This time I don't have a clue what is causing the problem.
I will be glad to provide any and all info you ask for to help me solve the problem. Crash logs, any and all specs, apps installed, just ask and I will provide the info if you can help me narrow down the issue. My next steps were going to be to open it up and clean out dust, remove and reinstall hard drives and ram because I know sometimes they just don't connect properly for some reason perhaps because computer gets jostled. I was also considering reinstalling Mavericks but it seems more like a hardware issue to me. Thanks for any and all help. I am self-employed and depend on my Mac Pro for my livelihood so really need this problem solved ASAP.

The RAM is less than 3 years old. I hit power button with SMC. Just downloaded Etrecheck. Your link didn't work but this one did http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck
I have already gone into my User control log in items and removed two log in items with yellow exclamation marks that I think are the ones highlighted in red in the log below.
A UPS is simply not an option right now nor is a SSD. My primary drive is less than a year old. If I can provide any other details let me know.
I know this is almost certainly not malware related but running Clamware scan as a last resort which is why you see that using most CPU right now.
EtreCheck version: 1.9.15 (52)
Report generated September 18, 2014 at 12:17:27 PM EDT
Hardware Information: ?
Mac Pro (Early 2008) (Verified)
Mac Pro - model: MacPro3,1
2 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon CPUs: 8 cores
16 GB RAM
Video Information: ?
ATI Radeon HD 2600 - VRAM: 256 MB
DELL 2001FP 1600 x 1200 @ 60 Hz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti - VRAM: 1024 MB
S271HL 1920 x 1080 @ 60 Hz
System Software: ?
OS X 10.9.5 (13F34) - Uptime: 0 days 1:11:27
Disk Information: ?
WDC WD2002FAEX-007BA0 disk1 : (2 TB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Time Machine (disk1s2) /Volumes/Time Machine: 1.5 TB (27.74 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk1s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
Whatever (disk1s4) /Volumes/Whatever: 503.07 GB (337.7 GB free)
WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B1 disk0 : (1 TB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Mac OS X 6 SL (disk0s2) /Volumes/Mac OS X 6 SL: 999.86 GB (584.92 GB free)
ST3000DM001-9YN166 disk3 : (3 TB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk3s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Mac OS X 8 ML (disk3s2) /Volumes/Mac OS X 8 ML: 1.1 TB (518.99 GB free)
Recovery HD (disk3s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
AVA (disk3s4) /Volumes/AVA : 1.9 TB (1.32 TB free)
TOSHIBA DT01ACA300 disk2 : (3 TB)
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
EFI (disk2s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
Maverick (disk2s2) / [Startup]: 3 TB (2.86 TB free)
Recovery HD (disk2s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
USB Information: ?
Brother HL-5040
Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub
Primax Kensington Eagle Trackball
Apple, Inc Apple Keyboard
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Gatekeeper: ?
Mac App Store and identified developers
Kernel Extensions: ?
[not loaded] at.obdev.nke.LittleSnitch (3876 - SDK 10.8) Support
[loaded] com.AmbrosiaSW.AudioSupport (4.1.2 - SDK 10.7) Support
[not loaded] com.eltima.ElmediaPlayer.kext (1.58 - SDK 10.4) Support
[loaded] com.nvidia.CUDA (1.1.0) Support
[not loaded] com.roxio.TDIXController (1.7) Support
Startup Items: ?
CUDA: Path: /System/Library/StartupItems/CUDA
Launch Daemons: ?
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support
[loaded] jp.co.canon.MasterInstaller.plist Support
Launch Agents: ?
[failed] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support
[loaded] com.nvidia.CUDASoftwareUpdate.plist Support
[failed] com.parallels.desktop.launch.plist Support
[loaded] com.parallels.DesktopControlAgent.plist Support
[running] com.parallels.vm.prl_pcproxy.plist Support
User Launch Agents: ?
[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support
[failed] com.BlueStacks.AppPlayer.LogRotator.plist Support
[loaded] com.BlueStacks.AppPlayer.Service.plist Support
[loaded] com.BlueStacks.AppPlayer.UninstallAgent.plist Support
[failed] com.BlueStacks.AppPlayer.UpdaterAgent.plist Support
[running] com.c-command.SpamSieve.LaunchAgent.plist Support
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support
[running] com.plexapp.helper.plist Support
User Login Items: ?
iTunesHelper
Google Drive
Dropbox
Box Sync
Canon IJ Network Scanner Selector EX
Internet Plug-ins: ?
JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Check version
FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Support
QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
Flash Player: Version: 15.0.0.152 - SDK 10.6 Support
EPPEX Plugin: Version: 10.0 Support
Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9
SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.1.0 Support
Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30317.0 - SDK 10.6 Support
iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0 - SDK 10.8
Safari Extensions: ?
AdBlock
DoNotTrackMe- Online Privacy Protection (Disabled)
Ghostery (Disabled)
Scroll To Top (Disabled)
ManageTab (Disabled)
myPlex Queue-2
Social Fixer (Disabled)
Audio Plug-ins: ?
BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9
AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9
AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9
iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9
iTunes Plug-ins: ?
Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9
User Internet Plug-ins ?
BlueStacks Install Detector: Version: 0.3.6 - SDK 10.7 Support
Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1 Support
3rd Party Preference Panes: ?
CUDA Preferences Support
Flash Player Support
Time Machine: ?
Skip System Files: NO
Mobile backups: OFF
Auto backup: YES
Volumes being backed up:
Maverick: Disk size: 3 TB Disk used: 131.81 GB
Destinations:
Mac OS 10.7 [Local] (Last used)
Total size: 1 TB
Total number of backups: 43
Oldest backup: 2014-07-29 15:31:59 +0000
Last backup: 2014-09-18 15:38:07 +0000
Size of backup disk: Adequate
Backup size 1 TB > (Disk used 131.81 GB X 3)
Time Machine details may not be accurate.
All volumes being backed up may not be listed.
Top Processes by CPU: ?
      42% clamscan
      13% ClamXav
      8% WindowServer
      1% Box Sync Monitor
      1% Dropbox
Top Processes by Memory: ?
410 MB Safari
360 MB clamscan
311 MB mds_stores
262 MB com.apple.IconServicesAgent
246 MB WindowServer
Virtual Memory Information: ?
18 MB Free RAM
4.82 GB Active RAM
9.93 GB Inactive RAM
1.23 GB Wired RAM
1.74 GB Page-ins
0 B Page-outs

Early 2008 Mac pro freeze - anyone ?

I just deployed my 2.8 Mac Pro yesterday, and within two days, I had three instances when the computer froze. The mouse pointer was still moving on the screen, but apart from that, no response to keys or clicks. There was also one instance when the video signal to the monitor was lost. In each case, I had to do a hard reboot. Anyone else experiencing those problems ?

Be sure to repair your drive before you continue working.
Yes, I have.
As a workaround for Apple bug 5679432 (Mac OS X hang under heavy disk load when unbuffered I/O is in use), VMware Fusion 1.1.1 disables unbuffered disk I/O on Mac OS X 10.5 hosts, even when the user selects Optimize for Mac OS application performance in VMware Fusion preferences.
http://www.vmware.com/support/fusion/doc/releasenotes_fusion.html#new111
Keep your system backed up regularly, and hope it won't be long to get a fix out.

Early 2008 Mac pro freeze

This is in reply to http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1369379
I'm having the exact same issue but it seems that this issue has NOT been resolved over the year.
Any work arounds and fixes?
<Post Relocated and Edited by Host>

So news on this topic.
One thing I noticed was that after the force restarts. The backup drive that mounted seemed always mount as "read only". This can be repaired using disk utility. However, the issue still persisted.
Solution:
If you unplug the firewire the system provides the login screen to enter the password without restarting the system.
Conclusion:
The issue is some how drive related. One of the following issues might be an issue.
1. The drive is bad.
-- unplugged the driveS to see which drive might be an issue
-- this will also isolate if it's a specific drive that has the issue or the cable or the board itself
2. The cable is bad.
3. The motherboard is bad.
stay tuned....

2008 Quad 3 Ghz Mac Pro freeze after startup

I'm writing this on my MacBook Pro since my tower is no longer functional. I'm not sure what to do with it but I'll do my best to describe what it's doing. It is a 2008 Mac Pro, with two dual core 3 Ghz Xenon processors, 10 GB Ram, 3.75 TB hard drive space, ATI Radeon 1900 XT video card.
Push power to boot up sometimes it boots up normally other times the fan just just excellerates to high and the tower does nothing, and I have to force a shut down. On the next boot up it always does the fan thing again resulting in a second force shut down, then a second attempt to boot back up same result, almost always on the third attempt it will boot up to the desktop. if that's not odd enough it gets weirder.
Whether it takes me three tries to get to the desktop or it goes there the first try it will run for a few min, then the screen gets blocky (like a pattern of squares or artifacts all over the screen and the system is now completely unresponsive except I can see the mouse moving, I've waited to see if it will come out of it, but it doesn't so I force a shut down.
At first I thought, maybe my hard drive is failing so I get the System restore OSX disk. It behaves the same way when booted up with the System disc. The more I think and look around I'm beginning to think the video card is going bad. This kind of behavior was intermittent at times but today I can't use it for more than a few min. I took the door off and after letting it set I booted again but again still same thing. the only place that I feel a lot of heat is from the video card especially around the vent near the ports. I've tried removing the card but it doesn't seem to want to come out. I've removed the bracket with the two screws It feels like it's coming out of the socket but something is holding it into the case and I don't want to force it.
So here are my questions, does this sound like it's a bad video card? And if so is there some trick to getting it out, even if it's just to look at it and perhaps clean any dust out of it in case it's getting clogged.
Thanks,
Mike

it would seem it's in the acceptable range, I'll have to look up Temperature monitor and see if I need to use a SMC Fan Control to up the default.
The inside was only moderately dusty which I went ahead and cleaned out, I make it a habit of cleaning the insides out from time to time. The only exception being the Radeon 1900 XT which after removing the fan and giving it a good shot of air and a large clump of dust coming out the other end (by the heatsink fins) makes me think that that is the likely culprit of my 1900XT's early demise. Cleaning out the card and putting it back in though made no difference, so I think the overheating damage is done. I have thought about giving the oven bake method a shot if the card is crap anyway there's nothing to lose. Also thought about checking the firmware to see if it needs updated.
4SNS is a sensor of some kind which I guess the "ICBC" refers to the specific sensor? A search of Mac Pro sensor ICBC came up with "ICBC Current, CPU-B core current" perhaps that will give me an idea what to look for in monitoring the heat. As long as it's not a fatal warning I'm happy, I was starting to freak out a little thinking the logic board was bad and the unit being out of warranty facing the reality of either taking it to a service center and paying an arm and a leg to fix or to just ebay the mac and use the money towards a new or newer MP. I can't really afford to dump close to a thousand bucks into a board replacement at an apple service center. I'm thankful I bought a laptop last year or I'd have no computer to work on. Hopefully once I get the Radeon 5770 sanity will be restored plus the 5770 is a better card than the 1900xt anyway. Mac Connection sure is taking it's sweet time processing the order though...

Early 2008 Mac Pro + nVidia 8800: Never going to work?

This forum is littered with threads about early 2008 Mac Pros with the nVidia 8800 card - none of them positive.
I was unfortunate enough to wait for Apple to release such a machine and buy it. Graphics performance is dire given the hardware available. The machine routinely crashes with the window manager hang problem (the user interface just locks up, yet network services etc. still work), in the way familiar to anyone blighted by this particular bug; just run the Folding@Home client on your machine if you want to experience the joy. Or screensavers, sometimes, so I've had to turn those off. And I've had to turn off monitor power saving too, because I too suffer from the 'monitors sometimes don't wake up' bug. And of course I can't sleep the machine either, because firmware upgrade or not, it's still not reliable. And after all this, still the machine crashes.
SSH to the machine; try to restart cleanly; even 'sudo reboot' won't restart it. Apple have achieved something I've never seen out of any Unix or Unix-like operating system, ever; the kernel is unable to kill its own processes.
There have been no indications from Apple that I've seen on these forums over several weeks that the problem is even being acknowledged, let alone tackled. Latest reports indicate that even the 1st gen Mac Pro owners are suffering if they install the 8800.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1460752&tstart=0
My machine rarely makes it through the day without a forced reboot due to the window manager hanging. I can't do any work on it. I can't rely on it. I can't enjoy it. I can't even use it for web browsing without fear of it hanging.
There seem to be no facts about this at all. So all I can ask for is opinions. Does anyone have any offering of hope that early 2008 Mac Pros might ever work properly with 8800 cards? Y'know, little things, like actually being able to handle graphics? Or sleeping the monitors? Or, heaven forbid, sleeping the whole machine? Or should I just send it back as unfit for purpose?
Yours, tired and exasperated... :-/

I posted this in some other blog (forum), I should have posted this here also but I hope this gives you and all with these problems hope!! I also ran some fish tank test some else posted to get the folding problem to happen and I can not get it to happen at all now, and since my 8800 went in I get NO LOCKUPS, SCREEN FREEZES, shaky blurry video when I boot, so far NOTHING, IT JUST WORKS!!!!!!!!
Now that I think about it the person who said to use the fish tank program had a bad 8800 and maybe you do also!! here is the link to that:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6965475&#6965475
I purchased my first mac pro early 08 2 months ago (amazon.com).
2 quad core 2.8's, 2 gig apple 4 gig OWC total 6 gig ram,2-WD raptors (1st mac 2nd boot camp winxp 32 bit), apple care.
I had all my problems with the ATI card (I always purchased ATI, never Nvidia, for all the PC's I built) a couple of times I bought the first ones out, these had all kinds of problems until good drivers that actually worked were released (usually 6-12 months after the release of the card).
So I try not to buy routers, graphic cards, etc.. for at least 6-12 months, but back to my 2600 card!!
When I received my mac the graphics would freeze, I did a lot of online reading only to find out the ATI 2600 was the problem, the cure was to hook up 2 monitors to the card (and that worked!!).
Then they came out with the firmware update, now my main monitor would after 2 days on a reboot be scambled (samsung syncmaster 213t, NEVER had ANY problem with it before on any PC I had, so I knew it was not the monitor) to fix the problem I had to either turn power off to the syncmaster or resetting PRAM (worked for a couple more days, then the same problem).
I called apple and they sent a tech out within days to replace the ATI card, the replacement did the same thing after a couple of days, so I called Apple back and they took a bunch of info from my computer (BTW not much at all loaded in the mac side) and said to call back in a week, so I called back a week later and they said they were going to exchange the card for either another ati 2600 or the Nvidia 8800, I said 8800 and a day later on a saturday I received it, swapped the card and NEVER HAD ANY PROBLEMS at all!!
So I don't know if the ATI card has problems with certain monitors or they are just poorly made (maybe AMD is mad with Apple that Apple did not use AMD processors).
I have read others that swapped with the 8800 and their problems went away also!!!!
Maybe some have no problems with the 2600, but I would not recommend it to anyone, if you can avoid the 2600 GO WITH THE 8800, the drivers will get better (and the 8800 will eventually outperform the ATI)and you will not be sorry.
Apple is awesome, they are 2nd to none, their is no other company like this anymore that I have dealt with in a long time (not just because they gave me a 8800), like I said in the beginning of this post I always purchased ATI cards and would have kept it if it would have worked but 2 doing the same, ATI [AMD] has lost my support until they prove otherwise.
I recommend Mac's to everyone now!!
good luck and let me know it any of this has helped!!!!!!!!!!

How do I fix my early 2008 mac pro boot hard disk. Lost everything when it crashed hard, can not reinstal via cd/dvd drive... are there any fix get it boot from dvd drive?

I have an early 2008 MAC PRO Quad Core 3.0ghz processor. 8 Gig of rams, with a 1 Gig memory Radeon 5770 HD Graphic Card running the latest Version of Snow Leopard OS. Last week lighting struck the house take out all of my hard drives (4) thank god the surge protector mitigated the mother board from damaged, use the Parted Magic to check out the motherboard and it intact with no damage. I can boot with the Parted-magic and be able surf and post this question to this forums. I replaced a newly formatted hard drive and trying to installed OS X Mountain Lions to the new drive, but unable to have it boot in my MAC PRO DVD, I get the usual chimes during the booting processed but the screen remain blackout, but able to boot with Parted-Magic to surf the web and access Apple sites/forums.
I am not well verse in using the Parted_Magic to repair or get my-mac to boot normally so I can reinstall OS X. Any help would appreciated.
Thank you
Disabled Veteran.

Go to System Profile and look, does it say "MacPro3,1"?
That is 2008.
FBDIMM would be 800MHz. Did you use older slower 667MHz in yours?
You can but take a hit in performance.
Sounds like MacPro1,1.
Mac Pro (3.0GHz quad core (dual CPUs) 8GB 667 RAM)
In 2007 March an 8-core 3GHz did come out 2,1.
So just to be clear.
===========
It was all working fine a couple of days ago. At the time it randomly shut down I was trying to use Boot Camp to create a Windows 7 area,
Whenever you want to install Windows, remove all the drives other than the one Windows goes to. And if you use a dedicated drive YOU DO NOT NEED Boot Camp Assist, unless you use XP, which really is limited and crippled (one processor, 1.9GB RAM support).
And when it freezes, your only choice is to nuke (reformat) and restore or get out that backup CLONE you made before (ie, Step #1 in the Boot Camp Guide).
Sure that whole NTFS / MBR / GUID could be an issue, but you should just have a blank drive or clone.
No don't bother Apple, they seem to not have a good sense about Windows on Mac Pro anyway.
Other than zap pram from cold boot / tried booting with NO drives inside and just 10.6. DVD - should be fine.
You should be fine iwth Windows 7 DVD and one drive, or even XP.
Make sure you take your time and reconnect cards etc properly and any cables.
Booting from OS X DVDs may not work if there is a drive with a totally shot directory or partition table. Put them in FW case and turn on AFTER OS X is booted.
Why aren't people Cloning as a Backup Strategy
Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.2
How To clone

Early 2008 Mac Pro Won't Boot

I have an early 2008 mac pro that will not boot. Power turns on, power LED turns solid, but no display ever comes up and it never chimes. I have tried swapping out RAM, hard drives, disconnecting all peripherals... any other suggestions? Dead logic board?
... and yes, I was too dumb to buy the AppleCare. Stupidest move I have ever made...

Hi I think I have a similar problem.
My Mac Pro 8 core doesn't start up. When I turn it on here's what it does: the boot up sound > the grey/white screen with the apple logo and the little turning gear thing > then it freezes.
Sometimes after that the screen either goes blue with nothing but a mouse pointer that's moveable. but no login window. I can access the hardrive by network and weird enough it's booting on safe mode. I tried setting the SMC firmware but it didn't work. I took it to an apple store and when they plugged it into their displays it worked. When I brought it back, I plugged it into my Cinema Display 30" and the same problem started again. I reset the SMC firmware again and tried different displays I have at home but had the same problem. I plugged the 30" display into a Macbook Pro and it worked fine so I know that the display is not the problem. I've heard the the Nvidia 7300GT has caused problems but why would it work in the apple store? Any help out there?

Late 2008 Mac Pro won't start -- help! Hangs up on Airport: RSN handshake complete on en2.

Hello Mac Pro user,
I have a late 2008 Mac Pro. It will not start anymore. The computer chimes and then goes to the Apple icon screen with spinning cursor, but then it freezes and goes no further.
So I did a single user start up [shift command S],then I let the info. load on the black screen, and found that the system hangs up at this line: Airport: RSN handshake complete on en2. Does anyone know what to do?
How do I get it to boot up again?
Thanks,
Yvette

pull the drives you have. ]
F'ind a way to do a clean system install on another drive.
Clone your user data to another drive also.
ie, create a new solid foundation.
but until your repair your drives, by booting off another device, don't use them. Pull them for now.

MAC PRO FREEZES ON GREY APPLE LOGO START UP SCREEN.

My computer was acting funny for the last couple of weeks. It was slugish and slow to respond. When I was using it yesterday it froze up. I forced quit it and tried repeatedly to reboot. It makes the startup chime sound and gets to the grey apple logo screen then the spinning gear stops and it freezes.
My Specs:
2008 Mac Pro
OS X Lion 10.7.4
2 x 2.8 GHZ Quad-Core Intel Xeon
10 GB DDR2 Ram
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
1) Tried starting from the Lion Recovery HD partition. Received the same result (freeze on grey logo).
2) Confirmed the OS Startup Drive works. I removed the OS Drive and tried it in a HD Dock on my Maybook Pro. The drive runs normally. I'm able to navigate and open files.
3) Tied starting from Lion Startup Thumb Drive. Received the same results (freeze on grey logo).
4) Confirmed the Lion Thumb Drive works. Booted Laptop from this same device with no problems.
Now I'm scared. I'm running out of ideas. I'm guessing it is probably something on the logicboard. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions to what it could be? Is there a way I can test the logicboard myself?
Thanks for any help in advance.

The array and the OS drive are not "linked."
Nor are the drives fixed to the drive bay order. One of the drives in the array is "master" that knows what is on each sybling by the ID of the drives.
Clone the OS and keep handy. Never a need to do an OS install.
Backup the array as often as needed so the data is current and have two sets there also, ie TimeMachine for hourly or something and cloned.
What does matter is the OS version the array was created with as there are changes even during the life of the OS like Lion and not usually backward - so an array created with Leo had to be recreated with Snow, and same with Lion, only Lion 10.7.0 and 10.7.4 one was buggy, the 2nd changed the rules for 32 vs 64-bit mode drivers.
Take away: keep the last OS around, hold back on updates, make sure that you keep 10.7.3 around after 10.7.4 is out and working.
You can boot off any drive, SSD or something else and still mount and access the array.

Mac Pro freezes frequently after "NVChannel" error in system.log

Hi,
Can anybody here with a 2008 Mac Pro run the Folding @ Home client without hard crashing the Mac?
I have a 2008-model Mac Pro, with the nVidia GeForce 8800 GT, which freezes frequently. As detailed in an earlier post[1], the graphics driver sees to be implicated, as just before the freezes, messages like this appear in the system log:
kernel kern 3/30/08 7:53:52 PM Debug NVChannel(GL): Graphics channel exception! status = 0xffff info32 = 0x6 = Fifo: Parse Error
kernel kern 3/30/08 7:53:52 PM Debug 0000000b
If you google for "NVChannel freeze" then you will find many many Mac owners whose machines freeze with similar symptoms. Apple recently released the "Leopard Graphics Update" which fixes such problems for some users, but not others.
In my 2008 Mac Pro's case, I have found a way to trigger the freeze 100% of the time: install the freeware Folding@Home client[2], and run the demo in the Applications folder. Just opening this app causes those messages to appear in the log, and then the Mac freezes.
I work for a software company which writes Mac software, so now that I have found a reliable way to reproduce this issue, I will be filing a bug report through Apple's bug system. But for my own sanity, I would like to collect more info, if possible.
If you have a 2008 Mac Pro and want to be cool, try running the Folding @ Home client app (link below) and post in this thread:
a.) whether or not your Mac froze
b.) what video card you have
c.) how much RAM you have
Thanks!
[1]: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6920946&#6920946
[2]: http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Download

Yup… this is a memory fault and you should firstly try reseating the RAM and memory Risers (even change the slots they are in - depending on your configuration of course). The can often remove these issues.
Failing that, I would contact the RAM vendor and discuss it with them. Depending on how they sell things it might be simpler to send a kit, as in two DIMMs, back for replacement rather than a single DIMM that is part of a kit. Also, unless they specifically match your original DIMMs then you'd be better of returning both.

Radeon 5770 in 2008 Mac Pro, won't boot - hangs at Apple logo screen??

Okay, so I had the Radeon 2600 XT and it kept giving me issues with pink & white checkerboards and freezing, then eventually wouldn't let me boot past the white/grey apple logo loading screen. Now, today I installed Apple Radeon 5770, just installed, got the MiniDisplay to DVI-D adapter and everything, but it STILL won't let me get past the white/grey apple screen! I can't seem to get the DVD drive to open either. Both of my hard drives have been working fine and I've even swapped slots and i still can't get past the white screen! What gives? I just dropped over $300 for this, so you can imagine my dismay and frustration. Can someone please help me with some ideas? Would be GREATLY appreciated.
It's a 2008 Mac Pro dual 2.8Ghz (3,1), running 10.5.8
M

Yeah, ok thanks for the response about the screen! So, I don't have 10.6.5. I'm running 10.5.8, which the Radeon 5770 says it needs 10.6.5, but -finally- I got my computer to boot up with the 5770 in it, on 10.5. Al I did was hold OPTION+ Power button and it took me to a blue screen, then to my 500 GB new HD. I then switched over to my other username on Macintosh HD (drive that came with the MacPro) and OSX loads fine! I can tell that it still needs to be on 10.6.5, so I can download the drivers because the text is ever so slightly fuzzy, and the color isn't tuned well (too much contrast) and images take a little longer to load/ are a bit laggy. I'm just glad it's up and running! No more pink transparent checkerboards, and loud *** fan sounds! I am wondering though, what was causing this hold up? Is it only booting up because I have the 10.5.2 install disc in the SuperDrive? I almost don't want to take it out and try without it, after the trouble i've had, just in case lol. I'd like to have an idea as to why, because I don't want to mask a problem, and have it eventually turn into a catastrophe.

Mac Pro freezes, graphical glitches

Hi all,
I have an early 2008 Mac Pro, quad 2.8 GHz, 8 GB RAM (2x 1 GB (original Apple), 2x 1 GB (Nanya), 2x 2GB (Elixir)), GeForce 8800GT, 2 HDDs, 1 optical drive. It connects to a local Mac Mini Server (although I doubt that this is related in any way).
Since Tuesday, I have system freezes multiple times a day. Sometimes it lags and becomes super slow and then freezes, other times it freezes instantly. Sometimes it happens right after booting, other times after running for some time (varying). Sometimes there are graphical glitches (e.g. the shadows of some GUI elements are all pixelated and in funny colors), but not always.
As you can see, it's all very erratical.
I've run Apple Hardware Test and the quick test does not return any errors. The longer test crashes at 2 minutes 53 seconds (I tested a couple of times). I'm not sure, but I think when testing the RAM.
My guess is that it's either one or more RAM modules or the graphics card (or mainboard, but I sure hope not!).
But since I'm not sure, I don't want to run to the next local Apple dealer and buy new hardware just to find out, that there is another cause to this.
So, I'd really appreciate any hints to this issue. Also: Are there any other reliable testing tools than Apple Hardware Test?
Many thanks in advance!

Hi Luka, I own the same machine you do, with a slight variant of only 4 GB RAM and 3 GHz processors, yesterday I beagan experiencing similar symptoms.
Freezes accompanied by graphic glitches, I scratched my head for a while and for the evening resolved the problem by zapping the PRAM. It seemed to work until today after a long and intensive use the problem appeared again. I've zapped the PRAM once more and am planning to give the machine thourough cleanup as soon as I get my hands on a fresh can of dry air. But I suspect my graphics card... It died and got changed once before... Fortunately I had purchased an Apple Care plan which should still be valid, and will not hesitate to change the card if the problem is confirmed.
I suggest you try zapping the PRAM as well and from there see how it goes. Meanwhile I tested my machine with techtools pro and found no hardware problem. A friend is coming over with Drive Genius to confirm the findings, I'll keep you posted on my progress.
Good luck to you ... and I...
Message was edited by: papoosefr

Mac Pro freezes at login screen

Mac Pro (2008, dual 2.8GHz quadcore, OS 10.6.8) is set up with
Energy Saver settings: computer sleep 1 hour, screen sleep 5 minutes
Security settings: require password immediately after sleep or screen saver begins
After the computer goes to sleep, upon hitting a key, the login screen appears. However after typing password, there was a message "checking password" and then the computer freezes. I've followed recommendations in Mac Pro Freezing: Checking Password
After the computer goes to sleep, the login screen is frozen. I cannot even enter password. After hard-rebooting it, it appears OK.
Here are the last entries in system.log:
Jan 8 15:21:59 oldmacpro com.apple.backupd[402]: Post-back up thinning complete: 4 expired backups removed
Jan 8 15:22:00 oldmacpro com.apple.backupd[402]: Backup completed successfully.
Jan 8 17:09:27 localhost DirectoryService[11]: Improper shutdown detected
Here are the last entries in kernel.log
Jan 8 15:50:55 oldmacpro kernel[0]: PM notification cancel (pid 47, cupsd)
Jan 8 15:50:55 oldmacpro kernel[0]: IOPMrootDomain: idle cancel
Jan 8 15:56:20 oldmacpro kernel[0]: PM notification cancel (pid 47, cupsd)
Jan 8 15:56:20 oldmacpro kernel[0]: IOPMrootDomain: idle cancel
Jan 8 17:09:27 localhost kernel[0]: npvhash=4095
Question: how can I find out what causes the computer to freeze and how can I fix it ?

I would say yes to the verbose mode and go one further and make it permanent. Coming to OSX from running Tiger on an XPF install on a beige G3 system (totally unsupported by Apple), it was ALWAYS a smart move and even in new machines running hardware they're built to, you can't lose. For the times I do have to reboot, it's good to be able to watch the startup, as you catch immediately if there's a problem with anything. It is verbose after all...
To turn the mode on, you open the Terminal, and at the prompt, type in
*sudo nvram boot-args="-v"* and hit enter. It will nag you about using the terminal (if you haven't done so before) and you enter your password, hit enter again and you're good to go. (if you want to turn it off, type in *sudo nvram boot-args=* and hit enter and your password again)

My 2008 Mac Pro running Lion will not play HDV1080i60 footage in FCP 7. When I open the sequence settings, all HDV codecs are hdv1, hdv2, hdv3, and so forth. Anyone have any idea how to fix this?

My 2006 - 2008 Mac Pro running Lion will not play HDV 1080i60 footage in FCP 7. When I open the sequence settings, all HDV codecs are hdv1, hdv2, hdv3, and so forth. However, when I open the project on my other Mac Pro running Snow Leopard and FCP 6, the footage works fine as it does on my newer Imac running Mavericks and FCP 7. I have tried a Quicktime update on the Mac Pro that the footage doesn't work on but it says that I already have the newest version of Quicktime installed. I have also tried reinstalling the Final Cut Pro Studio twice, still no fix. I'm completely out of solutions and need to be able to edit HDV footage on this machine. Any help would be great. Thanks.

there was a recent software update that seemed to screw HDV up. Do some searching here over the last month or 2 and you'll find a bunch of posts and some possible solutions.
Worst case scenario, do as Shane suggests. But might I suggest you take a look at the user tips section of the forum. there are some great tips on how to prevent these sorts of problems by cloning your startup drive, etc.

2008 Mac Pro Freezing

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