Blinking LED light on startup. MacPro won't boot.

I've had this happen before so I pulled all 8 ram chips, a total of 20gig. I put two 4 gig cards back in slot one for riser A & B only and was able to reboot. I figured it was a ram issue. I added all new ram chips that I new were good filling the rest of the DIMM slots on both risers. The rest were matching 2 gig. Reboot went fine. But for some reason Dimm slots 2 and 4 on both risers are showing up empty in the about this mac "Memory" panel and I'm only registring 12gig from a total of 20gig. So any ideas? How would I determine if it's the riser cards or the mother board?
I appreciate any suggestions for trouble shooting.
Reuben
MacPro3,1 8_Core Intel Xeon 2.8G
20 Gig Ram 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
OSX 10.6.7

Well, if it doesn't matter which dimms are in those slots, and it's always the same two slots, I guess it really is a hardware problem. I don't know what else you can do to diagnose it.
It could be a costly repair. If the machine runs fine without using those slots can you "live" without them?

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Blinking LED lights (possible processor issue)

I tried to turn my laptop on today but I was greeted with a blank screen and 2 blinking LED lights. According to the code thing they have here it might be indicating I have a processor issue, is there any way I can fix this or am I screwed? I've gone through google and this seems to be a bit of an issue with certain HP laptops.
I'm running an HP pavilion dv4-2145dx with windows 7. My warranty is also gone.

Hi,
I think your machine has a serious mainboard malfunction. The solderings can be ok, but have you a microscope to check it like a high-grade technician or engineer? The other point is: It can be a malfunctioning resistor or capacitor or whatever, I personally think it must be something like this since the described error points on something of the power subsystem.
You can also try another thing: If you have your keyboard removed and could look under it on the mainboard, then you can try to disconnect a flat cable which must be located on the lower section before the handrest comes. Its not a thin rather a tall flatcable which should be for the panel in front of your machine (which is for the multimedia keys and so on) and disconnect it. Check whats happening, if nothing then you have def. a malfunctioning mainboard, if the machine starts then the front panel pcb is defective and must be replaced.
Greets

MacPro won't boot-up...I think it's hardware related

Sorry, this is detailed, but I figured I had to explain everything I've done so far and the issues I've had. Thanks much!
My MacPro won't boot up. Initially I thought it was a software problem, and went through this thread looking for help. After a while, I came to think it wasn't the OS but a hardware problem. Here's why:
The initial problem was that I couldn't login to OS X (Lion). It started with the screen flickering, and freezing up. One time I logged in, and there were these uniform dots across my screen, and a black border overlaying the screen. I restarted, and that was when I couldn't login at all. It would go the gray screen with the dark gray Apple logo. The sundial would appear below...and then suddenly freeze. At that point, nothing.
I tried to boot into Safe Mode, but this also didn't work. The same result.
I then decided I'd do a clean install from the Install DVD and overwrite my boot drive (everything is saved onto a RAID Array). However, I couldn't load the OS installer.
I then thought maybe it was the HDD itself (the boot drive), so I bought a new one and tried to format and install. Again, the same thing. The DVD drive would activate, the gray screen would appear, and then it would freeze at the sundial. But this time, the dark gray overlay would come on screen, with the small box that told me to hold down power key (the one in mutliple languages).
So I then began to suspect the problem was deeper. I ran the Apple Hardware Diagnostic test. (I disconnected everything except the keyboard and the display.) The quick version showed everything was fine, but the extended version came back with some varying results.
First, my specs.
This is a MacPro 3,1.
24 GB RAM (8GB installed by vendor, 16 GB recently installed by me)
Bay 1 - Unformatted new HDD
Bay 2 - Slice 1 of RAID Array
Bay 3 - Slice 2 of RAID Array
Bay 4 - Formatted HDD for Storage
When I ran the first test, it was as above. Here is the error message I received:
4MEM/62/40000005: 0x79600ff18
This made me think it was a memory issue. So I took out the new RAM I had recently installed and ran the test again. I got this:
4MEM/60/40000005: 0x79650d18
So I took the old RAM out and put the new RAM back in. I also put the original, formatted HDD with OS X back into Bay 1. Here's what I got this time:
4SNS/3/4000000: TMOP-128.000
The new kind of error led me to think the problem was the old HDD and old RAM (after all, when I used only the new RAM, I put the old boot drive back in). When I ran the test, with the unformatted HDD in Bay 1 and the new RAM, I got...no error message!
So I restarted my system, hoping I could load the Install DVD now and install Mac OS X on the new HDD in Bay 1. But...nothing. Same as the original result. Gray screen with a freeze on the sundial, and then gray overlay telling me to shut down. Aaargh!!!
Someone suggested trying to login to Single User mode. I was tried and was able to do that. But, what do I do from there?
So I rebooted, and then tried to login when holding down the option key. It came up with the option to load the Install DVD. I said yes, and of course, same result as before.
So, as a last step, I put my old HDD back in and started the system holding the option key. This disc is a dual boot drive with Windows 7 on another partition. It gave me the following options:
Mac OS X HDD (my Lion install)
Windows 7
Recovery HD
Install Mac OS X (DVD)
For kicks, I chose Windows 7 to see what would happen. It actually logged me in! ... but it was like I was in an old safe mode in this sense: the screen size was the smallest available (that is, all the icons were big).
This makes me think that maybe (again, maybe) the problem is the video card. (Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT) This might explain the flickering and freezing I initially had when I could actually login. But...really, I'm at a loss and don't know if I should take the time and money to get a new video card.
Any suggestions???
Thanks!
Naveen

Windows 7 DVD has a decent memtest and you are in Safe Mode probably due to Windows didn't shutdown gracefully.
You can also use chkdsk or WD Lifeguard to certify all the disk sectors are mapped out if they need be.
8800GT: you have heard of the 10 minutes in over for 350*?
But you might want a new card anyway.
Vendors and RAM. Well it was working but buying RAM esp FBDIMMs and my guess is you have some 4GB DIMMs. Also mixing sets or brands can work most of the time, but not always.
RAM probllems result in dirty files and other errrors so fix the problem, make sure you have a good pair and no errors. Or more. And then try clean install.
Windows 7 w/ AppleHFS.sys and AppleMNT.sys does not like an Apple array to be present. MacDrive gets around that and allows mounting - and avoiding BSODs.
Cheap as I have found, highest quality though, 667MHz so they run 4% slower is all, if you need one good set:
2x2GB FBDIMM DDR2 667MHz
http://www.amazon.com/BUFFERED-PC2-5300-FB-DIMM-APPLE-Memory/dp/B002ORUUAC/
Lion Recovery Disk Repair? you did or didn't?
Lion installer: hopefully you kept the ESD package for later re-install (without having to download and all that bother).
Some people play musical chairs with the Risers and DIMMs and DIMM slots. Or just RMA and get new sets but I would try with just half the 24GB or less, then test with half the 16GB set. To have one set it would be one DIMM in A1 and B1.
And of course reset the SMC - hitting power button 10 seconds while unplugged (and no devices or cables connected).

Non responsive MacPro won't boot

I currently have a major dilamma. My 5 year old Mac Pro as from yesterday, won't boot up. Instead I get a pink and white pattern on the screen followed by the spnning wheel. There seems to be no way to access any of the other internal drives on the Mac as I have cloned the original HD for this specific reason.
Any advice would be most appreciated, as I sincerely hope this doesn't mean buying a new Mac.
Thanks in advance.
Justin

System Profile or what you remember.
9GB tells me 2006/7 with FBDIMMs and a 2 x 512MB set
An older GPU that likely needs to be replaced. X1900 or OEM 7300GT or 8800GT
Pull all the drives out.
Shutdown and unplug everything. Press power on button for 10 seconds then connect just kb/mouse display and power.
Zap PRAM/NVRAM
Now connect your cloned drive.
Oh, and inspect the graphic card for make/model and dust.
Inspect the DIMM Riser cards.
Try with just one set of newest RAM in slot A1 and A2
Consider new FBDIMM set $25 from Amazon, and a new ATI 5770 for $250 from Apple.
Might need a new system boot drive. Try Samsung 840 EVO 120GB $99.
2x2GB FBDIMM DDR2 667MHz @ $25
http://www.amazon.com/BUFFERED-PC2-5300-FB-DIMM-APPLE-Memory/dp/B002ORUUAC/
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB $171
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Electronics-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-7TE250BW/dp/B00E3 W1726/
Samsung 840 EVO
http://www.thessdreview.com/?s=Samsung+840+EVO
No you don't need a new Mac Pro.

MacPro won't boot from any disk but the original

We picked up a lightly used MacPro 2 x3.2G Quad Intel Xeon at work. The plan was to remove the internal drive (which is also the boot disk) and replace it with a brand new WD Caviar Black 500G drive with OS 10.5 freshly installed, and then use Migration Assistant to transfer from the old machine.
The problem is that when trying to run the OSX install disc on this new machine, it will restart, but then not boot from the install disc. Rather, the apple logo pops up, it thinks for a bit, then the grey curtain drops and i get the multi-language "you must restart your machine" message.
So, after successfully doing an install of the OS on the fresh drive using a different machine, i put it back into the new one, restarted holding OPT, and selected the fresh OS drive. I get the same multi-language message, and the machine will not boot. I've tried installing the OS on a different HD as well, to the same results.
The new machine will restart using the startup disk (internal HD) that came with it and will run Apps, etc. To confuse things further, i pulled my startup HD out of my personal tower at home (also running OS 10.5, but it's been updated to 10.5.8), stuck it in the new machine, and tried to reboot from that. This DID work (normal time startup, apps work, etc).
I thought this might be a HD problem, but now it seems like a machine problem. Maybe it doesn't like the OS install? I dunno.. Thoughts?
I just had one. I'll try to clone my HD/OS from my personal computer to the new WD 500G drive, and if that works, i'll just go from there...maybe i just had to type this out to think of something different to try, but i'll post it anyways...

So you're saying essentially that this new machine, when it came out of the Apple factory, had OS 10.5.x installed on it, and because that was the original install, it won't recognize something that has OS 10.5.0, even if that install is on a fresh HD? Basically the hardware inside the tower can't/won't recognize any OS prior to the original 10.5.x factory install?
well, if that's the case, then 1)that's ridiculous of Apple to do, and 2)it makes this whole problem make more sense, and it's good future knowledge for me to have.
I cloned my personal OS (but not the users, docs, etc) and stuck that in the new tower, and it works well so far. I'm in the process of copying files to other internal drives, and i'll be using Migration Assistant to transfer users from our old system to the new one, and if all still works fine after that, i think we'll be good to go. So, based on what you've told me about the factory OS install, etc, i think we're on the right track.
Thanks very much for your input!

MacPro won't boot from (2) internal drives but will from DVD

My MacPro hung this morning, blank screen but mouse red LED working. I restarted it and it booted into my 2nd internal drive with 10.5.2 rather than "Macintosh HD". Checked Time Machine and seemed to be all good.
I used the DVD to get TimeMachine to do a complete restore from internal drive 4 onto the main Macintosh HD. This got as far as saying something like "restore complete, click to restart using restored disk".
After clicking I just got a beachball of death.
Used DVD to run disk utility, clean bill of health on all drives except verify permissions gets 15% through then stops.
Now, when I try and boot from either of my two startup disks the MacPro starts up, goes to greyscreen then I get a couple of little clicking noises and the whole thing shuts down.
Tried unplugging everything then just put power lead back in and monitor connection,
Tried running Apple Hardware Test (as it boots from disk but not drives, thought it might be a power supply problem) but AHT gets to "test 1" then locks up
I can boot into single user mode, am about to try FSCK but running out of things to try.
Can I access files from the desktop and put hem onto a remote machine or USB stick from Single User Mode - or access/mount my drives from the DVD. In the "old" days it was poosible to boot to a desktop from a CD - can that still be done?
Cheers
Beardy man
Message was edited by: Beardy man
Message was edited by: Beardy man

I always keep spare drives, and use SuperDuper to keep images even of drive volumes.
Keeping one drive to OS only and no data or prefs helps.
Having an emergency drive or partition: a must (sort of like Micromat TTPro eDrive only better).
Pull the drive for now. Maybe Data Rescue II later. And a FW case you can throw it into for repairs or to recover files.
I am surprised you don't get the "stop" sign, a circle + slash, that often indicates corrupt journal/directory and no boot device where it expects to find one.
TechTool Pro, commercial $90 5.0 is due soon, hopefully they were just waiting now for 10.5.5 to be out and see if it would change or alter (or break) their utility.
Backups, whether TS or a clone made with SuperDuper, are critical, should run on their own automatically in background, and the OS doesn't have to be that large, fit it on 60-100GB disk image so you don't have to worry about partition and size.
For now, use the DVD to install OS X on a new drive partition to begin to build a foundation from which you can do more and mark this as emergency-only. You can clone it later if needed to a "working" system. SuperDuper is free for full copy, or use Disk Utility Restore even to set the source and 'target' destination volumes.

Mac Pro mid 2010 light stays on but won't boot up

Recently I was in the process of trying to make a CD when I engaged Waveburner the computer crashed and never worked again. I tried all the usual things: like unplugging or 60 seconds and longer. When I turn it on I can hear the fan and the white light is solid but no boot or chime.
I switched to Yosemite a few weeks ago. I'm hoping it's not the board that's bad but thinking it might be. Anyone with any ideas of what it could be.
Thanks,
Stuart

Desperate times require desperate measures. The traditional way of debugging this situation is to remove everything that could be drawing too much power, and see if the minimal set that remains is alive.
Remove all drives, graphics card, any other PCI cards, disconnect the DVD Readers, and remove all memory DIMMs, keyboard and mouse and all USB devices, and anything else.
The symptom you seek is for the Power-on light to blink, saying "not enough RAM memory to start up". It does this under processor control, so a few things are working.
If you get there, add some RAM and look for the chime, which happens (again under processor control) when the power-on self test passes.
Then add keyboard, mouse, and graphics card, look for the gray screen and blinking question mark.
Then add a Boot drive, look for gray Apple (which is loaded off a Drive in the first "blob" of software, long before the File System has been started up.

TS1365 What does it mean when my Macbook pro displays a question mark at startup, and won't boot?

My MacBook Pro won't start up. It displays a Question Mark for a while, and you can hear the HDD spinning, as well as some clicks, but nothing happens. It started after I accepted and began a recommended upgrade download and install. I started the upgrade install, rebooted, and walked away. An hour later, it displayed the progress bar as about 50% complete for the install. 24 hrs later, it was still at the same status. Several hours later, still no progress, so I hit the on/off button, shutting down the computer. After that, it would not restart...it gives the start-up chime, I hear the HDD spinning, and also hear some ominous "click click" sounds. Then a question mark pops onto the screen, and that's all. Any suggestions?

It means that it cannot find certain startup files. In your case it's probably because you interrupted the installation or the installation failed and files were corrupted or lost. Do the following:
Reinstalling Lion/Mountain Lion Without Erasing the Drive
Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Startup problem - won't boot from startup disk

I have a MacPro 1,1 with 2 hard disks and 3 volumes. Disk 1 has Tiger and disk 2 has Snow Leopard plus a windows partition for Boot Camp. I am the sole user in both versions of OSX and in both accounts I have the startup disk set to Snow Leopard. Recently when I start the machine it doesn't get past the blank grey screen unless I hold the Option key to show the 3 volumes when I can pick and go.
I've run Disk Utility and repaired permissions yet nothing is fixed.
The only thing I've changed recently is to have upgraded my copy of Cinema 4D but I hardly think that can be to blame. Any suggestions?

Yes. As I wrote in my first post I am the only account holder in both my OSX volumes, Tiger and Snow Leopard, and in both I have Snow Leopard nominated as the start-up volume. Also, in my Windows XP partition (on the same hard disk as Snow Leopard) I have Snow Leopard nominated as the start-up volume in the Boot-Camp control panel. So everything I can think of in every volume on my machine is pointing towards "start in Snow Leopard", only it seems to be having trouble doing that.
As I mentioned before, if I command a restart it works OK, but if the machine is off and I press the button I get the grey screen and I have to power it off with the button then boot with the Option key to see the three volumes.
Disk Utility - Repair Disk run from my installation disk or from my hard disk reports that the disk appears fine. I have repaired permissions from my hard disk to the point that it doesn't report any repair at all.
The MacPro used to start up fine but something has changed, only I have no idea what. I was hoping someone here might be able to tell me it's this or that.

Startup Problem, won't boot off hard drive from earlier Mac.

A while back I had an Intel mac and I loaded and installed all of my apps onto the hard drive. I then sold that Intel but kept the drive and continued to work on my G5 quad for a while.
I intended on installing the hard drive from the first Intel machine in the next one I got. Now I just got a 2X2.26 Quad Core which boots up fine with the disk it came with. When I try to boot up the machine on the previous Intel drive (it has 10.5.3 on it and it shows up in startup disk in sys prefs) all I get is the light gray screen but no apple logo. It just stays like that.
I have repaired the permissions with disk utility and it seems all is well. I would love to be able to just boot up with that disk as it's authorized and it would save me days of installing and authorizing software.
Any suggestions? Thanks in advance

Following this link:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1159
Looks like you need 10.5.6 at least.

OS hangs at grey startup screen, won't boot into safe mode

I rebooted my G5 this morning and when it came back up, it hung on the grey screen with the Apple logo and the spinning 'gear' progress bar. I tried rebooting several times, but that didn't help. I tried booting from the install DVD (which it did) and ran disk utility (both verify & repair on the start up drive and on permissions. It claims to have found permission errors and fixed them.) I hunted for answers online and tried to boot into safe mode, which did not work.
Someone mentioned booting into verbose mode and I saw that the load sequence was choaking on the login.
What could the problem be and how can I fix it?

Hi Yosarian,
Minor permissions repairs are no concern: The good news is that your data is probably OK.
Three things can be happening: Some of the machines boot settings are corrupted, or the OS files or settings are damaged, or there's a hardware problem.
Resetting the machines power management chip, called a PMU or SMU, depending on your computer, and the PRAM will resolve machine boot settings problems. Run a google search for your model of Mac plus reset pmu OR smu for instructions. After that, reboot your computer and hold Option-Apple-P-R down as you power on. Hold all 4 keys until you hear the startup chime a second time.
You can test your hardware with the grey disk that came with it that ays AHT in little letters. Boot from the CD and run the extended test. Be patient: AHT can take a long time to boot and run.
If you reset your PMU and PRAM and pass a hardware diagnostic but still can't boot normally, in safe mode, or in single-user mode, the problem is system software. Reinstall from your latest installer, checking off Archive and Install and Preserve Users and Settings from the Options screen available at the screen where you choose which disk to install to.
Good luck,
John

How to open CD/DVD tray if the MacPro won't boot

Just a few days ago I updated my version Safari on a MacPro. After the upgrade, my computer, I got a message on the reboot that said that it cannot read the disks I inserted. Since then, I can't get the machine to start at all. I'd like to boot it up from a CD/DVD (Drive Genius) but can't figure out how to get the tray to open to let me insert it. (1) Has anyone had such issues with updating Safari? (2) How can I get the tray to open if I can't get the machine to boot up to start with? (I've tried rebooting and holding down the "c" key. I've tried "target disk" mode but that doesn't get me anywhere.) (I think it may have 10.5.8 OSX and two internal drives.)

Five ways to eject a stuck CD or DVD from the optical drive
Ejecting the stuck disc can usually be done in one of the following ways:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the left mouse button until the disc ejects.
2. Press the Eject button on your keyboard.
3. Click on the Eject button in the menubar.
4. Press COMMAND-E.
5. If none of the above work try this:
Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following:
/usr/bin/drutil eject
If this fails then try this:
Boot the computer into single-user mode. At the prompt enter the same command as used above. To restart the computer enter "reboot" at the prompt without quotes.

Startup disc won't boot

I've got a PPC G5 iMac (not the Intel version) running OS 10.4.11. I wanted to run Disc Utility to repair my drive. It's been a long time since I've bothered with any basic maintenance, and the Verfy shows minor repairs that need to be made. However, my install disc 1 will not boot into the Mac OS. It keeps wanting to run the installer when I try to boot from that disc. So I quit the installer and direct it to restart from the startup disc (Install Disc 1 in the drive), and it just goes back to the installer. Is there a simple way to make a startup disc that just has the bare bones system I currently have so I can run the Disc Utility Repair. You can't run the repair utility on the internal drive when booted to the system on the local / internal hard drive. I've read that booting in Safe Mode will automatically verify / repair the drive. Just not sure where to go from here.

Yes, it boots to the Installer, but at one point, a Menubar will show up at the top, look for Utilities>Disk Utility and use that.
You don't want to write anything to that HD until it's fixed, but after that you might consider getting Applejack...
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/19596
After installing, reboot holding down CMD+s, then when the prompt shows, type in...
applejack AUTO
Then let it do all 5 of it's things.
At least it'll eliminate some questions if it doesn't fix it.
The 5 things it does are...
Correct any Disk problems.
Repair Permissions.
Clear out Cache Files.
Repair/check several plist files.
Dump the VM files for a fresh start.

MacPro won't boot to DVD install media

Hi,
I have a MacPro that I'd like to do a clean install on. It's a 2010 5,1. When trying to boot to the DVD media I hold down option and select the DVD icon that comes up. The Apple logo appears but that's as far as it goes. It gets hung up on the Apple logo. I've tried it multiple times and waited over 30 minutes but it just doesn't proceed. I've also tried the DVD in 3 different drives to see if it was the drive.
The drive actually stops spinning so I know it's not even trying to read the DVD.
I installed an SSD a couple weeks ago and have been running on it just fine.

The Apple logo is not resident in the Mac's ROM. Its appearance means you got some stuff off a Hard Drive or DVD. Failure to see the gear means you did not get very far after that.
If you have "suspect" drives installed, pull them out, as they may be interfering with what you are trying to accomplish.

My MacPro won't Boot - stuck on White Screen - help?

I have a MAC PRO, it was asleep during a power outtage... Now when i try to restart the computer, it never boots - and gets caught in an endless white screen. I've tried to zap my PRAM, still nothing. I just ran out of my apple support, and they are telling me to bring it - is there anything I can do on my own to fix this without having to pay a fortune?

Google - your OEM DVD has AHT on its label
A storm can send too much juice down the modem line and fry the ethernet ports, as long as it is wired, does not need to be running - and sleep is still 'running.'
I consider UPS $200 to be worth investment - as much AppleCare and helps protect the PSU which costs more to replace. My modem had to be replaced (router seems okay) was $79.
CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD PFC Compatible 1500VA 900W Pure Sine Wave Tower UPS
http://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1500PFCLCD-Compatible-1500VA-Tower/dp/B00429N 19W/
How to clone your system:
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone-backup.html
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
http://www.macperformanceguide.com/blog/2012/20120711_2-MacPro-internal-clone-ba ckup.html

Blinking LED light on startup. MacPro won't boot.

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