"Charging" icon when actually not charging on Mac Pro Early 2008

I'm perplexed by a charging/syncing issue I noticed recently with my iPad and Mac Pro Early 2008. I've seen the many posts about the "not charging" message when it is actually being charged. My situation is the opposite - I plugged in the iPad last night for sync and charge with my Mac Pro and when I woke this morning, the charge icon was still on the iPad but the charge level was the same as last night - i.e., 55%. I confirmed the iPad screen was off.
One change from the previous times I've charged is that this time I used a new USB extension cable - might that be the culprit? The cable worked for syncing and an iPad software upgrade. I would think that the iPad would give a message that it is not charging if there wasn't enough juice available. Seems odd to have this opposite phenomenon occurring.
I finally disconnected and plugged the iPad into the 10W wall A/C charger and it now appears to be charging normally.
Thoughts?

I checked the machine settings this morning and while the display was in sleep mode the computer was set to never sleep. I'm also wondering if there's a chance the iPad was "awake" all night with screen on - don't think so, and I kept it plugged in this morning and put the iPad screen to sleep for at least 20-30 minutes and the recharge progress never changed - i.e., stayed at 55%.

Similar Messages

Surround Sound not working on Mac Pro (Early 2008)!

I'm writing this as my last ditch attempt to solve my problem.
Recently I bought a 5.1 Onkyo AV Receiver, model HT-R558 as for the audio output of my machine.
I have connected the device components, however when connected to my Mac using a TOSLINK cable, all i recieve is stereo sound through the front left, center, and front right speakers. - The rear speakers give no output, and the subwoofer only works in iTunes.
As far as I was aware the process was as follows:
Mac Pro with output set to Digital Out connected to the digital out port --> Optical/Toslink Cable --> connected to receiver (Onkyo HT-R558 through optical in on receiver.
I have followed several Knowledge Base articles with no success.
Is the Mac Pro actually capable of 5.1 sound output, or is it an added non-working feature?
I have tried a system utility called Perian, but no luck, also i have found articles saying this can be fixed with Terminal, no luck either.
If anyone has any advice on correctly connecting surround sound to my Mac I would be extremely grateful! I only hope there is something I have overlooked.
At the moment i am running the system using Pro Logic II, though it feels like a let down.

I found the problem, the digital out on my Mac Pro is only capable of outputting stereo, this appears to be an OS X 10.6.8 issue that would need to be addressed via a supplemental update.
I know DVD Player can output 5.1 when set up correctly, so can iTunes movies; unfortunately this appears to be a problem that only has few solutions.
1. Downgrade OS X to a version prior to 10.6.8 (however doing this causes incompatibility with my iOS devices.)
2. Add a PCI Express compatible sound card, or use an external card (requires additional hardware purchases.)
3. Use only stereo capable units with the machine (as anything with higher speaker configurations requires use of Pro Logic II from the receiver/amplifier; not to mention sounds terrible.)
Until, or if this is ever fixed I will stay with option 2, as it doesn't require use of additional software just to use audio, allows me to use the respective amplifier fully, and also sounds better.
Thank you for your advice, I just have to remember to be a little more careful when choosing audio products for use with Mac it seems.
I am closing this question.
Regards,
Peter.

Dual Monitor not working for Mac Pro (Early 2008)

Upon upgrading from Lion to Mountain Lion yesterday I lost the ability to use my secondary monitor. Checking in System Preferences it indicates that it only sees one monitor, but nothing has changed with my hardware configuration. Is anyone else having this problem?
Hardware specs:
Processor 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 26 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
Graphics ATI Radeon X1900 XT 15 MB
Software OS X 10.8 (12A269)

Not sure if this has any relation to yours, but I thought I would throw it out there...
After installing Mountain Lion, the secondary monitor for my 27" iMac would not wake up after the computer slept. In the System Preferences, there was only the main display listed. The secondary monitor was visible from a cold boot, but disappeared once the computer slept and was woken up.
I found that waking the system with the Magic Trackpad would not also wake the second monitor. When I wake the computer by using the keyboard, the second monitor wakes normally! I've repeated this several times... Strange.

Mac Pro Early 2008 will not boot off Win7 Install DVD

Hello,
I am hoping someone out there will have encountered something similar and have some suggestions or ideas, because at this point I can't think of anything else to try.
I have a 2.8 Ghz 8-core Mac Pro (Early 2008) with an Nvidia 8800GT Graphics card. I am running OS 10.6.2, fully patched and updated.
I am attempting to install Windows 7 Ultimate via Boot Camp, and am encountering a rather odd problem.
Once I have launched Boot Camp Assistant it allows me to partition the drive and does so correctly, but when it attempts to reboot off the Windows 7 installation DVD, I encounter a blank grey-white screen similar to that which you normally get on startup but without the Apple logo. This continues for some time (it seems to vary), and then the screen goes dark and the monitor says it is receiving no signal. The fans on the Mac Pro go for a while, then it goes to sleep. I've tried leaving it for a couple hours, no dice.
I've tried both the 32-bit and 64-bit Windows install disks. I had the release candidate for Windows 7 installed previously, and it worked perfectly. I have since tried that same install DVD that I used to install the release candidate, and it encounters the exact same issue. Booting up off the Snow Leopard Install DVD works fine.
I tried doing a clean install of Snow Leopard on a spare drive, booting off that, and then starting from square 1 using Boot Camp Assistant to re-partition that same drive. Same problem. No matter what I do or try, my Mac Pro does not want to boot off this install disc. I have yet to try the disc in another machine to see if it works there, and I will as soon as I can, but the fact that the RC disc worked a few months back and now will not seems to rule out the boot discs as defective. I've also tried both my internal optical drives with no change, and no other discs have any issues.
I've already spent an hour and a half talking to Apple Technical Support, and they seemed stumped, so I'm hoping someone will have a notion. If not, I understand and appreciate you taking the time to read this- I have no idea at this point, and I'm generally a pretty knowledgeable user.
- Andrew

Thank you for your reply,
Pull all the drives you have other than the one that you will install Windows 7 to.
I think I will try this next.
Don't put Windows 7 on the same drive as OS X, give it its own.
That was initially what I started out doing.
And you don't even need Boot Camp Assistant.
True, but it's what Apple suggests using.
Might also want to try moving the monitor cable to the other card port.
Hmm, I think I'll try that.
Any other PCI cards or devices attached or installed should also be questioned or disconnected.
I've disconnected everything I could.
Always a good idea to start fresh which I assume you are doing (not trying to upgrade over RC etc).
Yes, the drive was empty to start with.
Honestly it seems like the Mac Pro is generally refusing to boot from any Windows disc. Things I've tried since my initial post:
- Loaded Windows 7 Install disc into my room mate's windows PC... loaded up fine, got to install screen
- Tried his OEM copy of Windows Vista 32-bit, same issue
At this point it seems like maybe some kind of firmware issue or some kind or graphics driver issue, but I'm pretty much grasping at straws at this point. It doesn't seem like it's even getting to the point where hard drives or anything matters.
It does recognize that I have a Windows 7 install disc inserted when I use the boot selector/startup disk chooser.
Thanks for the ideas, I'll try those out and see if any of them help,
-Andrew

Mac Pro early 2008 2 x 2.8GHz Quad Core 10.7.5, replaced 4 x 500ghds with 4 x 3Tb and Raid card Raid5 them OK but can not load time machine back up as it does not see any of the 4 drives, neither does disc utilities, any thoughts?

On my Mac Pro, early 2008 2 x 2.8GHz Quad Core 10.7.5, replaced 4 x 500ghds with 4 x 3Tb. The Raid card Raid 5ed them OK but can not load time machine back up as it does not see any of the 4 drives, neither does disc utilities, any thoughts?

You don't see drives when using a hardware RAID only the volumes.
WD Green are not suitable for hardware RAID (or software RAID for that matter).
USB2 and TimeMachine are a disaster waiting to happen. I've used SATA (internal) and eSATA (using SATA PCIe cards) trouble-free.
I can't say I begin to understand your use or "choosing the install drive for the backup"
Install what?
You don't load TimeMachine. Maybe seems minor but that is not how to describe the behavior of software.
You read FAQ and How To http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine
Time Machine’s Gory Details:
https://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/
TimeMachine 101
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
Lion Recovry & TimeMachine
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/installrecovery/
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/
How To Restore Your System
http://pondini.org/TM/14.htmlMac OS X v10.7 Lion
Pondini's Blog: Time Machine - Troubleshooting -- B5. Would you like to inherit (or re-use) the backup . . . ?

Mac Pro Early 2008 not booting

Hey guys!
I walked into a problem with a Mac Pro early 2008 model.
I got this Mac Pro from somebody since it wasn't working anymore. I was told there could be a graphic card (Nvidia) issue which I think should at least be correct but I am also having trouble with loading EFI. The following things happen:
When I turn on the mac using a DVI to VGA adapter i have no screen at all. (I don't have any other options atm)
There is no HD inserted.
PRAM and SMC reset won't do anything, i'm not even sure it reads keyboard commands.
The fans all work even the one on the GPU.
Front LED just burns steady.
No lights on my USB (non Apple) Keyboard turn on.
The lights of the mouse just flashes on start up.
RAM LEDS light up on startup.
Motherboard reset button doesn't make anything change.
When I Press the button for the diag LED's, the Trickle Power and the Good Power led come on, the GPU LED stays off. The EFI LED is off aswel.
No RAM errors show up. Tried switching RAM and disconnecting RAM and GPU.
No startup chime what so ever.
I figured there could be something wrong with the EFI firmware (or logic board is just broken). I am trying to restore the firmware with a firmware restoration cd, but I can't get the cd tray to open. I pressed the on button and kept pressing it for a long time. All it does is makes my status LED flash a couple of times real fast, but then it goes back to normal state. No cd tray is opening and its not flashing 3 times fast, 3 time slow, 3 times fast as it probely should be doing.
You guys have any idea what to try next or how to restore the firmware?
Thanks in advance.

there's a boot code to run with the older machines
Pike wrote this code
Using this code will get you around the efi/boot issue and move on to OS 10.10.02
Installing Yosemite just prior to entering the efi/boot, then restart twice.
You'll need to research Pike's code, but your 2006 to 2008 machines are long ways from trash.
I'm upgrading my 2006 to 8 cores, Yosemite and 32 gig of ram.
Long live these early Mac Pros
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&v ed=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fforums.mac…
maybe your issue is not related

Adobe Premiere CC 2014, regularly licensed (Mac Pro early 2008, Mac OSX 10.9.4).Adobe Premiere CC 2014, media offline, not playing, unusable.

Adobe Premiere CC 2014, regularly licensed (Mac Pro early 2008, Mac OSX 10.9.5, Graphic Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB).
Hi guys,
since the CC2014 version of Premiere has been released (on Creative Cloud) I'm experiencing - really often - the MEDIA PENDING (yellow background) issue... even if the clip can be found right clicking and selecting "reveal in finder" or "reveal in project", in the timeline the clip can't be played. Not to mention the many many problems the app is causing stopping working suddenly and obligating me to restart the system to have it regularly working again (usually it stops reproducing the video, only the audio stays alive, but the playhead seems freezes there where I left it).
One more problem: all the app (and customized) keyboard shortcuts are gone. Totally disappeared (this happened just after the last update, CC v8.1 Caravan. Synching from CC was unsuccessful.
Please don't suggest me to contact the adobe italian service to have an help... the last time (almost the same problem) they just made me lose time with some basic procedure checks that I knew were not leading me anywhere.
I ask sorry for my polemic tone, it's a few months that Adobe Premiere is not working anymore as before. And you can't immagine how many hours I've lost.
Thank you very much,
My best regards,
Stefano Bianchi.

Kevin-Monahan wrote:
Also, a 512 MB VRAM GPU is really underpowered
Guys, would you suggest me a new graphic card (in case, which model on this Mac - would be great a 4 or 6 MB VRAM GPU) or a new Mac Pro? This is still a great machine, but it's starting becoming unusable due to this Premiere issue (that is day by day more severe).
Thanks a lot for any suggestion,
Stefano.

Mac Pro Early 2008 Crash on Boot Up

I have a Mac Pro early 2008 running OSX 10.8.5, and yesterday morning for seemingly no reason I had a screen corruption and freeze up, a kernel panic and then it rebooted itself. I have tried all of the memory( no flashing LED over power switch), cleared and reset all of the PRAM via keyboard and motherboard etc etc and everytime I reboot it crashes at the same point with a screen corruption and reboot. When I tried to boot in safe mode it the bar got 50% of the way across and it rebooted. I booted in verbose mode and single user mode and on both the last entry related to 'Ambrosiaaudiosupport' (as best I can remember) before it rebooted itself again. I sent the Kernel Panic to Apple but as I cannot get back into the OS I cannot obtain another.
Is there a solution to this please, and if so what do I need to do to rectify it
Many thanks in advance
Alan

If you can't boot in the usual way, try a safe boot. During startup, you’ll see a progress bar, and then the login screen, which appears even if you normally log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin. If you have more than one user account, you must be logged in as an administrator to carry out these instructions. Safe mode is slower than normal, and some things won’t work at all. Note: If FileVault is enabled on some models, or if a firmware password is set, or if the startup volume is on a software RAID, you can’t boot in safe mode. If you're able to boot, launch the Console application in any of the following ways: ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.) ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens. ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid. Select the most recent panic log under the heading System Diagnostic Reports on the left. If you don't see that heading, select View ▹ Show Log List from the menu bar. Post the entire contents of the panic report — the text, please, not a screenshot. In the interest of privacy, I suggest you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header and body of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.) Please don't post shutdownStall, spin, or hang reports.

Mac Pro (Early 2008) freezes, reboots to recovery system, trouble locating startup disk

I have two issues which may or may not be related with my Mac Pro. First, off and on for several months is has been frozen when waking from sleep. I can hit a key and see my desktop with the windows I left open, but I get the spinning beach ball and the time is typically several hours behind. The only way I can get it to start is to restart from the power button. This typically happens overnight when my computer has been asleep for a long time. Sometimes I hear the fan run while the computer is asleep and I don't know if that is related. I've tried switching from Firefox to Chrome to see if that was the problem since I typically have a few tabs open on Firefox when it freezes, but that does not solve the problem. The next step I plan to try is to get a can of compressed air and clean the fan and check if the video card air intake might be clogged, based on information I have read in various forums. Does anyone have other suggestions for things to try to eliminate the freezing? Another suggestion I read was to get a new logic board battery installed but I hate to lug this thing into an Apple store unless I really have to. Most of the time I'm comfortable fixing things on my own.
The second issue is that when I reboot after shutting down the computer with the power button, it does not always load the startup disk. Sometimes I get the recovery system instead, and if I try disk repair, restore from backup, or the startup disk option from the apple menu, it cannot locate the startup disk. Usually after a few tries, I can restart it and get my desktop, but I'm not sure how long that will work. I hoped that resetting the NVRAM would take care of this but it has not fixed the issue. When I do disk repair, it says the drive is fine. I've also used idefrag to clean up the drive. I'm thinking my hard drive might be about to die and I should just get a new one, but I don't want to spend the money if that is not the issue. I have 83 GB free on the drive so space should not be an issue.
Any suggestions on fixing either or both of these issue would be very much welcome! I need to make this computer last at least a couple more years.
Specs:
Mac Pro early 2008
Processor 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory 8 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB
Software OS X 10.8.5 (12F37)

Back up all data immediately as your boot drive may be failing.
If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator. I've tested them only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, they may not work as described.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'Channel t|GPU D|I/O|n Cause: -' | tail | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
The command may take a noticeable amount of time to run. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign (“$”) to appear.
A TextEdit window will open with the output of the command. Normally the command will produce no output, and the window will be empty. If the TextEdit window (not the Terminal window) has anything in it, post it — the text, please, not a screenshot. The title of the TextEdit window doesn't matter, and you don't need to post that.

What drive in Mac Pro early 2008 or 2009?

I purchased a Western Digital Black 1Tb SATA hard drive and it did not work in any of my three Mac Pros (two are Early 2008, one is early 2009). It made a strange noise and was never seen by Disk Utility no matter what I did.
There are already three other drives in these machines, some of them are Western Digital drives and they work fine, but they were purchased years ago.
I returned the drive and purchased a Western Digital Red 1Tb drive in replacement. I chose a Red because I will be setting up a RAID system soon but needed it temporarily as storage in the Mac Pro. It didn't work at all in the Mac Pro Early 2008. At first it seemed to work but at restart, the system said the disk was not formatted, although I had formatted it successfully (but it really took a long time) with Disk Utility.
On the Mac Pro Early 2009 formatting was difficult. I tried to make two partitions instead of one and finally managed to format it and even copy some files to it. But Disk Utility couldn't verify it and Disk Warrior said it was having problems because of disk malfunction.
Apparently, I should be able to put a 1Tb disk in these machines, and the SATA 3 drives are supposed to be compatible with the SATA 2 of the Mac Pros. But it doesn't work although we spent hours trying everything and reading everything we could find on the subject.
My question is: are these drives supposed to work in older Mac Pros from 2008 and 2009?
If not, what drive should I purchase for these machines? I need a quiet, fast drive.
Thanks.
Ellen

Yes, I'm aware that SSD is the way to go. I have one (OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD), 480 GB, as my boot disk. It has the system and all my apps, plus my virtual machines for Windows. These are used very little, only to check if things we put on the web are OK in the various Win Browsers. But they need to be fast because otherwise, I'll go nuts.
About using SSD for Photoshop's scratch, I seem to remember reading something saying that it will reduce the drive's life somewhat. I don't know how much or if it matters, or if it's the better choice anyway.
Actually, the reason we still have these old Mac Pros (two for work, one for the server) is that, every year, we hoped to see some major improvement and put off upgrading because we didn't feel the new ones announced year after year would change our life.
We've been using Macs for almost 30 years now. The first was a Mac Plus 512k, in January 1985. (My first computer (in 1981) was a ZX81, with 1k of RAM... I did get a 16 k plug in extension though). We usually upgrade when the specs show a speed improvement of at least 4X, or when the architecture changes radically. All this to say we are now waiting to spend all our Christmas money on some shiny new tubular Mac Pros. We will then have to reconsider our whole setup, and add some external Thunderbolt drives. At that time, I'll be back to discuss the best options. Till then, this will do.
And the reason we tried a Red was because we thought maybe we could use it later on a dedicated machine used only for music over the network. The drive is used just about continuously all day long. Bad idea obviously.

Black Screen for Install of Windows 7 on Mac Pro Early 2008

I have a mac pro early 2008 with lion 10.7.4 and boot camp 4.0.3 I think... anyways the problem I have is when I am in boot camp, and configure the HDD partition, then the machine reboots... when it reboots and starts up boot from the install DVD (legit retail copy) I just get a black screen on both monitors. No curser, nothing just a black screen, same as I get when the machine is off! the little white LED lights are on and nothing...
I can hear the DVD spinning up and down a few times then that just stops too...
I have tried resetting the PRAM, pulling the power and watch battery inside for a few minutes, I tried the "fix" that is online for the imac problem with the answerfile and got no different resutls with anything, still the same probelm.
I have the OEM ATI Radeon video card 512MB.
* as a side note, I was never able to download the windows support drivers prior to trying the install... I tried and tried for the last two days so this time I "unchekced" that box and just went for the install...
Any help will be greatly appriciated, thank you :-)
Mike

Hey Hatter, I know this is a little old but I've just picked up this thread and I wonder if you can help. I get the same issue as:
JRASupport
Jun 28, 2012 1:56 PM
I have a mac pro early 2008 with lion 10.7.4 and boot camp 4.0.3 I think... anyways the problem I have is when I am in boot camp, and configure the HDD partition, then the machine reboots... when it reboots and starts up boot from the install DVD (legit retail copy) I just get a black screen on both monitors. No curser, nothing just a black screen, same as I get when the machine is off! the little white LED lights are on and nothing...
I get that dreaded black screen following partioning of my drive on the Windows 7 install on Mavericks on a Macbook Pro late-2008 (MBP5,1) but I'm at a loss to work out where the solution lies in the thread! ;-(
To date I've spent about 5 days going back and forth trying all sorts of combinations, including the obvious:
- removing bootcamp 5 and reverting to 4
- installing the imac drivers
A HUGE thanks if you can offer any help as I'm at the end of my tether...!
Adam
BTW I'm working off USB with 32 bit Windows 7 ISO

Mac Pro (Early 2008) shuts down unexpectedly

I have a recurring problem with my Mac Pro (Early 2008). I put the computer to sleep; then, when I tap a few keys on the keyboard to wake it up, I hear the start-up sound and it boots up as if it were shut down.
This is particularly strange, because I do not have to use the "power" button on the tower to turn it on. When I tap the keys on the keyboard, as if to wake it from sleep, it makes the start-up sound and boots. I am guessing that somehow it is shutting off when I first try to wake it from sleep, and then must re-boot. But this is odd behavior that I've never seen from any Mac, and I've been using them for almost 20 years.
Any ideas? I'm going to call Apple Support but I always dread those long wait times and often fruitless conversations. I did not migrate information from my previous system; I took the time to manually migrate my files and reinstalled all apps from DVD specifically to avoid problems like this. Very frustrating.

I've noticed the same problem for one day with my new MP 2.8 dualquad, got a reboot after every sleep.
This solved the issue for me:
• Reset the PRAM (Boot the machine and hold ALTCOMMAND+PR for 3 startup gongs)
• Reset the SMC -> http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304123-en
Good luck

Mac Pro Early 2008 crash after gear on boot

Hi. I have a Mac Pro (Early 2008), with Mavericks installed. A couple of days ago, it crashed hard (in Portal, as it happens) and then wouldn't boot. When it was crashing it showed full green in various (dark? or random?) areas of the screen, and then random vertical lines of coloured noise. The cursor went jerky, and then stopped moving at all. Having decided this was a more serious problem than a simple steam error, I forced the machine to shut down with the case button, and then turned it back on again, but it wouldn't come up, and hasn't (with exceptions, see below) since.
The behaviour is:
Boot chime, Apple, Apple-with-spinning-gear, a sensible (it seems) amount of spinning gear, then the gear stops and I get some flashing on my screen (like, a complete red screen, or orange screen – colours vary – displayed for less than one refresh, so I see a brief flash of colour with tearing). Occasionally instead of flashing I get an unexpected reboot: once when this happened I also got the kernel's (multiple language) "Your computer restarted because of a problem" screen.
Safe Mode has the same problem (I get a progress bar, when the progress bar completes everything stops and "screen flashing" happens).
EFI boot volume selector works fine, but when I continue to boot, either from my main partition or the Recovery partition, I get the same problem.
Verbose mode works until the point where the graphical user interface should come back, which gives me a white screen and nothing (except screen flashing). I do get a certain amount of "kSMCBadArgumentError" before that point, but see below.
Single User Mode works as it should, fsck finds no errors, all my data appears to be on my hard drive as expected, but on typing "exit" to continue boot I end up in the same position as Verbose Mode. Trying kextload to load all my extensions gives the kSMCBadArgumentError lines, but no other problems (until I try to boot). I have already tried using SUM to remove all the launch agents/daemons/extensions from /Library/ (leaving only the ones in /System/Library/). This worked (I modified the disk as I intended) but didn't help me boot.
I did get the recovery partition to boot once (seemingly randomly), Disk Utility found no errors. The full Apple Hardware Test doesn't seem to be an option from the recovery partition? (I've moved house a few times in the last 6 years, and I don't know where my physical AHT disk is any more. I do have a friend who would probably be able to burn one if Apple provides the disk image as a download.) I have had a full successful boot once too (maybe on the restart after using the recovery partition?) which let me use my administrator user perfectly (I used it for about 5 minutes?), but then after logging out and while trying to log in as my "standard" user I got full green noise as before, and the machine locked up again.
I've rotated my RAM (I have 2x1GB sticks and 2x2GB, as well as my usual 6GB config I've tried each of the pairs in "two-stick" configuration). No difference, except on one boot I got error lights (full on) on one riser, I assume that was because I hadn't seated it properly during rotation, because I took it out and put it back in again and I've not had the lights before or since.
I've also tried swapping in an older system drive, but that made no difference. (The old drive may have been a little flaky itself, but single-user mode booting reliably suggests, at least to me, that my normal drives aren't the problem?)
Without wishing to privilege a hypothesis, could it be the graphics card? I have the Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT, I believe (it looks exactly like the pictures of that card online, anyway) – installed by Apple at build time. I tried taking it out and putting it back in again, in case it had become poorly seated, but it seemed firmly in place – for example, the PCIe retainer clip was fully engaged before I removed the card – and reseating it didn't make any difference. I don't have a second card to test with, unfortunately. I wouldn't mind getting a new card to keep the machine running, of course, but I'd like to make sure that it's going to solve my problem before buying it!
Thanks for any help you can give!
Edited to correct OS field, which didn't work. I really do mean Mavericks.

RE: Mac Pro Replacement Graphics cards
1) Apple brand cards,
2) "sold in the Apple store" cards, and
3) "Mac Edition" cards ...
... show all the screens, including Boot up screens, Safe Mode, Installer, Recovery, debug screens, and Alt/Option boot screens. At this writing, these choices include:
1) Apple brand cards:
• Apple-firmware 5770, about US$250** works near full speed in every model Mac Pro, Drivers in 10.6.5
• Apple-firmware 5870, about US$450
2) "sold in the Apple store" cards
• NVIDIA Quadro 4000, about US$1200
• NVIDIA Quadro 5000, about US$2500
3) "Mac Edition" cards -- REQUIRE 10.8.3 or later:
• SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 MAC Edition, about US$480** Vendor recommends Mac Pro 4,1
• EVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition, about US$600
The cards above require no more than the provided two 6-pin aux power connectors provided in the Mac Pro through 2012 model. Aux cables may not be provided for third-party cards, but are readily available.
If you are Meet ALL of these:
• running 10.8.3 or later AND
• don't care about "no boot screens" etc AND
• can re-wire or otherwise "work out" the power cabling, THEN:
You can use many more cards, even most "PC-only cards"

Mac Pro (early 2008) keyboard stops working

My Mac Pro (early 2008) has the Apple USB extended keyboard go no ops after the computer has been on for a while. This has been happening for quite a while and began shortly after I installed 10.6. It seemed to disappear for a while after 10.6.6 showed up but has returned since 10.6.8 has arrived. It seems to happen only when the computer goes to sleep but it does not happen every time. But it does happen most times. It appears that all USB ports on the back of my Apple monitor become unusable when this happens.
Anyone have any ideas? This has the feel of the sleep issue this model had with an early OS a few years ago.
MacPro3,1, 10.6.8, 32 GB RAM, dual 32 GHz quad-core Xeon chips, 4 bays populated, 1 TB, 2 TB, 2 TB, 2 TB

Scott..
Try a Safe Mode boot...
Startup your Mac in Safe Mode
A Safe Mode boot takes a longer than a normal boot so be patient.
Once you are in Safe Mode, click Restart from the Apple () menu.
Then try the keyboard.
A Safe Mode deletes some system caches that may help, especially after an update.

Mac Pro (Early 2008) periodically crashes in unusual way, requires reinstall

Mac Pro (Early 2008), 2 x Intel Quad-core Xeon 3.2 GHz (8 cores), 14 GB RAM, 3 TB hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 and/or ATI Radeon HD 4870), OS X Lion 10.7.4
OK, I've got a weird one here. Every few days, my machine crashes in an unusual manner. Examples:
* the first time this happened, any attempt to play a video file (either from within iTunes or externally using Quicktime) would result in a blank, black video window, but I could still hear the sound from the video. If I moved my mouse within the black window I'd get playback controls and when pressed, I could hear the audio rewind/fast forward/etc. (but of course the video window would remain black) Also, any attempt to use screen sharing would result in a completely white window where the remote screen should be.
* another time this happened, I would constantly get the error message that VTDecoderXPCService quit unexpectedly, even if I wasn't playing a video. Trying the suggested fixes from https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3193904?start=15&tstart=0 did not fix the issue.
* another time this happened, the machine appeared to work fine, except any attempt to access System Preferences resulted in the spinning beach ball of death and would completely lock up the machine.
In any case, rebooting the machine does not result in the problem being fixed -- in fact, it gets worse. After I reboot, I am unable to log in to my machine at all. Either the desktop window flashes briefly but then it goes back to the login screen, or the login screen never appears. I have tried both the "guest" account as well as a standard "test" user I set up when I first installed OS X (i.e. a "clean" user), and none of those help.
What *does* help, however, is completely reinstalling OS X Lion (including running the combo updater to get back to 10.7.4). Once I do this, the machine becomes usable again, and I can use it error-free for a few more days - after which it fails again in some strange manner.
At first I thought my hard drive might be failing; however replacing the hard drive did not help. I then thought that I might have a glitchy graphics card (the black video windows and the VTDecoderXPCService crashing suggested this to me). However replacing the video card didn't help either. (I tried another GeForce GT 120 as well as an ATI Radeon HD 4870, both of which were known to be good in other machines). I have also tried countless times fixing permissions, clearing cache files, etc. and none of that helps. The only thing that brings this machine back from the dead is, like I said before, reinstalling OS X - but only for a few days.
I didn't see anything out of the ordinary when checking the system log files.
In case there was some sort of hardware problem going on, I tried running Apple Hardware Test overnight in loop mode. The hardware passed all checks. I also tried running Memtest86+ overnight, again with no failures or errors.
The machine doesn't seem to me to run particularly hot - typically temps hover in the 40-45 C range, and can jump to 55-60 when doing heavy activity (mostly video encoding). Voltage levels look good as well. (I'm using iStat Menus for both the temperature and voltage readings)
I'm about at my wit's end here. Unfortunately the machine is out of warranty (AppleCare too) and I don't really have the money to take this into a shop and get it diagnosed. So does anyone have any ideas?

Results from Step 1:
com.rogueamoeba.InstantOn (5.0.2)
com.squirrels.driver.AirParrotSpeakers (1.7)
com.squirrels.airparrot.framebuffer (3)
com.attotech.driver.ATTOiSCSI (3.4.1b1)
com.avatron.AVExVideo (1.6.1)
com.makemkv.kext.daspi (1)
com.blackmagic-design.iokit.DeckLinkFrameBuffer (9.5.2)
com.blackmagic-design.iokit.DeckLinkHD_Driver (1.0.0)
com.blackmagic-design.iokit.DeckLinkDriver (9.5.2)
com.kensington.trackballworks.driver (1.1.0)
com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower (1.5.3)
net.telestream.driver.TelestreamAudio (1.0.5)
com.avatron.AVExFramebuffer (1.6.1)
foo.tun (1.0)
foo.tap (1.0)
com.parallels.kext.prl_usb_connect (7.0
com.parallels.kext.prl_hypervisor (7.0
com.parallels.kext.prl_hid_hook (7.0
com.parallels.kext.prl_netbridge (7.0
com.parallels.kext.prl_vnic (7.0
Results from Step 2:
com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-thumbs
com.parallels.vm.prl_naptd
de.bernhard-baehr.sleepwatcher
com.squirrels.kextinstaller
com.parallels.desktop.launchdaemon
com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper
com.datarobotics.ddserviced
com.datarobotics.ddservice64d
com.blackmagic-design.streaming.BMDStreamingServer
com.bjango.istatlocaldaemon
Results from Step 3:
com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper
net.culater.SIMBL.Agent
com.parallels.vm.prl_pcproxy
com.parallels.DesktopControlAgent
com.parallels.desktop.client.launch
com.delicioussafari.DeliciousSafariAgent
com.blackmagic-design.DesktopVideoFirmwareUpdater
com.bjango.istatlocal
com.google.keystone.user.agent
com.adobe.AAM.Scheduler-1.0
Results from Step 4:
/Library/Components:
total 0
/Library/Extensions:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 4 root wheel 136 May 31 12:21 fuse4x.kext/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Apr 27 13:45 tap.kext/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Apr 27 13:45 tun.kext/
/Library/Frameworks:
total 24K
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 71 Jun 4 14:47 AEProfiling.framework -> ../../Applications/Motion.app/Contents/Frameworks/AEProfiling.framework
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 74 Jun 4 14:47 AERegistration.framework -> ../../Applications/Motion.app/Contents/Frameworks/AERegistration.framework
drwxr-xr-x 6 root wheel 204 Apr 6 2011 Adobe AIR.framework/
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 74 Jun 4 14:47 AudioMixEngine.framework -> ../../Applications/Motion.app/Contents/Frameworks/AudioMixEngine.framework
drwxr-xr-x 6 root wheel 204 Jun 4 17:20 NyxAudioAnalysis.framework/
drwxr-xr-x 6 root wheel 204 Jun 4 17:20 PluginManager.framework/
drwxrwxr-x 6 dburr admin 204 Aug 9 2011 Turbo264.framework/
drwxrwxr-x 6 root admin 204 May 14 23:19 iLifeFaceRecognition.framework/
drwxrwxr-x 7 root admin 238 May 14 23:19 iLifeSlideshow.framework/
/Library/Input Methods:
total 0
/Library/InputManagers:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 4 root wheel 136 Oct 27 2011 DeliciousSafari/
drwxr-xr-x 5 root admin 170 May 15 07:05 Ecamm/
/Library/Internet Plug-Ins:
total 16K
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Oct 25 2010 AdobePDFViewer.plugin/
drwxrwxr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jun 1 17:48 Flash Player.plugin/
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel   80 Jun 4 15:30 JavaAppletPlugin.plugin -> //System/Library/Java/Support/CoreDeploy.bundle/Contents/JavaAppletPlugin.plugi n/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jun 16 2011 Quartz Composer.webplugin/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jun 19 2011 QuickTime Plugin.plugin/
drwxrwxr-x 3 root admin 102 Aug 25 2010 SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin/
drwxrwxr-x 3 root admin 102 Aug 25 2010 SharePointWebKitPlugin.webplugin/
drwxrwxr-x 3 root admin 102 Apr 11 10:26 Silverlight.plugin/
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root admin 856 Apr 27 12:13 flashplayer.xpt
drwxrwxr-x 3 root wheel 102 May 15 10:27 npContributeMac.bundle/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2.4K Jun 4 14:46 nsIQTScriptablePlugin.xpt
/Library/Keyboard Layouts:
total 0
/Library/LaunchAgents:
total 64K
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 612 May 15 10:11 com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 456 May 15 07:08 com.bjango.istatlocal.plist*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 574 May 24 22:05 com.blackmagic-design.DesktopVideoFirmwareUpdater.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 576 Oct 27 2011 com.delicioussafari.DeliciousSafariAgent.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 721 Apr 5 10:21 com.parallels.DesktopControlAgent.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 565 Apr 5 10:21 com.parallels.desktop.launch.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 797 Apr 5 10:20 com.parallels.vm.prl_pcproxy.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 508 May 17 21:18 net.culater.SIMBL.Agent.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons:
total 104K
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root wheel 634 May 15 10:15 com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 421 Jun 4 14:44 com.apple.remotepairtool.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1.1K May 15 08:53 com.attotech.iscsid.plist
-rwxr-x--- 1 root wheel 597 May 15 07:08 com.bjango.istatlocaldaemon.plist*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 471 May 24 22:05 com.blackmagic-design.streaming.BMDStreamingServer.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 488 Jan 18 22:50 com.datarobotics.ddservice64d.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 484 Jan 18 22:50 com.datarobotics.ddserviced.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 510 May 23 2011 com.econtechnologies.ChronoAgentRemote.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 568 Aug 25 2010 com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 567 Apr 5 10:21 com.parallels.desktop.launchdaemon.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 675 May 17 21:43 com.squirrels.kextinstaller.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 517 May 15 09:45 de.bernhard-baehr.sleepwatcher-20compatibility.plist
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin   74 Apr 4 17:45 org.macports.rsyncd.plist -> /opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.rsyncd/org.macports.rsyncd.plist
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin   72 Apr 4 23:19 org.macports.slapd.plist -> /opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/org.macports.slapd/org.macports.slapd.plist
/Library/Mail/Bundles:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 4 root admin 136 May 17 16:43 GPGMail.mailbundle/
drwxrwxr-x 4 root admin 136 Jan 11 12:54 OMiC.mailbundle/
/Library/PreferencePanes:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 3 root admin 102 Feb 6 15:03 Air Display Preferences.prefPane/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root admin 102 Jun 27 2010 Choosy.prefPane/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root admin 102 Feb 3 11:21 ChronoAgent.prefPane/
drwxr-xr-x 4 root admin 136 May 15 09:13 Cursorcerer.prefPane/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root admin 102 May 24 22:05 DesktopVideoPrefsPanel.prefPane/
drwxrwxr-x 3 root wheel 102 Apr 27 12:14 Flash Player.prefPane/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root admin 102 May 20 12:13 Hazel.prefPane/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root admin 102 Jul 23 2011 Perian.prefPane/
drwxrwxr-x 3 root admin 102 Jul 18 2011 TrackballWorks.prefPane/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Aug 30 2011 Tuxera NTFS.prefPane/
/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools:
total 168K
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 102K Aug 25 2010 com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper*
-r-xr--r-- 1 root wheel 59K May 17 21:43 com.squirrels.kextinstaller*
/Library/QuickLook:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 3 dburr staff 102 Feb 12 12:36 QLMarkdown.qlgenerator/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jun 16 2011 iWork.qlgenerator/
/Library/QuickTime:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 3 root admin 102 Jul 23 2011 AC3MovieImport.component/
drwxrwxr-x 3 root admin 102 Sep 12 2011 AppleAVCIntraCodec.component/
drwxrwxr-x 3 root admin 102 Sep 12 2011 AppleHDVCodec.component/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jun 13 2011 AppleIntermediateCodec.component/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jun 13 2011 AppleMPEG2Codec.component/
drwxrwxr-x 3 root admin 102 Sep 12 2011 AppleProResCodec.component/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root admin 102 May 24 22:05 Blackmagic Codec.component/
drwxrwxr-x 3 root admin 102 Sep 12 2011 DVCPROHDCodec.component/
drwxrwxr-x 3 dburr admin 102 Aug 9 2011 Elgato Turbo.component/
drwxrwxr-x 3 root admin 102 Sep 12 2011 FCP Uncompressed 422.component/
drwxrwxr-x 3 root admin 102 Sep 12 2011 IMXCodec.component/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root admin 102 Jul 23 2011 Perian.component/
/Library/ScriptingAdditions:
total 0
drwxrwxr-x 3 root admin    102 May 15 10:54 Adobe Unit Types.osax/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel    102 Oct 27 2011 DeliciousSafari Addition.osax/
drwxr-xr-x 3 dburr macports 102 Jan 5 06:45 SIMBL.osax/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root admin    102 Apr 26 00:00 TotalFinder.osax/
/Library/Spotlight:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jan 21 2009 Microsoft Office.mdimporter/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root wheel 102 Jun 16 2011 iWork.mdimporter/
/Library/StartupItems:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 5 root wheel 170 Apr 27 13:39 tap/
drwxr-xr-x 5 root wheel 170 Sep 1 2009 tun/
/etc/mach_init.d:
total 0
/etc/mach_init_per_login_session.d:
total 0
/etc/mach_init_per_user.d:
total 0
Library/Address Book Plug-Ins:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 3 dburr admin 102 Mar 5 02:01 SkypeABDialer.bundle/
drwxr-xr-x 3 dburr admin 102 Mar 5 02:01 SkypeABSMS.bundle/
Library/Fonts:
total 0
Library/Frameworks:
total 0
drwxrwxrwx 5 dburr staff 170 Aug 24 2010 EWSMac-GC.framework/
drwxrwxrwx 5 dburr staff 170 May 17 22:42 EWSMac.framework/
Library/Input Methods:
total 0
-rw------- 1 dburr staff 0 May 14 15:18 .localized
Library/Internet Plug-Ins:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 5 dburr staff 170 Feb 4 04:26 Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin/
Library/Keyboard Layouts:
total 0
Library/LaunchAgents:
total 32K
-rw-r--r-- 1 dburr staff 697 May 15 11:01 com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 dburr staff 618 May 15 08:13 com.apple.AddressBook.ScheduledSync.PHXCardDAVSource.AA278322-D5AB-4321-B4ED-D9 0478690405.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 dburr staff 886 May 14 15:18 [email protected]ist
-rw-r--r-- 1 dburr staff 802 May 14 18:47 com.google.keystone.agent.plist
Library/Mail/Bundles:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 4 dburr staff 136 Jan 23 09:53 MailActOn.mailbundle/
drwxr-xr-x 4 dburr staff 136 May 11 10:08 MailTags.mailbundle/
drwxr-xr-x 3 dburr staff 102 Apr 26 08:28 SpamSieve.mailbundle/
Library/PreferencePanes:
total 0
Library/Services:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 3 dburr staff 102 May 15 10:04 ToastIt.service/
Library/Spotlight:
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 3 dburr staff 102 May 11 10:08 MailTags.mdimporter/
Results from Step 5:
Cobook, ScreenSharingMenulet, PhotoSync, Growl, PinPoint, EvernoteHelper, Caffeine, TrackballWorksHelper, Alfred, DropCopy Pro, Fantastical, Moom, TextExpander, ChronoSyncBackgrounder, TotalFinder, Yoink, AirDisplayStatusItem, Choosy, AirParrot, Melo, Synergy, Cursorcerer, ScreenCapture, HazelHelper, PleaseSleep, SMARTReporter, iTunesHelper, DDAssist, Dropbox

"Charging" icon when actually not charging on Mac Pro Early 2008

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