Mac Pro Boot Issue

Mac Pro - "Quad", 2 X 2.66Ghz; 5GB RAM; OS X 10.5.6
Mac Pro will not boot. It powers up to the grey Apple logo screen. The progress circle spins for about 3 seconds, then powers itself off.
This past week I came back from two weeks off. The first morning back I noticed my Mac was sluggish at times and freezing for a few seconds here and there. When Time Machine backups would kick in, the whole system would be unresponsive for minutes at a time. After turning off all other equipment in my office, I could detect a tell-tale "click click, spin" type noise coming from one of my two internal drives (one for OS and a second for backups).
I tracked the noise to the boot drive and guessing it was about to go out, I ordered a replacement Samsung Spinpoint 750GB. Good thing, because the next day when I came in to work my machine was having worse problems. IF it would boot, it would hang after a few minutes of use. If it would not boot, it would power up to the grey Apple logo, the progress circle would spin a few seconds, the power itself off.
I waited another day and the new drive arrived. I pulled the old OS drive, installed the new one, then dumped our standardized clone image on the drive (using CCC). After the clone was complete, I booted up on the drive, tested it out for a couple of hours and verified that it was working as expected. Next I copied data over to my drive from my backup drive. Everything looked fine.
Three days later, I come in to find my Mac will no longer boot. Grey Apple logo, spinning, etc.. I power off and boot from my external diagnostic drive (OS X 10.5.5). It will not boot. I remove both internal drives and try another boot from the external diagnostic drive. It boots up fine. Shutdown. Remove the backup drive (drive bay 2) and try to reboot from the diag drive once again. It will not boot. Remove the OS drive (drive bay 1) and it boots to the diagnostic drive fine (note: no internal drives are installed at this point). Shutdown. Install the OS drive into drive bay 2 and it then boots to the diagnostic drive just fine.
So now I have booted to my external diag drive and can see that the OS drive is showing on the Desktop; however a pop-up error stating there is a problem has appeared. I try to verify the OS drive using Disk Utility and it stops about 2 seconds into the process with a "Filesystem verify or repair failed" error. The OS drive will then not mount.
I restart booting back to the external diag drive. The OS drive shows up on the Desktop with the same pop-up error message as before.
I run Tech Tool Pro from the diag drive and it comes back with a File Structure error of "Type List Offset Is Invalid" and "No method for Tech Tool Pro to repair a corrupt file". I have a surface scan and drive hardware test running now, but on a 750GB it will be a WHILE.
So here is my predicament... I can understand my original OS drive having problems. It was at least 3 yrs old and has been run quite hard. But what are the odds that I would replace it with a brand new drive running a verified to be good cloned disk image AND have almost the exact same boot issues on the new drive that I had on the old one?
I have taken my original OS drive and hooked it up to external cases and sata-to-usb adapters to make sure that it was actually dead and it is. It will not spin up properly and makes lots of clicking noises. However, having a similar boot issue with a brand new drive has me worried something may be wrong with the Mac Pro hardware also. The new OS drive ran fine for a few days and only had these problems today.
Any guesses?

Here is my own "cookie cutter" template to this type of problem.
Insure your UPS is working properly and that you have 1300VA to start with.
Run Apple Hardware Test of course.
CCC has been updated so make sure latest (it auto checks probably already).
Do you have Windows? run diagnostics from there, much better.
I settled on WD drives and use WD Diagnostic and has saved a drive.
Avoid Barracudas, seems even their 1TB is also suffering early failures (the 1.5TB was suffering from firmware problem).
Check for reviews and drive upgrade DB on AccelerateYourMac.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/
I know the F1 got a lot of early praise but they aren't compatible with Apple Pro RAID card and may have other issues.
If you want a fast low-cost drive, WD Cavair 640GB $69.
http://www.barefeats.com/harper14.html
Hitachi E7K1000: http://techreport.com/articles.x/16130/10
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hdd-terabyte-1tb,2077-8.html
I have seen more than a couple of similar stories from people going away for 1-2 weeks and coming home to system that won't work properly. Hopefully people shutdown and unplug, or shutdown and have UPS, but it is strange to say the least.
Resetting SMC is a good idea but best done with 2008 model by leaving it unplugged for a full night 8-12 hrs. and not just 5 minutes. contrary to Apple tech article. For yours, there is a small physical button accessed by pulling drive tray #4 (easier to see if it is on its side and you have flashlight!)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1806
http://www.apple.com/support/macpro/

Similar Messages

Early 2008 Mac Pro boot issue

I'm having what seems to be a hardware issue with my Mac Pro on booting. The MP boots to either a blue screen or a chunked grey screen (http://gallery.me.com/dwphoto#100036/IMG_1401) and hang. So far, I've tried booting from multiple clones (from 10.5-10.6.6) as well as the Snow Leopard install DVD, reinstalling SL, removed all 3rd party cards and usb/firewire externals, zapped the PRAM, repaired permissions, verified disks. It will boot into Safe Mode without problem. If it hangs on normal boot, all the drives are visible and active over a network. I'm pretty stumped.

They were reluctant? I hope you printed out the Apple article. Unbelievable.
What I would like would be a link at the top of this forum and more direct access (and we all want better organized and search results to KB articles).
There ought to be "newest changes KB" and a Warranty category
http://www.apple.com/support/macpro

Mac Pro having issues with widgets after booting in 64-bit mode

I tried the temp 64-bit boot (holding down 6 and 4 on startup), Mac Pro boots fine. I've noticed a difference in how my system runs n 64-bit. Much peppier. But the one thing I've noticed is that widgets are coming up strange. More specifically, The Weather Network, Conversion, and Translate widgets. The letters and numbers are coming up as outlined boxes. The drop down menus still work, the names just don't come up. ie. In the Conversion widget, the drop down menu name is boxes, but when you click on it, you can see the names of the selections. But as soon as you choose one, the letters turn to boxes.
I've restarted my computer to boot back in 32-bit, and don't see the same issues. Is anyone aware of this, what's causing it, and if there is a fix? Thanks.

HI Eric,
Some widgets and browser plugins as well such as Flash aren't supported in 64-bit. Some widgets were originally written for PowerPC platforms.
Flash Player support on 64-bit operating systems
Carolyn
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

Can a Mac Pro boot off a MacBook Pro in Target Disk Mode?

Summary: "Are you able to boot a Mac Pro off of a Mac Book Pro in Target Disk Mode?" OR "Will a Mac Pro boot off an OS X install that was made on a MBP?"
Details:
I'm finishing a music project that was created on a PPC G5 Quad computer and going to a studio in Santa Monica to complete the final mixdown. My 3rd party software plug-in configuration is unique, and the studio doesn't have all of the software instruments that I do on their 8 core mac pro. My G5 software installation is mirrored to my MacBook Pro, but the MBP doesn't have enough CPU power to play the project back.
Is it feasible to have the studio's 8 core Mac Pro boot from my MacBook Pros hard drive? Essentially, we'd be using my OS and software on their powerful CPU / hardware. I figure, since they are both Intel builds of OSX, this should be do-able.
I don't have access to the Mac Pro until I show up to start working.
Thanks for any input / suggestions!

The MacBook Pro boots fine in 10.5.8, and loads the Logic project without any faults. The only issue is that a CPU shortage occurs when you attempt to play the sequence.
Like you suggested, I performed separate UB installations of all the needed software on the MBP solely so I could move Logic projects from one computer to the next without a hitch. (Actually, DropBox does this for me). Migration assistant was not employed in this process due to the PPC / Intel issues you noted.
I didn't need to mention the G5 as it appears to have caused some confusion based on Kappy's reply, but I did want to explain my work flow thoroughly.
It sounds like booting the MacPro from my MBP is feasible. I'll mark this topic 'solved' and head over to the studio tonight. I'll post here any anomalies from the session (if any).
THANKS~!

Mac Pro boot sound on Cinema display

Hey guys,
Is it possible to run the Mac pro boot sound on my cinema display instead of the Mac pro's build in speakers?
My macbook sounds more agressive than that Mac badboy .
thanks!
-Sam

I think this has been a problem since the beige G3 and an early speaker-equipped Mac display.
The startup chime is produced long, long before the display is configured to accept the data and make it into speaker noises. It is near impossible to make the startup chime come out the display speakers.

Mac pro boot camp partition cloned to MBP?

i have a 200 GB mac pro boot camp partition with windows 7 on it and between setting it up and getting all my software customized it has been like doing time in a soviet gulag.
if i create a 200 GB partition on my MBP can i clone this from one machine to another?
it would save me a heck of a lot of time and aggravation
TIA
p.s not sure if this makes a difference but my mac pro is a first generation deal that required amy burning a image to disk or something along those lines...

Do you know what I do to get 10.5?
Purchase it if the computer doesn't include it.
Also, I don't understand why the drivers are going to be on older software that doesn't have Boot Camp bundled with it.
The drivers are not on a Mac OS X 10.4 CD or DVD. They are on the Mac OS X 10.5 DVD.
Leopard has Boot Camp bundled with it doesn't it? Isn't part of the deal upgrading and improving the drivers?
Yes.
You say in the above "or use up a Windows installation"
This only applies if the Windows disk or license agreement allows you to create a limited number of installations.
Are you saying here that I could also reformat the drive with XP on it?
You could, but there is little reason to do so.
Do I have to reconfigure my workspaces if I do the second option above?
If you erase the Windows partition, yes.
(30311)

Mac Pro Display Issue

Mac Pro Display Issue - Unexpectedly Sleeps and Freezes
Just since a couple of days my Mac Pro desktop has been having display issues. Unexpectedly the screens go into sleep mode, it turns black and freezes, the computer doesnot respond to the keyboard or mouse.
At first I thought this was related to Chrome, and switched to Firefox, but the computer is still having the same issue. I have to shut down and restart each time it gets stuck.
I even went into preferences and changed the energy saver settings to "Never" allow display or harddrive to sleep. But this problem is stil happening.
Does anyone have the same problems? Or a solution?

I cleaned out my mac with compressed air, it was dusty, but the display flickering happened again.
So I followed your advice and installed:
Temperature Monitor
http://www.bresink.de/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html
Which showed that my memory module 1B and 2B were 70 - 75'C(160 -167'F). There was no reading for the graphic card so I couldn't tell if that was over heating.
Then I installed:
smc fan controller
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/23049/smcfancontrol
and increased the memory_cpu fan speed which lowered the temperature of the ram to 60'C (143'F).
I even changed this ram's placement and put it in different slots.This ram was the same temperature in the new placements.
Also this is the kingston 2gb ram without heatsinks. Ive used it for 1.5 yrs, and this is the first time its giving me these problems.
Do you know how I can check if the graphic card is over heating? or is the problem just with the ram?
Thank you for all your help!

First generation Mac pro booted into utilities and HD recovery, any idea why?

Hi,
My first generation Mac pro booted into utilities and HD recovery when I restared after installing Autodesk sketchbook pro. This isnt the first time this has happened but last time I was not trying to install any software. Fortunatly, I have time machine backups and therefore have managed to recover the HD to a recent date and I intend to do a complete system check when it has finished. The first time this happened I didnt think much of it but now it has happened a second time i'm becoming a little concerned, any idea why this has happened?

I did this the first time it happened so I know that its not that i have the wrong startup disk selected. However, after the recovery had completed I tried the installation again and this time everything went smootly. so as of right now I dont have a problem. Thank you very much for your time and help.

Mac Pro Boot Camp Windows XP issues

Hello all, I'm a new user on the forums and a proud owner of a Mac pro with 4gb ram and 500 gb hard drive. I installed Boot Camp and Windows XP Home Edition before adding any programs so the partitioning was split down the middle. However, once I installed my Windows Version of Adobe Production Studio and other software like McAfee and Spybot S&D I noticed a few issues with Windows. I might be overreacting, but the computer(on the windows side) seems slower than my previous computer (Powerspec 3ghz processor, 1gb RAM, Windows XP Prof) especially in adobe photoshop. Some problems that have occurred:
1.) System information only shows 1.99gb RAM on the windows side.
2.) Booting Windows from Boot Camp sometimes causes the entire system to restart and bring me back to boot camp if I'm still holding option, then a message saying that windows did not start normally appears and it asks if I want to start in safe mode.
3.) Adobe Photoshop with 75% Memory Partition lags when opening and saving large files like filmstrips.
4.) Windows start up and shut down take about 1-2 minutes while Mac OS X is almost instantaneous.
I haven't tried office yet, but the installation seemed to work. I'm not sure if anyone has experienced this, but this could be a cause for my problems, when I tried to install some programs, Spybot denied registry changes. I think I may have solved the problem, but I don't think it made a difference to programs that were already installed. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Mac Pro Mac OS X (10.4.7)

By *firmware update* would that include EFI?
Maybe patch or update the SATA chip controller?
Run off PCIe SATA controller is always possibility...
Bugs in ROMs were often patched by drivers, microcode and kernel extensions.
SATA has been changing more rapidly in the last year than in the previous two years - trying to hit a fast moving target.
Barefeats points to possible issues with disk read and writes with some drives and drive configurations.
Seagate had an issue with some of their drives taking more than a minute to spin back up after sleep or spin-down, which required firmware update or drive replacement.
It is also possible, running BootCamp and Windows now, to apply firmware updates to disk drives, something that Macs were excluded from before by Windows-only updates. The need for firmware updates has always been done with SCSI disk drives, and SATA drives have required updates to correct problems as well.
Not sure if we will ever see the type of EFI access that PCs have had to the BIOS, but sometimes you might be able to write something to nvram (as with Parallels right now) to get past a problem.
Tiger has seen some changes, in 10.4.0 and again in 10.4.4, that has impacted disk arbitration and RAIDs primarily but not exclusively, such that you should not be using a 10.4.0-.4.2 version of Disk Utility to repair a drive running a later version.

Help needed on Mac Book pro boot issue.

2015-04-13 20:20:31 +0530: Starting repair tool:
2015-04-13 20:20:31 +0530: Checking prerequisites
2015-04-13 20:20:31 +0530: Checking the partition list
2015-04-13 20:20:31 +0530: Adjusting partition map to fit whole disk as required
2015-04-13 20:20:31 +0530: Checking for an EFI system partition
2015-04-13 20:20:31 +0530: Checking the EFI system partition’s size
2015-04-13 20:20:31 +0530: Setting the EFI system partition’s size
2015-04-13 20:20:31 +0530: Creating a new EFI system partition
2015-04-13 20:20:31 +0530: Problems were encountered during repair of the partition map
2015-04-13 20:20:31 +0530: Error: Couldn’t repair the partition map because a new EFI system partition couldn’t be created.2015-04-13 20:20:32 +0530:
2015-04-13 20:20:32 +0530: : Couldn’t repair the partition map because a new EFI system partition couldn’t be created.
2015-04-13 20:20:32 +0530:
On my macbook pro, was running on Yosemite and suddenly on starting the system I see "prohibited" sign. After trying a lot of combination of keys, I added external SSD and booted but it came up with Lion version.

Greetings skewat,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!
I understand that your Mac is booting to a prohibitory sign. In this situation, to help resolve the issue, I would suggest reading over and working through the information in the attached article.
Mac OS X: Gray screen appears during startup - Apple Support
Cheers,
Joe

When do Boot Camp updates come? Mac Pro SATA issue driving me NUTS

I just got a Mac Pro, FINALLY, and after a long wait, I've had to suffer through hours of shoving Windows XP on my Mac Pro with Boot Camp 1.1. After successfully getting it all put on there, the stupid SATA issues are driving me nuts. I tried the slipstreaming fix TWICE, and I have no patience to try it a third.
Basically, I know 1.1 just came out, but do we know when the next update will come that will supposedly fix the SATA issues? How often do updates come for this so we can have a basic window of when the update will come?

but to expect Apple to support Windows SATA driver issue IMHO is not a fair expectation of Apple
I disagree… in this case at least. Apple has stated that Boot Camp is a feature of Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard and to not have it work correctly, or to its potential, on their flagship product, the Mac Pro, as it were intended then this makes it unacceptable. For Apple's customers and for Apple themselves.
Apple IS ultimately responsible for having this work out of the box and with standard off the shelf product, which includes the minimum Windoews product (Microsoft Windows XP SP2 at this time).
Bear in mind that Boot Camp is still in beta so demanding a fix is a little difficult and the the part that I feel is unfair to Apple. While I have stated previously (in another thread) that Apple will fix this issue… they can't not, it appears the reality may be a little more difficult. It is possible that upon the release of Leopard the minimum system requirements on the Mac Pro will be Windows Vista.
What I find a little odd though is that there are no SATA issues on the rest of the Mac product line.

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

Mac Pro boot problem-Get "I have no name!" error message after possible KP

I think I'm having a kernel panic... and trying to keep from doing so myself
3GHz Mac Pro/4GB RAM, 250GB boot drive and three 400GB drives as a RAID for video captures.
I'm still in the process of getting the machine set up with software.
Demo machine from an Apple Authorized VAR that has been running in his office for several weeks. Had installed Final Cut Studio Monday, allowed Software Update to update the Apple software, including the OS.
Edited quite happily with FCP on a multiclip project... and did other things over the last several days.
Had no problems until a couple of hours ago after adding a number of fonts... which may turn out to be part of the problem... or not.
Rebooted the machine, and after what seemed like a VERRRRRRY long time of gray screen with spinning gear icon, the screen goes black with a cursor in the upper left corner.
About :30 later, text appears: "3Ghz-MacPro:/ I have no name!#" followed maybe ten seconds later by "SIOCPROTOATTACH_IN6: en0 error17" and "SIOCPROTOATTACH_IN6: en1 error17"
Screen clears back to cursor... then "3Ghz-MacPro:/ I have no name!#" reappears... and eventually the cycle starts again.
I would infer that en0 and en1 are the two ethernet ports.
I've popped the install disc in, booted to it (which took a while to do) and used Disk Utility to verify the disk. No problems found. Repaired it anyway.
Verified permissions, which found a couple of issues in the library with some files not essential to booting. Repaired those. Rebooted.
Same cycle as above with "no name."
Ran Apple Hardware test (the quick one) and it found no hardware problems.
Am waiting to see whether the AppleCare TechTool Deluxe will boot. Spinning gear continues as I write this (7-8 minutes??)... now wondering whether it's 10.4.x for Intel Macs as it spins.
After waiting a while... decided to go back to the install disk and see whether I can install 10.4.7 to a handy FireWire drive and boot from that...
then remove (or turn off with FontBook) all the fonts I just installed and see whether it'll boot from the internal.
More later. Am watching e-mail on another machine so feel free to offer suggestions.
Thanks
Ted.
3GHz Mac Pro-1GHz eMac-G3 400MHz Lombard Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I installed 10.4.7 onto the RAID so I could see whether it would boot OK, and to swap font folders out so that only the OS installed ones (from the RAID install) were present on the boot's original install.
Booted from the RAID just fine... and was able to do the font folder swap in the main font and user font folders.
Trying to then boot from the boot disk didn't make a difference. Same kernel panic with the text as described before.
Did an "archive and install" onto the boot disk and it came up fine on the fresh OS.
Updated QT and then the OS to 10.4.8 using Software Update (which I understand from the Apple info site is the "delta" version. Combo is also available, and it updates any 10.4.x version to 10.4.8)
Moved over some items in various library folders from the previous system to make the ProApps happy (only Motion's not working) and will get a project out the door today.
Will ultimately wipe the drive and go from scratch on the OS and Apps again.
Looking forward to half a day of intimacy with my Mac Pro and software disks this weekend.
Thanks.
Would still like to know what happened under the hood to cause the problem in the first place... so I can avoid doing anything I might have done to cause the problem... or to avoid other snafus.
Ted
Message was edited by: Ted Langdell to clarify the results booting from the RAID and from the boot after font folder swapping.

Mid 2010 Mac Pro boot camp recognizing 1.86GB RAM

I have a mid 2010 Mac Pro w/ 6GB RAM and a dedicated video card. Win7 32-bit is boot camped on it. I know 32-bit Windows can only use 3.75GB of RAM. However, this Mac Pro is only seeing 1.86GB.
Since this is Win7, no boot.ini is available for /3GB switch and editbcd /set increaseuserva 3072 did nothing, even after clearing out the variable and resetting it to 3072.
I came across a post saying UEFI/BIOS for Mac Pros cannot see more than 1.86GB RAM in a Windows 32-bit environment. Is this true? It was only the one post and I forgot where I saw it. If not, how do I resolve this issue? If not, that's fine. I can format and install Win7 64-bit if needed. I want to confirm 64-bit Win7 will recognize more than 1.86GB of RAM. Any input?
Thank you.

64 bit Windows will see and use all your ram.

Rebuild Mac Pro boot disk on a Mac Mini - possible?

Hello-
A friend has a Mac Pro 8-core with 10.6.2. The hard drive is showing some issues so I would like to rebuild the installation from scratch on a new drive. I have an intel mac mini and I'm wondering if it is possible to create a new boot disk (via external firewire enclosure) and do all the updates and software installation (Final Cut Studio, Adobe suite, etc) on the mac mini and then simply drop the new drive into the mac pro. Or is the software installation hardware specific?
Thanks for your help,
Mark

you shouldn't do that. first, there may be hardware problems due to difference in available hardware drivers if the mac pro is very new. also, if you do this the system will be identified everywhere including system profiler as mac mini. if you need to do it do it straight on the mac pro.

Mac Pro Boot Issue

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