Mac Pro cold boot failure rate at 50%

I have a Mac Pro dual 2.8 ghz quad core, circa 2008. Recently, I have been required to depress the power button to end a failed cold boot, then press again to boot, usually with success.
I do hear a chime, but in the failed situation, it never progresses to the login screen.
I've reset the pram a few times, this doesn't seem to fix anything, as the system always boots if you try enough times (knock on wood).
I've verified the s.m.a.r.t. status and the disk, it all reports back as fine.
I am writing this post from a "safe boot" hope to see if that works on the next cold boot.
Other posts on this forum suggest it may be a weak pram battery so I will try that, the computer is getting on in years. However a similar post on this forum was marked as answered because the problem reported stated it did not chime from the external speakers. I don't care about that! So here's a new thread about documenting and hopefully solving the actual problem.

I have a Mac Pro dual 2.8 ghz quad core, circa 2008. Recently, I have been required to depress the power button to end a failed cold boot, then press again to boot, usually with success.
Every hard restart freeze, and can guarantee you end up with
corrupt caches, corrupt file system, corrupt directory.
Safe Boot is not effective in such cases, fsck from single user mode has a better chance.
Booting from another hard drive, install your bought copy of Alsoft Disk Warrior to rebuild the directory (it has deep scavenge files also).
The longer you continue to do just Safe Boot and continue using it, the more trouble and less likelihood of being able to repair the drive.
SMART is not smart enough, it tells you about the past, not what could likely happen, or if you have had bad sectors and I/O errors.
Have bootable backup clones and a drive that is a clean Apple OS and drivers that isn't used except for repairs and maintenance. Don't rely on just Apple Disk Repair.

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2006 Mac Pro Cold Boot Failure

Hi all,
I have problems with 2006 Mac Pro. It fails cold boot at 100%, first thing in the morning only. So I'm seeking expert advice.
The spec is,
Xeon 5355 2.66GHz x2 (Octo cores)
ATI Radeon 5770(Apple Genuine)
8GB Memory(4x1GB kingston, 4x1GB OWC)
500GBx2 1TBx2 HDDs
I disassembled and cleaned PSU and Fans, reapplying thermal pastes on CPUs and North Bridge a month ago.
Then I booted, system froze at desktop, so I shut it down, reset PRAM & SMC. it booted normally but the upper riser card wasn't detected at all. I cleaned the slot contact and reseated DIMM modules. It was detected after that.
Everything worked fine for a few days but then I got random kernel panics, reseated RAM, reinstalled Snow Leopard but still got random kernel panics. Then ran AHT for a couple of hours and got an error code 4MEM/6....
I contacted OWC and they sent me a new set of memory modules. While waiting for the replacement, no kernel panics at all but DVD drive died as well as IDE cable, so I replaced both.
I got the replacement RAM but past a week, MP fails cold boot every morning. Below is what's happening...
(1) With Kingston Memory, CPU B error LED is lit, I press SYS_RST, one of DIMM LED is then lit (always DIMM A1). Or sometimes, Power-LED is blinking.
(2) With OWC memory, boots normally, then kernel panic within a few minutes.
(3) With OWC memory, CPU B error LED is lit, I press SYS_RST, one of DIMM LED is then lit (always DIMM B1)
*(1) with new and old riser cards
*(3) after replaced 2 riser cards
Replacing riser cards didn't help. After these happen, I shut down by pressing power button for seconds and it boots normally without a hitch. Never get kernel panics nor system freeze. It means when it warms up, MP just works just like it should.
Replaced so far,
-- IDE cable (Apple Genuine)
-- DVD drive (Optiarc AD-7200A)
-- 4GB (1GBx4) OWC memory
-- RTC battery CR2032
-- 2 riser cards
Is the logic board dead or PSU or memory modules are still bad?
Any ideas?
Thanks

I have a Mac Pro dual 2.8 ghz quad core, circa 2008. Recently, I have been required to depress the power button to end a failed cold boot, then press again to boot, usually with success.
Every hard restart freeze, and can guarantee you end up with
corrupt caches, corrupt file system, corrupt directory.
Safe Boot is not effective in such cases, fsck from single user mode has a better chance.
Booting from another hard drive, install your bought copy of Alsoft Disk Warrior to rebuild the directory (it has deep scavenge files also).
The longer you continue to do just Safe Boot and continue using it, the more trouble and less likelihood of being able to repair the drive.
SMART is not smart enough, it tells you about the past, not what could likely happen, or if you have had bad sectors and I/O errors.
Have bootable backup clones and a drive that is a clean Apple OS and drivers that isn't used except for repairs and maintenance. Don't rely on just Apple Disk Repair.

MAC PRO COLD BOOTS 5 SECONDS AFTER SHUTDOWN

HELP!
I've become very frustrated trying to fix this problem:
1.) I shut the computer down like normal (from the apple icon in the toolbar, select shutdown, click "okay" on the shutdown dialogue box), and it appears to shut down (i.e. I hear the "click" as the power shuts off).
2.) 5 seconds later (if I have not disconnected the power, or turned off the surge protector) it cold boots as if I pressed the power button.
3.) Putting the computer to sleep produces the same results.
I'm fine with killing the power after it shuts off with the power conditioner, but is that hurting the machine?
-gwb

djgardnsound wrote:
HELP!
I've become very frustrated trying to fix this problem:
3.) Putting the computer to sleep produces the same results.
Try a SMC reset which governs such things.
I'm fine with killing the power after it shuts off with the power conditioner, but is that hurting the machine?
Unplugging your Mac from it's power source causes the PRAM battery to discharge as it tries to maintain PRAM settings and the Macs clock. If you have done this before, or often cut power off to your Mac via a power strip or wall switch, your battery will deplete very quickly. You'll be replacing it often.
If you never cut off power to your Mac, they can last 3 to 5 years (mine lasted 7).
Dale

Mac pro cannot boot after upgrade to 10.8.3

My Mac Pro cannot boot after upgrade to 10.8.3. Anything firmware I can reset or how should I do.
I am using a early 2008 Mac Pro

Can you boot into safe mode? http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1455
If not, how about Recovery? http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4718
If you can, run Disk Utlity and repair the disk. You can try rebooting normally, but I would just reinstall after quitting Disk Utility.

HT4818 Boot from laptop's Windows Hard Drive in Mac Pro via Boot Camp

I have a work laptop that is on Windows 7. It's a work hard drive so I don't want to mess with it (particularly as it's encrypted). I basically want to use it on my Mac Pro rather than my piece of junk standard issue laptop when I'm working from home.
What I would like to do is pull the drive out, put it in my Mac Pro and boot from it using Boot Camp. Guidance I've seen so far talks about not being able to use an external drive but having to partition an internal drive. However, if I've got everything on a separate drive (i.e. my laptop's drive), will this work?
Thanks!

Thanks for the quick (and no nonsense) response!

Mac Pro 2006 boots into OS fine but graphics freezes on grey apple logo

When I boot my Mac Pro it boots into Mac OS X fine. I can access it remotely and all seems fine however the monitor only displays the grey apple with the whit background. I know the graphics card isnt over heating because I have removed any dirt/dust and had additional fans blowing the card and it is running cool.
does this mean the graphics card is dead? if so what can i replace it with as the machine is now 5 years old?
the current graphics card is a GeForce 8800 GT.

That last one is not a good sign. Kernel panic when starting from an installer DVD either mean you are using an installer version that cannot boot your model or there's a hardware problem.
I'm thinking your original thought may be valid. It would be provable if you had another GPU to try, but if you don't then I suppose you should replace the one you have. Of those available the ATI 5770 is an excellent replacement choice for both performance and cost unless you want to look for a different replacement card on eBay.

I have put Windows 8 on my Mac pro, in boot camp, no I am unable to load drivers

I have put Windows 8 on my Mac pro, in boot camp, no I am unable to load drivers to get it working as it should. I have tryed Winows 7 Con, in setup.

Did you download the drivers to a FAT32 formatted USB drive per the instructions?

Mac OS X Boot failure... I cant Repair HDD with OS Disk,Shows Repair Failed. I cant backup my files from HDD. Backup failed. But I need my all datas from HDD. I dont want to format. Cant enter safemode also. anything else..

Mac OS X Boot failure... I cant Repair HDD with OS Disk,Shows Repair Failed. I cant backup my files from HDD. Backup failed. But I need my all datas from HDD. I dont want to format. Cant enter safemode also. anything else..
I installed XP @Bootcamp, I cant access my Mac HDD via XP..
What I do??? Please help me.. please...

You can try DiskWarrior (about $100).
If that doesn't work, and if you have no backups at all, you might need to send your hard drive to Drive Savers or a similar service. It will cost a lot of money to get the data back, I'm sorry to say.

Mac pro wont boot or chime

Mac pro wont boot or chime

you don't know how to provide more details or what you have tried or are you just lost?
What OS is on it? and this is a 4-drive 65 lb workstation and not a MacBook Pro notebook.
Safe Boot
Lion or ML Recovery Mode
Reset SMC
Kernel Panic
Resolving Kernal Panics
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/kernelpanics.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10344626-263.html
http://macs.about.com/od/usingyourmac/qt/Troubleshooting-Os-X-Kernel-Panics.htm
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3742
Mac OS X Help
Isolating Issues in Mac OS
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1388
https://www.apple.com/support/osx/
https://www.apple.com/support/quickassist/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/help/
http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/tour/
Get Help with your Product
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304725
TimeMachine 101
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
Mac OS X & Mountain Lion Community
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os/os_x_mountain_lion?view=discussio ns
Recovery Mode
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718
ExpressLane
https://expresslane.apple.com/
Startup Manager: How to select a startup volume
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1310
Troubleshooting: My computer won't turn on
https://support.apple.com/kb/TS1367
And just in case....
MacBook Pro
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro
https://discussions.apple.com/community/mac_os?view=discussions
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro

Mac Pro Display flicker & failure to boot

Hello people who are smarter than me.
I have a 2008 Mac Pro 3.2/ 8CX 8800GT with the original Geforce video card installed. When I turn the machine on I get a grey screen with a black bar at the top, with no evidence of an actual boot (such as a darker grey apple in the middle of the screen.
After a minute or so, the screen retains the form of the black and white horizontal bar at the top but adds a rapidly cycling/strobing organge red and yellow flicker reminiscent of the old Monty Python crazy title screens.... It looks like this if you blink fast enough... or take a still photo.
I live in Haiti, where a fair amount of dust is constantly invading my tower, so I've had dust related issues before with memory... THis time, I don't think it's that. I've cleaned out the tower with pressurized air, reseated the memory and reseated the video card as well, to no advantage. The problem first came when the computer was working fine and while my daughter was opening a page on Firefox the screen just started jittering with this little color show. At the time, though, you could still see the desktop behind all the flickering. Now the computer doesn't seem to even boot. If I have to fly to the states to fix this, I'd love to not have to haul the whole machine, so if we can get this down to a couple likely parts that I could travel with, test and replace, that would be great. This is a hardware issue, right? Would video card failure make sense of this AND the failure to boot? AND if I do replace it, is the ATI Radeon HD 5770 Graphics Upgrade Kit still the ticket? If you help me, you'll be helping a lot of Haitians too, as I use this computer for humanitarian work with the Apparent Project. Help me Obi Geeks, you're my only hope!

Okay, so after doing all of the above, the computer still takes between 40 seconds and 1 minute or so to boot up, and the VersionCue messages still appear. However I discovered that the "kdcmond cannot retrieve..." messages disappeared after I disabled my ethernet connections. So at least I know that that had nothing to do with the extended boot-up time.
I have heard that the more RAM you have, the longer it takes to boot due to the RAM count. Since I have 10 GB, maybe this is why?
I've included the most recent Console messages below:
22/4/08 9:56:16 AM com.apple.launchctl.System[2] launchctl: Please convert the following to launchd: /etc/mach_init.d/dashboardadvisoryd.plist
22/4/08 9:56:16 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.adobe.versioncueCS3) Unknown key: ServiceDescription
22/4/08 9:56:16 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (org.cups.cups-lpd) Unknown key: SHAuthorizationRight
22/4/08 9:56:16 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (org.cups.cupsd) Unknown key: SHAuthorizationRight
22/4/08 9:56:16 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (org.ntp.ntpd) Unknown key: SHAuthorizationRight
22/4/08 9:56:39 AM com.apple.SystemStarter[28] Starting Aladdin USB daemon
22/4/08 9:56:39 AM org.ntp.ntpd[25] Error : nodename nor servname provided, or not known
22/4/08 9:56:39 AM com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.UserEventAgent-LoginWindow[74]) Exited: Terminated
22/4/08 9:56:39 AM com.apple.launchctl.Aqua[90] launchctl: Please convert the following to launchd: /etc/machinit_peruser.d/com.adobe.versioncueCS3.monitor.plist
22/4/08 9:56:42 AM com.apple.launchd[82] (0x1011e0.VersionCueCS3monitor) Failed to check-in!

Mac Pro will boot but won't restart.

When waking up or doing a soft boot my Mac Pro will chime and sound like it's booting but the display will never come on.
If I do a cold boot, or even hold down the power button to force it off and then boot it's fine. I've tried turning on and off and plugging and unplugging the monitor. I've repaired permissions and reset the SMC and PRAM. It's been happening for a while, but now I want to install MacFUSE and it requires a restart to finish installing.

Which model Mac Pro? GHz?
How much RAM?
What display card? What display?
What USB devices (these have a strong reputation for interfering with sleep)
What FireWire devices?
Have you run the diagnostic on the Installer DVD to rule out Hardware problems? Instructions are on the face of the DVD.

Mac Pro not booting from CD's using 'C'

All of a sudden I am unable to boot from a CD. Every disk that I try will not boot. The CD drive will try to read for 5 minutes, then crash with that different language please restart your computer crash screen. I've tried DISKWARRIOR and MacOS X Leopard. They will not boot. I've cleaned the disks and reset the PRAM, but still won't work. All external connections are unplugged.
3 months ago, it was working perfectly, I even did a clean install of Leopard. The only thing that was changed in my system, was an upgrade to the NVIDIA GeForce 88GT, but why would using a different video card force a crash during a CD boot?
Otherwise, my MacPro is working perfectly and the disk has no errors. I can read, write, install apps and run movies on the CD ROM drives. but cannot boot

Recently, I bought diskwarrior but it doesn't boot. I tried the Leopard install to test it out. That doesn't work, then I called Alsof and they said it should boot on my current system.
DiskWarrior will not boot on a Mac Pro (Early 2008).
"All Mac models meeting the system requirements for DiskWarrior *except the new Mac Pro and Xserve models introduced on 01/08/2008, the MacBook Air introduced on 01/15/2008, the MacBook/MacBook Pro models introduced on 02/26/2008 and the iMac models introduced on 04/28/2008* can be started from the CD."
<http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/support.html>
If you want to use DiskWarrior, you need to put it on another drive or partition containing OSX 10.5.4
Therefore, all of sudden nothing boots. Like I said, the only change I did was to replace the video card.
That's why the Leopard DVD won't boot. The Leopard DVD that came with the computer doesn't have drivers for the new graphics card. If you still have the old card, install it, install Leopard, update to 10.5.4, then put in the new graphics card.

Overall happiness with Mac Pro and Boot camp/XP

Hi all,
I am a current Windows user and need to upgrade my home computer soon. My wife (teacher) has an imac g5 at home an loves it. I am thinking of getting a refurb mac pro when Leopard is released and use Boot Camp with XP Pro. I am not a big gamer so that is not a concern. I am just checking to see how happy others using this configuration are, and maybe reccomend a configuration (separate hard drives etc.)
Thanks to all for any feedback.

I love mine. Its quiet, launches native apps practically instantly (CS2 takes a few seconds longer), and performs all the system instensive stuff I ask of it quickly and without complaint.
And while it kills me to use Windows anymore, I need to feed my old gaming habit for which Bootcamp is great. I also need to do web browser testing for IE, and Parallels makes it super convienent.
If you have need of a system this powerful, I can totally recommend it. Without knowing what you're specific needs are, the sort of "all-around" config would be:
2.66 Ghz
2 GBs of RAM minimum (third party RAM is cheaper).
Buy extra drives if you need the storage space. But don't buy these from Apple. Western Digital drives are good and quiet.
Airport and Bluetooth options are pretty self explanatory.
If you don't game, and you don't use GPU sucking apps like Motion or Maya, you won't need the video card upgrade.
I could give you more specifics if you tell us what the system will be used for.

Updates on Mac Pro Prevent Boot from SSD

Hey there everyone,
I recently upgraded my 2010 Mac Pro (Quad Core) to an SSD Drive using the OCZ Petrol Drive and I coudn't be happier. The system is super snappy and works great. That said, I downloaded the latest updates to my system last night and as of today, it wont boot to the SSD. All other boot operations seem fine, but the SSD wont boot. It goes into the progress bar screen you get when a firmware update is running then just shuts itself down.
I tried reseting the PRAM with no luck and also tried a disk repair from the Lion Recovery Partition as well as a Lion DVD I made, but both fail to repair the disk. I am currently recovering from a Time Machine backup and everything seems to be OK so far, but has this happened to anyone else with the latest batch of updates? I will update this post when the Time Machine Backup completes and let you all know the outcome.

Update 2: I did a hard shutdown and rebooted holding down the option key to try and boot from the Lion Recovery partition and perform a disk repair only to find out the Lion Recovery partition was no more. Wow...looks like this is a bigger issue than I thought. Reinstalling Lion from a DVD now. This should be fun...

Mac pro not booting up

Help my mac pro will not boot up gray screen with apple logo and the loading icon keeps going round and round but nothing else happening. Iam running Lion OS X (10.7) Help please

hello,
I've a 2.66 MAC PRO, with Tiger OS (10.4.10). I've same problem denounced by clarky99. Everything started a month ago, after some updates:
- plug in manager
- Java
- utility airport
- IDVD
- Airport extreme 2008-002
- security update 2008-007
I've tried the following:
- MAC OS hardware test: no problems
- fresh installation of the OS on an external HD: no change
- PRAM reset: no change
- removal of the physical RAM cards: no change
The only way to avoid the startup and video problems is starting in SAFE MODE (pressing shift key during the boot).
This make me think it's an hardware problem, but I'm not shure.
Next attempts:
- try another video card
- (time consuming) disabling all the processes which are not activated in SAFE MODE, but are started in the normal statup procedure, and then by re-enabling one by one
Any further suggestion is welcome!
kimaluz

Mac Pro cold boot failure rate at 50%

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