Mac Pro RAID Rechargeable Lithium Battery

I am trying to purchase a replacement Apple Mac Pro RAID Rechargeable Lithium Battery for a Mac Pro tower. It is an oblong battery about 3"x2"x0.25" (8.0 cms x 5 cms x 0.5 cms).
Mine no longer accepts a charge so the cache won't back up. The Mac Pro is less than 18 months old.
I have tried the Apple online store, the Apple Store in Covent Garden, Albion (an Apple Premium Reseller on the Strand in London) and even CTS (an Apple Premium Reseller in Paris while there this weekend).
No-one seems to know of it let alone stock it.
Can anyone tell me where I can find it?
I have to say Apple's support on this is useless.
All help appreciated.
Mike

Is there an "official" policy regarding the way one should treat a machine with a raid card. Some say never to switch off the machine, others say this is nonsense, as even if the MacPro is switched off, the battery should still be able to maintain it's charge. I have heard various Apple representatives say different things, but as far as I recall, I have never seen something in writing. Besides, my Raid Card lasted exactly one week before it needed replacement. I have now been sent a battery replacement after 4 months, and it failed (again) while keeping the machine on...so I am really confused.
Thanks in advance.

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  • Mac Pro RAID 5 disk goes offline frequently in a random way. What can be causing this odd behavior?

    Hi dudes,
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    The performance is now very good, but unfortunately, in both systems happens that sometimes one of the disks goes offline with no apparent reason. The RAID Utility immediately reports the failure and it is mandatory to declare as spare the disk that went offline. Then the rebuild process begins, but in the meantime, the performance goes down in a noticeable way. Sometimes it is even worse, because the disk disappears completely. Then, it is mandatory to turn off the system, and boot it up again, in order to see in the RAID Utility the missing disk, which needs to be declared as spare in order to be reintegrated into the RAID 5 volume in a slow rebuilding process.
    Some important remarks: this very new Mac Pro systems do not have the iPass cable (at least apparently; I already disassembled completely one of these systems). This cable is mentioned in one Mac RAID card manual that I found over the internet. The diagrams do not match exactly with the Mac Pro nor the Mac Pro RAID board. I did not find a proper iPass connector in any of the Mac Pro RAID cards (?!). So, my guess is that currently the communication between the system and its Mac Pro RAID card is just by means of the internal bus. I think that if the iPass connection were mandatory, the RAID Utility would report it with a noticeable error message. Please advise.
    I think that these Mac Pro RAID cards need a firmware upgrade, in order to be able to work fine with big SATA drives. Again, please advise.
    Thanks in advance from Mexico.
    Sincerely,
    Martin Ponce de Leon

    Hi Grant,
    Thank you for your prompt response. The manual is a PDF document issued by Apple and it seems OK, but no updated to the latest Mac Pro system and Mac Pro RAID. I do not find the link where I found this manual. The systems belong to one of our customers. As far as I remember, in the printed manual included with the boards, it is not mentioned anything about the iPass cable, just about the battery cable. Do you know where can I get a PDF manual of the latest Mac Pro RAID card and the latest Mac Pro system? This client is far from our offices. So, I would prefer a PDF copy of this manual.
    The drives that have gone offline, once they are back, are reported in a good status in the RAID Utility. Besides that, I have tested them in another system in our facilites, and all of them work fine. So, my guess is that the high capacity drives are not yet supported by the Mac Pro RAID card, or it requires a firmware update.
    They do need to have in the same volume OS and video storage because three disks do no provide a good performance (they need also RAID 5), but four disks work fine... excepting when one disk is missing. Please advise. Thank you.
    Best Regards,
    Martin

  • Sleep or Shut Down with Mac Pro RAID Card?

    I'll be gone for a four-day weekend trip, which is longer than the 72 hours claimed for the Mac Pro RAID Card battery. If I shut down and come back four days later, the battery will presumably be discharged. What will happen when I restart?
    Asked another way ... is 72 hours the maximum amount of time that the computer should be shut down or do I simply restart and wait for the battery to recharge and the write caches to be re-enabled?
    The FAQ for the Mac Pro RAID Card http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1346 talks around this issue, but doesn't say whether it is a good or bad idea to allow the battery to discharge for "... any length of time." Please review the appended excerpt from the FAQ and advise on whether I should sleep or shut down.
    Regards,
    iPhoton
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    Thanks to everyone who replied to my message. I did a proper backup and normal shut down on Wednesday night and restarted on Monday morning. That was over 100 hours later and certainly more than the battery is specified (72 hours).
    When I restarted on Monday morning I noticed ... no change! The battery was fully charged according to the RAID Utility, I received no warning messages, there were no new events in the RAID Utility log ... it's as if the extended shutdown never occurred.
    So, an extended shutdown appears not to be a problem and I won't worry about it again, not even on my next extended shutdown for three weeks at the end of the year.
    Regards,
    iPhoton

  • Mac Pro RAID Card and Western Digital drives

    I'm having huge troubles with these items.
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    Someone yesterday or Friday, had a system with 4 x 1TB drives and Pro RAID, but in their case, it was determined later Saturday that drive bay #1 was not functioning.
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  • Mac Pro RAID 0 setup with bootcamp

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    Message was edited by: jmoss211

    I'm glad you are in the planning stages!
    The question I didn't know to ask is always the one that bites the worst.
    One of the best options might be the RR 4320
    http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=50&viewtype=details
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    http://anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=532
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  • Mac Pro RAID

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    The Apple Pro RAID card is the problem.
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    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4208248?tstart=0
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    Gary

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    No. Those ports are only usable from OSX, but if you only have one optical drive, you can mount another drive in the lower optical drive bay with a Pro Caddy for use with Boot Camp.
    <http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cfm?Category=2704&RequestTimeOut=500>
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    If you want to use a SATA connection, use a iPass to SATA cable from the iPass port on the Mac Pro logic board, which is normally used for the four SATA drives when there is no RAID card.
    <http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=7252016>
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    Yes
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    <http://www.newertech.com/Static/articles/images/macensteineSATA_5.jpg>

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    Message was edited by: Burn baby burn!

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    Dave

    Mac OS X software RAID is implemented in software that loads when the Mac OS X kernel is operational.
    Mac OS X software RAID cannot be used for Windows. If you want your Windows Boot Volume on a RAID, put it on a separate drive (which is good advice in general) and use a Windows-only RAID solution.
    Many users find that the OS (Mac or Windows) does not benefit much from RAID -- having multiple bootable backups is a better solution. For performance, having a separate Boot Volume reduces competition for the data Drives, and speeds up your computer considerably.

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