Mac Pro Temperature

I own a Mac Pro. I have iPulse and iStat Pro. but i dont know if my computer is getting to hot or not. What temperatures are normal??
Temperatures :
CPU A - 103 F
CPU B - 101 F
Ambient is currently - 76 F
NorthBridge - 180 F
Expansion slots - 104 F
HD bay 1 - 80 F
Men Bank A1 - 113 F
Men bank A2 - 124 F
Men bank B1 - 110 F
Men bank B2 - 121 F
Fans:
Exhaust - 600rpm
CPU Fan - 500rpm
Power supply - 614rpm
HD Expansion - 499rpm
Graphic Card:
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB

There are full articles and reports on X1900 custom cooling. But right now, I'd trade up for the Radeon 3870 when it ships (around July 1st).
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com is worth a look.
Cleaning the dust clogging the X1900s intakes is essential every couple months.
Boosting the fans to 900 rpm probably too (can't hurt, barely makes a whisper).

Similar Messages

Mac pro temperatures

I notice that nobody seems to discuss the typical temperatures from the latest 2014 Mac Pro. The central heatsink may be a great idea but it sure doesn't seem to cool the components very well. I wonder if one can turn up the fan manually to lower the temperatures. I can easily place it farther away, behind a small barrier (which won't reduce airflow at all) which will vastly reduce any increased fan noise. The temps I was seeing were from the mid 50's to about 70c. A well cooled machine has temperatures just slightly above ambient. This is not even close to that. Studies have connected failed components to higher than normal temperatures over and over. I'm trying to maximize life here. Just put your hand over the top of one when its idling and you'll feel very warm air, much higher than the ambient/room temperature. Not good at all. Imagine what it will be under a heavy workload. Yikes! The machines I work on spits out air that seems actually cooler than ambient. We know this is impossible but that's because of the cooling effect of moving air and how it make it feel like things are cooler than they really are. I notice that Apple never seems to mention any temps in any of their literature for this product. Understandable I guess. I just think that with a manual control over the fan, we could vastly improve this situation.

Hardware Monitor is much better, or freeware Temperature Monitor. Unless he still hasn't updated to the 6,1 model that is. iStatPro is another. The reason FanControl works is it really doesn't look at much more than... a single sensor for fan?
If you run Windows natively - not sure if a VM will accurately report but you do have more and better thermal monitoring software like AIDA64 and CoreTemp, RealTemp and others.
Apple chose to use throttling so that the processor and both GPUs can not all be used and stressed to 100%.
As for TjMax and Xeon processors, they are pretty safe and reliable unless the contact and thermal paste used was wrong. And that the system is not blocked from air flow in and out the top and of course the room is cool enough to not add to the problem.

Mac Pro 8-core X5365 CPU temperature

I've got an 8-core Mac Pro which is crunching SETI@home 24/7, with Hardware Monitor monitoring the CPU temperatures and other vital stats. After reading the Intel Quad-Core Xeon Proc datasheet, I'm a little edgy about the operating temperature of these X5365 CPUs, currently registering at 65 - 70ºC on load for each temperature diode, and fail-safe temperature set to 73ºC to disable SETI@home via Hardware Monitor. I also have smcFanControl speeding up the fans because my ambient temperature varies thanks to myself being in a tropical region, my ambient temperature can reach 33ºC at times, but down to 28ºC when air-conditioned.
My question is, what is the maximum temperature for these CPUs before they run into the risk of being fried/permanently damaged..?
Inputs from the Mac Pro-DC/grid community are also welcomed here.
Thanks.

my 8-core is running seti 24/7 since may without any problem, although my ambient temps dont rise above 30 degrees centigrade...and that's using the optimised apps which make the processor run hotter
the fans on the machine run 600-2000 rpm all day and all night, i dont expect it to lessen the life of the machine whatsoever. it should be capable of running flat out all its life, that is, after all why we spend so much on these machines in the first place !
if you only use 4 cores perhaps you should buy a 4-core mac ? he heh just joking...
as mentioned earlier, when things get really too hot the OS will shut the system down, and if that doesnt happen then the cpus themselves will shut down...
the heatsinks and fans on these machines are fully capable of coping if your macine is running withing the specified ambient temp range which for the mac pro is 10° to 35° if your seeing ambient over 35 then smc fan control is probably a good idea otherwise it should be fine

Temperatures on vista 64 with mac pro

Hello all,
I just installed vista 64 on my mac pro (early 2008) with geforce 8800gt. Performance is great, but I am kinda worried about the temperature of the hardware.
After a couple of minutes of gaming my fans start running fast (I think it's the gpu one) to keep the hardware cool.
I installed to check my temperatures and it seems my gpu is running at 85 degrees celcius and my memory between 55 and 60.
The cores of my cpu are between 40 and 50.
Does this seem ok? Isn't 85 a bit hot for the cpu?
Thanks

The 8800GT can take 85*C but it is high, and that card doesn't have the best fan or cooling. Most GPUs can take 90-105*C. Mine never would go below 55-58 C. A new EVGA GTS 250 1GB though runs at a nice 40* but obviously only works in Windows.
You definitely want the latest 190.xx drivers of course.
I use to install two apps to help. EVGA Precision to control the graphic card, InputRemapper will keep some (3) of your regular fans at 1000 rpm or above. The system waits too long before the fans kick in.
The cpu is warmer than I like but your FBDIMMs are actually great temps and to be envied.

Mac Pro CPU temperature while rendering

Hey there, I just recently got myself a Mac Pro 2009 with a stock CPU - quad 2.66. While rendering, my CPU temperature goes up to 71C/160F and fans are on their defaults. Im just wondering if this temperature is OK for fans to not kick in, or I should reset something? Thank you

By seeing all the thermal sensor readings, and fans, sometimes people have found an issue where the readings were not right - sensor was getting wrong reading or none -
Laptop like MacBook Pro can often have their fans running much harder to cool and deal with heat.
Those new Haswell chips are suppose to run even hotten, they may be providing Intel 4600 integrated graphics as well as cpu functions, PCIe and USB3 as well as memory controller. They are powerful and efficient - and you will see cpu spikes in utilization AND corresponding changes in temps. \
Same on Mac Pro but not as extreme. Opening apps and files can show 10*C jumps for 1/2 second.
If you are going to render, then sure do what helps the system stay cooler and in a safe(r) temperature range. Newer components are helping companies save $$ on cooling and being able to run servers and even disk drives by 5*C warmer making a huge change. Think Google, Facebook or NSA having large factory flooors housing equipment needing to be kept in temperature controlled environments.

Power Supply Temperatures Running Hot! Mac Pro shuts down.

Hello,
First I will give machine/hardware specs of interest:
2 x 3 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (pre 2009)
8 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 (running 2 displays)
Apple RAID Card/Controller
SMC Version: 1.25f4
*venting dimensions around computer: top=18", left side=3", right side=3" and back=18".
Software of interest currently running:
OS X 10.5.8
iStat Menu
SMC Fan Control
My machine has been shutting down spontaneously and I suspect either CPU or power supply overheating. In the 5 instances this has occurred, the room was very warm (AC was not on) and I was running HandBrake with CPU at full and an iStat reading of 145 F. Ambient was 77 F and I was not reading power supply temps at the time. I figured for sure this must be a CPU overheating issue. However, just a few hours ago I had another shutdown. The room was warm again but I was not running Handbrake, but StarCraft II. I have played a lot of Starcraft II with no problems until tonight.
I decided, this time, to check the temps on my power supplies. Power supply 1 = 147 F, and #2 is at 178 F. After many hours of searching forums I have concluded that these are crazy hot temps! I immediately installed SMC Fan Control to attempt to increase the fan speeds. I was successful in increasing all fans except the power supply (stuck at 599rpm). I have now turned the AC on in the house and the Ambient is down to 70, PS #1 145 and PS #2 169. All of these temps are a result of and idle machine running a browser.
The following may or may not be an issue, however, leave no stone unturned. I currently have 12 external devices running on USB. 4 WD passport drives, 1 DVD writer, 5 WD powered drives plus the keyboard and mouse. Also, the Mac Pro is plugged into a small UPS.
In all my forum searches, I just can't seem to answer some basic questions:
1. Can an overheated power supply shut the system down?
2. What are optimal (normal) running temps for Mac Pro's? (everyone seems to have opinions, but there doesn't appear to be a technical specification anywhere).
3. I thought the fans, especially CPU fans, were supposed to kick in when the heat rises. Why are mine staying at minimal rpm's?
Finally, does it look like I need new power supplies? Fans?
This machine was put into service in March of 2008 and has done very intensive rendering for the film industry...long nights...rendering for days sometimes. It has been retired for over a year now and is used at a lesser degree.
Thanks for reading this long post! I appreciate any input you can provide!
Other iStat reading of interest:
Power Supply 1 voltage = 12.28 V
Power Supply 1 current = 26.44 A
Power Supply 1 power = 316.75 W

Also, the Mac Pro is plugged into a small UPS.
Put your peripherals on that.
Don't share the same circuit for A/C as the Mac Pro, and put the Mac on 1300VA UPS at least.
As for all those external drives.... I'd consolidate into a good SATA case or two.
And yes in summer run with 3 of the fans up around 900 rpm.

New Mac Pro 2.66 Ghz Nehalem Quad and FCP and Compressor

When something goes well for a change it deserves its rightful place in the posts of this discussion forum. I just completed my hook-up and an initial test on my new Nehalem quad Mac Pro, and I must say that once in a while things do work out.
1. The noise level is non-existant. I literally had to check to make sure that the unit was on. This in comparision to my G5 which sounds like the SST on take off. I might now actually hear the audio on my video monitor.
2. The speed is INCREDIBLE! Prior to shutdown, I ran a test by sending an hour's worth of mixed XDCAM EX/HDV footage to Compressor on my G5. At the highest quality 2 hour setting for DVD encoding (double pass) it took the G5 12.5 hours to encode. Running the same clip through the same version of Compressor in the Mac Pro took approximately 45 minutes. This roughly translates into a 16.5X increase in speed over my dual 2.5 Ghz processor G5. I'M SOLD! And for now, the Honeymoon continues.
The only drawback (besides the price) is that I had to buy a $100 adapter/power supply to enable my old 25" Cinema screen run on the new video card.
Thanks
fastfreddy

Mac Pro 1,1 (all Mac Pro models come with Xeon).
What matters is cleaning the X1900 of dust and from clogging intake and exhaust - every three months.
Run Apple Hardware Test from your OEM DVD.
Install SmcFanControl 2.x and keep the fans rpm to 800-900 instead of 499-599 base as minimum at least.
Monitor temperatures with Hardware Monitor or similar.
Have you been looking to see in System Profile: Memory if there are any errors?
Normally, clone backup update weekly and running Disk Warrior at the same time should be done to spot disk directory and file system problems before they get worse. Or any time your system freezes.
Freeze... and what you have 90% of the time is a corrupt directory and other errors.
At which time you may need to restore if you can't fix the problem. And don't rely on only Apple DU First Aid to find and repairs any and all errors.
For Snow Leopard maybe a flashed ATI 4870 to replace the X1900.
You may need to start over from scratch to get things stable once you find what is happening, and work with a test system until then with some trial and error. Format/initialize and clean install of 10.6.x for the OEM 10.4.7+.
At nearly 4 yrs now since it came out, not sure if you have plans for a new one.

Mac Pro 2.66 ghz Quad Xeon Freezing when I use any software

Can Anyone Help me, I have a serious freezing issue with My Mac Pro, Everytime I use any software it just Freezes on my ie IDVD, I tried Instaling a new OS System, and repalaced a new Hardrive but with no joy, I'm Guessing its the graphic card now but I dont want to waste anymore money until I'm sure.
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512 SDRAM used to give me dual screen display until the right side failed so now I'm only using one screen, also everytime I'm displaying a video their are thin random lines and a bit of screen display distortions before it eventually freezes on me.
Please Help

Mac Pro 1,1 (all Mac Pro models come with Xeon).
What matters is cleaning the X1900 of dust and from clogging intake and exhaust - every three months.
Run Apple Hardware Test from your OEM DVD.
Install SmcFanControl 2.x and keep the fans rpm to 800-900 instead of 499-599 base as minimum at least.
Monitor temperatures with Hardware Monitor or similar.
Have you been looking to see in System Profile: Memory if there are any errors?
Normally, clone backup update weekly and running Disk Warrior at the same time should be done to spot disk directory and file system problems before they get worse. Or any time your system freezes.
Freeze... and what you have 90% of the time is a corrupt directory and other errors.
At which time you may need to restore if you can't fix the problem. And don't rely on only Apple DU First Aid to find and repairs any and all errors.
For Snow Leopard maybe a flashed ATI 4870 to replace the X1900.
You may need to start over from scratch to get things stable once you find what is happening, and work with a test system until then with some trial and error. Format/initialize and clean install of 10.6.x for the OEM 10.4.7+.
At nearly 4 yrs now since it came out, not sure if you have plans for a new one.

"Genius" told me I fried both Xeon Processors in my Mac Pro

So I've been having a couple problems with my Mac Pro. Sometimes when turning on the MP or when coming out of sleep mode the display won't come on. Tested the display and cables on other machines and it works fine. I'm able to turn off the computer blind (control+eject, return) so I assumed it was the graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 2600) but before I replaced it I decided to take it to the Genius Bar to have it looked at.
The Genius told me the fans were running high when he powered it up and said that wasn't good then after a brief reboot (while holding optioncommand+UP, whatever that does) he said I fried both processors, and yes he figured it out that fast.
I take good care of this machine cleaning it out with canned air once every other week and I don't use my MP for anything heavy duty that would fry the state of the art processor, I have the Adobe CS4 master collection but really only use Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash. I also have Logic Express and Office but that's about it for major software.
First question (that I didn't ask because I was floored by him telling me this) is that I have the 2.8Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, doesn't that only have one processor? How did I fry BOTH of them when I thought there was only one?
I did ask how this is possible and he just said "there are a lot of ways it could have happened", then suggests I sell my MP on Ebay and buy a new one because its going to cost me $2000 to fix it. Now why would I buy a brand new one if the high-end processors can just fry for no reason?
So anyway, I get the MP home trying to figure out what to do. I take it half apart and give it a good cleaning, plug it in and BAM working fine. So obviously not the processor like the "genius" told me in his 5 minute examination.
So my main question is any idea's on what this could be AND what apps/software can I use to help pinpoint problems like this?

Fans always run high when you first power it on. It's normal, just the system testing itself out.
There is Hardware that turns the fans on maximum at startup, and keeps turning them back to maximum. If the system is working, the processor reads the temperatures (in the processors and various parts of the cabinet) and takes action to turn down any fans that are running too high for current conditions. It has to keep coming back and telling them to slow down -- if the processor halts, the fans go back to maximum within a few seconds.
I think the "genius" concluded that if the fans did not turn down right away, "your processors were fried." That is way too simple an explanation. There are lots of problems that could cause the fans to keep running on high. Also, I am not sure how many Mac Pros these guys actually see.

Why does my Mac Pro randomly flash a blue screen to both monitors?

For a while now my Mac Pro (Early 2009) has this occasional issue. The system uses a pair of ViewSonic 22" monitors. At random times, both monitors just turn to a solid light blue color. After a brief time (1 to 5 seconds maybe) normal operation returns. The system is still working. Text typed on the keyboard during the 'blue' screen still shows in whatever application I'm in. Just the screen seems to be affected.
I leave the system running 24/7 with only occasional reboots (weeks or months apart). The screens I turn off at night. Most of the time this happens right after the system 'wakes' in the morning (temperature does not seem to be a factor). Although the system is doing this as I'm typing this. The blue screens show up than go away on their own. This repeats from one to ten times before it goes away. Once it is 'done' everything is normal until it happens again.
This 'issue' has been occurring since the original Snow Leopard. But, it also happened with Lion and now still happens with Mountain Lion (just upgraded to 10.8.2).
I am thinking this has something to do with the graphics controller (NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB). But, I've never found any online references to this sort of behavior.
Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated.

The cable connections have (so far) solved this problem for my situation. Even though the monitor's DVI cable was firmly connected to the mini Display port connector, when I touched it the attached monitor would go 'blue' or lose its connection entirely. After disconnecting and reconnecting this junction the monitors would still take a hit on touching the connection. I also checked the connection of the mini Display port connection to the graphics board and could not push it in any further. However, after a second go-round I unplugged this connection to the board and reconnected it. I am certain it was fully inserted the first time. But, connection contacts can oxidize over time and sometimes it may just need to be disconnected and reconnected to 're-wipe' the connections. This effectively cleans them at the point of contact. So in my case I'm thinking it was the connection age that was an issue more than a 'loose' connection. Either way, I haven't had this issue for the past two weeks.

Mac Pro 3.1 Nvidia 8800GT problem

Here I am again guys
and after about 3,5 months from 8800GT failure and rebaking it succesfully, the card is dead again, so I baked it once more.
I am on OSX Yosemite 10.10.2 now with my Mac Pro 3.1. I don't use photoshop or any 3d game.Beyond safari, firefox, mail, youtube, itunes and some other common apps, I use Wmware for win7 and xp compatibility and there I have installed Autocad 12 but I don't use it for 3d design. I do some movie format conversions with Handbreak (6-10mins job) every now and then. Recently, last 15days, I started to use Garageband and a little imovie 2-3 hours a day both of them. I understand that, this is not heavy duty jobs for the graphic card!!!
What's surprising me is that MacPro works without the card installed!!! via Teamviewer.
I have made a few secs mov conversion to mp4 format with Handbreak and also played a few secs movie with quicktime, I am afraid to use the mac for a long while because I don't know it's capabilities in this situation and I don't want to have a severe damage.
I've always noticed that Handbreak was taking all the cpu juice when doing convertions although I thought that the GPU does the major job for that. But then, when the GPU gets working? Only when sending picture to displays? I don't think so...
So question 1 is: when the graphics card get's into play....and get stressed by my Mac?
and question 2: I am planning to buy a low budget nvidia card for pc -non EFI so no Boot screen- and install it as a main card.
I am thinking to replace my 8800GT with this Asus gt740
http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/GT7402GD3/overview/
or
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...A3P5ROKL5A1OLE
Then install again the rebaked 8800GT and leave it unconnected to screen. I will connect it to a screen only when I 'll need the boot screen, or update OS. Will this combination make the 8800GT to stress and overheat as before?
question 3: I use the term overheat just because the card fails, I don't know a way to measure the card's temperature and I pretty much like to, just to see what's happenning to card under any jobs..

After checking connections, I would try a NVRAM reset:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
If it still doesn't show, I'd pull it and connect it to a different machine.
If it does't show there, I'd call it dead.
Oh, and as for the jumper, I wouldn't change it without changing the second drive as well.

30" LCD Cinema display - sporadically blanks out, need to restart Mac Pro

2007 vintage 30" LCD Cinema HD display running off a Mac Pro with an ATI Radeon X1900 XT. Was Mac OS 10.5.latest, just upgraded to 10.6.4 with no effect on the problem.
This has happened perhaps 8 or 10 times over the last few months, and IIRC always when I'm playing WoW. I know WoW heats up my Pro more than anything else because I can hear the cooling fans speeding up when I load and play it.
The symptom is the screen goes totally black. The little white light down the bottom-right of the display comes on. If I push the power button on the display the white light goes bright, but there's no other reaction. The capslock light on the keyboard still reacts so I know I don't have a total system hang.
I shut down the whole Mac Pro by holding in its On button for 10 seconds, and it powers down as normal. But the white light on the display is still on, and I have to disconnect the power from the display so the white light goes off; only then I turn the Pro back on and all is well again.
The screen always gets very warm to the touch - I can hold my hand on it OK so it's not burning hot but it still seems too hot to me. Is this normal for this screen? It seems a little odd there are no cooling vents if so. Having just restarted iStat Pro says Mac HD (I think that's the display) is 46c, CPUs and everything else 40c or below. It is coming on for summer here but today is not hot, iStat says ambient is 23c.
So what am I asking for? I guess some sort of validation of my issue, advice, and where I should start diagnosis - display, video, display power, the Mac itself ... or should I just get Apple out here? I do have Apple Care.
Thanks all.

And it's happened twice since then, both while playing WoW. After the latest reboot my temps are 49c for display, 45c and 48c for CPUs. The Mac has been on for over 6 hours before I ran up Wow with no problem, in Wow for maybe 5 minutes and there it goes.
The latest Mac updates to iTunes 10.1 and OS 10.6.5 were applied a few hours ago, well before this latest crash.
My best guess is that either some component has gone temperature-intolerant that didn't used to be, or there is something in the latest WoW version that is triggering some hardware, driver or OS problem. I really don't have much of an idea where to go now. Any suggestions?

Mac Pro 3.1 black screen, loud fans

Hello community,
I have a Mac Pro 3.1, 2008 dual 2.8ghz computer. I bought it cheaply as the original owner claimed it had a problem where it would randomly sleep, and a hard reset was neccesary in order to restart the computer. On turning on the computer myself I soon saw what he meant, all of a sudden, quite randomly the screen would drop out entirely and about 8 seconds later the fans go on full whack. This could happen before the computer boots, or could happen 15 minutes later. Sometimes it would happen more often when say I watched a youtube clip on full size in 720/1080p. This shut down can only be stopped by hard resetting the unit.
Originally i thought it might of been the graphics card (Nvidia 8800 GT) which upon researching had found out there have been issues with this graphics card for other people in the past, however they speak of glitchy graphics, over-heating and 'baking' the card. I tested the temps on the gfx card and they were not abnormally high at all. Infact on monitoring all the temperatures when the computer was on i noticed no abnormality with any temps apart from maybe the north bridge which was max 62 C when idling. But my macbook pro hits 75 C on the CPU when using intensive software (logic pro etc). I also tested the gfx card in both available pcie slots aswell as cleaning out excess dust from the gfx card using compressed air.
The computer has a WD velociraptor 128gb 10k rpm HDD installed. I tested the computer with a 128gb SSD which i know worked. I managed to install snow leopard from a DVD onto it before a crash and the computer worked for maybe 20-25 mins then it blacked out again. Not the hard drive then. Tested all the ram (6gb), moved them around etc, no red dimm lights on either board. Not the ram.
The only main components left really are the power supply and the logic board. I have no red leds on the logic board lighting up, so no obvious failures. And when the computer is on it works a treat.
Does this sound like the PSU is dying/dead? I thought this could be an easy software fix, but am now chasing the hardware train....
Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks in advance!
Cheers!
Catro

I had a similar problem. Old mac pro and randomly the monitors would go black.
Replying to this incase anyone else has this problem…
Tried all the restarts under the sun, reset the board only to get temporary fix. It got to the point where the monitors would black out repeatedly after a few minutes of resetting.
My final solution (May not work for everyone): Remove the graphics card and check to see if the copper fins in the heat sink are "caked in dust". On my ATI card i can see this from the bottom end. I took the hoover and placed it at the opening and the bit of the hoover nozzle that stuck out I covered that with my finger for maximum suction, I repeated this process from the opposite side where the air exits, after a few seconds the suction was enough to clean out the heat sink and the fan started to spin with the power of the suction.
I have replaced the card and now my mac is running very quiet for the first time in years. On removing the graphics card I noticed the bay was very hot including the card. I'm guessing the card cuts out to protect itself from overheating.
Don't forget to wear an anti-static wristband or discharge yourself first. Using a hoover was a drastic last step. Don't think an air duster would solve the problem as well as suction.

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

Mac Pro (early 2008) - a series of problems

Like many people here, I've been hit with a series of Mac Pro (early '08) issues. I've had the machine for a little over a month and I love it when it's working. But recently, the aforementioned "series of problems" has arisen - ATI graphics card freeze, reboot from sleep, etc.
But the weirdest, and perhaps most troubling issue is one with my main hard drive (Hitachi 1 TB) in Bay 1 (I have another 1 TB drive [Seagate] in Bay 2). The temperature of my Hitachi drive hovers around 101-106 degrees when active, and stays in mid-90s when relatively idle. I was wondering if this is considered a normal temp range for a hard disk? The Segate drive in Bay 2 runs around 88 degrees at its hottest (according to the iStat widget). While it's not used as much as the start-up drive, I am a bit alarmed by the difference in the temperatures of the drives...
Possibly related to this is the fact that my start-up drive (Hitachi) has some disk repair issues pop up when I ran Disk Utility. This might be due to all the hard shut downs I had to do because of the ATI graphic card freezes, but I was dismayed to see it happen so early in the computer's lifecycle.
And finally -- and I know this is a long post; I appreciate those you have stuck around -- I noticed on my Hitachi drive that I seemed to "lose" about 25 gigs of data. Not stuff that I lost because it was deleted, but rather it was as if I had transferred a huge 25-gig file onto the hard disk which took up the space.
For instance, earlier in the day, it said I had 490 gigs available, but several hours later, after transferring nothing to the hard drive, it mysteriously said I had 469 gigs available. Has anyone experienced anything like this before?
Thanks for your time...

When I purchased my Mac Pro in mid-January from the local Apple store, I also bought two Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1 TB drives from the Apple Store which they installed. I configured these drives as a Raid 0 array for use with Final Cut Studio 2. This Raid array of two 1 TB Hitachi drives has worked flawlessly. My OS is located on the 320 GB Seagate that came with the stock configuration of the Mac Pro under heavy A/V application use. The Hitachi 1 TB drives are known to run a little hotter than other drives, but I don't have any software that monitors the temperatures on my Hitachi drives so I cannot say if they are running as warm as you have noted. Here is a link to a review of the 7K1000 that showed an operating temperature of 31-39 degrees Centigrade in moderately heavy use:
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2969.
Based on what you have reported here is what I would do: (1) Erase and zero your Hitachi 1 TB system drive. This will take several hours but will map out any bad sectors on the drive. (2) REinstall your OS and applications. I would not restore from TM because you may have backed up the problems that were existing on your system drive.
The Hitachi 1 TB drives are thermally protected. Here is the complete data sheet on the Hitachi 1 TB drive: http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib.nsf/techdocs/67A68C59B27368FC862572570080 FC70/$file/Deskstar7K1000010307final.pdf
It really does not sound to me like your drives are the problem and that they are probably operating within normal limits, but a call to Hitachi tech support would probalby clear that up firmly.
Tom

Mac Pro Temperature

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