My 2009 Mac Pro has trouble sleeping under OS X Lion.

If it sleeps at all, it takes 5-10 minutes to go to sleep. Even sleeping from the Apple menu or the power button usually doesn't work. This is a problem because the thing uses like 150W at idle, and if I let it run all the time my electric bill doubles.

I haven't slept in way too many hours.... idle 150W is probably norm.
There use to be problems (2008) not being able to come out of sleep.
Issues with running on a UPS that was too small (less than 850W / 1100VA).
Tried SMC Reset once? unplug and press power on button 10 seconds, then release, and reconnect and try to power up?
Multiple members here with 2009s have said that they had to zap pram/nvram in order to get Lion installed.
my money is always to go for clean install and test new OS, migrate data, and keep SL around for awhile. Make sure no conflicts or driver issues.
USB cables and devices (and drivers, like for printer etc) can cause panics, sleep issues, as can FW800 (shorted port, bad cable) so I would only trust them when they have been verified and tested - the problem goes away or not when removed from the system.
I see LaCie and Seagate drives causing Lion issues. OWC are fine.

Similar Messages

2009 Mac Pro will not sleep from set prefs

Hi all:
I've got a 1 YO Quad, 2.93 Nehelam that wont sleep on set schedule. It has been doing this sense last week. I get the P-RAM, unplugged everything (even power), re-plugged everything, repaired my drive with disc utility, erased start up items, everything.
It WILL sleep on Q but not on a schedule in energy saver prefs. The only thing thats different lately is that Installed CS5 Master suite and Apple's latest audio update (which fixed my audio by the way...)
Any idea's.
Thanks---Seattle

Is this question in the correct discussion? I thought this was the discussion for Mac Pro (previous to 2009). This could be a problem that appeared in the 2009 Mac Pro line ... or it could be related to the OS you are running.

My 2007 mac pro has a slow internet connection with lion

Hi:
I've been dealing with a severely slow internet connection with my 2007 mac pro - dual quad core. I have os 10.7.3. I use wifi.
Typically, I'll experience difficulty loading websites completely. Certain sites have a 90% failure rate to load most elements. Other sites operate quickly from time to time. Often, a site will simply fail to load at all. My cable company cannot find anything wrong with my connection and other, newer devices don't have a problem loading sites. It seems the issue is most likely related to my computer.
Interestingly, I can usually "jump-start" the connection by turning my wifi connection off and on and this will (temporarily) allow me to get an image or video to download.
Any ideas?
Thank you for your time.

Hi:
I've been dealing with a severely slow internet connection with my 2007 mac pro - dual quad core. I have os 10.7.3. I use wifi.
Typically, I'll experience difficulty loading websites completely. Certain sites have a 90% failure rate to load most elements. Other sites operate quickly from time to time. Often, a site will simply fail to load at all. My cable company cannot find anything wrong with my connection and other, newer devices don't have a problem loading sites. It seems the issue is most likely related to my computer.
Interestingly, I can usually "jump-start" the connection by turning my wifi connection off and on and this will (temporarily) allow me to get an image or video to download.
Any ideas?
Thank you for your time.

Early 2009 mac pro, lion won't install

Getting very frustrating... Download and go through all the steps and downloads additional files form online then says that i cannot install and the the lion file is damaged. I have downloaded twice and even went as far as formatting and re installing leopard and updates.
Prior to this, something that could be related. I tried to install boot camp weeks ago and it would not let me saying that my boot rom has to be updated. I have looked all over the support area and have not been able to find a boot rom update.
ANy help?

Hi,
I had the same problem when installing Lion on an early 2009 Mac Pro.
It would keep going to the Lion "Restore" disk window.
The Lion install would never complete.
The 2009 Mac Pro has the latest firmware updates.
Used a clean install of Snow Leopard 10.6.8 with all Apple updates
No 3rd party software installed
12GB Memory
640GB Hard Drive
No PCIe cards
Only mouse and keyboard attached
I finally gave up on trying to get the 2009 Mac Pro to install Lion.
My Solution:
I mounted the same hard disk inside a 2008 Mac Pro (without the latest firmware updates) and ran the Lion install. No problems. Lion was installed.
Pulled the Lion drive and re-installed it in the 2009 Mac Pro.
It works.

How to install Snow Leopard on a 2009 Mac Pro which has Mountain Lion?

The 2009 Mac Pro that I just bought has Mountain Lion. For many reasons, I do not want to have Mountain Lion on my machine. I have been using Snow Leopard for years and I like it fine. I have my Snow Leopard install DVDs. I cannot get this machine to accept Snow Leopard, which must be just another undesirable aspect of Mountain Lion, bacause this machine must have shipped with some variant of Leopard/ Snow Leopard to begin with. Here's what happens when I put the Snow Leopard Install DVD in the Superdrive:
1) First, I held down the "C" key at startup to start from a disc. It showed me a window which said "Mac OS X can't be installed on this computer".
2) Then I started it with Mountain Lion and then put in the Snow Leopard DVD. Got a window which said "The disc you inserted was not readable by this computer". It also had 3 buttons to choose from: "Initialize", "Ignore" and "Eject". So I clicked on "Initialize" and Disc Utility opened on the First Aid page. I assume I'm supposed to erase the startup disc, but I thought maybe I should ask the experts here before I do that.
This machine has two 2TB HDDs that the previous owner has configured as a level 1 RAID. If I am to erase the startup disc do I erase both drives of the RAID set? If I'm not supposed to erase the startup drive, what do I need to do to get back to Snow Leopard? Thanks and thanks again!

The built-in checks will keep you from clobbering 10.8 Mountain Lion by Installing Snow Leopard over it (literally, 10.6 Snow Leopard Installer will see a later version in place, and knows it cannot install over a later version). So it says "Mac OS X cannot be installed on this computer..." and leaves off "... "in its current state."
You will need to Install on a 10.6 Snow Leopard-erased drive. Mac OS X Erase function proceeds to install a Partition scheme and a default Volume after erasing, because a truly blank drive is useless for most Users.
When you boot to the Installer DVD, you are running off the DVD, so all Hard Drives are available to be erased if that is your choice. All data on them will be discarded. If you erase one drive in a mirrored RAID set, normally the other drive would survive and the set would be degraded. But a new version of RAID was introduced right AFTER 10.6, and it is likely that 10.6 cannot read that RAID at all under any circumstances.

2009 Mac Pro will not boot up under Windows

I have an Early 2009 Mac Pro system (Mac Pro 4,1) and I've had this system for 3 years already and have been working under OS X with this system ever since I purchased it.
However, when I tried to boot off my Windows disk, something very interesting happens. The Mac Pro WILL NOT boot up off the Windows disk or a known working Windows partition if two monitors are connected. Upon holding down the option key and selecting the Windows partition, I will get a black screen on one monitor (the one connected via Mini Displayport) and the other screen receives no signal and will enter standby and the system is halted. It does not respond to keystrokes, there is no hard drive activity, no measured power increase on the UPS, no apparent network activity, nothing. The only way to exit this scenario (from what I can tell) is to power off the machine, disconnect the display on DVI, power on the machine again, select the Windows partition wait for the system to reach the login window and reconnect the DVI monitor (at which time Windows recognizes it immediately and the system works fine again).
My question to the community is, does anybody know why this is happening and is there a known fix for this? Quite frankly, having to disconnect a monitor just to restart is very tedious and frustrating.
I have two Samsung P2350 monitors attached to an ATI Radeon HD 4870 (512MB, from Apple). One is monitor is connected via directly DVI and the other is using a Mini Displayport to DVI adapter. Both monitors work fine under OS X with no issue. At first, I thought that this may be a driver issue on the Windows side and after installing all the latest updates and drivers the issue is still apparent. From what I can tell, this doesn't seem like a software issue but rather a firmware or EFI issue as this happens before Windows even loads.
If anyone knows of a fix or what to do in this situation, or if you are also having this issue, I would love to hear your input!
Thank you!
For the record, I am running all the latest software builds on the OS X side (10.7.4, not that it would really matter at this point). I have also disconnected all unnecessary equipment in a trial and error scenario but the results are still the same.
The system passes all ASD testing.
The full specification of the computer and all connected equipment are as follows:
2009 Mac Pro (4,1) 8-Core
2x Intel Xeon Nehalem 2.66GHz Quad-Core CPUs
16GB DDR3 ECC 1066MHz RAM (Apple Branded)
Two OWC 120GB SSDs (One for OS X, the other for Windows 7 x64) - These are in place of my optical drives.
4x 2TB WD Black Hard drives for storage.
Two Samsung P2350 Monitors connected via DVI. (One using a Mini Displayport to DVI adapter).

In Windows I am using the latest (12.4) Catalyst Software Suite, 64 bit of course, downloaded directly from AMD's site after installing the drivers from Boot Camp.
As for installing Windows I used an original (not burned) installation media (Disk is in a pristine condition). And yes, Windows is fine, the problem just seems to be getting the system to boot up Windows with that second monitor. However if the "problem monitor" is disconnected the system boots fine 100% of the time and connecting it later after booting the system will still operate properly.
For the sake of arguement I swapped monitor cables and connected the "second" monitor to the mini displayport adapter to verify that it wasn't a cabling issue and I'm still yielding the same issues.
As for GPU testing, I've played games (Crysis, Grand Theft Auto IV, Battlefield 3, etc.) and I've had no issues with the card or stability.
You would think that Apple would try to find a fix for this, especially considering the caliber of this machine.

Boot Camp, Vista Ultimate x64 SP1, 2009 Mac Pro Quad 2.93, ATI 4870 HD

Hello All,
I’ve run into a problem installing Boot Camp with Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 on my early 2009 Mac Pro Quad 2.93 with Apple’s ATI Radeon 4870 HD (the one with one DVI and one mini-display). I followed the instructions from the Boot Camp Installation and Setup Guide, and everything was going great until I hit page 12 of the Guide (Step 3). The Boot Camp drivers installed without error, and prompted me to reboot. Upon rebooting onto the newly installed Vista x64 partition, the screen went black after the chkdsk screen appeared. I can boot into Vista safe mode, but booting into Vista normally results in the black screen. On a hunch, while in safe mode, I uninstalled the ATI video drivers installed by Boot Camp. I was then able to boot Vista normally, but only with the standard VGA adapter. Then I tried installing the latest 9.4 ATI drivers from the chipset vendor, AMD, http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx. Booting normally after the ATI chipset drivers were installed left me with a mostly black screen, and a few swizzles of horizontal color, but not enough to make out any sort of image. Once again, I was able to boot normally by first booting into safe mode and then uninstalling the ATI driver, leaving me with the standard VGA driver.
The displays I have tried so far are 1) Apple Cinema HD 23”, and 2) Apple Cinema 20”. Also, I have tried all 6 permutations with the ports on the Apple version of the ATI Radeon 4870 HD with both displays (using the mini-display to DVI adapter), 2 permutations with both displays, and 4 permutations with single displays. All permutations result in the same black screen after installing Boot Camp drivers.
Am I missing something? It seems to me that there is a display driver that needs to come from Apple that will work with the Apple version of the ATI Radeon 4870 HD in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 attached to an Apple display. I’ve installed Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 and many other operating systems in the past 27 years of working with computers, and typically with video cards I’ve had to get the drivers from the vendor that shipped the card, not the chipset vendor. Sure, occasionally the opposite is true, and I don’t mind spending a few days to figure out what works best for me as long as I believe I am making progress.
Has anyone else run into this problem with his or her early 2009 Mac Pro Quad 2.93 with Apple’s ATI Radeon 4870 HD? I’m posting this in the Boot Camp forum as I think this problem is rooted in the Boot Camp drivers, specifically for the Apple ATI Radeon 4870 HD. Please let me know if I should post elsewhere.

You are the second person I think I've seen with trouble using Mac Pro and ATI drivers (other was on Mac Pro forum).
When updating graphics, there are extra steps that insure you get the best working drivers.
I've always found Apple to be behind the curve on Windows support. Drivers that come with a card from the vendor ususally means ATI or Nvidia, and even then, you go to the web and download and install the latest tested / beta / qualified drivers. Some people try a variety of driver versions to find the one that works best.
Apple has not been updating Boot Camp drivers for Late 2008 and on Macs. Boot Camp 2.1 is now over a year old. What is on your OEM Leopard DVD is the only drivers I would use - if at all! try without is what some do, and then see if you can selectively install. Under Windows 7, I don't need or install, and now with the RC/7077 version of 7, Microsoft 'blocks' installing Apple Boot Camp drivers as known to cause problems.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Unistall the various Apple services, drivers, startup items that you can live without or until you narrow it down. iTunes 8.1+ in Windows can break and prevent ability to even use optical drives and devices for instance.
Some tips for upgrading drivers, one from eVGA forum but should translate.
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=396474
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx
http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1655

Poor performance with Yosemite and early 2009 Mac Pro

I have an early 2009 Mac Pro with the following specs:
- 2.66 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon
- 10 GB of 1066 MHz RAM
- NVidia GeForce GT 120 512 MB
- 256 MB solid state drive for my system partition
- Two monitors connected, each at 1680x1050 resolution
Back when I was running OS X 10.7 or 10.8 I found that for every day tasks the performance using my computer was adequate. However, starting around 10.9, and even worse since upgrading to 10.10, thinks have gotten painfully slow. To give an example, activating Mission Control can take upwards of four seconds, with the animation being very choppy. Changing tabs on a Finder window can take two seconds for the switch to happen. Just switching between different windows, it can take several seconds for a window to activate. It's gotten to the point where I'm having difficulty working. So I'm thinking of upgrading some of my hardware.
Given my specs the weakest link seems to be my graphics card, and all of these issues do seem to be related to graphics. So my questions are:
- Do you think upgrading my graphics card will substantially improve things, and is there anything else I should upgrade?
- Is this slowness just the result of the computer being nearly six years old, and no upgrades will really improve things that much?
Thanks in advance!

Between Setup Assistant, and your existing system "untouched" (or use CCC if say you want to use an existing SSD for the system) there is no reason it should be a lot of work setting up. Have you ever used Migration or Setup? it has also gotten better.
Also, having 10.9.5 on another drive and running DU - and TRIM _now_ would be helpful.
Looking at just what gremlins you have running around inside your current system is not bad but.... sometimes the "long road" turns a shortcut into a dead end, and avoiding doing what seems the long road and hardest gets you where you want to go: a solid stable system.
Less is more. Most systems have more than needed and they get in the way and can cause trouble. Even handy "widgets" and those things that monitor system functions, even disk status. Which is why I like seeing a separate small system maintenance volume just for the weekly checkup. 30GB is more than enough so just slice out a partition somewhere - on another drive/device.
Those things, more so than and a lot cheaper than a new GPU. If your SSD is two years old, the 840 EVO from Samsung is down under $120 for 250GB, or use one for Lightroom / Aperture / iPhoto or scratch.
One person was complaining about sluggish window issue and thought it was the driver. Turned out It happened in ONE APP, not everywhere - very telling - and the app in question needs update. Adobe updated CC (for Windows) last month to finally support dual Dxx and some of the newer AMD GPUs - can the mac be far behind?
10GB RAM? that would not be 3 x 4GB or any combination using triple channel memory.

2009 Mac Pro not letting me upgrade to Mavericks nor 10.8

I have a 2009 Mac Pro with OS 10.7.5 installed, it running perfectly fine but for some reason it's not letting me update to 10.8 nor 10.9. Mavericks works totally fine from ssd card mounted on a usb dock but when I try to use the SSD inside or the hard drive the Mac Pro came with it does not boot up. I was getting a problem when trying to upgrade Mavericks from the store where Mac Pro wouldn't boot, it will just show a question mark so I reinstalled OS 10.7.5. When trying to install Mavericks from a usb drive, Mac Pro does not see none of the internal hard drives and for some reason does not even let me eject the optical bay, has this happen to anyone if yes, what you do to fix the problem.

"Image" was not a reference to the physical drive, but rather the actual bytes representing the version of Mac OS X on the drive.
• If you built Mac OS X on that drive from the Mac OS X that shipped with another Mac, it will be trouble.
• If you built the Mac OS X on that drive from a "Full Retail", "Purchased" (for $0, but it still counts as a purchase) version from the Mac App store, it has all Drivers and should work fine.

My Early 2009 Mac Pro won't restart after installing Mavericks

I have installed Mavericks on my Early 2009 Mac Pro and all seemed to install just fine but when I restart the Mac then it won't get past a grey screen with Apple logo. It seems that it does get reasonabley far into the startup, it gets passed the grey screen with cricling progress thingmy under the Apple logo, then it flashes very quickly and after that it is a grey screen with the Apple logo and no further.
I did try installing Mavericks when it first came out and I had this problem so I just abandoned and reinstalled Mountain Lion from my Time Machine backup. However I thought that with Mavericks now at 9.1, maybe it would work okay this time but no change. However this time I do want to get it working because the lastest Final Cut Pro X requires Mavericks and I do a lot of video editing.
Here are the things I've tried which have made no difference:
Removed all peripherals, so that now nothing is plugged in except the original Apple Keyboard, my Apple trackpad and my Eizo monitor.
I tried starting it in Safe Boot mode but this made no difference.
I started it up in Recovery mode and it will start in Recovery mode. While in Recovery mode I checked the startup hard drive with Disk Utility, the drive is fine, as and I repaired disk permisions which made no difference.
I zapped the PRAM.
I connected it to my MacBook Pro in Target Disk mode and used ProSoft's Drive Genius 3 to check over the startup hard drive again and check disk permissions and all is well.
It still will not startup
I would be most grateful if someone could assist.

Take each of these steps that you haven't already tried. Stop when the problem is resolved.
Step 1
The first step in dealing with a boot failure is to secure your data. If you want to preserve the contents of the startup drive, and you don't already have at least one current backup, you must try to back up now, before you do anything else. It may or may not be possible. If you don't care about the data that has changed since your last backup, you can skip this step.
There are several ways to back up a Mac that is unable to boot. You need an external hard drive to hold the backup data.
a. Boot into the Recovery partition, or from a local Time Machine backup volume (option key at startup.) When the OS X Utilities screen appears, launch Disk Utility and follow the instructions in this support article, under “Instructions for backing up to an external hard disk via Disk Utility.”
b. If you have access to a working Mac, and both it and the non-working Mac have FireWire or Thunderbolt ports, boot the non-working Mac in target disk mode. Use the working Mac to copy the data to another drive. This technique won't work with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth.
c. If the internal drive of the non-working Mac is user-replaceable, remove it and mount it in an external enclosure or drive dock. Use another Mac to copy the data.
Step 2
Sometimes a boot failure can be resolved by resetting the NVRAM.
Step 3
If you use a wireless keyboard, trackpad, or mouse, replace or recharge the batteries. The battery level shown in the Bluetooth menu item may not be accurate.
Step 4
If there's a built-in optical drive, a disc may be stuck in it. Follow these instructions to eject it.
Step 5
Press and hold the power button until the power shuts off. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed to boot, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Use a different keyboard and/or mouse, if those devices are wired. If you can boot now, one of the devices you disconnected, or a combination of them, is causing the problem. Finding out which one is a process of elimination.
If you've booted from an external storage device, make sure that your internal boot volume is selected in the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences.
Step 6
Boot in safe mode. Note: If FileVault is enabled, or if a firmware password is set, or if the boot volume is a software RAID, you can’t do this. Post for further instructions.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
When you boot in safe mode, it's normal to see a dark gray progress bar on a light gray background. If the progress bar gets stuck for more than a few minutes, or if the system shuts down automatically while the progress bar is displayed, your boot volume is corrupt and the drive is probably malfunctioning. In that case, go to Step 6.
If you can boot and log in now, empty the Trash, and then open the Finder Info window on your boot volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name.) Check that you have at least 9 GB of available space, as shown in the window. If you don't, copy as many files as necessary to another volume (not another folder on the same volume) and delete the originals. Deletion isn't complete until you empty the Trash again. Do this until the available space is more than 9 GB. Then reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode.)
If the boot process hangs again, the problem is likely caused by a third-party system modification that you installed. Post for further instructions.
Step 7
Launch Disk Utility in Recovery mode (see Step 1.) Select your startup volume, then run Repair Disk. If any problems are found, repeat until clear. If Disk Utility reports that the volume can't be repaired, the drive has malfunctioned and should be replaced. You might choose to tolerate one such malfunction in the life of the drive. In that case, erase the volume and restore from a backup. If the same thing ever happens again, replace the drive immediately.
This is one of the rare situations in which you should also run Repair Permissions, ignoring the false warnings it may produce. Look for the line "Permissions repair complete" at the end of the output. Then reboot as usual.
Step 8
Reinstall the OS. If your Mac was upgraded from an older version of OS X, you’ll need the Apple ID and password you used to upgrade.
Step 9
Repeat Step 6, but this time erase the boot volume in Disk Utility before installing. The system should automatically reboot into the Setup Assistant. Follow the prompts to transfer your data from a Time Machine or other backup.
Step 10
This step applies only to older Macs (not current models) that have a logic-board ("PRAM") battery. Both desktop and portable Macs used to have such a battery. The logic-board battery, if there is one, is separate from the main battery of a portable. A dead logic-board battery can cause a boot failure. Typically the failure will be preceded by loss of the settings for the startup disk and system clock. See the user manual for replacement instructions. You may have to take the machine to a service provider to have the battery replaced.
Step 11
If you get this far, you're probably dealing with a hardware fault. Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store, or go to another authorized service provider.

Time Machine turns itself on after my Mac Pro wakes from sleep (every time)

Hi,
I have a 2009 Mac Pro and it currently has Lion on it (10.7.4), but the problem I am about to explain started when the machine was running Snow Leopard, so it doesn't appear to be an OS-specific issue.
I do not currently use Time Machine, I use Carbon Copy Cloner and some online backup solutions to handle backups. I did use Time Machine for a short time on this machine just after it was introduced, but I didn't end up using it for long and the external drive I used for the backups is no longer in service.
The problem is this:
I have Time Machine off and I have all of my drives (I have 4 drives in my Mac and an external drive) set not to be backed up for good measure. Time Machine will stay off like it should except in one instance. If I put my machine to sleep, when my Mac wakes, Time Machine is instantly turned on and I get a warning telling me no backup drive has been selected and that I should pick one. I go into the Time Machine preferences and turn it off. It will remain off (I've checked the preferences to be sure) until the next time the machine is put to sleep. Time Machine will remain off, even through reboots. It is only waking from sleep that causes this.
I've tried zapping the PRAM, getting rid of the Time Machine preferences and even logging into a new, unused user account and testing it from there and the problem continues. This is really starting to annoy me. I wouldn't mind having TM on, but having to click through the warning every time my Mac wakes from sleep is frustrating.
I don't want to have to buy a new external hard drive and let TM backup to the drive because, as I said, I've got my backup solutions handled already and I'm not willing to put yet more money to use a feature I don't need right now.
I've done searches online and asked around and no one has been able to help me yet. So I thought I'd try here.
Anyone have any ideas?

Do you see a wake reason in Applications>Utilities>Console?

2009 Mac Pro upgrade to Yosemite failed

Hi,
Seven days in and my 2009 Mac Pro is still dead. Very frustrated. It had a 4x3TB AppleRAID array in RAID1+0 giving 6TB. I initially did an upgrade to Yosemite and it got stuck at the half-way point after the restart. Yes, I did patiently wait ... but gave up after 12 hours (left it overnight). I assume the upgrade was supposed to finish sooner than that?
Found one stripe in the RAID array was 'degraded' - replaced that disk (seems they had 11000 hours on them) but it was impossible (for me) to see how to get the new disk back into the RAID scheme under Disk Utility (booted up using an upgraded MacBook). Once all the disks were removed from the array, Disk Utility gave no option to create a new RAID scheme, so I downloaded SoftRAID - yay, my RAID array was back (seems Apple gave up on their software RAID in 2009?).
However, still no joy. Created a Yosemite install USB drive - seems to run but then fails at the end ... "couldn't bless installation disk: /Volumes/Image Volume".
Okay, so downloaded the Mavericks installer and created an install USB drive - same as Yosemite ... can't bless the installation disk.
What else can I try? The Yosemite upgrade seems to have well and truly screwed my poor Mac Pro. I'd already successfully upgraded two of our four Macs successfully to Yosemite (one upgrade and one clean install) so thought it was okay.
I might try booting off one of the Macs again, with the Mac Pro in target disk mode, and try to run the installer to install Mavericks or Yosemite onto the Mac Pro's RAID array as an external disk ...
Otherwise ... ?

Booted the Mac Pro from the MacBook Air running Yosemite in target disk mode. Ran the Yosemite installer on the MBA to install on the Mac Pro's SoftRAID array "Hollie" - when the installer tells me it's going to restart I see the final logs written at 04:50 below:
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: @(#)PROGRAM:Install PROJECT:Install-920
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: @(#)PROGRAM:IA PROJECT:InstallAssistant-532
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Hardware: MacPro4,1 @ 2.66 GHz (x 16), 24576 MB RAM
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Running OS Build: Mac OS X 10.10 (14A389)
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: USER=brett
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: LOGNAME=brett
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.AzaK6cdqED/Listeners
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: Apple_PubSub_Socket_Render=/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.o7DsCKSkcX/Render
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: HOME=/Users/brett
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: SHELL=/bin/bash
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: __CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING=0x1F5:0x0:0x0
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: TMPDIR=/var/folders/r9/vckptcb10fxgj44jppfcg04h0000gn/T/
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: XPC_SERVICE_NAME=com.apple.InstallAssistant.Yosemite.158788
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.AzaK6cdqED/Listeners
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: Apple_PubSub_Socket_Render=/private/tmp/com.apple.launchd.o7DsCKSkcX/Render
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: XPC_FLAGS=0x0
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: LOGNAME=brett
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: USER=brett
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: HOME=/Users/brett
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: SHELL=/bin/bash
Nov 1 04:45:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Env: TMPDIR=/var/folders/r9/vckptcb10fxgj44jppfcg04h0000gn/T/
Nov 1 04:45:20 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Using distribution archive from /Users/brett/Desktop/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/SharedSupport/OSInstall.mpkg
Nov 1 04:45:21 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Configuring products from SharedSupport folder
Nov 1 04:45:21 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Install is double-dmg. Not adding chunklist to download list.
Nov 1 04:45:21 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Using product <OSInstallDVDProduct> based on media at /Users/brett/Desktop/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/SharedSupport at distance 5
Nov 1 04:45:21 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Using product <OSInstallESDProduct> based on distribution at /Users/brett/Desktop/Install OS X Yosemite.app/Contents/SharedSupport/OSInstall.mpkg at distance 5
Nov 1 04:45:21 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Checking Software Update catalog URL https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-l ion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
Nov 1 04:45:21 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: No available package ref for compatibility update. Ignoring.
Nov 1 04:45:21 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: No available package ref for compatibility update. Ignoring.
Nov 1 04:45:23 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Using product <OSSoftwareUpdateCatalogProduct> from product keys (null) at distance 25
Nov 1 04:45:30 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: LSExceptions [0x6300000bee40] unloaded
Nov 1 04:49:16 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: IATool launched
Nov 1 04:49:16 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Connected to IATool 26fa80
Nov 1 04:49:17 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Preventing machine sleep.
Nov 1 04:49:17 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Using product IA_PKSecureNetEnabledProduct <file:///Volumes/Hollie/OS%20X%20Install%20Data/> at distance 5
Nov 1 04:49:17 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistantTool[738]: Using existing boot files dir at /.IABootFiles
Nov 1 04:49:17 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Using mutable product path: /Volumes/Hollie/OS X Install Data
Nov 1 04:49:17 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Using boot files path: /.IABootFiles
Nov 1 04:49:17 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Retrieving 1 packages (0.000 GB)
Nov 1 04:49:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Retrieved package com.apple.pkg.CompatibilityUpdate (http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/14/57/031-11010/vhdn34frx9suyfcrslj0xyx n3t0dafhkn8/OSX_10_10_IncompatibleAppList.pkg)
Nov 1 04:49:19 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Verifying InstallMacOSX.pkg/InstallESD.dmg
Nov 1 04:49:33 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Finished operation queue
Nov 1 04:50:10 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistantTool[738]: Failed to set prev-lang:kbd
Nov 1 04:50:10 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistantTool[738]: hdiejectd already disabled.
Nov 1 04:50:12 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistantTool[738]: Failed to prep /Volumes/OS X Install ESD for brtool
Nov 1 04:50:12 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistantTool[738]: Failed to prep /Volumes/OS X Base System for brtool
Nov 1 04:50:13 192-168-1-11.tpgi.com.au InstallAssistant[721]: Failed to write mutable product url to NVRAM

Speeding up an early 2009 Mac Pro

This is not a question - it is an answer.
Starting configuration: Dual quad core 2.26GHz early 2009 Mac Pro (4,1) already expanded to 12 GB RAM; 175GB SSD, 1TB RAID 0 internal HD configuration, 2 1TB external d2 Quadra HDs (1 for cloned backup, the other for Time machine) connected via FW 800. A Superdrive, and an LG Blu-Ray burner, both internal.
My uses: Frequent business use of Microsoft Office and Acrobat Pro; occasional use of Adobe Photoshop Elements, frequent internet access via Safari and Mail; much use of iTunes and iPhoto, some Aperture, and occasional creation and burning of movies and slide shows to DVD and Blu-Ray with iDVD, Final Cut Express, Toast Titanium.
Problem: Extremely slow from power on to the first open program with a usable menu (usually 2-1/2 minutes). Extremely slow changing from one menu item to the next and very slow opening files. Glacial at performing those operations if a backup was ongoing.
Earlier efforts: Followed conventional wisdom for speed by adding 6 GB of RAM, bringing it to 12 GB (though my RAM usage rarely exceeded 3 GB). Added a small SSD containing only the OS and all applications; mapped the home folder to the internal 1 TB RAID 0 comprising 2 540GB 7200 rpm SATA 2 drives (but - having to access the internal RAID for all data files made the addition of the small SSD a futile exercise). The external drives are also 7200 rpm.
Here is what worked!! I replaced the 175GB SSD with a 1 TB Samsung EVO 840 SSD ($565) and re-mapped the home folder back to the SSD; added a Newer Tech MaxPower eSATA PCIe card ($87); connected the two external 1TB drives via eSATA rather than FW 800, which tripled their speed. My OS, applications and data files are around 600 GB, so the 1 TB SSD was large enough to handle everything, while the 175 GB drive wasn’t.
While the EVO 840 SSD and the eSATA card are SATA 3 rated (6Gb/s), the internal bus of the early Mac Pro is SATA 2 (3Gb/s), which is the maximum at which the system will operate. In addition, the internal and external hard drives drives themselves are also SATA 2 (the Superdrive and Blu-Ray burner are SATA 1, but slow nothing down when not being used; and SATA 1 is plenty fast for burners limited to 16X anyway).
The result: It now takes 60 to 61 seconds from power on until Safari opens with a useable menu (including the 5 seconds or so to select the user and log in), a speedup of 90 seconds. In more stark terms, from power on to the log-in screen appears under the old setup was 46 seconds, and with the new, 41 seconds (system and RAM checks take roughly the same amount of time regardless of the drive used); but once the user is selected and the access code is entered, the new setup takes 14 to 15 seconds vice 1 minute 45 seconds! Even better, moving from one menu item to the next in an open application is immediate. Files open quickly. And, there is NO detectable slowdown while any of the frequent backups are ongoing. Performance is now very fast, again.
My Mac Pro cost $3400 when new, and has of course been improved. A used 2012 Mac Pro 6 core with 3.33 GHz chipset would have run $2800 or more, and provided slightly higher GeekBench scores operating single-core, but slower multi-core speeds than I already have. A 3.33GHz 12 core machine refurbished by Apple would have run $5400, and provided 1/3 faster single core speeds, and the multi-core speeds would have been twice as fast, according to GeekBench. The new late 2013 4-core Mac Pro, while beautiful, would have run $4200 delivered (my upper limit), and would have required more investment to put the Superdrive and Blu-Ray burner into enclosures. Here is what amazed me: While its single-core speed would have been 78% faster, its multi-core GeekBench score was slower than my current machine! I guess those extra 4 cores make a difference.
The GeekBench scores heavily weigh processor-intensive functions, such as video compositing and editing, or working with large photo and graphic files. Those are not my primary uses, and spending money for significant performance gains in those areas made no sense for my use. But the $650 I spent for the 1TB SSD and eSATA PCIe card completely solved the slowdown I was experiencing. For my uses, that $650 was a much wiser investment than any of the other options. It gave me speed where I needed it, and not where it would have done little for me.

True but I catch all the Mail, Cache, /SyncServices and /Application Support - and for some reason the /Preferences folder is getting hit a lot.
The reason I use CCleaner is just to wipe clean all the brower type caches in one fell swoop. They get large and unwildly and harder to manage. Easy and faster to just download. Use to use a RAMDisk for the "web.cache" file or folders at one time to speed up system and surfing.
The entire ~/Library is 3GB for me
So even if it was 10GB it would still be fine and make sense to include the "home user account" ~/Library (you can of course include more)
Only saying to locate my 700GB of documents, media files and libraries "elsewhere" - pefect for a 2TB hdd. Or a pair of 10K WD VR 1TB drives though even they are limited if using SATA2 AND you have the system on same bus you start to hit the 700MB/sec that Mac Pro controller can handle.
So the ideal would have high access and to allow concurrent searches and IO in memory first, in cache memory buffers to drive controller and drives, and then use an SSD, before getting to the actual slower hdd. The choise of hdd also matters. Some 500GB drives are more like 85MB/sec at best vs 145MB for a single 2TB Seagate Constellation ($200) or WD Black. And no need to take up two drive bays.
Back to case in point, if you want to put the entire user account on its own SSD, fine but its cost for what performance is not what I would do. Even a small 128GB or spend another $70 for 250GB SSD instead, and leave all the user home account's media files on a slow 7.2K drive. Some 7.2k drives can do much much better on SATA3 / 6G. The 1TB 10K WD VR gets writes as well as reads in the 180-200MB/sec. which is about as good as it gets outside of SSD on a SATA2 bus and is only $200 (4-8X the storage of the SSDs I was talking about).

Early 2009 Mac Pro, Mavericks, and Airplay

Yes, I'm sure this question has been asked and answered a thousands times, but I have been looking in vain for an answer that helps me.
I have an early 2009 Mac Pro, running Mavericks. I have a Denon AVR-1912 Receiver, which my iPhone and iPad see and can play through with no trouble. So can my MacBook Pro. I also have Apple TV, but I don't use it for streaming music because the Denon works well.
What I want to do is sit at my Mac Pro desktop and play songs through iTunes that play not only through my desktop system but through my home theater system (the Denon Receiver). I'm used to clicking on the little Airplay icon and getting to choose Single or Multiple speakers. When I go to System Prefs/Sound, I see my sound card (Presonus Firestudio) AND I see Apple TV and my Denon. So my computer is seeing them both.
Here's what happens. If I choose the Firestudio in System Prefs, it plays as always through my desktop system, but there is no Airplay icon in iTunes. If I choose Denon in System Prefs, iTunes plays music through the Denon AND I get the Airplay icon in iTunes. If i click on the icon and I choose Multiple, I can choose Airplay Device, which is already checked, and Computer. If I click on Computer, the Airplay icon disappears in iTunes, and the music starts playing through my computer's internal speakers, not through my Firestudio sound card, and it stops playing through the Denon.
Why does the Airplay icon not give me an option to play through my sound card and the Denon? Why, in other words, can't I do what I said I wanted to do in the third paragraph, above? Is it possible or is my Mac Pro too old?
Many thanks,
Paul

I found out that the built in firewall interferes with AirPlay (which I know is weird).
Try turning the OS X firewall off using System Settings -> Security. If AirPlay now works, turn on the firewall and add "coreaudio" to the list of exceptions. This worked for me.
Coreaudio is the system driver for audio, by the way.

2009 Mac Pro - Graphics Glitches/Freezing in Yosemite

Hi,
I have a 2009 Mac Pro that is running 10.10.1. It is using a Radeon 4870 still from the factory. I have had a mostly flawless experience in the last 5 years with the system, but it has lately been displaying graphical problems and then freezing completely. After the display does quirky stuff that I am attaching in the image, I can only move the cursor. No other actions can be performed, and the only option I have is a hard shutdown with the power button. Usually after I do this, the machine will boot with the chime, but no startup screen will ever appear. It just sets blank. The only way I have found around this is to hold the option key, then boot to my primary drive.
I notice this seems to happen after the computer has woken from sleep. But, the issue originally appeared for the first time after updating to the newest Logitech Control panel for my mouse. I thought it was that, so I removed it and am no longer using that at all. The issue still exists.
Here is an image of what the screen typically does.

My condolences.
Time for a new GPU.

My 2009 Mac Pro has trouble sleeping under OS X Lion.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for