Mac Pro hardware crash under stress.

I hope i'm not asking something that has already been covered, but my forum searches haven't brought up anything that I feel addresses the problem I am having.

My 2ish year old Mac Pro has been crashing when put under any load what so ever. I first noticed the problem playing a game on Windows XP through bootcamp, and had hoped that it was a windows issue, but I have decided that it must be hardware related.

After getting continuous crashes on the windows side, I booted OSX and ran CPUTest (which crashed my computer). I then tried to boot from the install CD to run the Apple hardware test (which also crashed my computer).

When the computer crashes, it turns off... everything goes black... but it isn't exactly off. The power light above the power button flashes (and not in the pleasant rolling "i'm asleep" way), and in order to restart my computer, I have to hold down the power button until it actually turns off.

I have iStat installed, and according to that, my fans all seem to be running (in the 500-800 rpm range) and my cpu temperatures are ranging from around 28-31 degrees). The SMC has been reset, and I'm running on a somewhat recently formatted computer. Could this be a power supply problem? If so, how difficult is it to replace?

Thank you all in advance, any help is greatly appreciated.
Wes

PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.5.8) 2gb DDR2, 2 x 2.8 Quad Core Intel Xeon, ATI Radeon 2600 HD


Not sure if this will be helpful, but I have attached my error message after a crash:

View attachment error.txt

misterobotto said:

PowerBook G4 Mac OS X (10.5.8) 2gb DDR2, 2 x 2.8 Quad Core Intel Xeon, ATI Radeon 2600 HD

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what that line means. If that is your machine then it doesn't exist. It's either a PowerBook G4 or an Intel MacPro. Which is it?

Assuming it actually IS a MacPro, it sounds like a CPU heat issue. Have you opened it up and cleaned the dust out of the filters and the inside in general lately? Do so. If the problem persists then you likely have a more serious issue. Is the MacPro still under warranty? Did you buy Apple Care? If so, take it to Apple and they will fix under the warranty. If not, take to Apple or an authorized dealer but be prepared to pay $$$$ to get it fixed.

Lol yeah sorry about that... the computer I'm writing this from is a powerbook... the computer with the issue is a Mac Pro. I have not yet tried to give it a good cleaning, although I opened it up, and nothing appeared to be too dusty or anything. I'll go at it with some air tomorrow and see if i'm still having problems. Thanks for the response... and I'll post the results.

It could also be a power supply issue. Do a Google search but I understand some of the Machines like yours have had issues like you describe that have been power related. You can also instal an App that will monitor your CPU temp so you can see if there is anything odd going on there. That is what points to the CPU issue on G5.

Thanks for the advice so far baggss. I just went through the whole computer with a can of air, and got it to run the apple hardware test (which is a great sign) and got it to run through a full xbench test.

I have iStat and it looks like my fans are running fine, and the cpu's look to be around the right temps (29 degrees or so). I'm gonna go through the painful job of testing for a crash (by playing Fallout 3 ;D) so I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again.

We've seen bad memory cause some strange behavior. You may want to try removing the memory one by one and then testing for a crash each time. This can help identify a bad stick of memory (even when diagnostics don't catch it).

Or (and take this with a grain of salt, because I am not positive if memory serves me right), I faintly remember there being an issue in early Mac Pros requiring the CPU to be reseated. It was something that would only show up under load. But, like I said, it's only a faint memory and may be unrelated.

Jeff