Mac Pro won't fully boot

[Gothboy]

Hey there my first post here,

Sat down to my studios' 2006 Mac Pro the other day and it wouldn't fully boot. It chimes but to a grey screen. Unplugged everything and put it up on the bench went through all the procedures here http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/steps-take-when-your-mac-wont-start-3423817/

I reset the video card, 2 usb cards, and the ram cards too still no go. Computer has 5 internal drives total 2 OS, 2 for audio and one for audio samples. Have 2 outboard backup drives. 13 GB ram.

Ran utility on both OS drives, there were a few corruptions on the Snow Leopard drive which I fixed the Lion drive seems fine and can do safe mode on both but it's a no go from here thought I'd ask here for other options.

I didn't install anything before this happened except Flash player maybe I should uninstall that?

Apple Mac Pro 2.66 GHz. Intel Xeon Dual-Core
13GB RAM, 5 SATA HDs internal.
Lion 7.5.5/Snow Leopard 10.6.8

 

[harryb2448]

G'day and welcome to the forums.

With the Lion drive selected, try and boot into Recovery Mode and if any joy run Disk First Aid and see what is reported.

 

[Gothboy]

G'day and welcome to the forums.

With the Lion drive selected, try and boot into Recovery Mode and if any joy run Disk First Aid and see what is reported.

"The volume Lion appears to be OK" is what I get as it was before. Is it possible that it could be the video card?

 

[harryb2448]

Anything is possible. When you say 'reset' the video card I take it you removed it, cleaned it up, and re-seated it firmly (and I mean firmly) into place. Did the connection to the motherboard go in firmly? Suggest you try removing the USB3 cards and external hard drives and the drives not the boot drive and see if there is any joy. In my Mac Pro days a failed power supply unit was dead as a door nail nada. Where is the fifth internal drive installed, the second optical drive slot maybe? If so remove it too and try again.

If you have any joy add one at a time. It is quite possible with all you have going on you have required too much power from the supply unit. It is ten years old.

 

[Gothboy]

I replaced battery and pulled everything except Lion OS drive still no joy. Yeah I pulled and reset the video card.

First I heard of possibility it could be power unit. Why would it chime and then stay on if it was power?

 

[harryb2448]

Before replacing the power supply, remove the graphics card and try to reboot. If you get exactly the same fault it may well be the card. In my Mac Pro days I ran an ATI Radeon HD4870 with 1GB of memory. The card was much superior to the nVidia 7300, 8800, and the ATI Radeon 1900XT.

 

[Gothboy]

I had the idea of using an old SATA drive I had to reformat and then install an OS to make it a boot drive but when I tried to boot computer it made a slow deliberate Beep....beep.....beep and machine wouldn't boot. The drive is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 didn't show up on desktop in safe mode nor the Utility list. Could the drive be dead and that's why I'm getting a beep?

Graphics Card is a Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB Graphic

 

[harryb2448]

Sure the Seagate sounds dead. That original graphics card was pretty weak even when new. Did you try booting without the nVidia?

 

[Gothboy]

Why the beeping with the Seagate?

I can't find the original Video card. What card would you recommend should I need a new one?

 

[pigoo3]

I can't find the original Video card. What card would you recommend should I need a new one?

The GT 7300 was the stock video card most 2006 Mac Pro's shipped with.

If you have no special requirements…and if the current 7300 fails…you could replace it with another 7300.

Keep in mind that 2006 quad-core Mac Pro's can be found for $100 on eBay. Thus you don't want to spend too much.

- Nick

 

[Gothboy]

Are the issues I've reported an indication of the video card being a problem?

 

[pigoo3]

Are the issues I've reported an indication of the video card being a problem?

Just to be 100% sure. When you last tried to boot the computer…did you remove all unnecessary hardware?:

- Removed all internal drives (other than the single drive needed to boot the computer).
- Removed all unnecessary PCI cards (only have the single video card installed).
- Only have minimum ram installed.
- All external devices disconnected.

This way you're putting a minimum load on the power supply…to help determine if the power supply is the issue.

- Nick

 

[Gothboy]

Yes Nick I did all that. I'm trying verbose mode next but is there a way to capture the code without using a film camera?

 

[Gothboy]

I tried resetting the SMC no worky

I'm ordering a new spare HD but while I'm waiting for that to arrive:

OK here goes my last gasp. Got the video camera and recorded the verbose info as it was displayed then put it up on a widescreen TV and even then it was hard to read. Booted up in Safe/Verbose mode and here is what I get for the last few lines. There might be a typo in here so I will try to try a macro on the camera.

Airport Link down on om 2. Reason 1 (unspecified) .
DSMOS has arrived
waves soundgrid version 2 .0.0. 14, Non-Interleaved Playback
SMC: :Macreadkeyaction ERROR smc read data8 failed for key 0EM0

 

[Gothboy]

It seems I have a new problem: Getting Lion to install on a new HD. I don't have it on disc I bought it from the App store as a download and I can only boot the Mac into safe mode which from what I understand does not let the Mac go online(It has a wireless card). Any idea on how to install a download version of Lion OSX?

 

[pigoo3]

...I can only boot the Mac into safe mode which from what I understand does not let the Mac go online...

I think that the reason you could only boot into Safe Mode before was due to the old "bad HD" issues. With a brand new HD…you should be able to use Internet Recovery to install Lion. Have you tried Internet Recovery since installing the new HD?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

Otherwise this is what you would have done (back in the day)…when Lion was a new OS:

- Purchase a Snow Leopard install DVD (OS 10.6).
- Install 10.6 on the new HD.
- Update to the latest version of 10.6 (10.6.8).
- Connect to the Apple Store.
- Download Lion.
- Install Lion.

* Nick

 

[ferrarr]

This computer is from 2006 (1st post), so it will not have Internet Recovery.

Gothboy, go to another computer and download Lion to that computer and create a USB installer.

 

[Gothboy]

I haven't yet received the new drive right now I'm just getting my ducks in a row for when it comes should be a day or so. So you're saying that the new disk will allow me to access the the wireless card making the internet network I have available?

- Purchase a Snow Leopard install DVD (OS 10.6).
- Install 10.6 on the new HD.
- Update to the latest version of 10.6 (10.6.8).
- Connect to the Apple Store.
- Download Lion.
- Install Lion.

This stuff I have if I need to go old school.

 

[pigoo3]

Gothboy, go to another computer and download Lion to that computer and create a USB installer.

A very good alternate solution. As long as OP has access to a 2nd computer.

- Nick

 

[pigoo3]

So you're saying that the new disk will allow me to access the the wireless card making the internet network I have available?

The problems your Mac Pro has/had could have been software related or related to the bad previous hard drive. If you replace the HD with a new HD…and install a fresh version of the OS…then both of those possible "issue areas" are eliminated.

But…if this computer has a hardware issue NOT related to the HD…then there may still be an issue. Need to wait & see if the new HD & fresh OS install cures things.

- Nick