Mac Pro won't boot

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Need help, my Mac Pro won't boot and I need to run disk utilities each time from DVD before restarting.
Any ideas? Pleas help.
 

pigoo3

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If I had a crystal ball or could read people's minds…I might have an idea!;) Gonna need more info on the computer before some theories can be suggested.

- What model Mac Pro?
- What OS version is it running?
- do you get the "happy" startup tone?

Some stuff for starters.

- Nick
 
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Sorry.. Mac Pro dual core intel 2.66 ghz, one of the early mac pros, get happy mac tone but freezes on blue screen.
Startup disc running 10.5.8
 

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Thanks for the info.

- How many hard drives are installed in your Mac Pro?
- If you bought this Mac Pro new...have you tried booting the Mac Pro from the gray discs that came with it? Or if you bought the Mac Pro used...and have the gray discs.
- If you don't have the gray disks...do you have any other bootable OS install discs to use?

* Nick

p.s. Your first post mentioned a "DVD"...which DVD is this?
 
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I've got the discs and have tried running disc utility, keep getting rwr should be.....info and what appears to be a whole bunch of fixes
 
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I've managed to boot and am backing up files, but is it a pram reset issue or something?
 

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I've got the discs and have tried running disc utility, keep getting rwr should be.....info and what appears to be a whole bunch of fixes

This sounds like you're using Disk Utilities "Repair Permissions" feature. What you are seeing (the rwr stuff) is normal.

Which disks are they (I asked this above)?

It probably wouldn't hurt to do a PRAM Reset.

- Nick

p.s. It is really not necessary to make a separate post for each question answered. You can answer all questions in a single post as we progress.:)
 
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Lol yeah trying to multitask and remembering other info to add. The discs are the original discs that came with the mac.
I'm thinking it might be a good time to get a new startup drive, can I fit out a new drive with time machine?
 

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Lol yeah trying to multitask and remembering other info to add. The discs are the original discs that came with the mac.
I'm thinking it might be a good time to get a new startup drive, can I fit out a new drive with time machine?

I was thinking that the hard drive could be on it's way out (dying)...never know. But you could erase & reformat the current hard drive...reinstall the OS...and see if things improve (of course have the important stuff backed up first). If it does...then you don't need a new HD.:)

I'm not sure what you mean by "fitting out the new drive with Time Machine"? Time Machine is an app that is automatically installed when the OS is installed. Then you just open Time Machine/turn on Time Machine...and designate where you want the backup files to be stored (a 2nd hard drive).

- Nick

p.s. Just wanted to ask. Do you have a reason for running OS 10.5.8? You could upgrade to something newer.
 
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Got the Leopard OS X.5 original DVD?

If so boot from that, hold down 'C' after the chime, leave Installer and go to Utilities > Disk utility > Repair Disk. You cannot repair a disk you are booted from. See what message comes up. If any in red as Nick suggests the drive may have/be failing.

If you need a new drive, pop it in, boot from the DVD again, run installer after formatting the drive Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and then withg the external connected use Migration Assistant in utilities to cross evetrything over from the Time Machine backup.

Keep us posted?
 
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question and a big one here whats your graphics card???

the screen saver freezing is usually the sign the machines graphics card is about to die its normally what happens to the original mac pro i am assuming its a mac pro 1.1 2.66 ghz 4 to 8 gig's of ram and about a 350 gig or better hard drive correct.

this means the graphics cards where these options for this machine.

ati radeon x1900
ati radeon x5770 (also known as the firestarter when this graphics card goes it usually sparks then fire)
nvidia 8800 gt (also known as the solder melter this graphics card not only fails on mac pro's but on the aluminum macbook pro as well it gets hot enough to melt solder)

check to see what graphics card you have
you also might want to upgrade to snow leopard or lion for your machine depending on if you use power pc apps or not

leopard required a graphics card upgrade file called leopard graphics 1.0 of which you can download from apples web site this update was to fix a major bug with newer graphics cards that leopard doesn't like and would cause freezing issues and boot failures.

this is why the nvidia gt 8800 won't run in tiger server because there is no driver for it and it just crashes and gives you the gray screen of death

also i would replace the hard drive my question is this if you are running a seagate hard drive they fail like crazy on the original mac pro this is why most people go to the 2 tb western digital green drives but you would still have to upgrade your os because most newer hard drives only register as 1.5 tb in leopard
 
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Yo Andyezra

Sounds like your MBR and GPT tables are outta sync. Send more tomorrow.
 

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