Mac Pro Very Slow

[mrApple]

I've a Mac Pro1,1 (2.66GHz)
Without any hardware changes it has suddenly started taking over half an hour to boot. This is both booting to HD and to DVD. The Apple hardware test (despite taking hours), finds no fault. Condition remains with all HDs including boot HD, removed and booting to DVD.

Once booted everything runs at this very slow pace. e.g. it will take 5 minutes of mouse manipulation to get it over an icon.

Tech Tool will not run. (Underlying process error).
Any ideas?

[vogelhausdesign]

Have you not heard? Apple installs a chip called the "Forced Consumer Upgrade" chip, or FCU, made to force the consumer into buying a new machine after a pre-determined amount of time.

[InfoSecmgr]

Have you not heard? Apple installs a chip called the "Forced Consumer Upgrade" chip, or FCU, made to force the consumer into buying a new machine after a pre-determined amount of time.

Very constructive. Run along now.

Well, the most usual suspect from my experience is the hard drive. Boot up off your OS CD and see if you can repair it.

Edit: well maybe I should READ your whole post OP...

At this point I would have Apple take a look at it. What's the only other thing you haven't tried? Another option could be to remove all the RAM (if you upgraded it) and put the original amount/module back in and see if that does anything.

[marcelog4]

Have you not heard? Apple installs a chip called the "Forced Consumer Upgrade" chip, or FCU, made to force the consumer into buying a new machine after a pre-determined amount of time.

Obviously this is bad joke.

--------------------------

mrApple

Try to reset nvram:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379

Or go directly to apple support community: They have very useful solutions...


http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=194

[bearcatrp]

Unplug everything except power cord, mouse and keyboard. Did you install ram lately? Try removing all the ram except first 2 ram moduals. Sounds like bad ram since the install DVD is lagging too.

[mrApple]

Apple hardware test says both FCU chips (yes, dual fcus!!!) are fine ;)

Many NVRAM resets.
Power manager reset.
RAM checks out good. Original set. (Two separate apps.)
Read all relevant Apple community supports......

I guess I have to go to the guru on the mountain.

[mjsmke]

It's worth reinstalling OS. If you already have a backup it'l probably be quicker than taking it to the Apple store.

[cutterman]

Strange problem.

Could it be the optical drive? May be a long shot but try booting to HD without OD connected.

[DoFoT9]

hate to be the bearer of bad news but it sounds very much like a dead HDD. BACKUP!!

[philipma1957]

look everyone that owns a mac pro needs to have this http://www.dvwarehouse.com/Apple-Hard-Drive-Carrier-Cage-for-Mac-Pro--Mac-Pro-Early-2008-922-7728-----NEW-p-37245.html&pltid=cc7d27f80b919a13563c2b7708e7ab10

they need it to have a backup osx hdd in 1 min you put this in and boot with your backup osx.

below is the newermodel for 2009 and 2010 http://www.dvwarehouse.com/Apple-Hard-Drive-Carrier-for-MacPro-Early-2009-922-8899---NEW-p-37539.html&pltid=cc7d27f80b919a13563c2b7708e7ab10

[Transporteur]

hate to be the bearer of bad news but it sounds very much like a dead HDD. BACKUP!!

And another one who obviously doesn't read the starting posts... :rolleyes:

I'd say check the RAM, even a single bad RAM stick can cause problems, check all of them separately.
If that still doesn't solve the problem, take your machine to your local AASP and let them check if for you.

[js81]

I vote RAM, too. Only logical thing it could be now... only other possibility is a dying logic board or processor, but I've never seen either of those cause a consistent slow down, just random errors or complete failure.

Yep, try the RAM.

[mrApple]

Yup, already tried booting without Optical Drive connected (removed from machine).

That only leave Motherboard, power supply or video card. Don't have a spare for any of those. Don't think it would operate at all if it was PS though.

Reluctant to take it to the hill 'cos I live on an island. :(

Thanks all for your input folks.

Guy
Macleay Island
Queensland - Australia

[DoFoT9]

And another one who obviously doesn't read the starting posts... :rolleyes:
heh. nobody likes a party pooper. anyway, my point still stands. back up.

I'd say check the RAM, even a single bad RAM stick can cause problems, check all of them separately.
If that still doesn't solve the problem, take your machine to your local AASP and let them check if for you.
its past AHT, thats what apple will run and probably come to the same conclusion as what the OP already had.

[vogelhausdesign]

If you already tested both FCU chips, it could be the logic board. Sounds like it's running the startup cycle and failing on one step and repeating until it boots into a faulted system

[DualShock]

Have you tried booting in verbose mode (hold Command-V while turning the machine on, until you see text flying across the screen)? There could be some error msgs that come through that you may be able to catch. If it goes by too fast, you can use Terminal and run 'sudo dmesg | more' to get a better look.

Also, see if Safe Boot (hold Shift while turning it on until you see a progress bar under the Apple logo) improves things. If so, maybe some weird process that is set to start up at boot is causing the slowness.

Also, check system.log using the Console app in /Applications/Utilities.

[Hrududu]

its past AHT, thats what apple will run and probably come to the same conclusion as what the OP already had.
They may run Apple Hardware Test, but mare than likely they're going to run several loops of Apple Service Diagnostic which does many more tests and often finds things AHT doesn't. Just this past week I had a MacBook that passed AHT twice without a problem, then had its hard drive fail multiple times on ASD.