Help...before I throw this Mac Pro out the window.

MacinJosh · Dec 13, 2012

1. Try booting without the GPU. It should boot, but obviously you can't see anything. If you get the chime, no red lights and the HD is accessing during boot, you know it's the GPU.

2. If it's the CPU, it will boot with only one CPU (afaik). Try removing either one and see if it makes a difference and then change CPUs and even sockets (don't know if a CPU has to be in a certain socket in order to boot)

3. I wouldn't worry about HDs until you get something on the screen. Until you get a picture on the screen, forget about FW target booting. In fact, take out all HDs out completely. This is assuming of course that the GPU is working which you should find out by removing GPU in step one.

EDIT: I re-read the thread and seems like you've done step 1. Forget about HDs. That's not the issue. You need a chime and picture. Take out any HD. Try the CPU thingy.

makaveli559m · Dec 13, 2012

skitzodancer said:
Hey guys,

As a few of you may know I bought a 2008 mac pro on eBay. It's equipped with. 750gb hard drive 14gb ram and 2x quad core CPUs.

I got it for £999 so fantastic, anyways I get in from doing a few errands and its there in my living room a giant Mac Pro box

It's nicely packaged so I open it up, get the power lead carry it up stairs and put it in its place in my little music studio, connect the mouse, keyboard and monitors, plug in the power cable and press the power button.

And it powers on but there is no video, the white power led is on and that's it... I've opened the case and had a look around but I don't know where to start.

Any help would be great, as you can tell by the name of the thread I'm a bit annoyed by it but I'm going to go for a jog.... And yes before anyone tells me to I have contacted the seller.

Thanks very much.

I had gotten a similiar issue when I bought a Mac Pro 2.1 what I did was switch all the old RAM to one tray and all the new RAM to the other and everything worked. I had some issues with the video cards too, I fixed that with the expansion slot utility.

skitzodancer · Dec 14, 2012

Hey guys,

I've just got in from work and tried booting this without the gpu, and its not working, no beep or chime just the same as before fan noises and the ERRB light being on.

I'm not comfortable taking off the heatsink to look at the CPU it's self, is there anything else I can try or is it time to send the Mac Pro back to the seller?

666sheep · Dec 14, 2012

^^^Not much, I'm afraid. Try SMC and PRAM reset, if it won't help it won't hurt.

Below quote from Service Manual (LED 3 and 4 error):

Troubleshooting:
• With the computer booted, up press the SYS_RST switch. If this clears the CPU Error LED, check for incompatible device driver software that may have been installed for added hardware.
• If the Error LED is still on, power down the computer and try resetting the SMC. Restart the computer.
• Reset the power supply by unplugging the AC cord for 10 seconds.
• Unplug AC cord and remove any added DIMMs and PCI Express cards. If this causes the LED to go off, repopulate the DIMMs and/or PCI Express cards to find the combination that caused the LED to come on. Overheated memory could be a possible cause for this CPU error LED to come on. Check fan operation.
• Unplug the AC cord and remove the battery for 10 seconds. You may need to remove a PCI Express card to get to the battery. Reinstall the battery and restart the computer.
• Try swapping CPU A and CPU B locations. If the CPU Error LED follows the CPU, replace that CPU.
• Try replacing the logic board

If you didn't try something from above, that's what you can do.

You can easily omit last 2 steps. If it would be CPU, it can be bought quite cheap, but logic board always costs a bunch of $$$. Not worth it.

If all attempts will fail, send it back to the seller. If you want to do it, do not remove heatsinks and CPUs. It may complicate refund process as seller may think that you've damaged something during disassembling.

skitzodancer · Dec 14, 2012

I think I may be onto something

I've started with everything plugged in the machine and booted it, nothing happened and I still had the ERRB light.

removed all the ram from both trays booted the machine and it didn't boot and the ERRB light was on.

I next removed the hard drive (keep in mind the ram is still out of the machine) the machine has not booted, however there is now no ERRB light.

I'm still investigating but ill post a update shortly

skitzodancer · Dec 14, 2012

skitzodancer said:
I think I may be onto something

I've started with everything plugged in the machine and booted it, nothing happened and I still had the ERRB light.

removed all the ram from both trays booted the machine and it didn't boot and the ERRB light was on.

I next removed the hard drive (keep in mind the ram is still out of the machine) the machine has not booted, however there is now no ERRB light.

I'm still investigating but ill post a update shortly

And now I'm back to square one lol... I've contacted the buyer and suggested a refund. The buyer is happy to refund me the money upon receipt of the machine back or has suggested I take it to my local apple repair centre and repair it and she will pay the bill for it (as long as its less than the sale price)

Any advice guys? what would you do?

spoonie1972 · Dec 14, 2012

skitzodancer said:
And now I'm back to square one lol... I've contacted the buyer and suggested a refund. The buyer is happy to refund me the money upon receipt of the machine back or has suggested I take it to my local apple repair centre and repair it and she will pay the bill for it (as long as its less than the sale price)

Any advice guys? what would you do?

i'd send it back, regardless of the emotional attachment.

666sheep · Dec 14, 2012

skitzodancer said:
And now I'm back to square one lol... I've contacted the buyer and suggested a refund. The buyer is happy to refund me the money upon receipt of the machine back or has suggested I take it to my local apple repair centre and repair it and she will pay the bill for it (as long as its less than the sale price)

Any advice guys? what would you do?

Of these two options, I'd send it back. Apple bill will be close to sale price AFAIK.

darkcoupon · Dec 14, 2012

skitzodancer said:
And now I'm back to square one lol... I've contacted the buyer and suggested a refund. The buyer is happy to refund me the money upon receipt of the machine back or has suggested I take it to my local apple repair centre and repair it and she will pay the bill for it (as long as its less than the sale price)

Any advice guys? what would you do?

If you really need the computer it wouldn't hurt to to at least get a quote on repairs. If it's less than the sale price then problem solved at no cost to you. If it's more, then you can send it back and buy a new one.

wonderspark · Dec 14, 2012

I agree to sending it back, and look for a 2009 or newer, which can be upgraded further for less money and more performance anyway.

skitzodancer · Dec 14, 2012

I am going to send it back, the good news is the seller has agreed to give me a full refund for the item, including my postage and the seller will pay for the postage back also.

So it's a bad situation but its cost me nothing but time, thank you all very much for your input its been very helpful.

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Help...before I throw this Mac Pro out the window.

MacinJosh

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makaveli559m

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skitzodancer

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666sheep

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skitzodancer

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skitzodancer

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spoonie1972

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666sheep

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darkcoupon

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wonderspark

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skitzodancer

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