2012 MAC PRO help with LED diagnostic - 3.4GHz quad core (base model)

joecool99 · Jan 27, 2014

* EDIT - mean 3.2GHz (Identifiers: Mid-2012 - MD770LL/A - MacPro5,1 - A1289)

lot of issues, refusing to boot, or does just chime and shows white screen with no further progress. when it did boot fully into system last time, lot of infinite beach ball spinning - resulting in forced shutdowns.

i tried lot of things: SMC + PRAM, changed RAM, pulled all drives, installed different drive. the system still hangs and exhibits the above.

is that logic board? CPU? i did not find any info about this.

i've found LED diagnostic button on the logic board. noticed this behavior:

1) when connected power cord (with system off) the top 2 LED blink red, then go off
2) when i press the test button (circled), the last LED lights up orange and stays lit as long as i keep the button pressed.

anyone has experience with this ? please advise.

see image:

joecool99 · Jan 27, 2014

also, on the lower section logic board that contains the CPU and RAM (the whole tray you can pull out), when i press power button, one LED blinks RED.

joecool99 · Jan 27, 2014

did the 2012 ship with apple hardware test DVD ? i know i don't have it in the box.

if so, could anyone send me a copy ? i'll certainly pay for the DVD and shipping.

handheldgames · Jan 27, 2014

The stick of RAM that is adjacent to that light is bad.

joecool99 said:
* EDIT - mean 3.2GHz (Identifiers: Mid-2012 - MD770LL/A - MacPro5,1 - A1289)

lot of issues, refusing to boot, or does just chime and shows white screen with no further progress. when it did boot fully into system last time, lot of infinite beach ball spinning - resulting in forced shutdowns.

i tried lot of things: SMC + PRAM, changed RAM, pulled all drives, installed different drive. the system still hangs and exhibits the above.

is that logic board? CPU? i did not find any info about this.

i've found LED diagnostic button on the logic board. noticed this behavior:

1) when connected power cord (with system off) the top 2 LED blink red, then go off
2) when i press the test button (circled), the last LED lights up orange and stays lit as long as i keep the button pressed.

anyone has experience with this ? please advise.

see image:

Image

666sheep · Jan 28, 2014

joecool99 said:
i've found LED diagnostic button on the logic board. noticed this behavior:

1) when connected power cord (with system off) the top 2 LED blink red, then go off
2) when i press the test button (circled), the last LED lights up orange and stays lit as long as i keep the button pressed.

It's normal behavior for these LEDs when nothing is wrong with CPUs and backplane board power line.

joecool99 said:
also, on the lower section logic board that contains the CPU and RAM (the whole tray you can pull out), when i press power button, one LED blinks RED.

Image

All good. It's CPU diagnostic LED. You'd have a problem if it would be light constantly. If it blinks once after powering up the machine it's OK.

Regarding your issue: I see that you didn't try another GPU. Symptoms indicate that it should be your next step.

Derpage · Jan 28, 2014

joecool99 · Jan 28, 2014

pretty sure it's not RAM, it had 2x 8GB, replaced it back with factory 3x 2GB.
also with just one 2GB. same behavior.

turned it on, pressed the diagnostic LED button with system running. i've FW800 drive connected with OSX 10.9 install, takes forever to recognize the drive and show the bootable volume. when i click that, i get a gear wheel takes forever, sometime it does actually start into the OSX install screen, but it is inconsistent and less likely to happen. also if it boots into the install screen, system restarts in a 1-2min on itself.

666sheep · Jan 28, 2014

Your DIAG LEDs indicate "all OK" state. No PSU, logic board or CPU problem.

Try safe boot from drive with OS installed. If you don't have another graphics card to try, but you own another Mac with firewire, remove the graphics card and try to boot this other one from MP HDD in target disk mode. If it would work, set screen sharing up and try to access your MP remotely (booted without graphics card).

P.S. If you need a service manual for your MP – PM me.

joecool99 · Jan 28, 2014

i've reseated the GPU to another slot, noticed a button under.
what is it for ? (circled blue)

funwithdesign · Jan 28, 2014

joecool99 said:
i've reseated the GPU to another slot, noticed a button under.
what is it for ? (circled blue)

Image

SMC hard reset button

joecool99 · Jan 28, 2014

funwithdesign said:
SMC hard reset button

thanks, tried to press+hold, did not help anyway.

joecool99 · Jan 28, 2014

by chance tested a drive in bay 3, have it running now. at this moment installed tech tool pro 7.0.2 and istat monitoring widget. noticed bay1 is not showing in the temp sensor ? could that have failed ?

if that is it, i'm a happy man. will see if it lasts.

666sheep · Jan 29, 2014

joecool99 said:
by chance tested a drive in bay 3, have it running now. at this moment installed tech tool pro 7.0.2 and istat monitoring widget. noticed bay1 is not showing in the temp sensor ? could that have failed ?

if that is it, i'm a happy man. will see if it lasts.

Image

In my case lack of HDD bay1 temperature read was caused by mislabeling sensors. I use Hardware Monitor and default sensor naming had offset of 1 number, i.e. "bay 1" sensor was named "bay 2" and so on. Bay 4 sensor was named "SMC Diode HD Bay5". I simply renamed them.

joecool99 · Jan 29, 2014

666sheep said:
In my case lack of HDD bay1 temperature read was caused by mislabeling sensors. I use Hardware Monitor and default sensor naming had offset of 1 number, i.e. "bay 1" sensor was named "bay 2" and so on. Bay 4 sensor was named "SMC Diode HD Bay5". I simply renamed them.

Hardware monitor? What am I missing here, I'm not familiar with that utility.

666sheep · Jan 29, 2014

Access to all possible MP sensors. Current, voltage, power and temperatures.
Free with limited sensors accessible, you can buy a license to unlock all of them. Cheap and worth every penny - of course if you need it (I do).

joecool99 · Jan 29, 2014

666sheep said:
Access to all possible MP sensors. Current, voltage, power and temperatures.
Free with limited sensors accessible, you can buy a license to unlock all of them. Cheap and worth every penny - of course if you need it (I do).

damn the problem came back :-(
getting white screen on power on with no boot.

i've installed istat menus 4 - there is tons of sensors info, just not sure what i'm reading. fans and temps look all normal.
and it was running so nice for hours including CPU/GPU stress test and many restarts - power off/on in series.

Ironjer · Jan 29, 2014

joecool99 said:
i've reseated the GPU to another slot, noticed a button under.
what is it for ? (circled blue)

Image

Replace the Battery

joecool99 · Jan 29, 2014

Yes, I actually looked it up and replaced the battery today. Did not help

funwithdesign · Jan 30, 2014

Have you tried running the Apple hardware test on the DVD?

joecool99 · Jan 30, 2014

funwithdesign said:
Have you tried running the Apple hardware test on the DVD?

i wanted to, don't have the DVD. at this moment won't boot anyway.

joecool99 · Feb 2, 2014

GPU was faulty in the end. Replaced, all works fine now.

h4lp m3 · Mar 7, 2014

Cool story bro.
Anyone know where a diagnostic LED diagram can be found? They're usually in the service manual, but I can't find one for a MacPro5,1

2012 MAC PRO help with LED diagnostic - 3.4GHz quad core (base model)

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