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2009 MacPro 4,1 Boot Black Screen - Confirmed Dead Logic Board

A

alexanderyuen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 17, 2015
14
0
Problem:
Early 2009 MacPro 4,1 (Firmware 5,1) Eight Core 2.26Ghz, 16G Memory
I am having black screen upon boot, no start up chime, no power through USB ports on the logic board. The 30" Apple Cinema Display seemed to receive certain signal because the led light on the bottom right corner is lit up when the machine is turned on. And all the fans inside are working.

I have three disks inside, 1 SSD (with OSX10.10.3), 1 640Gb HHD (with Windows8.1), 1 4Tb HHD (Files).
The display card is an EVGO GTX660LI
There is also an Inateck 4 Ports PCI-E to USB 3.0 Expansion Card

My wife was using it last night and she turned it off from the Windows 8,1 system. Next day when I turn on the power, it's showing the black screen... the front power led is lit normally.

I first suspected the internal battery (BR2032) is dead, can't find it anywhere near home so bought a CR2032 instead from the nearest Radio Shack. So far, I tried : replace the BR2032 with the new CR2032, pulled the GTX660 and put the original GT120 back, pulled HHD with Windows, pulled memory chips and tried boot with only two and one chip. Nothing helped.

Please let me know if you have had similar problems or any suggestions on what to do. I really hope it's not a dead logic board... could it still be the internal battery or power supply unit? I ordered a BR2032 from Amazon, but it won't arrive until Wednesday.

Thanks,

Alex
 
Last edited:
agazoo

agazoo

macrumors regular
May 15, 2015
110
18
alexanderyuen said:
Problem:
Early 2009 MacPro 4,1 (Firmware 5,1) Eight Core 2.26Ghz, 16G Memory
I am having black screen upon boot, no start up chime, no power through USB ports on the logic board. The 30" Apple Cinema Display seemed to receive certain signal because the led light on the bottom right corner is lit up when the machine is turned on. And all the fans inside are working.

I have three disks inside, 1 SSD (with OSX10.10.3), 1 640Gb HHD (with Windows8.1), 1 4Tb HHD (Files).
The display card is an EVGO GTX660LI
There is also an Inateck 4 Ports PCI-E to USB 3.0 Expansion Card

My wife was using it last night and she turned it off from the Windows 8,1 system. Next day when I turn on the power, it's showing the black screen... the front power led is lit normally.

I first suspected the internal battery (BR2032) is dead, can't find it anywhere near home so bought a CR2032 instead from the nearest Radio Shack. So far, I tried : replace the BR2032 with the new CR2032, pulled the GTX660 and put the original GT120 back, pulled HHD with Windows, pulled memory chips and tried boot with only two and one chip. Nothing helped.

Please let me know if you have had similar problems or any suggestions on what to do. I really hope it's not a dead logic board... could it still be the internal battery or power supply unit? I ordered a BR2032 from Amazon, but it won't arrive until Wednesday.

Thanks,

Alex
Click to expand...

Could be a power issues as well as faulty hardware,

Is caps lock turning green?

I would try different memory sticks if available. Try to remove everything but boot HDD (you won't have video but at least you will know if its booting or not)

Good luck ...
 
IowaLynn

IowaLynn

macrumors 68020
Feb 22, 2015
2,145
588
alexanderyuen said:
Problem:
Early 2009 MacPro 4,1 (Firmware 5,1) Eight Core 2.26Ghz, 16G Memory
I am having black screen upon boot, no start up chime, no power through USB ports on the logic board. The 30" Apple Cinema Display seemed to receive certain signal because the led light on the bottom right corner is lit up when the machine is turned on. And all the fans inside are working.

I have three disks inside, 1 SSD (with OSX10.10.3), 1 640Gb HHD (with Windows8.1), 1 4Tb HHD (Files).
The display card is an EVGO GTX660LI
There is also an Inateck 4 Ports PCI-E to USB 3.0 Expansion Card

My wife was using it last night and she turned it off from the Windows 8,1 system. Next day when I turn on the power, it's showing the black screen... the front power led is lit normally.

I first suspected the internal battery (BR2032) is dead, can't find it anywhere near home so bought a CR2032 instead from the nearest Radio Shack. So far, I tried : replace the BR2032 with the new CR2032, pulled the GTX660 and put the original GT120 back, pulled HHD with Windows, pulled memory chips and tried boot with only two and one chip. Nothing helped.

Please let me know if you have had similar problems or any suggestions on what to do. I really hope it's not a dead logic board... could it still be the internal battery or power supply unit? I ordered a BR2032 from Amazon, but it won't arrive until Wednesday.

Thanks,

Alex
Click to expand...

Leave Windows drive in drive location it is but pull others, then boot from Windows installer media. I assume you tried safe mode and booting without network or 3rd party drivers.

You might want to invest in Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15, great for cloning windows, backup and other chores.

Make a system restore environment otherwise.

Or try with just the OS X SSD present.
 
A

alexanderyuen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 17, 2015
14
0
Thank you all for your kind advice!

Re: agazoo

No USB power for keyboards, but strangely the mouse red light lit up...
I did try pull all memory sticks, there are eight of them (8x2G), and tried them one by one, no change.

I didn't try booting with only HDD, guess I won't have the chance to try it since now the machine is in the hand of a technician.

Re: IowaLynn

I tried boot with both only the Windows HDD and the OSX SSD. I also tried to boot with the Windows installer DVD disk, no change. There is no way to enter safe mode because keyboard is not recognized since there is no power from the onboard USB ports.


Situation Update:
I went to a MacPro technician yesterday. We tried the CPU tray on another machine, CPU and Memory chips are good. We tried other CPU trays on my logic board, no boot. It seemed like either a power supply or the logic board issue.

I paid the technician $200 to swap my machine with one of his good stocks. Not sure if it's a good deal to exchange my Early 2009 Eight Core 2.26Ghz 16G 1033 memory with a 2009 modified to 2010 Six Core 3.46Ghz 16G 1333 (4+4+8).

He is going to work on my dead machine today, will update if he tells me which part is broke and the possible cause. Right now, I suspect the EVGO 660LI video card, since it draws a lot of power from the logic board. I also had an Inatech 4port PCIE USB 3.0 card on the logic board when it broke down, haven't plugged this usb card back yet.
 
Last edited:
N

Nordahl

macrumors newbie
Aug 14, 2015
5
0
Have the same problem on my early 2009. Hope you will Update if you find out what the issue where.
 
A

alexanderyuen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 17, 2015
14
0
Nordahl said:
Have the same problem on my early 2009. Hope you will Update if you find out what the issue where.
Click to expand...

Hi,

Sorry that I forgot to update.

The technician later found out that the logic board is dead.
And to my surprise, he said replacing the Power Supply Unit is actually more expensive than the logic board.

I suspect that the PC version EVGO GTX660 Ti video card drew too much power from the logic board and fried it. Or, maybe the Windows 8 driver made the video card draw too much power...

Anyway, I'm happy with the swapped Mac Pro 5,1 Hex Core 3.46Ghz. It works without a problem with the EVGO GTX660 TI card. Just need to tolerate the black screen at initial start up due to the EFI issue.
 
Last edited:
adam9c1

adam9c1

macrumors 68000
May 2, 2012
1,874
311
Chicagoland
For a $200 you have a working cMP = Win in my book!

I would not push it with a power hungry video adapter now.

Actually that's what worries me, and thus I'm stuck with my GT 120.
 
A

alexanderyuen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 17, 2015
14
0
adam9c1 said:
For a $200 you have a working cMP = Win in my book!

I would not push it with a power hungry video adapter now.

Actually that's what worries me, and thus I'm stuck with my GT 120.
Click to expand...

My broken machine was running on dual cpu, and the swapped working one has only one cpu, so maybe the power consumption balanced with the GTX 660 TI on the new one. Another down side is that there is no boot screen with the 660, just have to wait for half a minute longer with the black screen, kinda scary for the first few times...
 
Last edited:
A

alexanderyuen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 17, 2015
14
0
adam9c1 said:
But you could have been out All. - 950 - 1200.
Click to expand...
Well, i felt lucky, too. But also had to drive 100 miles, down $20 tolls, then spent a few days trying to convince, or, rather bear complains from my wife about the extra spending/time used for the already "money-sucking machine".
 
Last edited:
A

alexanderyuen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 17, 2015
14
0
alexanderyuen said:
My broken machine was running on dual cpu, and the swapped working one has only one cpu, thus the power consumption balanced with the GTX 660 TI on board. Another down side is that there is no boot screen on the 660, just have to wait for half a minute longer with the black screen, kinda scary for the first few times...
Click to expand...
And now this beast should last me for a few more years. Couldn't be happier :)
 
Synchro3

Synchro3

macrumors 68000
Jan 12, 2014
1,987
850
alexanderyuen said:
My wife was using it last night and she turned it off from the Windows 8,1 system. Next day when I turn on the power, it's showing the black screen... the front power led is lit normally.
Click to expand...

Wasn't there a similar incident with a dead cMP that was running Windows 10 a few days ago?
 
A

alexanderyuen

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 17, 2015
14
0
Synchro3 said:
Wasn't there a similar incident with a dead cMP that was running Windows 10 a few days ago?
Click to expand...

Suspect it was the Video card, or the driver of video card that drew too much power from logic board and fried it.

Now we also have a dedicated Windows10 SSD in it, and my father-in-law is using the Win10 to play with video editing programs such as Vegas, and also Photoshop, and it runs really smoothly. He's editing everything on an external HDD plugged through a 3.0USB hub connected to a USB 3.0 PCIE card on the logic board. I did downloaded the NVIDEA driver programs for both Mac OSX and the Win10 to make sure nothing goes wrong again with the 660ti.
 
N

Nordahl

macrumors newbie
Aug 14, 2015
5
0
I am running a R280x and are now concerned if my motherbord/logicbord is fryde. How do i find out ? Changed the Pram bat today and still just black screen, fans are running, led on front is on, no red led inside.... Do not know what to do next :(
By the way. Sorry my english, It is not my først langauge :)
 
Last edited:
pastrychef

pastrychef

macrumors 601
Sep 15, 2006
4,753
1,450
New York City, NY
Nordahl said:
I am running a R280x and are now concerned if my motherbord/logicbord is fryde. How do i find out ? Changed the Pram bat today and still just black screen, fans are running, led on front is on, no red led inside.... Do not know what to do next :(
By the way. Sorry my english, It is not my først langauge :)
Click to expand...

I think it's time to bring it to a professional to diagnose.
 
N

Nordahl

macrumors newbie
Aug 14, 2015
5
0
Do not understand.. Please explane. Mine is a 4.1 firmupdated to 5.1. Dual core early 2009
 
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