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BRAND NEW Mac Pro won't boot from Leopard DVD, kernel panics!

R

radarseven

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 6, 2008
11
0
I just received my brand new Mac Pro today. It's a BTO machine with the upgrade to the NVIDIA 8800GT, a second optical drive and a Mac OS X Server license. The system has Mac OS X server installed on the default 320GB drive. I decided to use the server license as a virtual machine running in Leopard client. So, I installed 2 new 500GB Seagate 7200.11 (Retail) drives in the machine, zeroed them out in prep for installing Leopard client.

At this point, I pop in a freshly-purchased retail copy of the Leopard DVD and restart. When I try to boot from the DVD and install Leopard to one of the new Seagate drives, I get kernel panics - need to restart the machine. Also tried booting from the Mac OS X Server DVD and this too only caused kernel panics. The DVD's read perfectly from within Mac OS X Server and boot from hard disks is flawless.

I spent an hour on the phone with a level 2 tech at Apple - Tried swapping out the RAM and moving around the DIMMS to no avail. I am at a loss to what this could be. Seems to be a hardware issue and the tech thought it was likely a problem with one of the memory risers but couldn't send replacements. Anyone else with a similar issue?

This is my first Mac and it looks like this Mac Pro is going back for an exchange and I'll have to wait yet another 10-12 days for a replacement to arrive. Bummer.

Am I missing something simple here? Does this seem to be a hardware issue?
If anyone has any ideas before I ship this one back, please write!!!
 
3

330toSRT8

macrumors member
Feb 24, 2008
36
0
That's pretty bad. Definitely a hardware issue. I mean you're not even getting through the OS install so I'd say that narrows it down to hardware. Trying two separate Leopard discs rules out bad media. I can't believe Apple makes people wait so long for a replacement after a DOA.
 
R

radarseven

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 6, 2008
11
0
What's crazy though is I can boot into the factory-installed Mac OS X Server and everything seems to run fine, though not booting from DVD. I've never see anything like this before.

Yeah, the replacement policy leaves much to be desired. In fact, at first they told me I had to take it to the nearest Apple Store (1.5 hours each way from me) and that they would just start swapping out parts until resolved. That didn't sit well with me at all. Apple Store said they could do an exchange since it is within 14 days. It should work out of the box.
 
Anonymous Freak

Anonymous Freak

macrumors 603
Dec 12, 2002
5,561
1,252
Cascadia
It's a software issue, not a hardware issue.

The latest Mac Pros were released AFTER the build of OS X that is on the Leopard retail discs. This means that the Leopard retail disc doesn't contain the drivers needed to boot the latest Mac Pro.


edit: whoops. Missed the part about you trying the shipped OS X Server disc.

I wonder what version of OS X Server is on the disc? Is it a 'hardware restore' style disc, or a retail-style disc? As in: I wonder if Apple pre-loaded a copy of OS X Server that has the proper drivers, but accidentally packed in a retail disc that doesn't have them...

One other idea is to try to booting the included restore disc holding down 'D' on boot, that should have it boot to the hardware test, which will really tell you what is going on. If it won't even boot to the hardware test; but it WILL boot to the hard drive, then it sounds like a bad optical drive, that for some reason is only failing during boot.

If you have an external optical drive, try booting the discs from that.
 
3

330toSRT8

macrumors member
Feb 24, 2008
36
0
Actually, you could have a defective DVD drive. I missed the part about you swapping out the original drive. Apple probably images the default install to save time so the DVD drive in your system was probably not used. Do you have an external DVD drive to try?
 
REYNE

REYNE

macrumors newbie
May 1, 2008
9
1
U.K.
Solution...

ehurtley said:
It's a software issue, not a hardware issue.

The latest Mac Pros were released AFTER the build of OS X that is on the Leopard retail discs. This means that the Leopard retail disc doesn't contain the drivers needed to boot the latest Mac Pro.

This means that the Leopard retail disc doesn't contain the drivers needed to boot the latest Mac Pro.


So what's the solution to this? I have an original copy of OSX Leopard server for my 2008 8 core bro which does not boot.

Thought about installing it via Target DIsk mode from another source - risky...

Appreciate any advice :D
Click to expand...
 
A

-am

macrumors newbie
Jun 26, 2006
8
0
to my knowledge doesn't the 8800gt in a mac pro require 10.5.2 or later and leopard graphics update installed.
 
Uncle Pinny

Uncle Pinny

macrumors regular
Jul 15, 2008
122
11
London
I had problems after buying a 2006 2.66 Pro and trying to use a retail Leopard disc. It jut wouldn't install/would fail/kernal panic all the time during install. After reading around I tried all the usual taking memory / 3rd party DIMMS out and swapping around etc. Nothing worked though.

In the end I used a gray 10.5.2 install disc from a 2008 Pro. Installed via that newer Pro onto a Firewire drive and then bounced that back onto my Pro hard drive (after booting from my retail Leopard disc).

Works fine. This is my first experience of OSX installation apart from osx86 and I was disappointed it was so problematic.
 
S

speedys123

macrumors newbie
Jul 31, 2008
2
0
Mac Pro crashes during install...

I just picked up three new HD's today and installed them in my 2006 Mac Pro. I planned on making them my new boot volume. When I went to install Leopard it wouldn't run, it would panic and tell me my machine needed to be restarted shortly after boot. The Leopard disk is the original retail copy, from release day.

When I put the 3 HD's I took out back in, it would boot fine. After 3 hours of playing around with it with no success, I found this forum and saw the post about the 8800gt.

I realized that the only difference between my machine before and now was the 8800gt. I purchased the 8800gt upgrade kit for my 2006 Mac Pro and hadn't reinstalled Mac OS since then. I had just installed the new video card and kept right on going... When I pulled my 1900xt out of the closet, put it back in, and removed the 8800gt, suddenly my Mac Pro booted Leopard just fine. Thankfully I hadn't gotten around to eBaying it yet.

So, it looks to me like the older 10.5 disks don't have the necessary files to boot from when you have an 8800gt installed. Perhaps if you're having trouble with a Mac Pro and 8800gt you need to find a different install disk? Hopefully someone else can see this and it will be helpful for them.

Thanks!
 
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