Help! Mac Pro keeps crashing, not sure why

Ollie Cromwell · Sep 26, 2009, 07:19 AM

My 2007 bought 2.66ghz Quad Mac Pro is developing a really nasty habit of crashing with no warning in the middle of working, its connected to two monitors via the stock 1900XT card (which I think is maybe the problem). Basically the screens just go blank and the keyboard becomes totally unresponsive, I have to hold down the power button to shut it down.

If I try to restart it generally all the fans kick in at full speed but it wont boot and I have to leave it for about 15 minutes with the power disconnected before I can get it back up.

Frequency of the crashes has gone from rare in the past few months to happening now any time the machine is on for longer that ten or 15 mins,

I have looked in the system logs but cant find anything in there. I can post once the machine is back up (typing this from my MBP).

I am running the machine on SL 10.6.1. Crashes predates SL though.

Is it likely to be the graphics card?

fandsw · Sep 26, 2009, 07:39 AM

My bet would be the X1900XT card as well. The one I had was nothing but trouble in my old MP, finally ended up swapping it for a 8800GT. The cooling design on those X1900XT just plain sucks. Take it out of the MP and give it a good cleaning with a can of compressed air.

handheldgames · Sep 26, 2009, 03:29 PM

Make sure your heat sync on the x1900 isn't blocked with dust buildup. Most people don't do routine interior maintenance on their system.

Techhie · Sep 26, 2009, 03:31 PM

If it was a software problem, you would get a panic report when you restarted it. I would double check the RAM, and buy a new GPU to swap out and see if that is the problem. It sounds like you have a dying chip on that graphics card.

Tesselator · Sep 26, 2009, 05:06 PM

Going blank and nothing else works either? That sounds like the PSU. I guess the GPU could be at fault but those symptoms would be incredibly rare.

Sep 26, 2009, 07:19 AM	#1
Ollie Cromwell macrumors member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: London	Help! Mac Pro keeps crashing, not sure why My 2007 bought 2.66ghz Quad Mac Pro is developing a really nasty habit of crashing with no warning in the middle of working, its connected to two monitors via the stock 1900XT card (which I think is maybe the problem). Basically the screens just go blank and the keyboard becomes totally unresponsive, I have to hold down the power button to shut it down. If I try to restart it generally all the fans kick in at full speed but it wont boot and I have to leave it for about 15 minutes with the power disconnected before I can get it back up. Frequency of the crashes has gone from rare in the past few months to happening now any time the machine is on for longer that ten or 15 mins, I have looked in the system logs but cant find anything in there. I can post once the machine is back up (typing this from my MBP). I am running the machine on SL 10.6.1. Crashes predates SL though. Is it likely to be the graphics card? __________________ MBP C2D 2.33/15""/2gb Mac Pro Quad 2.66 "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read." -- Groucho Marx
	0

Sep 26, 2009, 07:39 AM	#2
fandsw macrumors regular Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Helena, AL	My bet would be the X1900XT card as well. The one I had was nothing but trouble in my old MP, finally ended up swapping it for a 8800GT. The cooling design on those X1900XT just plain sucks. Take it out of the MP and give it a good cleaning with a can of compressed air. __________________ Mac Pro Octo 2.26 \| iMac i5 3.6 MacBook Alu 2.4 \| PowerBook G4 12" 1.5 iPad 3G 32GB & LTE 64GB \| AppleTV 2 & 3 \| iPhone 4S 64GB iPod Video 80GB \| iPod Nano 2GB
	0

Sep 26, 2009, 03:29 PM	#3
handheldgames macrumors 6502 Join Date: Apr 2009	Make sure your heat sync on the x1900 isn't blocked with dust buildup. Most people don't do routine interior maintenance on their system. __________________ 2009 MacPro i7-990x 3.46 Oct, 32GB RAM, AMD 7950, Dual 30" Dell 3007wfp-hc, VelocityX2-Samsung840, FrescLogic USB3, Software Developer / Hardware Designer
	0

Sep 26, 2009, 03:31 PM	#4
Techhie macrumors 65816 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: The hub of stupidity	If it was a software problem, you would get a panic report when you restarted it. I would double check the RAM, and buy a new GPU to swap out and see if that is the problem. It sounds like you have a dying chip on that graphics card. __________________ flickr \| *twitter* \| "comprehensive geek" (setup)
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Sep 26, 2009, 05:06 PM	#5
Tesselator macrumors 68040 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Japan	Going blank and nothing else works either? That sounds like the PSU. I guess the GPU could be at fault but those symptoms would be incredibly rare.
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