2nd mac pro issues????? oh man.

[flyinmac]

whoa... man sorry to hear... its so weird how there are problems with 4 mac pros in a row!! Only thing to say to you is just keep on exchanging until you get a non lemon and make sure to buy applecare!!

I went through a similar ordeal with the iMac G5 systems. After that, I sold off everything Mac (since they were all failing), and waited quite a long time (almost 2 years) before buying another one new. I got my Mac Pro in August 2007 after seeing that complaints were rather low for that model at the time.

And, I got the other machines I was using in the mean time from other individuals instead of buying them new. They were G4 models that I used to get by until Apple produced a new machine that was reliable.

It would appear that they may be returning to their low quality production model.

 

[thedommer]

I spoke too soon. My fourth mac pro just died. It worked fine for 3 weeks now it's just died for no reason at all. I used it yesterday, shut it down as normal, went to bed, got up this morning and pressed the power button, and nothing. Absolutely nothing. No light, no HD motors, no fans, nothing. Acts as though the power button is not even connected to anything. Tried other power sockets, tried SMC resets, still nothing. I had not moved it or touched it in between it working yesterday and being dead today. There can't have been a power cut or surge or anything like that during the night because an older mac was running all night from the same outlet and was still running in the morning.
This is just getting ridiculous. How much more of my time is going to be wasted by mac pro 2008 problems?
Is there anything else I should try doing to resurrect this machine before I get in the queue for an Apple genius? I see there is a button marked reset on the logic board above and behind the pci express slots. What does this reset and is it worth pushing it?

do you live in an old house? poor power sources can damage electronics. have you had this issue with older computers before the mac? if so I would suggest trying a power conditioner between the mac and your outlet. Im only speculating though. chances are its just because the QA went out the window. after all I'm waiting for my third mac pro and none of the 5 other PCs in my house seem to be having these issues. ah well.

cant cut my losses though because I need it unfortunately. maybe when I finally get a stable one Ill sell it off before the mac pro 09 comes out. then make the switch and hope that one had better QA.

 

[thedommer]

after waiting 2 weeks I sent them an email asking where the hell my replacement mac was... then I got a phone call. They had forgot about me. the mac was just sitting there. UGH. F$&%$k you apple. they are sending me over papers I was supposed to be sent 2 weeks ago and then they will finally send the replacement.

 

[GregPacker]

do you live in an old house? poor power sources can damage electronics. have you had this issue with older computers before the mac? if so I would suggest trying a power conditioner between the mac and your outlet. Im only speculating though. chances are its just because the QA went out the window. after all I'm waiting for my third mac pro and none of the 5 other PCs in my house seem to be having these issues. ah well.

cant cut my losses though because I need it unfortunately. maybe when I finally get a stable one Ill sell it off before the mac pro 09 comes out. then make the switch and hope that one had better QA.

I live in an old house but the electrics are modern and fine, the landlord has an electrician check it every 5 years and the last check was just a couple of months ago. No problems with my other computers in the 3 years I have been here. The issues with my faulty mac pros have all been very different. I think there must be some design issues that make certain things delicate and unstable, which might explain why some things seem so random and can be helped but not solved by pram zaps or smc resets. Like you I need a machine so I will keep trying to get a stable one, but for the first time ever I will probably have to get Applecare because I will find it difficult to trust this model longterm. I won't forget that the latest one seemed perfect for three weeks and then inexplicably died.
I see people saying "ah well, it's probably just one in a thousand that have problems but they are the only ones who post" and I wish I could agree. The trouble is that I recognise a lot of the names of people who have posted about their problems. They aren't new faces who have arrived in distress. They are often the same people who were posting in the "waiting for harpertown" threads before these machines were even available. For so many of these existing mac pro discussion people (who I would expect to see posts from, regardless of whether they had problems or not) to have reported issues I get the feeling that this has been a really problematic model release. I have also seen several posts here and on other boards from people who have bought 10 or so mac pros at once and had to return about a third of them due to various major issues. My gut feeling is that at least a quarter of early buyers were hit by problems (such as the 2600xt random freeze), and although firmware updates have fixed some things, these machines are still not something that I would trust in an environment where reliability is essential. Hands up who would run their life support system from their mac pro 2008? Luckily my business is not dependant on this machine, so in the last 3 months I have lost more hair than money.

 

[thedommer]

I complained. I've never complained for any company ever in my life. but I thought it was time

they gave me an 8 gig nano. turns out the ass I was dealing with was someone form a different department that I should not of been dealing with. all the rest of the customer service representatives have been fantastic. computer is on its way!

fingers crossed.

 

[mgsarch]

yes im the one who had the very unstable mac pro last time where the thread turned into a battle between my tech support the last mac pro was just unstable so I lost countless hours trying figure out what was wrong with it and how to get it to work properly. this one has obvious hardware errors. kinda wish this was the 1st one i got. would have saved lots of time.

your "tech support" .... nice.

repeated hardware issues can often indicate a defective user.

 

[thedommer]

your "tech support" .... nice.

repeated hardware issues can often indicate a defective user.

believe me I think of that all the time. is it me? Thats why I over analyze the situation and try everything to figure out what's wrong. We shall see tonight. (I think the third arrives tonight. something is out in purolator. either that or my nano )

 

[Consultant]

SOUNDS LIKE USER ERROR!!! If you can't even figure out how to put the ram in properly, what else you don't know how to do properly? Did you observe anti-static precautions? (Do your house happen to have carpet?)


SUGGESTION:
You might want to use computer WITHOUT doing anything to it, make sure it works, and THEN add ONE THING AT A TIME to make sure whatever you did works?

Do you have a Uninterrupted Power Supply or at least a surge protector? Perhaps your house don't have enough clean power to run the Mac Pro?

 

[thedommer]

SOUNDS LIKE USER ERROR!!! If you can't even figure out how to put the ram in properly, what else you don't know how to do properly? Did you observe anti-static precautions? (Do your house happen to have carpet?)


SUGGESTION:
You might want to use computer WITHOUT doing anything to it, make sure it works, and THEN add ONE THING AT A TIME to make sure whatever you did works?

Do you have a Uninterrupted Power Supply or at least a surge protector? Perhaps your house don't have enough clean power to run the Mac Pro?

I know your trying to be helpful. but your not. I came from PC. the way that mac pro ram goes in is something I've never done before ( Ive also never had to put more then 2 sticks into a computer). Thats the only thing I missed. AND THATS IRRELEVANT TO THE ERRORS I HAVE BEEN GETTING.

I've been building computers for just over 10 years now. I know what I'm doing. Not knowing a unique way of configuring ram that is irrelevant in every home setup until now does not make me a moron.

and if you actually read this thread and the last one where this all started you would note that with both computers I used STOCK setup to check them along with my customized setup.

I'm well aware of static issues.

and yes I have a power supply. and its a pretty good one.
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...etail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0530169

sounds like POINTLESS POST!!! your comments suck or maybe its just the way you phrase them. accusing doesn't solve anything.

I came here to get help. I got the help I needed and I talked to apple and clearly explained what I had done and tried and they decided that my testing was acceptable and therefor have sent me the new computers....

 

[Erwin-Br]

I know your trying to be helpful. but your not. I came from PC. the way that mac pro ram goes in is something I've never done before ( Ive also never had to put more then 2 sticks into a computer). Thats the only thing I missed. AND THATS IRRELEVANT TO THE ERRORS I HAVE BEEN GETTING.

I've been building computers for just over 10 years now. I know what I'm doing. Not knowing a unique way of configuring ram that is irrelevant in every home setup until now does not make me a moron.

and if you actually read this thread and the last one where this all started you would note that with both computers I used STOCK setup to check them along with my customized setup.

I'm well aware of static issues.

and yes I have a power supply. and its a pretty good one.
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...etail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0530169

sounds like POINTLESS POST!!! your comments suck or maybe its just the way you phrase them. accusing doesn't solve anything.

I came here to get help. I got the help I needed and I talked to apple and clearly explained what I had done and tried and they decided that my testing was acceptable and therefor have sent me the new computers....

I imagine it's annoying to read his post, especially if you're certain you know what you're doing (it's almost an accusation), but I understand what he's saying.

As a system administrator in the past, I've seen people handling their hardware, and it sometimes surprised me they actually got it to work. --Touching their parts everywhere, keeping power cables plugged in when installing parts, even booting up machines that have been in a cold area and have not yet adjusted to room temperature. I wouldn't be surprised if unexperienced users might cause some of the problems I'm reading daily on these forums.

--Erwin

 

[mgsarch]

I know your trying to be helpful. but your not. I came from PC. the way that mac pro ram goes in is something I've never done before ( Ive also never had to put more then 2 sticks into a computer). Thats the only thing I missed. AND THATS IRRELEVANT TO THE ERRORS I HAVE BEEN GETTING.

I've been building computers for just over 10 years now. I know what I'm doing. Not knowing a unique way of configuring ram that is irrelevant in every home setup until now does not make me a moron.

and if you actually read this thread and the last one where this all started you would note that with both computers I used STOCK setup to check them along with my customized setup.

I'm well aware of static issues.

and yes I have a power supply. and its a pretty good one.
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...etail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0530169

sounds like POINTLESS POST!!! your comments suck or maybe its just the way you phrase them. accusing doesn't solve anything.

I came here to get help. I got the help I needed and I talked to apple and clearly explained what I had done and tried and they decided that my testing was acceptable and therefor have sent me the new computers....

Like you said, you're a PC user.

As was told to me a long time ago, RTFM bro.

This is your Mac Pro, not your DIY beigebox. Treat it like the multi-thousand dollar machine it is instead of diving in with a can-do attitude that will probably result in several more calls to applecare.

I'm sure it is frustrating to take flak from us but it's frustrating to us to want to help you and have it become evident that you are taking no steps to educate yourself before asking questions. It's a good idea to exhaust google/forum searches about issues you have before adding to the plethora of multi posts.

 

[mgsarch]

I know your trying to be helpful. but your not. I came from PC. the way that mac pro ram goes in is something I've never done before ( Ive also never had to put more then 2 sticks into a computer). Thats the only thing I missed. AND THATS IRRELEVANT TO THE ERRORS I HAVE BEEN GETTING.

I've been building computers for just over 10 years now. I know what I'm doing. Not knowing a unique way of configuring ram that is irrelevant in every home setup until now does not make me a moron.

and if you actually read this thread and the last one where this all started you would note that with both computers I used STOCK setup to check them along with my customized setup.

I'm well aware of static issues.

and yes I have a power supply. and its a pretty good one.
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...etail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0530169

sounds like POINTLESS POST!!! your comments suck or maybe its just the way you phrase them. accusing doesn't solve anything.

I came here to get help. I got the help I needed and I talked to apple and clearly explained what I had done and tried and they decided that my testing was acceptable and therefor have sent me the new computers....

Like you said, you're a PC user.

As was told to me a long time ago, RTFM bro.

This is your Mac Pro, not your DIY beigebox. Treat it like the multi-thousand dollar machine it is instead of diving in with a can-do attitude that will probably result in several more calls to applecare.

I'm sure it is frustrating to take flak from us but it's frustrating to us to want to help you and have it become evident that you are taking no steps to educate yourself before asking questions. It's a good idea to exhaust google/forum searches about issues you have before adding to the plethora of multi posts.

 

[thedommer]

Im not quite sure what makes you think I'm treating it like a DIY box??? all I did was add hard drives and ram. I don't see any DIY with that. anyone can do those things and everyone does those things. In fact the mac is designed so anyone can easily do those things! the only thing I did wrong was when I added the 4 sticks of ram I did not put them in the right slots because I have never added/needed more then 2 sticks in my life. AND that is totally irrelevant to stability. Its only better for speed.

A mac is a PC. I wasnt going into the unknown. they have the same parts and the same hard drives. I went to a store. bought some hard drives and ram and put them into my computer like any normal person.

There was no "cando attitude." there was a "WTF this thing doesnt work". and you know what??? if I hadn't added my hard drives and ram guess what would of happened. "WTF this thing doesnt work."

I find it very irritating that would would say Im taking no steps. Literally the only thing I did wrong was the ram pairs. And someone pointed that out and then I changed that. I explained very clearly to everyone what I did to get help. I THINK THATS TAKING A STEP. Plus the hours of testing and reconfiguring and running the apple hardware test. and calling apple FOR HELP. nothing there said "hey do your ram this way because its screwing up the whole computer" BECAUSE IT WASNT. And I cant see anything there that says I was going in with a DIY cando attitude. in fact thats why I bought a mac. so I wouldnt have to do that or think about that.

Anyways same as the other guy you are making very annoying broad statements.

I appreciate all the help everyone gave me but the bottom line is I had 2 defective computers. the end. Its very annoying that I have to fend off attacks of user error. Its fine to ask if I observed proper static precautions and to ask about the power in my house. Its fine to ask about alot of things and make sure all is well. just dont follow it with ERRRRROOOOORRRRR USER ERRROR USERS FAULT DIY CANDO ATTITUDE. and then a bunch of other accusing crap.

no thanks. people come here for help. like I did. to make sure they did everything right. and if they did do something wrong to fix that.

anyways this thread does not need to continue. (read below)

--------------

MAC PRO UPDATE:

As you may or may not know the first mac pro had random crashes. the second one has 2 defective ram slots. I kept the first and returned the second as although the first one crashed alot at least I knew I could work with it. So to be safe I kept it until the third arrived. It arrived this past monday. I took my hard drives and ram out of the first one and put them into the third one.

and everything is 100% stable. No issues other then having to put in a few serial numbers for software that needed to be reactivated. this is THE EXACT same setup as the first one. yet its 100% stable.

I finally got a working mac!

thanks everyone for your help!