New Mac Pro (2009) owners, has your Mac Pro froze or any other problems?

[jjahshik32]

Ok I'm about to pull the trigger on a 2.26GHz model but I've read a couple of threads on apple support forum and elsewhere that some people are having freezing issues with their Mac Pro.

What about you guys, is it working fine? With toast titanium, logitech mouses and all, no system lock up or kernel panics?

 

[Dragonforce]

I just picked up a quad 2.66 MP '09 today from my local Apple Store, did a fresh & clean install from the system DVDs, installed my apps and transferred my stuff - and did a reboot. Now here's the prob:

Sometimes upon reboot my ACD 30" blanks out on the boot screen with the Apple logo and its white LED blinks 3 times - then 2 secs nothing and blinks 3 times again. I have to force a power down on the Mac Pro, reboot and hope the display stays on.

It never did that on my '06 Mac Pro... a little bit worried here
Other than that - no problems.

 

[jjahshik32]

I just picked up a quad 2.66 MP '09 today from my local Apple Store, did a fresh & clean install from the system DVDs, installed my apps and transferred my stuff - and did a reboot. Now here's the prob:

Sometimes upon reboot my ACD 30" blanks out on the boot screen with the Apple logo and its white LED blinks 3 times - then 2 secs nothing and blinks 3 times again. I have to force a power down on the Mac Pro, reboot and hope the display stays on.

It never did that on my '06 Mac Pro... a little bit worried here
Other than that - no problems.

Maybe it just has some bug with the dvi connections? I wouldnt worry too much, I'm sure that the 10.5.7 will fix that up.

Hey BTW does the Nvidia GT120 card have a dvi and displayport built in?

 

[Dr.Pants]

Well, just my two cents on buying a new computer, but do a fresh install of everything. I learnt this the hard way - the first computer I did not build was a Dell Precision M4400 (laptop). Came with XP installed. Only after I'd finally gotten everything running the way I wanted, about a week, it gave me a Blue-Screen. Practically **** my pants. I am pretty sure that it was not a hard drive failure, as I reinstalled XP and it has worked perfectly since; therefore, I am certain that it was an error when somebody was cloning XP to the drive or summat. I've heard that cloning drives is not the most kosher thing to do....

Still, just makes me feel better doing fresh installs, etc (said the guy who worries about processor performence during peak RAID writes )

 

[TheNightPhoenix]

Got mine today.

Froze during install of the extra applications dvd.
Froze during install of FCP Studio
Froze during a playback of a trailer off Quicktime.com
Froze downloading my mail for the first time.

I repaired permissions and rebooted. So far so good.

 

[hobes270]

No Problems here. I have the 2.26Ghz, and I LOVE it! I would just go for it. I mean if something does happen to go wrong you got the warranty on it, but mine has been perfect!

 

[ekoe]

I just picked up a quad 2.66 MP '09 today from my local Apple Store, did a fresh & clean install from the system DVDs, installed my apps and transferred my stuff - and did a reboot. Now here's the prob:

Sometimes upon reboot my ACD 30" blanks out on the boot screen with the Apple logo and its white LED blinks 3 times - then 2 secs nothing and blinks 3 times again. I have to force a power down on the Mac Pro, reboot and hope the display stays on.

It never did that on my '06 Mac Pro... a little bit worried here
Other than that - no problems.

Try resetting the PRAM. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379?viewlocale=en_US

 

[ekoe]

Well, just my two cents on buying a new computer, but do a fresh install of everything. I learnt this the hard way - the first computer I did not build was a Dell Precision M4400 (laptop). Came with XP installed. Only after I'd finally gotten everything running the way I wanted, about a week, it gave me a Blue-Screen. Practically **** my pants. I am pretty sure that it was not a hard drive failure, as I reinstalled XP and it has worked perfectly since; therefore, I am certain that it was an error when somebody was cloning XP to the drive or summat. I've heard that cloning drives is not the most kosher thing to do....

Still, just makes me feel better doing fresh installs, etc (said the guy who worries about processor performence during peak RAID writes )

Sometimes a start-up item, such as running anti-virus at startup, can cause a blue screen. You can try isolating the problem deleting your start-up items in system preferences one by one until the issue is resolved.

You may also have your network set to search for network at startup, try deselecting this option. A video card hardware issue or some incompatible font can cause the blue screen at start-up. Of these, I think it's probably a start-up item or an incompatable font that is giving you the problem. You might want to run Apple Hardware Test to make sure it's not your video card.

You can also try repairing permissions in disk utility and 'reset all' in open firmware.

 

[ekoe]

Well, just my two cents on buying a new computer, but do a fresh install of everything. I learnt this the hard way - the first computer I did not build was a Dell Precision M4400 (laptop). Came with XP installed. Only after I'd finally gotten everything running the way I wanted, about a week, it gave me a Blue-Screen. Practically **** my pants. I am pretty sure that it was not a hard drive failure, as I reinstalled XP and it has worked perfectly since; therefore, I am certain that it was an error when somebody was cloning XP to the drive or summat. I've heard that cloning drives is not the most kosher thing to do....

Still, just makes me feel better doing fresh installs, etc (said the guy who worries about processor performence during peak RAID writes )

Oh, sorry Dr.Pants, you're talking PC? My bad.

A fresh erase and install works as well because it effectively performs all the things I recommended, but then you have to set-up all your preferences over again, and you won't be any wiser as to what caused the blue screen.

 

[milk242]

I think you should do a clean install and reset pram and smc because even in my 2008 mac pro the thing would freeze and do all sorts of crappy stuff. I reinstalled and reset everything and it was fine.

 

[Pika]

Never got a crash or a froze on my Mac Pro 2.26 octo core. Not even on my windows partition. AutoDesk Softimage @ 3Ds Max run fine.

 

[Fomaphone]

no freezes or anything for me. surprisingly, even all of my pro apps ran without a hitch without needing to pull out my discs. ae, photoshop, and bridge are all fine too, and they gave me the most trouble on my ppc. clean installs of c4d and combustion have been working just fine, too.

no issues with mail or the mail menu bar app, but my google notifier and the reporting utility both crash on each startup with this machine.

some of my itunes library mysteriously disappeared while migrating, too. (unfortunately, it's everything i listen to the most, because it was all of my FLAC, but even that's not too bad because i had it back immediately. gotta love living on campus).

 

[gilroykilroy]

Sounds like a RAM issue

Intel-based Mac Power On Self Test RAM error codes
Last Modified: August 04, 2008
Article: HT2341
Old Article: 303083
Summary
Intel-based Macs such as the iMac, Mac mini, MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro rely on a combination of tones and blinking LEDs to display Power On Self Test (POST) error codes. Note that some newer Macintosh models only use tones to indicate error conditions. See this article for more information.

Products Affected
MacBook Pro, MacBook, Mac Pro, Mac mini, iMac, MacBook Air
If the computer detects no SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory, also referred to as RAM) or the RAM installed does not meet the appropriate specifications, the screen will remain black but the power LED on the front of the computer will blink once per second to signal the error. This error condition may be due to physically damaged RAM, installing the incorrect type of RAM, or not having RAM installed.

Some RAM may appear to pass the Power-On-Self-Test (POST) but still cannot be used by the operating system. In this case, the computer will display a gray screen, sound three tones and blink the power LED on the front of the computer three times, pause, and repeat the blinking until the computer is turned off.

The solution to both of these situations is to first re-seat the memory and test the computer again. If the memory fails the POST test again, try memory that has been verified to work correctly on another system (i.e., "known-good") or order new memory from the Apple Store.

 

[Dragonforce]

Well, my "blinking" was ACD related, not the Mac Pros LED.
Zapping the PRAM seems to have done the trick, did 5 restarts and it stayed on.

 

[Dr.Pants]

Oh, sorry Dr.Pants, you're talking PC? My bad.

A fresh erase and install works as well because it effectively performs all the things I recommended, but then you have to set-up all your preferences over again, and you won't be any wiser as to what caused the blue screen.

No problem. Wish I did know, but since it now works since I re-did everything software-wise Dell was supposed to do, I therorized that it was the manufacturer's fault. After that, I haven't had any problems for about 6 months. Yeah, I know, it is a PC... But I don't complain about gifted items

The solution to both of these situations is to first re-seat the memory and test the computer again. If the memory fails the POST test again, try memory that has been verified to work correctly on another system (i.e., "known-good") or order new memory from the Apple Store.

I don't like to bash, but I guess we have out justification for Apple RAM now.

 

[milend]

Mine had freezing issue with Logitech MX Rev (both on Windows + OS X, so it's not a sw problem). Ordered a replacement and it should arrive within 3 days.

I've only had bad experiences with Apple since 2006. I had to replace *every* product I got since then (iPhone 3G, MacBook Air RevB, Mac Pro 09).

 

[ekoe]

Well, my "blinking" was ACD related, not the Mac Pros LED.
Zapping the PRAM seems to have done the trick, did 5 restarts and it stayed on.

Whoa, cool. I think I just helped somebody!

 

[Abidubi]

Mine had freezing issue with Logitech MX Rev (both on Windows + OS X, so it's not a sw problem). Ordered a replacement and it should arrive within 3 days.

I've only had bad experiences with Apple since 2006. I had to replace *every* product I got since then (iPhone 3G, MacBook Air RevB, Mac Pro 09).

I googled a little bit and the one common thing in each of these "LCC causing Mac Pros to freeze/stutter" issues seems to be the Logitech MX Revolution. I have a much older MX310 that's been working fine on my PMG5 so I hope it stays that way with the new MP. I'll make a note to never buy a revolution though.

 

[milend]

I googled a little bit and the one common thing in each of these "LCC causing Mac Pros to freeze/stutter" issues seems to be the Logitech MX Revolution. I have a much older MX310 that's been working fine on my PMG5 so I hope it stays that way with the new MP. I'll make a note to never buy a revolution though.

When the stutter / freezes occur across OSs with different drivers, hardware is involved. More over, there are a few users with LCC + new Mac Pro's who report no problems.

 

[summitscout]

No problems so far!

I've had my 2009 2x2.26 up for three days now and no problems. Migration Assistant seemed to be flawless, even setting up all my menu bar and pref panes. I've had to re-authorize a few apps and have only need to reinstall two for intel updates over my previous PPC system.

I expected more problems, especially on a first gen. Fingers crossed.

I am mirroring the drive now and will install LCC so I can get rid of this strip of metal with buttons that they call a keyboard!

It's been whisper quiet even with the Radeon card.

 

[summitscout]

I am mirroring the drive now and will install LCC so I can get rid of this strip of metal with buttons that they call a keyboard!

Crap! Migration Assistant did such a thorough job it has been running LCC all along! I had 2.6 installed- it looks a lot different on an intel machine than PPC. On PPC it looked like features were missing or didn't work.

FYI, Logitech yesterday released a new version of LCC:

Title: Logitech Control Center for Macintosh® OS X
Software Version: 2.7
Post Date: 03/18/2009
​

Release notes are fairly unhelpful:
• Support for new mice and keyboards
• Product registration utility to make the registration process more convenient
• Various minor bug fixes

FYI- using Logitech LX 501

Note from Product Team in forum
Problem you might experience in upgrade scenario to LCC 2.70:
- When install LCC 2.70 on top of previous version, after the first reboot, you might not see all attached devices.
- For example, S530 desktop might display either mouse or keyboard in LCC 2.70

Worked for me.

 

[justflie]

I've had it freeze up a couple of times. From what I can tell, it's actually the HID devices (mouse, keyboard) that are freezing because everything keeps running in the background (ie movies and music) without a hitch. I'm using apple's wireless keyboard/mouse. Putting it to sleep won't fix it either. I have to do a hard reset which I'm not a fan of. So far it's happened twice in the last 5 days since I've received it.

I just repaired permissions and am going to do a PRAM reset during the reboot so we'll see what happens with that. I didn't do a clean install when I received it so that might be the next step. bleh

 

[Dragonforce]

Other thing I noticed today that either one of the fans or the HDD makes a short grinding noise when shutting down the MP (or putting it to sleep) - its the stock HDD (profiler sez: WDC WD6400AAKS-41H2B0)

Anyone else with that sound or should I be worried ?

 

[ekoe]

Check the s.m.a.r.t. status of that drive in disk utility. It should read 'verified'. If not, then your hard drive is bad.

 

[galstaph]

all that has gone wrong on mine is that I occasionally get static on my display when coming out of sleep, lasts a few seconds then is fine...