Mac Pro 1,1 Randomly Restarting on El Cap

[MisterKeeks]

My Mac Pro is having an issue where it will randomly restart. This typically occurs immediately after starting up and booting to the desktop. Usually the entire screen will freeze, and then the screen will turn black as the machine boots up. This can happen any time, but it seems to normally occur during startup. After it reboots, it tells me that the computer restarted because of a problem, and wants me to send a report to Apple. Each time this happens a kernel panic log is generated, though it never gives me the grey "You need to restart your computer." I have uploaded all of these from the past few days (as you can see, it happens often, usually in quick succession). However, all of the kernel panics are for different reasons and show different content, which makes me think that they either aren't very useful or they are caused by a hardware issue. One indicates "BSD process name corresponding to current thread: ReportPanic," which is amusing...

I am thinking that it is a hardware issue, so I have tried the following:
1. Different video cards. I have tried using a Genuine 2600XT and an Windows NVS 450. The issue persists with both of them.
2. Swapping out memory/memory risers. The fault occurs regardless of the risers installed
3. Disconnecting peripherals. The issue persists

I am currently thinking that it is a hard drive issue, as the drive in there is currently old and noisy. Does anyone have any other suggestions before I try a different drive? Thanks!

 

[flatfoot]

Sounds to me like a flaky power supply … but it could also be something else.
I doubt it's due to the HDD, but it's worth a try and definitely cheaper than a new PSU.

 

[s-hatland]

sounds like a power issue. have you tried an SMC reset? Also, i had a computer years ago that would startup and run for exactly 23 minutes and then shut down. pried it open and dustbunnies literally flew out. after blowing it out with an air compressor it was able to cool itself again. i know this doesn't sound exactly like youre describing (more random it seems?) and i'm not sure how clean you keep your machine, but may be worth blowing it out.

 

[MrGame]

I have a very similar problem running anything above lion on my mac pro. For me it happens sometimes after resume from sleeping or at startup. I was never able to fix this problem.
I issued this on github at pikes repository, but I am not sure if it is related to the boot.efi.

 

[NZXTInerTia]

Chiming in here, because I have the same issue. Multiple GPUs, Ram, HDDs, etc. Nothing changes the crashing. 1,1/El Capitan/3GHz

 

[MisterKeeks]

The odd thing to me: It can run for days just fine. However, if I turn it off (or just restart it), it will crash soon after loading the desktop, and repeat this cycle over again until it doesn't crash, and then it will work just fine for any length of time. HDD is my suspect solely because I can't imagine it being anything else- a flakey PSU wouldn't be affected by whether or not it was starting up in my opinion- also, it performs fine on the Apple ASD which probably draws as much or more power than at startup. PSU probably is something to investigate though.

sounds like a power issue. have you tried an SMC reset? Also, i had a computer years ago that would startup and run for exactly 23 minutes and then shut down. pried it open and dustbunnies literally flew out. after blowing it out with an air compressor it was able to cool itself again. i know this doesn't sound exactly like youre describing (more random it seems?) and i'm not sure how clean you keep your machine, but may be worth blowing it out.

SMC reset is probably a good idea... do I hold down the reset button or just press it, and it should be plugged in for that, correct?

Sounds to me like a flaky power supply … but it could also be something else.
I doubt it's due to the HDD, but it's worth a try and definitely cheaper than a new PSU.

The only reason I think it might not be the power supply (looking back I didn't include this in my OP) was that I ran the ASD disc for this machine for a long time with no issues. To me, that leaves the hard disk as the last probable link.

I have a very similar problem running anything above lion on my mac pro. For me it happens sometimes after resume from sleeping or at startup. I was never able to fix this problem.
I issued this on github at pikes repository, but I am not sure if it is related to the boot.efi.

I probably will be testing with Snow Leopard soon, and with a different hard drive.

Chiming in here, because I have the same issue. Multiple GPUs, Ram, HDDs, etc. Nothing changes the crashing. 1,1/El Capitan/3GHz

We have the same config. I'll be trying Snow Leopard, as I mentioned above. Hopefully that works.

 

[NZXTInerTia]

We have the same config. I'll be trying Snow Leopard, as I mentioned above. Hopefully that works.

Actually figured mine out. Turned out to be only having one memory module was freaking it out. Four sticks of 2GB ram modules and it runs flawlessly.

 

[s-hatland]

SMC reset is probably a good idea... do I hold down the reset button or just press it, and it should be plugged in for that, correct?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

basically shutdown. unplug for 15 seconds. plug in. boot.

I usually press the power button for 10 seconds while its unplugged as well.

one of the symptoms listed in that link is random shutdowns... worth a try