Mac Pro 2012 Tech Help

[Dr Mick Mach]

Hi all, after some tech advice, apologies if this is not the right forum, but any help would be appreciated.

Basic problem I'm having:

When I turn on my mac pro, the light comes on and it seems to boot up, but the monitor has no connection with it. The monitor is working (I've tested it with my laptop). It literally gives me the 'No connection' message on screen.
As of today, Mac won't boot up at all.

Details:

I recently moved to the US from Australia and just had my MacPro shipped over. It's been in a box for 7 months (original box, properly packaged). I bought a cheap arse $10 LCD monitor from Goodwill to get me through till Friday when my new monitor arrives - it's a vga connection which I've got plugged into one of the DP's through an adaptor - as I said, it seems to be working fine.

I fired the box up on Monday no problems. Updated to El Capitan from Yosemite, did all the set up, updated whatever else I needed to. So far so good.

Tuesday night, the box randomly turned itself off while I was working on Photoshop. Weird, but I restarted it fine.

Wednesday morning - Box would not power on at all. I unplugged it, swore at it a lot, left it for 30 mins, came back, tried again - the box turned on BUT no monitor connection. Checked monitor with laptop, monitor fine. Unplugged, turned off etc etc, restarted box by holding down power button, tried to blindly reset the NVRAM (cmd/option/p/r), tried other monitor port, left it for 30 mins, came back, swore at it some more, turned it on and it all fired up fine. (monitor included)

Tried to some diagnostics to see if there was an error - nothing came back. Wednesday night, box abruptly powered off again. Tried restarting, powered on but no monitor connection. Left it, unplugged it. Came back. Tried it. No good. Went to bed.

Thursday morning - same as previous night: box powers on but no monitor.

Friday morning: box won't power on.

So is this a graphics card issue? Power issue? El Capitan issue? Bad Karma issue? Any help greatly appreciated.

Box Details:

Mac Pro mid-2012 (5.1) - Quad Core 3.2 Ghz.
20 GB ram
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB
Can't remember all the HDD's but I have 4 installed - all minimum 1 terrabyte. OS on dedicated HDD (Not SSD tho)
El Capitan (just updated on Monday 13th June 2016 so it should be the latest)

I do not have anything like MacCleaner or any of those programs running. Neither am I running any anti-virus software All the software (Adobe CC, MS Office etc) is legit.

It's not partitioned or using anything like boot camp etc - completely Mac dedicated.

Quick note re: box power - I originally fired up the box with the original apple powercable - Australian connection with US adapter. However, I went out that afternoon and grabbed a US jug plug power cable and have been using that since.

I have an ACER monitor with DVI connection arriving today, so I was going to test it with that, but as mentioned, the box will no longer power on at all.

I realise I'm probably going to have to take it somewhere, but any advice (forewarned is forearmed) is greatly appreciated. Thanks

***UPDATE***: 1 minute after I posted this, everything powered up fine (monitor included). Any suggestions on diagnostics to run while this puppy is running?

 

[h9826790]

The 1st thing I will do is install iStat and then check if the temperature's are normal. Especailly the north bridge temperature. the north bridge heatsink plastic rivet is a known potential trouble maker of the Mac Pro. It may broke after shipping.

Also, if the machine won't power up again. I will open it, remove all PCIe card (including the GPU) + RAM, apply some compressed air to clean the slot, and then put things back in.

 

[Dr Mick Mach]

Hey thanks, will definitely give this a shot and report back.

Quick question re: iStat - just from a google search I've found a few: iStat menus (paid) iStat pro for Mac (free but discontinued) and iStat mini on the app store - is there a particular one you recommend or do they all serve a similar purpose?

Thanks again

 

[howiest]

Use Macs Fan Control to view the temps (it's free).

 

[Dr Mick Mach]

Awesome thanks, on it

UPDATE: Been surfing the forums but haven't been able to pin this down - is there a gauge of what temperature the CPU's should be running at (or basically, how hot is too hot?)

 

[howiest]

Have a scan through this thread.

Keep in mind that the temps vary quite a bit between when the machine is idle, or under load.

 

[haralds]

I would reseat PCIE cards and memory. It is quite possible, the shipping box got bumped enough to have a marginal connection somewhere.

If you are still using a VGA adapter setup I found problems with those in the past.

 

[h9826790]

View attachment 636593 Awesome thanks, on it

UPDATE: Been surfing the forums but haven't been able to pin this down - is there a gauge of what temperature the CPU's should be running at (or basically, how hot is too hot?)

Most temperatures looks normal to me. Not sure if the 60C PCIe 1 is normal. That looks like the GPU to me. And I don't know if the 5770 idle at 60 is normal or not.

Anyway, you may download Furmark or Unigine Valley to stress the GPU (Furmark do a better job on this). If the GPU temp rocket up and then system hang. The 5770 will be the suspect.

 

[howiest]

Here's mine under light load (4 apps open, one being "EyeTV" in record mode)...

 

[Dr Mick Mach]

Here's mine under light load (4 apps open, one being "EyeTV" in record mode)...

Hmmm, from comparison, it does seem like mine is running a little hotter than yours overall (I should have mentioned that mine was also under a very light load - just mail and browser open). The two times it's powered off I was running some more graphics intensive software (tho nothing ridiculous or render heavy, just Premiere Pro and Photoshop, tho I'd been at it for a while)

The room I'm in is quite warm (LA summer) so I might even just grab a desk fan to pop next to the box, can't hurt at least. Box has been working fine for the last 24 hours, but I also haven't pushed it at all (luckily no pending deadlines atm)

I'll definitely reseat the cards and memory as suggested and blow all the dust out.

 

[howiest]

A warm room in LA can completely explain the higher temps.

 

[h9826790]

View attachment 636593 Awesome thanks, on it

UPDATE: Been surfing the forums but haven't been able to pin this down - is there a gauge of what temperature the CPU's should be running at (or basically, how hot is too hot?)

Anything before 85C on that CPU diode reading should be fine. 85 is quite high already, but the Mac Pro should still able to work at that temperature without any problem.

In a hot room, your fan should spin up when that temperature go above ~80C, and keep it at around 85.

 

[Dr Mick Mach]

Well, sadly all, despite your great advice I'm going to have to bite the bullet and take it to the shop.
After reseating everything (ram, gpu etc) cleaning the dust with compressed air, resetting the NVRAM and SMC, placing it in a chilled AC room with plenty of ventilation, checking the heat sink etc, the box is still playing up.
It either:
a) doesn't start up at all
b) starts but with no monitor connection
c) seems to boot up all good then the power goes off abruptly, (currently before it makes it to the desktop screen)

The unfortunate thing is, I can't tie any of this behaviour to specific trouble shooting processes that I am applying to it, it seems to be a fairly random pick of a, b or c no matter what I do.

I was unable to get AHT to fire up to be able to do any of my own diagnostics (tho I was pressing 'D' - didn't realise I might need cmd+D. Will try this if I can get the box fired properly up again at least once)

***UPDATE*** As I'm writing this, I just discovered a d) - Box randomly powers itself up without me touching it (still no monitor connection tho). Ah the joys of technology.

Thanks all for your help, and in the interests of closure I will report back on the condition of the patient, who will hopefully make a full (and not too expensive) recovery.

Last question (and this is subjective I know) - Do I go Apple Store or take it to a service place about the same distance away as the nearest Genius Bar http://newworldmac.com/ ? This place has a lot of positive reviews on Yelp. I'm new in town so don't have personal recommendations.

The new world mac place charges $90 for diagnosing a Mac Pro (creditable against the inevitable repair cost I will be facing)

I presume the Apple Store will have a similar policy.

Cheers

Mick

 

[jbarley]

Last question (and this is subjective I know) - Do I go Apple Store or take it to a service place about the same distance away as the nearest Genius Bar http://newworldmac.com/ ? This place has a lot of positive reviews on Yelp. I'm new in town so don't have personal recommendations.

The new world mac place charges $90 for diagnosing a Mac Pro (creditable against the inevitable repair cost I will be facing)

I presume the Apple Store will have a similar policy.

Cheers

Mick

If I were you I'd think the service place would be more interested in making you happy with a good repair job, (they love the power of "word of mouth" rave reviews) whereas the Apple store might be more inclined to try selling you a new unit.
I'd take mine to the independent service shop.