MACPRO refuses to boot normally after installing new RAM

[petrified]

I recently purchased a mac pro for my work! I just got my memory modules from OWC and i installed them. After installing them, my macpro refuses to boot normally. It keeps going to a black screen that tells me there is no boot disk available and please insert disk and press enter to boot. My bootable HDD is in the HDD bay. I held down the option key and it booted up by selecting the bootdisk. Problem is after i booted up, everything in my Mac OS is lagging. All the applications are lagging. As i am typing this thread, the words that i am typing are really lagging. Please help if you guys have any suggestions! It really is frustrating!

Sincerely
Jimmy

 

[danamania]

Take a look in System Profiler, under Memory - each DIMM will have a status. I think, with ECC, if it's erroring and requires correcting, it can slow the machine down quite a bit. See if there's something there other than 'OK' or 'Empty'

 

[TBi]

One would assume, at a wild guess, that there is something wrong with the new memory you ordered and maybe you should return it for a replacement...

 

[petrified]

MACPRO refuses to boot normally after installing new RAM

Okay, i just took out the new memory that i ordered and tried to boot again. Boot problem still exists. I installed the RAM again and cross checked it, RAM appears to be fine just like the past few times that i checked. The latency problem seems to be gone now. Only problem that still exists is that i cannot boot normally. I still need to hold down the option when booting and access my OS by selecting on the boot disk. Can anyone please help with that?

Cheers!
Jimmy

 

[krye]

Isn't there something under Applications > Utilities called Startup Disk or something? I'm at work stuck on a PC right now, so I can't verify.

 

[TBi]

Okay, i just took out the new memory that i ordered and tried to boot again. Boot problem still exists. I installed the RAM again and cross checked it, RAM appears to be fine just like the past few times that i checked. The latency problem seems to be gone now. Only problem that still exists is that i cannot boot normally. I still need to hold down the option when booting and access my OS by selecting on the boot disk. Can anyone please help with that?

Cheers!
Jimmy

The problem is still there after removing the sticks because OSX has been corrupted by the faulty ram. It happened to an older mac of mine. The whole OS needed to be reinstalled to fix it.

It would be worth booting your install CD into diagnostic mode and doing a check on your ram.

Also there is a program in your applications folder which will let you choose a startup disk. Just use spotlight to find it. It's called "startup disk".

 

[merl1n]

The problem is still there after removing the sticks because OSX has been corrupted by the faulty ram. It happened to an older mac of mine. The whole OS needed to be reinstalled to fix it.

It would be worth booting your install CD into diagnostic mode and doing a check on your ram.

Also there is a program in your applications folder which will let you choose a startup disk. Just use spotlight to find it. It's called "startup disk".

System Preferences -> Startup Disk -> Select your boot volume.

I would then do two things:

1. Reset your PRAM (at power up or restart, hold down cmd-opt-p-r keys and keep holding them until you hear the 3rd "bong", then let go.

2. Boot into "safe mode" (hold down shift key upon reboot and keep holding until you see the spinning gear) to clear out any corrupted hardware cache files. Then restart normally.

 

[petrified]

Thanks for all the help guys! Really apprecieate it! I have managed to fix my mac boot problem already. I just used startup disk utility to restart on my mac OSx volume and it bootup perfectly fine! I guess after installing the RAM or perhaps the new update to quicktimeplayer etc etc (all speculations), it caused my com to not be able to locate my boot disk! All's well now! thanks!!

Just out of curiousity, what does the PRAM reset do exactly and under what sort of circumstances should i reset my PRAM?

Cheers!
Jimmy

 

[merl1n]

Thanks for all the help guys! Really apprecieate it! I have managed to fix my mac boot problem already. I just used startup disk utility to restart on my mac OSx volume and it bootup perfectly fine! I guess after installing the RAM or perhaps the new update to quicktimeplayer etc etc (all speculations), it caused my com to not be able to locate my boot disk! All's well now! thanks!!

Just out of curiousity, what does the PRAM reset do exactly and under what sort of circumstances should i reset my PRAM?

Cheers!
Jimmy

The PRAM (Parameter RAM) contains part firmware and part memory which is configured and held at cold boot. The writeable RAM then contains hardware information, date and time, and other system settings and is retained from boot to boot. Sometimes the stored code in this RAM gets corrupted and weird things might start to happen (i.e., date and time lost, can't find startup volume, hardware issues, etc.). Resetting the PRAM wipes this portion of the RAM out so it forces the system to rebuild it fresh.