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My 2006 Mac Pro 1.1 won't boot!

aaron321

aaron321

macrumors member
Original poster
May 22, 2014
72
4
Providence
My mac pro 1.1 from 2006 looks like it is finally gonna kick the bucket. Or maybe it's just the OS that's corrupted (Tiger 10.7.5).

I have kept records of my computer's behavior since it started acting funny months ago.

But now, my Mac will power on for 2-5 seconds, show the apple logo, then the spinning "processing" icon, and shut down. Only single user mode works. Strangely, the cursor in this mode is frozen, disallowing you from entering commands.

I have attached "before and after" screenshots. One was taken immediately before the big crash, and one was taken of the single user mode diagnostic I just referred to. There seems to be an error message saying:
"Pthread support ABORTS when sync kernel primitives misused".

SCREENSHOTS
The first screenshot shows some of the fixed permissions immediately before the failure to boot. There are about 1000 of them this time, and they all have the more than familiar (to me, anyway) "nib" word in them (which I think is known to cause the dreaded -10810 error).

Should I bring my computer to an Apple store? even if it's out of warrantee? I wonder if this is a hardware failure, or an operating system failure.

The newer operating systems like mine 10.7.5 don't boot from a DVD,so I have no idea how I'm supposed to try and re-install the OS (?)

BEFORE
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a...bile Uploads/CameraZOOM-20150130184940299.jpg

AFTER
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a...bile Uploads/CameraZOOM-20150131072751814.jpg
 
Last edited:
aaron321 said:
My mac pro 1.1 from 2006 looks like it is finally gonna kick the bucket. Or maybe it's just the OS that's corrupted (Tiger 10.7.5).

I have kept records of my computer's behavior since it started acting funny months ago.

But now, my Mac will power on for 2-5 seconds, show the apple logo, then the spinning "processing" icon, and shut down. Only single user mode works. Strangely, the cursor in this mode is frozen, disallowing you from entering commands.

I have attached "before and after" screenshots. One was taken immediately before the big crash, and one was taken of the single user mode diagnostic I just referred to. There seems to be an error message saying:
"Pthread support ABORTS when sync kernel primitives misused".

SCREENSHOTS
The first screenshot shows some of the fixed permissions immediately before the failure to boot. There are about 1000 of them this time, and they all have the more than familiar (to me, anyway) "nib" word in them (which I think is known to cause the dreaded -10810 error).

Should I bring my computer to an Apple store? even if it's out of warrantee? I wonder if this is a hardware failure, or an operating system failure.

The newer operating systems like mine 10.7.5 don't boot from a DVD,so I have no idea how I'm supposed to try and re-install the OS (?)

BEFORE
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a...bile Uploads/CameraZOOM-20150130184940299.jpg

AFTER
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a...bile Uploads/CameraZOOM-20150131072751814.jpg
Click to expand...

Firstly , are there any red lights that stay on (flashing once is not a concern) inside your Mac ?

And two, have you tried booting from a different device with OS X ?

This Mac is really old and the Apple Store is not obligated to assist you . Although , I personally have been assisted by my local Store with very old products 8+ years old . A lot of techs collect gear .

Let's try to isolate whether it's a hardware or software issue .
 
Thanks for helping!

I opened up the side and see no flashing red lights on the riser cards or anywhere else. If were to try and boot my computer with another device, I don't know how I would do that. How should I go about doing that?

I do have the (now very old) install DVD, but am too scared to shut my mac off for fear of it dying completely.
 
aaron321 said:
My mac pro 1.1 from 2006 looks like it is finally gonna kick the bucket. Or maybe it's just the OS that's corrupted (Tiger 10.7.5).

... There seems to be an error message saying:
"Pthread support ABORTS when sync kernel primitives misused".

….
Should I bring my computer to an Apple store? even if it's out of warrantee? I wonder if this is a hardware failure, or an operating system failure.

The newer operating systems like mine 10.7.5 don't boot from a DVD,so I have no idea how I'm supposed to try and re-install the OS (?)

...
Click to expand...

When I have shutdowns during boot, I first suspect a failing hard drive.
If your hard drive is original, then it may have served its time, and replacing the drive is a no-brainer.
Reinstalling a typical 10.7 installation is much easier - no DVD. You should have a recovery system that is installed when 10.7 was installed.
Restart - holding Command-R, and you should boot to the OS X reinstall menus. Choose Reinstall OS X, and continue with that, might take most of an hour, and your system will be safely reinstalled. That reinstall will not erase your drive, and you won't lose your own files and apps.
But, a reinstall doesn't help much if your drive is already failing.
 
I seriously doubt it's a failed hard drive. All four that I am using now are fairly new, and I heard no "click of death" or anything, prior to this issue.

I only had the option to boot up into recovery mode one time previously, and it actually came up automatically on a restart. But, me being an idiot, I decided to use the opportunity to do a simple repair permissions with disk utility, instead of something more drastic. Right after that, I could no longer access recovery mode.

As I said, only single user mode works. Other key combos previously did nothing, such as safe mode. If I try to use anything other than single user mode, I just get shut down after the apple logo appears.

The only other clues I can add to my initial post are... There was visual static (like you would see on a tube TV with bad reception) in the animation of the app dock whenever I moved a mouse over it, and the constant reoccurence of the - 10810 error.

Do you think I should try to boot my computer from an external device? Or take it in to a Genius Bar?
 
If you can't boot to the recovery system, that's not a big issue.
Just download Lion again, from the App Store/Purchases tab.
Don't let the installer run after the download, but save the installer to another drive (or whatever is convenient for you)
Download DiskmakerX - the older version 3.0.3
With that, you can create a bootable installer on a USB flash drive (8GB is ideal for that), and you then no longer need the recovery partition, as you get the same features by booting to your USB installer.

It's unlikely that a "repair permissions" would affect how you can boot up - unless there's something wrong with the OS X software. More likely, your boot volume is not selected, so at boot, your MacPro doesn't know where the recovery partition is located. Make sure that your Startup Disk in System Preferences, has your correct boot drive selected.
And - reinstall Lion. Should help, unless your hard drive really is close to failing.

Just curious, is your boot system installed on a RAID? That could also explain why the recovery system isn't available, too.
Anyway, you can still reinstall Lion.
 
Natzoo said:
i wonder if the 2006 Mac Pro has the S.M.A.R.T feature?
Click to expand...

Eh?
SMART is the built-in monitoring feature included in most hard drives - and not a computer feature, per se.
The Disk Utility will provide a quick SMART result for internal hard drives, which is not necessarily a result that you should accept as final.
 
No RAID, just a main drive, backup drive automated to backup 2 or 3 times a week, and a couple of older, smaller drives for storing old files.

Your advice sounds like it's the only way to go!

It will be a day of researching your advice before I can get back with any further questions/ reports of progress. I will be sure to pick up an 8gb thumb drive tomorrow. You are certain that 8gb is big enough?

----------
zfxp said:
This is 100% a hard drive failure.
Click to expand...

Sorry to sound rude, but how, exactly, would you know that? I am trying to solve this issue, but your short statement didn't add anything but mystery. I've had several drives fail me before, but this doesnt look anything like it.

----------
zfxp said:
This is 100% a hard drive failure.
Click to expand...

Sorry to sound rude, but how, exactly, would you know that? I am trying to solve this issue, but your short statement didn't add anything but mystery. I've had several drives fail me before, but this doesnt look anything like it.
 
I do apologize for the short response.

I work as a technician at an online-eseller/purchaser of mac products, for obvious reasons I can't specify which retailer.

I deal with this particular issue on most of the mac pro's I purchase, the errors that disk repair gave you are a tell-tale sign of the failure.
I would install lion on another hdd/ssd and see if you replicate the issue as suggested.
 
aaron321 said:
No RAID, just a main drive, backup drive automated to backup 2 or 3 times a week, and a couple of older, smaller drives for storing old files.

Your advice sounds like it's the only way to go!

It will be a day of researching your advice before I can get back with any further questions/ reports of progress. I will be sure to pick up an 8gb thumb drive tomorrow. You are certain that 8gb is big enough?

----------



Sorry to sound rude, but how, exactly, would you know that? I am trying to solve this issue, but your short statement didn't add anything but mystery. I've had several drives fail me before, but this doesnt look anything like it.

----------



Sorry to sound rude, but how, exactly, would you know that? I am trying to solve this issue, but your short statement didn't add anything but mystery. I've had several drives fail me before, but this doesnt look anything like it.
Click to expand...

Hey Aaron , have you tried to install a blank hard drive in your Mac and re-install the OS X ? Get the optical drive tray to eject and insert the OS Install disc (gray colored) that came with your Mac or a retail version of Snow 10.6 (with color picture of the cat) .

Don't forget to remove your old drive as a failing drive might be causing electrical feedback (not likely , but let's be paranoid )

Also , your display getting video artifacts is a problem in and of itself . Your video card may be dying . It is a X1900 ? ( big red and white card with a female samurai .) These cards are notorious for failing due to dust build up and thermal paste evaporation .
 
Machines said:
Hey Aaron , have you tried to install a blank hard drive in your Mac and re-install the OS X ? Get the optical drive tray to eject and insert the OS Install disc (gray colored) that came with your Mac or a retail version of Snow 10.6 (with color picture of the cat) .

Don't forget to remove your old drive as a failing drive might be causing electrical feedback (not likely , but let's be paranoid )

Also , your display getting video artifacts is a problem in and of itself . Your card may be dying . It is a X1900 ? ( big red and white card with a female samurai .) These cards are notorious for failing due to dust build up and thermal paste evaporation .
Click to expand...

Those X1900's need to be replaced ASAP every time.
Cheap upgrade/replacement is the Quadro FX 3700 then flash with the mac firmware using nvflash and this rom
 
A telltale sign? Which part of repair permissions are you referring to? Does the screenshot of the diagnostic from single user mode (taken after the crash) tell you anything? One thing that stands out is the line:

"Pthread support aborts when sync kernel primitives misused. "
 
Machines said:
Hey Aaron , have you tried to install a blank hard drive in your Mac and re-install the OS X ? Get the optical drive tray to eject and insert the OS Install disc (gray colored) that came with your Mac or a retail version of Snow 10.6 (with color picture of the cat) .

Don't forget to remove your old drive as a failing drive might be causing electrical feedback (not likely , but let's be paranoid )

Also , your display getting video artifacts is a problem in and of itself . Your video card may be dying . It is a X1900 ? ( big red and white card with a female samurai .) These cards are notorious for failing due to dust build up and thermal paste evaporation .
Click to expand...


My video card is the original and has never been replaced. I'll try the blank drive, dvd boot, and thumb drive boot drive tomorrow, but if none of those work, I guess it's time for the Genius Bar.
 
Update:

I unplugged my main and backup drives and was able to boot into recovery mode on my third drive. I dont know why, but after plugging the other drives back in, the drive I'm using cannot see them. There is something unusual though... A yellow colored symbol under disk1 that says "Mac OS X Base System" with 27,297 files on it.

Should I reselect my current drive as the startup disk and reboot? Or is this too risky considering we do not know the true status of both my main and backup drives? I can't afford to lose whats on drive 1 and 2. It stinks that I am (possibly) in a spot where even my backup is not helping. It seems impossible that two drives would fail at once, but I'd rather expect the worst until I can fix this.
 
I bet it can be fixed whether it's by reinstall or just replace the hard drive worse case!
2006-2015 that's a nice amount of time and why I won't ever buy windows again!
 
I understand, but how can I safely get my files back? Am I supposed to restore "Mac OSX Base System" to a separate drive that already has OSX installed? Or am I supposed to pick "disk1" which contains "Mac OSX Base System"?

I'm able to reinstall Tiger using the internet, but like I said, I am stuck, because only one drive wants to show up in disk utility. Remember, I don't use Time Machine, these are all manually created back ups, all three suddenly not showing up in disk utility. I'm afraid to restart the computer because I need to try and rescue the data first. Mac OSX Base System showing it has files is a good sign.
 
Very confusing thread.

I think there is a good deal of incomplete info here.

Plugging drives in after machine has booted isn't going to get you anything.

You should be able to boot and hold "option" and choose a working OS.

All you need is another Mac with ability to connect firewire and by placing one machine or the other in firewire target mode you should get an answer.

Either your HD has taken a dump, or bad RAM has corrupted info copied onto drive, or you have a bad GPU.

Many, MANY computer issues can be quickly and easily diagnosed and solved if you avoid "PANIC" or "EMERGENCY" mode and remain logical.

If you have bad RAM or logic board, more boots is just going to make your HDD WORSE. If HDD is dying, you need to get info copied off of it PRONTO while you can.

But you really need to figure out what the actual issue is before doing anything else. Remain calm and logic your way through it.
 
Like I said, I only have one drive that's visible as a bootable drive out of all four in Startup Disk. Maybe if I restart holding the option key, it is supposed to change something? I never plugged drives in after the fact. All four are internal. External things, like SD cards are visible. Is it normal for there to be only one drive visible while in recovery mode?

I realize that my only option might be to buy an external drive, and reinstall the OS from there, after replacing the video card, (which was junk to begin with) but it's going to take a while to get those products.
 
Last edited:
MacVidCards said:
Very confusing thread.

I think there is a good deal of incomplete info here.
.
Click to expand...

I don't know if this helps, but in my log, I see the following unusual messages:

Startup Disk[384:9903] mountable disk appeared: /private/var/root/library/ disk image found and ignored:...........

OSXCheck: No boot.efi in System folder or volume root.


Sounds like an OSX problem?
 
Who knows.

You need another Mac to diagnose this. You could have a full and complete answer in under 5 minutes. What other Macs do you have access to?

Or Download a Lion image and burn to disk or USB. (Google is your friend) Hunt and peck guesswork isn't going to fix this, being methodical and logical is. You either have a bad disk or a bad logic board or a bad install.

Despite ominous EULA terms, Apple won't send a team over if you don't fully comply with Lion license terms.
 
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