New Mac Pro's - Problems/No Problems

[netdog]

The Sleep->Restart problem now seems to be back (intermittently).

Is this a hardware problem that I should address with Apple or is this a software problem to be addressed in 10.5.2?

Also, does anybody have an illustration or photo of where the SMC_RST button is on an early 2008 MP?

 

[Wild-Bill]

I think its assonine that Apple would force someone to bring their Mac Pro into the store to replace an optical drive, especially when that user is willing and capable of installing an optical drive him/herself. If I were in that situation I would have made a genius appointment, and then showed up at the appointed time with my Mac Pro receipt in one hand and the optical drive in the other.

 

[darthraige]

I wish that was the case, but all the pins are exactly where they should be...it's like the drive is just incompatible with my Mac Pro or something

I guess I could try my Sony drive from my PC, but I really wanted the Lightscribe support...

-Bryan

What's the exact model number and everything on that drive? Just want to see if its the same Lightscribe as mine. Cause mine is working fine.

 

[Mercuric Oxide]

The Sleep->Restart problem now seems to be back (intermittently).

Is this a hardware problem that I should address with Apple or is this a software problem to be addressed in 10.5.2?

Also, does anybody have an illustration or photo of where the SMC_RST button is on an early 2008 MP?

I've had my Mac Pro for 2 weeks, and it didnt do that until a few days ago after installing the OWC ram...

 

[netdog]

I've had my Mac Pro for 2 weeks, and it didnt do that until a few days ago after installing the OWC ram...

Mine did it with original RAM and OWC. Lots of machines here that have Apple RAM that are failing in this way, so I doubt that it is your RAM.

 

[schreck]

Fortunately, I haven't had any of these problems yet. My machine seems to be running quite well, aside from the fact that at login it has a tendency to lag a little bit. I can't complain.

 

[GregPacker]

I had a bad power supply and only knew it because the power supply temps were 65-70 degrees C when idle and running nothing but default hardware. Took it back to the Apple store today and they swapped it for a new one and the temps are now halved. I tested the new one in the store and I'm glad I did because the new mighty mouse ball could not scroll left so I immediately swapped the mouse with the working one that was with the broken machine. Hopefully there are no more quality control issues to discover!

 

[netdog]

I had a bad power supply and only knew it because the power supply temps were 65-70 degrees C when idle and running nothing but default hardware. Took it back to the Apple store today and they swapped it for a new one and the temps are now halved. I tested the new one in the store and I'm glad I did because the new mighty mouse ball could not scroll left so I immediately swapped the mouse with the working one that was with the broken machine. Hopefully there are no more quality control issues to discover!

How did you get the power supply temps? I have iStat Pro, but don't see it there.

 

[phjo]

The Sleep->Restart problem now seems to be back (intermittently).

Also, does anybody have an illustration or photo of where the SMC_RST button is on an early 2008 MP?

There is none... Quoting Apple documentation :
To reset the SMC on a Mac Pro:

Shut Down

Unplug all cables from the computer, including the power cord and any display cables.
Wait at least fifteen seconds.
Plug the power cord back in, making sure the power button is not being pressed at the time. Then reconnect your keyboard and mouse to the computer.
Press the power button (!) to start up your computer.

phjo

 

[4God]

How did you get the power supply temps? I have iStat Pro, but don't see it there.

Flip it around and set your preferences to "Tall" instead of wide for the display and you might have to uncheck a few boxes because there's so many, they don't all show.
I haven't found a way to scroll in iStat yet.

 

[GregPacker]

Yes iStat Pro is ok but is a bit flakey about showing everything you tick if you have ticked a lot. I prefer an app called "Temperature Monitor" which lets you plot a graph of all the temperature readings over time.

 

[GregPacker]

*delete*

 

[babboxy]

lockup

second day on the new mac pro and I get my first lockup.
(running firefox... safari and google earth in the background)

strange, there is definitely an apple logo on the box, not a dell...

 

[GoKyu]

What's the exact model number and everything on that drive? Just want to see if its the same Lightscribe as mine. Cause mine is working fine.

Darth: I went and unplugged the drives so I could get the model number for you (dvd640ri, just so you know), and decided to try the one combination I hadn't tried yet - HP drive in the top position (black cable) and Superdrive on the gray cable - both drives set to cable select.

Bam, suddenly it all worked like it was supposed to Funny thing, being on that gray cable, the system just wouldn't recognize the HP drive, no idea why.

I had put everything back together, case on (I should've known better before having tested it "in place"), tried to eject the drive and it wouldn't come out...argh, yep the little flap on the front was still on the drive, didn't think to remove it

But finally, yes, FINALLY it's all working like it should, and strangely enough, the whole machine is suddenly booting up quickly again (timed it at 26 seconds from cold boot), whereas just after I installed the original 4 gigs, it dropped to like 1:30 to boot up.

Thanks very much for the help, now on to more mundane OS questions, cos I still have a lot to learn

2 quickies:

1. Is there an add-on to the finder (I think I saw one once) that gives you a "return to previous directory" a little closer to the center of the window instead of moving all the way over to the left?

2. Also finder-related: Currently at the bottom of the finder window, it gives me the number of items in the directory and the free space on the drive..but more important to me would be how much space is currently being used by those files. Is there an option or plugin you can get to show that? (I know I could use Get Info, but it would be handier on the status bar area.)

Thanks again!

-Bryan

 

[GregPacker]

The PSU temps on my replacement are fine but now I've got the screen lock issue instead.

 

[kirkbross]

22% seems "unacceptably" high for problem machines, doesn't it?

Is there any history of polls like this for the first gen Mac Pro, G5, G4, G3?

 

[faumble]

22% is just too much!! from every thousand macpros 200 are not working correctly???!!! yikes!
This better be a software issue to be resolved with 10.5.2 or else apple got something big going wrong.

 

[darthraige]

2. Also finder-related: Currently at the bottom of the finder window, it gives me the number of items in the directory and the free space on the drive..but more important to me would be how much space is currently being used by those files. Is there an option or plugin you can get to show that? (I know I could use Get Info, but it would be handier on the status bar area.)

Glad the drive is working. Having two drives are awesome, especially one that is Lightscribe... As for question #2: When you have the "Finder" window open, press "Apple" "J" and make sure "Size" is checked and "Calculate all sizes." I am not sure about having something at the bottom of the window showing that though.

 

[darthraige]

22% is just too much!! from every thousand macpros 200 are not working correctly???!!! yikes!
This better be a software issue to be resolved with 10.5.2 or else apple got something big going wrong.

I'm curious to see what happens to the MacPros that ship with the 8800GT. Hopefully that card doesn't open up all sorts of freezing issues. I too hope 10.5.2 will fix most issues with the machine.

 

[eyecool]

Welp, I'm finally on the new MacPro, I feel like it's running a thousand times better. The drive that shipped with my last one was a Western Digital... This one in the new one is an Intel Drive??

Vendor: Intel
Product: ESB2 AHCI
Speed: 3.0 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.10 Supported
Model: ST3320820AS_P

YIKES! Seagate's site says it's an 8MB cache! http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=a29099f4fa74c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD&locale=en-US

I ordered my Mac Pro with a 500GB hard drive. Was really hoping it would be a 32mb cache. Looks like they cheaped out on the hard drives.

I was at Fry's today and picked up a 500GB 16mb cache seagate and upgraded the wife's Intel iMac. Her stock WD 250GB died yesterday. Her computer got slower and slower over the past weeks. I rebooted yesterday and nothing but the grey screen came on. My biggest mistake was not extending apple care. I'm lucky it was only the hard drive. The only downside to this is that the new seagate doesn't have the temp sensor chip affixed to the side of it like the WD caviar does. Now the iMac fan blows full bore whenever the computer is awake.. =/

Thankfully I was able to access all the data from her old hard drive using this nifty contraption I also picked up at Fry's today: http://shop4.outpost.com/%7BcKcGsdczEbZwiAEfw1CUsw**.node3%7D/product/5437099;jsessionid=cKcGsdczEbZwiAEfw1CUsw**.node3?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG It worked like a charm. I'd been hoping for something like this for years!!!

 

[phjo]

Btw, I am amongst those who voted that my mac pro has enough problems to call apple because :

- airport is unreliable (no one answered my thread, so I assume it is not normal...)
- the connector to the fan of the 2600xt is bent, and I had some hard time figuring out why for a few hours yesterday the mac pro made a huge noise... SMC reset did not fix it, but gently replacing the connector did... (It still is not that pretty to look at, and I'll insist on changing the card I suppose...)

phjo

 

[eyecool]

I hope to be in the 'no problems at all' category. After all the hardware trouble I've had in different macs over the past year, I deserve to have my dream machine be worth the steep price of admission. Yanno?

After weighing out all the options, I ordered on Jan 23:

Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core)
2GB (2 x 1GB)
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (Two dual-link DVI)
Two 16x SuperDrives
AirPort Extreme card (Wi-Fi)
Apple Mighty Mouse
Apple Keyboard (English) + Mac OS X
iWork '08 preinstalled
AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll
Ships by: Feb 13
Delivers by: Feb 19

TIME CAPSULE 1TB-USA
Ships by: Feb 29
Delivers by: Mar 6

And the printer:
APP FOR MAC PRO - COL/AE-INT
Ships by: Jan 23 - Jan 24
Delivers by: Jan 25 - Jan 30

I'm ordering 2x2GB ram from OWC based on the configuration: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/MacPro_MemoryDIMM_DIY.pdf and
the MemConfig chart floating around this forum.

 

[Roy]

I hope to be in the 'no problems at all' category. After all the hardware trouble I've had in different macs over the past year, I deserve to have my dream machine be worth the steep price of admission. Yanno?

After weighing out all the options, I ordered on Jan 23:

Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core)
2GB (2 x 1GB)
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB (Two dual-link DVI)
Two 16x SuperDrives
AirPort Extreme card (Wi-Fi)
Apple Mighty Mouse
Apple Keyboard (English) + Mac OS X
iWork '08 preinstalled
AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll
Ships by: Feb 13
Delivers by: Feb 19

TIME CAPSULE 1TB-USA
Ships by: Feb 29
Delivers by: Mar 6

And the printer:
APP FOR MAC PRO - COL/AE-INT
Ships by: Jan 23 - Jan 24
Delivers by: Jan 25 - Jan 30

I'm ordering 2x2GB ram from OWC based on the configuration: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/MacPro_MemoryDIMM_DIY.pdf and
the MemConfig chart floating around this forum.

The link you posted (OWC) refers to pre-2008 Mac Pro's.

The computer comes with a minimum of 1 GB of memory, installed as a pair of 512 MB fully buffered, dual inline memory modules (FB-......

DIMMs for Mac Pro must fit these specifications:
667 MHz, FB-DIMMs
72-bit wide, 240-pin modules
36 devices maximum per DIMM
Error-correcting code (ECC)

 

[eyecool]

The link you posted (OWC) refers to pre-2008 Mac Pro's.

Yes, but the general consensus is this bump up in speed isn't going to change things significantly.

If it gets published that it does have to be matched pairs in quads and quads have to be the same manufacturer, I'll add 2x2GB OWC more, take out the stock 2x1GB and sell them to OWC to use against a future Ram upgrade.

What I'm really nervous about is the SATA drives they ship with. I figured they would be the upper end, 32mb cache but seem to have figured wrong.

 

[mission75]

Mine is Fine

New little feature everywhere in the optical drive and in the drive bays (the screws) are new, just little touch up features are cool, No smc reset anymore. I haven't experienced loud fans and the ati card isn't really noisy The only problem I had was that the old ati card will not show windows as it boots, its just a black screen