Recovering a non-responsive 4,1 Mac Pro

[handheldgames]

Recovering a Mac Pro that was bricked with a Super Micro PLX adapter in slot#2 in 2013.

Symptoms
Powers on
Powers off with extended power button press.
No Chime.
No error lights on Mobo or CPU tray
Does not boot.
x58 heatsink is properly mounted & no dust
Swapping CPU's /ram no help.
Symptoms suggest EFI Firmware is corrupt on mainboard.

Swapping the CPU tray from a working donor, the system beeps. The x58 chipset was fried out by the Super Micro Adapter. I've ordered a replacement tray for $45.00.

 

[yuzgen]

I have never heard a PCIe card frying a chipset before. It will help me. I was planning to try an HBA adapter in a Mac Pro. I was just thinking "It will work or not. If not, I'll just take the card out." Now I know it could actually kill my cMP. Wow. I must research first.

 

[crjackson2134]

Recovering a Mac Pro that was bricked with a Super Micro PLX adapter in slot#2 in 2013.

Symptoms
Powers on
Powers off with extended power button press.
No Chime.
No error lights on Mobo or CPU tray
Does not boot.
x58 heatsink is properly mounted & no dust
Swapping CPU's /ram no help.
Symptoms suggest EFI Firmware is corrupt on mainboard.

Actual failure...
Swapping the CPU tray from a working donor, the system posts. The EFI is fine. The x58 chipset was fried out by the Super Micro Adapter. I've ordered a replacement tray for $45.00.

These symptoms have been going around lately. Hopefully this helps someone. Eventually.

This is a totally different system physically than YOUR systems with the HP SSD carriers correct?

Just to be clear, you don't think those carriers (HighPoint) with PLX switch are harmful to the systems?

 

[handheldgames]

This is a totally different system physically than YOUR systems with the HP SSD carriers correct?

Just to be clear, you don't think those carriers (HighPoint) with PLX switch are harmful to the systems?

Yes. This is a completely different 2009 cMP. It’s been dead since 2012/2013.

I shorted this out with the SuperMicro PLX that’s only compatible with Supermicro motherboards. Unfortunately I learned a lesson on what not to plug into a Mac Pro.

The new cpu tray arrives on Friday.
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I have never heard a PCIe card frying a chipset before. It will help me. I was planning to try an HBA adapter in a Mac Pro. I was just thinking "It will work or not. If not, I'll just take the card out." Now I know it could actually kill my cMP. Wow. I must research first.

There were warnings about this type of super micro product that I should have listened to. Many HBA’s work with macOS, support is dependent on chipset.

Searching the Mac Pro forum should point you in a good direction.

 

[handheldgames]

The $45 processor tray from eBay arrived along with a $35 16gb RDIMM for the dead 4,1.

Populating the processor board with a x5677 and the existing heatsink, the bench Mac Pro boots without issue. Idling at 32c.

Time to grab the FrankenMac to complete its brain transplant.

And... The Mac chimes and still fails to boot or display efi boot screens.
The SMC is good as the fan controller is still working.
I have a feeling the southbridge was also damaged.
Pressing power to shutdown, the Mac power is instantly removed.

Back to ebay.

 

[handheldgames]

Taking a 2nd attempt to get the 2009 Mac Pro running, I installed an original Apple 5770 and attempted to boot from an OS X hard disk backup from 2010. After the chime, a white EFI screen appeared, eventually followed by the familiar apple logo and the login screen. It works.

Next on the list... Upgrade an install of Sierra on a 512GB Apple SSUAX to High Sierra, flashing the latest EFI firmware on the way.

UPDATE...
Downloading High Sierra updated the EFI to 0089. Time to upgrade the EFI to support booting NVMe PCIe SSD's.

 

[verdejt]

So what caused your issue? Sounds like a video card kept it from booting up?

 

[handheldgames]

So what caused your issue? Sounds like a video card kept it from booting up?

Taking a look back at the steps I took to get the mac booting.

1) I was attempting to boot into the latest Mojave Beta with 5,1 EFI from 2012.
2) I forgot my flashed gigabyte 7950 only shows the apple logo on HDMI. I was plugged into DVI and MDP->DVI with a non-active adapter. Any issues with booting were on the HDMI display I never hooked up. DOH!
3) Booting with a Mojave supported Quadro card, the mac pro also failed.​

The next day at the office I gathered additional testing supplies to justify buyers remorse from purchasing another (returnable) Logic Board on Ebay. After work, I started with the x5770 hooked up over DVI.

4) Powering up the Mac Pro was greeted by the white EFI screen.
5) Powering it down, I grabbed a HDD installed with Yosemite from the digital file drawer, plugged it into the CD-ROM bay SATA/Power connector and powered on again.. With a successful boot up and login.​

If the mac could boot with it's ancient firmware, #3 should have worked.
#2 was my mistake, trying to be careful not to re-injure my back. I should have seen this.

In the end I think my issue was - attempting to boot into the latest Mojave Beta with 5,1 EFI from 2012.

 

[crjackson2134]

Have you since then, updated the firmware and tested the Mojave Beta again?

It would be good to KNOW that was the issue.

 

[handheldgames]

Have you since then, updated the firmware and tested the Mojave Beta again?

It would be good to KNOW that was the issue.

Thanks for asking, Mojave Beta works perfectly.

After getting the cMP to boot, I booted into Sierra installed on a 512MB SSUAX PCIe SSD. Downloading the latest version of High Sierra and starting the install process, the Firmware was upgraded to revision 89. Cancelling the OS upgrade, I shut down the cMP, installed the Mojave SSD on SATA II and rebooted into Mojave with the 5770.

With one more shut down, I switched back to the Quadro card and successfully booted into Mojave. With the old firmware and quadro, mojave would not boot. With the new firmware and the same hardware configuration, the 2009 cMP boots without issue.

 

[verdejt]

I know my MacPro 2010 came with El Capitan loaded and when I upgraded to Sierra or High Sierra it said I need a firmware upgrade which I did by holding the power button down for a certain amount of time. Mine is running pretty good with Mojave with a couple of small issues. On Safari when I go into Facebook I get the spinning beach ball. I have a dual quad core 2.4Ghz with 32Gb of RAM running on a Samsung EVO840. I think this is more a product of Mojave beta than anything else. I don't get the beachball anywhere except a couple of web pages. Glad you are up and running.

 

[handheldgames]

I know my MacPro 2010 came with El Capitan loaded and when I upgraded to Sierra or High Sierra it said I need a firmware upgrade which I did by holding the power button down for a certain amount of time. Mine is running pretty good with Mojave with a couple of small issues. On Safari when I go into Facebook I get the spinning beach ball. I have a dual quad core 2.4Ghz with 32Gb of RAM running on a Samsung EVO840. I think this is more a product of Mojave beta than anything else. I don't get the beachball anywhere except a couple of web pages. Glad you are up and running.

Thanks for sharing. I've also had a good experience in the Mojave Beta cycle. Although I haven't run into any beachballs since I installed beta 3.

Considering you have a 2010, $100 will give you dual 6 core CPU's at 3.33ghz. $75 for dual quad core x5677's @3.47 GHZ. CPU upgrades are easy on the dual 2010's.

 

[verdejt]

I know, my ultimate plan is a pair of 5690's with upgraded faster RAM. I'm a little short on cash at the moment so upgrades will have to wait a little bit by that time the 5690's should be a little cheaper as well.