Minghold
macrumors 6502a
Will it boot with a single stick? (If not, then it requires pairs, and the seller either didn't know or gifted you a freebie.)
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What have you done with an early Intel recently?
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Certificate of Excellence
macrumors 68020
Here's Apples "Installing or replacing doc on a 2013 mp. The way that reads, it seems like 3 sticks of 16gb memory should be fine as long as they are all 1866MHz DDR3 ECC RDIMM & and support voltages of 1.5V or 1.35V.
Are they all the same?
DCBassman
macrumors 65816
Yes, and they all work when used in the first bank. I did at one point have 32 working with one in each bank. It's banks 3 and 4, to the right of the IO panel, that are unhappy.
DCBassman
macrumors 65816
Yes, it will boot with a single stick, which made it easy to check they're all working. So the seller has indeed gifted me a freebie, I just have to persuade the machine to see it.
DCBassman
macrumors 65816
Much closer inspection shows bent RAM slot pins on both slots in that bank. Will have to see if that's fixable...
🙁
🙁
JulianStaples
macrumors regular
Oh dear. 🫤 I know they're very teardown-able, but I'm not sure if it's possible to just replace the parts of the internals containing the RAM slots. But the theoretical max RAM is 32GB per slot, right? So could still get some good upgrades on just two slots.
This has reminded me that I need to be brave and repaste my trashcan's CPU soon. Idle temps are looking a little warm and there's been a couple of recent KPs that I think might have been temp-related. Was hoping to upgrade the 6-core to an 8 or 12-core while I was in there, but I'm trying to have a few months off splurging on random upgrade parts. Need to save my pennies for an attempt to treat the dead £25 Mac Pro 5,1. 😅
This has reminded me that I need to be brave and repaste my trashcan's CPU soon. Idle temps are looking a little warm and there's been a couple of recent KPs that I think might have been temp-related. Was hoping to upgrade the 6-core to an 8 or 12-core while I was in there, but I'm trying to have a few months off splurging on random upgrade parts. Need to save my pennies for an attempt to treat the dead £25 Mac Pro 5,1. 😅
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
Ugh. So last night we had a power failure around 1am. That's bad enough on its own because the A/C is out, but fortunately this wasn't August or something.
But power outages mean both the cable modem, the routers (multiple, yes), the 24-port switch, the femtocell (for the cellphones), three NAS boxes and all my Macs are off. Fortunately that's usually been able to resolve itself and I don't have to worry about hard resetting stuff. Same this time.
But, for some reason this took out Quicksilver on my Mac Pro. No amount of jiggering things would cause the app to actually work. It just keeps displaying some error that the interface had changed. I have Spotlight shut off (and it would take a lot to get it restarted), I have the dock permanently hidden and so QS was my app launcher.
Not any more. I have no loyalty in that I am willing to try and make this work. After years of use on this Mac and my primary desktops before it, it's off to get another app launcher. Launchbar came up in a search, so I'm trying that for awhile. Seems to work fairly well and it has other options I will investigate later on. There are other launchers out there though, so I'll be looking around.
The biggest hit though was Vivaldi. The app would load, everything was clickable, but nothing was happening. But this is why I have weekly Dropbox backups. Delete the app, delete the files in Application Support and then open the .spareseimage backup on Dropbox and copy those back over. Voila, Vivaldi working as it should.
There were some updates of Vivaldi that I am now choosing to ignore though and an extension or two that are gone. That's fine, because I think those were part of the problem - even though I'd removed two extensions previously. I had been noticing some strange behavior last night with Vivaldi though, so perhaps this was coming anyway.
In any case - I hate power outages!
But power outages mean both the cable modem, the routers (multiple, yes), the 24-port switch, the femtocell (for the cellphones), three NAS boxes and all my Macs are off. Fortunately that's usually been able to resolve itself and I don't have to worry about hard resetting stuff. Same this time.
But, for some reason this took out Quicksilver on my Mac Pro. No amount of jiggering things would cause the app to actually work. It just keeps displaying some error that the interface had changed. I have Spotlight shut off (and it would take a lot to get it restarted), I have the dock permanently hidden and so QS was my app launcher.
Not any more. I have no loyalty in that I am willing to try and make this work. After years of use on this Mac and my primary desktops before it, it's off to get another app launcher. Launchbar came up in a search, so I'm trying that for awhile. Seems to work fairly well and it has other options I will investigate later on. There are other launchers out there though, so I'll be looking around.
The biggest hit though was Vivaldi. The app would load, everything was clickable, but nothing was happening. But this is why I have weekly Dropbox backups. Delete the app, delete the files in Application Support and then open the .spareseimage backup on Dropbox and copy those back over. Voila, Vivaldi working as it should.
There were some updates of Vivaldi that I am now choosing to ignore though and an extension or two that are gone. That's fine, because I think those were part of the problem - even though I'd removed two extensions previously. I had been noticing some strange behavior last night with Vivaldi though, so perhaps this was coming anyway.
In any case - I hate power outages!
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DCBassman
macrumors 65816
I'll just leave it as-is. The times I need more than 32GB are, well, I don't!
JulianStaples
macrumors regular
Fair point. 😄
To be fair, my trashcan came with 64GB RAM (brag!) and for what I use it for, even with modern macOS tending to luxuriate into whatever RAM is available, the memory pressure graph in Activity Monitor is basically a flat line. 😂 The computer equivalent of buying a second-hand Lamborghini and then just using it on the school run.
Maybe the kernel panics weren't overheating issues, but boredom, Feel like I should be getting it to compile a random 4k video every now and again just so it can keep its eye in. 😅
Certificate of Excellence
macrumors 68020
That would bug me that the seller did not disclose the bent pins.
How long are the power outages? Is it something where you could get a powerback up to keep your core systems up for the few hours while the city figures their grid out? I got some free ones from recycling (without their batteries which I bought some new replacements for a couple years back) and I get around 2hrs on them. Pretty much I keep my routers and NAS on them. They're older beige ones with new batteries; they still get the job done despite them looking like they're straight out of the BestBuy 1995 catelog LOL.
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eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
This particular outage lasted about an hour and a half. Outages where we live are uncommon. In this instance, SRP (Salt River Project) identified the fault as an underground cable that went bad. Most often though, any outages are a result of traffic accidents where the vehicle(s) involved hit the power equipment. SRP is usually pretty fast to fix things.
I was asleep through most of the outage last night. I only knew about it because my wife woke me up. I have considered UBS, but outages here are rare and infrequent, so it hasn't been worth the hassle to me yet.
Our infrastructure out where I live was built for agriculture first, then urbanization came in. So, you have things that can get hit. Here's an example from about two years ago. I go through this corner almost every day and there was an accident at that time in the intersection. The accident plowed right through the water and power equipment.
It's since all been replaced and SRP even moved things so that if there is another accident this won't happen again. But the well is still there. They can't move that.
Certificate of Excellence
macrumors 68020
To be fully honest, it is such a rare thing where I'm at, I wasn't willing to spend the $100s on new UPS either but when I got two for free, the money math made sense as I could get new cells for about $25 a unit. They're ugly & yellowed but hey they get the job done - keeps my NAS, routers and my linux box up anyhow. 🙂
I hadnt really put much thought into this until now but really, I use a number of mb and mbps with good multi-hour batteries around the house, so really the big focus point for me is keeping the the network and NAS up while the city gets the lights back on lol.
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eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
Totally get that.
I have a lot of redundancy built in to my backups with the timing of those backups and where I physically store files varying based on importance. Anything I absolutely do not want to lose is stored directly on Dropbox which silently versions in the background everything stored there for up to six months.
This largely makes finding a backup that is OLD ENOUGH the challenge, rather than the other way around. A power failure for me at any time of day is irritating, but if it happens during the day (which is normally when they happen around here) it's much less likely to affect me. This morning was a rare occurrence
Lastly, I am really the only person in the house using my NAS boxes and any important files are usually accessed from only one computer at a time (primarily my Mac Pro). Everything else, while backing up to the NAS devices (and my Dropbox folder on the MP on the weekends), are mainly specific use with their important files already on the NAS boxes (and thus covered by my NAS backups).
I've spent a lot of time thinking exactly about what I can and cannot afford to lose.
DCBassman
macrumors 65816
Oh, it bugs me. Haven't thought what I'll say to him yet...
Certificate of Excellence
macrumors 68020
I mean they might not have known. I could see that happening. Assuredly, that is what they will say regardless lol. Maybe they have another you can trade out for? Good luck.
ToniCH
macrumors 65816
They support 2 types of dimms but not at the same time. So, inspect what you have in there and make sure all are same type (not talking about size).
Look:
How to Upgrade Mac Pro Memory (Cylinder, Late 2013): EveryMac.com
How to instructions and video to upgrade the RAM in the Late 2013 Cylinder Mac Pro (A1481, MacPro6,1). Actual max Cylinder Mac Pro memory, too.
everymac.com
Edit: didn't see the bent pin thing. Well, they are often fixable if done very carefully.
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MacInTO
macrumors 68000
If the pins are indeed bent, and not broken off, you can probably carefully bend it/them back to the correct position.
DCBassman
macrumors 65816
In the process of digging out some tiny hooked needle tools from a bintage dissection kit to have a shot at it.
ToniCH
macrumors 65816
I personally screwed up and dropped a cpu on my trashcan cpu socket bending few pins. It just slipped out of my fingers, almost had a heart attack. 😳😱
Well, with a loupe and very careful and gentle manipulation with a sewing needle and I bent them back successfully. 😅
Well, with a loupe and very careful and gentle manipulation with a sewing needle and I bent them back successfully. 😅
DCBassman
macrumors 65816
ToniCH
macrumors 65816
Yeah, I was not happy with myself. I have handled hundreds of cpus and other such parts and never messed up so badly in a critical moment. It dropped maybe 2-3 cm but that was enough to bend some pins. They are very fragile in a cpu socket.
It was a relief that I managed to fix it as it was only 2 weeks after I bought it.
Here is the soul of the MP 6,1. The 2 GPUs are on the outside, the cpu board is on the 3rd side of the triangle heat sink between the psu and the sink.
It was a relief that I managed to fix it as it was only 2 weeks after I bought it.
Here is the soul of the MP 6,1. The 2 GPUs are on the outside, the cpu board is on the 3rd side of the triangle heat sink between the psu and the sink.
DCBassman
macrumors 65816
Yup, despite aforementioned problems, it's a great little machine!
ToniCH
macrumors 65816
I really like mine. Mine was a 6 core @3.5GHz and 32GB RAM, twin D500s and I paid 150€ for it in october. I upgraded the cpu to 8 core @ 3.3GHz which I determined to be the sweet spot for all the compatible cpus (even the single core is faster and multicore even more so) and then to 64GB RAM. The cpu was about 18€ including shipping and taxes, cannot remember what the RAM was but not much as it was before all this RAM madness started. I also installed a 2TB NVMe drive internally and another one externally. The drives I had already in my cMP 5.1 so I didn't have to spend any money on them at this point.
And this machine is now my favorite among all my Macs at this point. Best bang for the buck/quid/euro like they say. At least for what I use computers daily for. 👍
If there is anything to complain about it is the slow bus for the internal drive. But, for normal daily use it is not really noticeable.
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DCBassman
macrumors 65816
ToniCH
macrumors 65816
Just using a NVMe-USB3 -case. I haven't found a cheap enough NVMe-Thunderbolt -case yet. But, when I do I will upgrade to that one. Of course faster is better but IRL I think the system I have now is fast enough for what I am doing.