Is my Mac knackered?

Smiler

Hiya

I've a 2007 Mac Pro tower. Put two additional hard drives in it last week, I was starting to run outta space. All three drives were working perfectly except when the Mac would go asleep it would take forever to start up the two new drives.

So I changed the system prefs to never go into sleep mode.

Unfortunately I left the Mac on all night. When I woke up the next day it would not boot at all. It gets stuck on the loading screen.

I've pulled the two new drives and tried to boot - same thing

Swapped the OS drive with one of the new ones and tried to reinstall OSX - this starts to install ( get to chose the boot option) I then get the "Restart your Mac" message

I've pulled all three drives ( to see what it'd do ) and I get the "File Folder" image, Cannot find OS message.

Anyone any ideas? Is it the board? Any help appreciated

Cheers

muggyog

This is a little confusing, if you set the system not to go asleep why did you need to reboot? Also by adding two hard drives does not free any space on your primary unless you have transferred data over to them.

The new drives are probably formatted for PC, that is why you cannot instal OS X. Boot from your install disk and reformat one of the new drives ( repartition it to GUID ).

Back to your initial problem. If you put back the original HD and boot in single user mode what happens? ( Single user mode='apple' and 'S' keys pressed on power on. )

Greentree_uk

I'd say ur GPU has failed.

ZENER

Greentree_uk wrote: »

I'd say ur GPU has failed.

:rolleyes:

It's a Mac Pro not a MacBook Pro.

As was already mentioned adding a new drive didn't increase the capacity of the boot drive unless you moved some files to free up space. What is your level of knowledge with MacOS OP ?

Ken

Greentree_uk

indeed a mac pro with a GPU failure, that never happens....

ZENER

Not impossible I guess. Unlikely though as they are a separate card and not part of the main logic board. Seemed like you were referring to the common nVidia issue that plagued MacBook Pros (among other well known brands ) from that era. Were you ?

Ken

muggyog

Greentree_uk wrote: »

I'd say ur GPU has failed.

That's amazing fault finding. Considering that The OP is getting "Restart your Mac" message and the "File Folder" image, I think a little more investigation is necessary before we get definitive.

Greentree_uk

muggyog wrote: »

That's amazing fault finding. Considering that The OP is getting "Restart your Mac" message and the "File Folder" image, I think a little more investigation is necessary before we get definitive.

Thanks, it is not unfounded.

Smiler

Hi guys

Thanks all for the reply - to answer your questions muggyog

a)I know that I had to copy files of my OS HDD to the new ones to save space - did that
b)The machine was turned off coz my wife came in in the morning and saw that the screen was flickering and decided to turn the machine off. I didn't see it myself so I can't describe it.
c)In single user mode I get in and then after a while it seems to hang again.
d)I've loadsa experience with computers - just not a huge amount with Macs :-)

Basically I was only telling you about the extra drives that I installed so you'd have the full picture of everything I've done to the Mac over the last week or so.

My gut feeling about it at the mo is that it's the Graphics card as you guys suggested. The machine (with the original HDD in) sounds like it boots to the login screen. I get keypress sounds & when I hit the power button it goes to sleep mode and wakes back up when I hit the mouse, the Hard drive also "sounds" ok

What you guys think?

Also I'm only getting the "Restart your Mac" message when I was trying to reinstall OSX via external HDD or CD's

Thanks

Mick

muggyog

Smiler wrote: »

c)In single user mode I get in and then after a while it seems to hang again.

Can you expand on that?

I assume you are getting this.

Smiler

Yep I get that but then it seems to hang again

Appreciate the help btw

Actually just remembered I typed "exit" to see what would happen - then it hung

muggyog

When you are in single user mode do a disk repair instead of exiting.

Type /sbin/fsck -f at the command prompt and see if it repairs anything.

Smiler

Ok. Done that. It can back with some errors. Force ran it again and it fixed the errors. Still won't start up. Failing at same point.

muggyog

Which Model Mac Pro is it?

Also what video card is in it?

You might try starting in safe boot mode also.

Smiler

Hiya

It's a A1186 Mac Pro V1.1

Strangely enough the card that was supposed to be in it doesn't seem to be the one thats in it (Bought it on adverts)

A1186 - 3.0QX/4X1/X1900XT/250/SD/BT/UK

It was supposed to be a X1900XT in it, but the one that's in it now is a nvidia card. I'm assuming that the X1900XT blew Not too sure what it is. Can take a pic if that would help?

Have tried safe mode and it just hangs as well

Thanks again

Mick

Colonel Panic

Rather than boot it in single user mode, boot it in verbose mode so Command - V when you hit the power button.

muggyog

Looking like your video card is sick. It would be good to know the exact nVidia model. Here is an interesting repair method for a 8800 GT!

Smiler

Yeah I think that it's looking like that all right. Still better the graphics card than the board :-)

It hangs eventually when I go into Verbose mode.

Anyone got any recomendations for a graphics card tat will work with a Mac Pro V1.1
I know of the ATI 5770 which in 249 quid from Apple

But can I use any old Gforce or what? Does it have to have Mac hardware on it etc?

http://guides.macrumors.com/Video_Card_Upgrades_for_Mac_Pro

Really don't want to spend 250 bills and then find out that it's not the Graphics card that's the problem.

Thanks again for all your help guys - appreciate it.

Mick

Greentree_uk

x1900 was notorious, as with the 7300GT. 5770 is the easiest bet. if ur not sure get a diagnosis from a Mac service provider, it'll cost ya but you want peace of mind...