Welp, the problem might have been these two 1GB sticks. Or perhaps both of them. I’m going to slowly start adding pieces back but I’m going to leave these out. 18GB vs 16GB is negligble anyway. Besides if it is the stick themselves I can toss in some other sticks and up the RAM. I’ll be paying close attention to power draw. I’m going to leave the optical drives out because it’s 2018 and who the hell needs optical drives anyway. Instead I’m going to focus on making sure my storage drives go back in because I missed a few video editing competitions I wanted to finish projects for because well… couldn’t access my projects.
Tried to put the optical drive back in and seems like my Blu-ray drive is another component that doesn’t play nice. Attempts to use it put the Mac Pro into a chime loop. The drive doesn’t work using an external connector, doesn’t work with my MacBook via Linux. Something’s wrong with it. Booting without it, no issue. I still have the original DVD-RAM drive I can put back into the Mac Pro, but let’s be frank, is there any reason at all for me to have optical drives in 2018? If I use the optical space for anything, I think it would be an extra harddrive and not an optical drive. The BD drive itself is of the same vintage as the computer, 2008 or so. Maybe slightly newer. Perhaps it just finally went bad.
Glad the lil monster woke up for you. Seems there’s still multiple issues to work through, but perhaps not the end of the road just yet.
Definitely sounds like a flakey PSU to me. I’ve seen many a machine with a flakey PSU result in ‘unreliable’ components that are then fine once the PSU is replaced.
Well, given the cost of the PSU, which I assume is completely proprietary, because Apple is as Apple does, once it dies, I’d be better off just buying a 2009/2010. Which I probably won’t do. Instead, I’ll probably just buy some kind of NAS for all my drives and just used the MBP. Or maybe I’ll do a Hackintosh project.
I have a Macpro 4.1 speced out with NvME boot drives. 2 x 6 Core 2.33 Xeons and and RX580 GPU
Picked up a 2nd 4.1 with dual CPUs for $400 a couple of weeks ago for future use
A MacPro PSU is apparently around 3kg.
Shipping from AU to Japan would be in the vicinity of AU$65.
Not sure if that helps. :}
This Mac Pro 3,1 cost me about $600. If I have to spend $200 on a PSU, that doesn’t seem worth it to me. I’d rather part it out and sell the parts (RAM, daughter boards, etc, etc) and then use the money either to purchase a 4,1/5,1, or more likely, Hackintosh components. One of the advantages to setting out to make a Hackintosh (versus the last time I did one) was the there are now lists of parts and patchers that make it easy to get nearly flawless operation.
In comparison when I last did a Hackintosh on my ShuttlePC, I had to write a few kexts myself for sound and video to get it fully functioning and I had to use an external wireless card. But I still lucked out because there were shared components between the first Intel Mac Mini and the ShuttlePC I had, so most things just worked. But it was a gamble. I was able to use that Hackintosh until actual components died, when I switched to my MacBook White and an Intel Mac Mini.
Half-dead again. Turns on, boots up, I start using it, it dies. Everything else now being eliminated, @jaysee must be correct (returning us back to the initial diagnosis at the beginning of this thread). It must be the PSU, and I just don’t think it’s worth spending the money.
Edit: A friend located a PSU in China for $130 AUD with shipping. Let’s hope I didn’t just get screwed. Ah well. I have fraud protection on my card. I’ll just dispute it if it doesn’t arrive or isn’t working/correct.
If it’s from China, it’ll just be a knock off. Which may or may not work well. Good luck.
I don’t think so. It’s marked as used, genuine, the seller has 100% positive feedback from Japanese customers. This isn’t a knock off, new replacement part. Or if it is, I suppose the reviews could all be fake.
I have had good experiences buying parts off Aliexpress for Mac Xserve parts. They break down old machines and buy them. Get the Apple part number and then search there maybe? I have bought GPUs for 2011 iMacs there too with great success.
I presume this is precisely what was done, since this was labeled “used, genuine.”
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Good news:
The new power supply works.
Bad news:
I don’t have the properly sized Allen wrench to install it properly. sigh
Reminds me of the search I had to undertake to find a long enough Allen key to swap CPU in my PM G5… painful.
Some time ago when I needed one I wondered if my mechanic would have one. Was planning to borrow it for a night.
Surgery appears to have been successful. Will slowly add components back in to make sure I don’t overwhelm the new PSU:
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Mac Pro power saga continues. 2 major issues:
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Sometimes the power supply just clicks at me and doesn’t turn on. Sometimes it clicks at me and then turns on a minute later.
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Sometimes the screen goes black in the middle of working and the fans go into full blowing mode. As much work as I have put into this 3,1, if I have to buy another PSU or major component, I’m not going to bother. I’ll probably just go ahead and gut the case and turn it into a Hackintosh/Linux dual boot machine. At least I won’t loose the LOOK of the Cheesegrater.
The gremlins are back ever since installing the unborked GTX 680. It seems like it is mostly a case of watching lots of video. If I just toss up YouTube and let it go for hours, then this problem eventually kicks in. But I left it overnight doing a migration and no problems. I need to see how it handles video editing. I’m NOT buying a PSU. I’m done with upgrades, as others have said in the Mac Pro upgrade order thread (which I will also be updating), it’s time to call it. It’ll last as long as it lasts in its current state and if the PSU outright dies, then I’ll part it out and pass stuff on to someone trying to still keep another system alive.
Gremlins have returned. With the sometimes crashing and the fans going into full blowing mode. I’ve dug deep into forums going back the full 12 years and apparently this is actually a known issue going all the way back to the G5s. No one seems to know exactly why it happens. It’s clearly a design flaw that Apple didn’t maybe lock down until the 4,1/5,1.
Going consensus across many years and many threads seems to be a failure on the logic board itself. The fans are actually behaving as they should–they go into full blowing mode in case the there’s need to quickly cool off components which are doing Bad Things. But as it happens relatively rarely (can go months and months between incidents), this is all just speculation.
Weird.