Resolved 2007 Dual Quad 8 core 3ghz 2,1 freezes & KPs

[MIKX]

I sold my old cMP 2,1 Dual Quad 3ghz to a very good friend last year.
8 gb RAM = 4 x 2gb installed in 1 ~ 4 ram slots ( bottom RAM tray "A" ).
No red RAM LEDs after boot up.

GPU genuine Apple HD 4870 512mb shows EFI bootselector
I've also had it booting from a flashed XFX HD 5770
Using PCI slot 1 x16

History :
This 2,1 had a replacement backplane installed by an accredited Apple reseller around ( EDIT ) 2008.

I installed Mavericks 9.5 ( I'm aware it's unsupported but it was working with no problems). I also installed WIn7 which was also working.

I tried a new install of Snow Leopard 10.6.8 - did this install to the 2,1's spinner HD on my cMP 4,1>5,1

Around 2009 I changed the onboard CR20132 battery ( power cable was removed. Wrong ? . . . and lost my Firewire sockets but the cMP otherwise worked normally in every other aspect.

I've had it booting from a flashed XFX HD 5770 & the HD 4870

Problem :

1. No chime at startup. ( removed the audio speaker unit & checked that the 2 pin cable was connected to the motherboard. MP4 videos play OK WITH headphone audio.

2. Now no matter which Apple OS or Win 7 is run either I get a KP after about 4 minutes or either OS loads up and everything freezes after 4 minutes.

3. Now just had Snow Leopard working for 10 minutes until the dreaded Kernel Panic returned.

4. I have the correct AHT CD but holding down "D" at startup just doesn't work so it sounds like a hardware problem seeing the Win 7 freezes too yet both Snow Leopard & Win 7 & Mavericks ALL boot up . . . then . . . either freeze or Kernel Panic .

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Console log ( PDF) from 10.6.8 install.


I would be very grateful to hear from any 2,1 owners whom have been in a similar situation and found the cause

 

[fhturner]

My first suspicion would be RAM or CPU overheating. I have a 2,1 whose SMC is on a permanent vacation, and the fans never come off of idle, no matter what the processors are doing. So, without taking corrective action, prolonged processing like video transcoding can overheat the CPUs and cause a shutdown or KP.

Also, I’ve had crashes before that point (sometimes just restarting) from the RAM also overheating. Those modules get very hot, especially 3rd party ones that don’t have Apple’s gargantuan heat spreaders.

You may have similar cooling issues going on with your system, perhaps even a misbehaving SMC as well. Until and unless I can wake up the SMC, I’ve been using Macs Fan Control to ramp up the fans on my own conditions. Not perfect, but it can at least work that way.

 

[MIKX]

fhturner

Oddly enough I've been deeply into cooling my 4,1>5,1 with a small fan / Mac Fan Control ! Thanks so much, the cooling issue with the 2,1 hadn't occurred to me !

I'll look into it tonight.

 

[MIKX]

fhturner

Both of my 2gb RAM modules have the " gargantuan " heat spreaders.

I'll check out the fans tonight - 5:40 pm here in Japan.

 

[MIKX]

Checked and my CPU fans are working.
Copied Mac Fans Control over to the Mavericks install.
Mavericks 10.9.5 booted up in SAFE BOOT but before I could get Macs Fan Control up & running . . . the 2,1 FROZE.

The same thing has been happening with a clean Snow Leopard 10.6.8 install.

Could any Macrumors Terminal geniuses have a look at my Console log in Post #1 please?

Anything strange happening at boot up ?
====================================

EDIT : Just managed to get Mac Fans Control running in Mavericks 10.9.5 with the Apple HD 4870 and set some arbitrary HIGH fan speeds to prove a point. This time it took about 5 minutes until the FREEZE happened again.

I'm booting the HD 512mb DVI to HDMI & I also have an EFI flashed HD 5770 which also has booted in this 2,1 cMP.

==========================================
I'm beginning to think that it's a hardware problem & a new backplane is in order.

But . . . I might try putting new thermal paste on the CPU's

 

[MIKX]

Can anyone recommend a good ebay seller for an A1186 2,1 Dual Quad backplane ?

i have been scouring the net but yet to find a seller with decent prices ?

Much appreciated.

 

[MIKX]

I seemed to have fixed this 2007 Dual Quad 3ghz cMP HD 4870. . . no idea how I did it but it seemed to a combination of PRAM & SMC resets & kexts to be cached and permissions repaired.

It could also have been a dirty PCI slot 1.

I also removed the Mavericks HDD and in my 2009 4,1>5,1 removed any suspicious stuff.

I did get one RED LED 2 ( 2nd. from the left ) which indicates according to the manual "
CPU B halts on an IERR (instruction error)

In this scenario the 2,1 had frozen - I then prodded the white button to get the above RED LED.



The DP Quad 3ghz has now been purring along in Mavericks 10.9.5 quite happily for the past 2 hours whereas prior the screen would freeze within 3 ~ 5 minutes. i'm going to let it run all day to validate the fix.

In the process I learned a lot about understanding & reading the 2,1's DIAG LEDs - until then i was at a complete loss as to why the freezes were happening.

For those who are unaware first get the Dual Quad 2,1 Apple service manual http://tim.id.au/laptops/apple/macpro/macpro_8x.pdf

Go to page 137 and do some reading.
Note that with a GPU installed in PCI slot 1 you cannot see the DIAG LEDS unless you look through the top RAM cage and at the same time ( using a pencil or something non-conductive ) press the little white button ( called SMC_RESET ) next to the CR2032 battery and note which of the 8 LEDs are ON & what colour - normally they should all be un-lit until pressed with the pencil.

They will tell you the following ( right to left )

8. EFI is loaded
7. All power rails are working
6. EFI has configured the GPU
5. CPU A is over temperature.
4. CPU B " " " " " " " "" "
3. CPU A HALT due to instruction error
2. CPU B. " " " " "" " " " " "" " " " " "
1. PSU is supplying TRICKLE POWER.

I strongly suspect that No.2 was the culprit in my case.

I hope that this post will be useful to other 2007 Dual Quad 3ghz cMPs - despite being power hungry, they are still very useful for un-stressful everyday use but I would not recommend anything higher than a HD 5770 GPU.

 

[MIKX]

EDIT :

I thought the problem SOLVED but not so. Thinking that it WAS solved I shut down and inserted a WIN 7 install . .. .now . . no startup. .. looks like a replacement logic board is needed.

Apologies to those who read my now deleted prior post.

 

[MIKX]

Turns out there were a number of causes with the FREEZING in this 2,1 cMP

1. Samsung monitor - too old and the internal PCB is notorious for failure.

2. Bad RAM

3. SMC & PRAM resets + Ketutility to fix kext caches + repair permissions.

Now up. happy, healthy and running.

 

[MIKX]

EDIT : April 29th. 2019​

Actually, I had a spare re-conditioned cMP 2,1 PSU . . installed that and changed out the old Samsung monitor to a newer iiyama 23" and all problems simply disappeared.the old PSU - at a very close inspection had " melted" components drooped over the PSU cage frame

Moral : Don't throw anything Mac related away.

Mavericks 10.9.5 & Win 7 now both running perfectly in this 2,1 Dual Quad 3ghz.