Hi, I have a 2009 mac pro 4,1 that has been flashed and upgraded to a single tray 6 core xeon machine running El capitain with 32 gigs Ram, 2 1TB 7200rpm HDDs, 4 port pcie usb 3.0 card and a geforce 120GT GPU which i use strictly for audio production. Recently i woke up one morning to fire up the mac and i didnt hear any chime like usual and both my monitors said no signal? So I checked online forums and was told its most likely the GPU so i ordered an nvidia 8800GT efi 64 specifically for my model of mac installed it and still had the same problem? So i checked each stick of ram by itself to rule out any faulty sticks they were all good, i pulled out my hard drives a checked those and they were good, i reset the pram with the key commands and still nothing? I checked for any red or orange lights on the logic board and cpu tray and still saw no issue, all fans are working fine, at this point i decided to take it into a repair shop and the told me it was probably the CPU so they replaced it and still didnt solve the issue? Then they said it was the logic board so i had a new one put in which was flashed to 5,1 and was mojave ready and still no chime and no video signal and ive even tried multiple monitors and tvs and also new cables??? So at this point and hundreds of dollars later i dont know what else it could be ive practically replaced the entire machine except for the CPU tray so in my mind its a firmware issue which is hard to diagnose since i cant get any video signal to troubleshoot or something on the CPU tray is faulty but id really like that to be my last resort as ive spent a good deal of money as it is already so any solutions would be appreciated thanks...
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MP 1,1-5,1 No video signal and no chime?
- Thread starter Ritchie Masters
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is the nvidia 8800GT plugged in to the 6pin? (do nvidia 8800GT need extra power never used one)
1 do you have any spare GPU's or know any one who can lend you a GPU? (mac card or a PC gtx6xx card or AMD 5xxx or 7xxx card)
2 have you tried a different display cable
3 have you tried different displays
1 do you have any spare GPU's or know any one who can lend you a GPU? (mac card or a PC gtx6xx card or AMD 5xxx or 7xxx card)
2 have you tried a different display cable
3 have you tried different displays
Yes ive tried 2 GPUs which both work on other machines and the 6 pin is plugged in, it will make a loud high pitched sound when its not, ive tried multiple monitors and cables as mentioned in my first post, I cant think of anything else to try ive exhausted all known options at this point and the only symptoms i have to go on are no chime and no video.
I counted my losses and went ahead and ordered another a replacement cpu tray, this is the last piece of hardware to replace as ive already replace all other parts besides the aluminum shell so if this dont work then i just wasted almost 800 on repairs and still didnt get it running? If anyone still has any options left im all ears.
Go bare bones: 1 stick of RAM, 1 SATA SSD/HDD with one partition for your OS. No USB except keyboard/mouse. No additional PCIe except ONE SINGLE GPU.
Reset THREE TIMES:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063
If you still cannot boot or access recovery, you could be looking at board replacement(s) or an issue with part(s) you've already swapped. FYI, most recommend purchasing a second machine and parting that out for this exact cost reason...
Reset THREE TIMES:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063
If you still cannot boot or access recovery, you could be looking at board replacement(s) or an issue with part(s) you've already swapped. FYI, most recommend purchasing a second machine and parting that out for this exact cost reason...
What about the power supply? It might have gone bad and it's not that uncommon for a computer power supply to break after a few years of daily usage. Might just be bad capacitors if you're lucky.
Thanks for the response but i have tried going bare with just one stick of ram no usb devices attached, no extra pcie cards and just one drive? On top of that i tried no drives no gpu and no optical drive and cleaning out dust with compressed air can just to see if anything interesting would happen and still nothing, it just wont get past the POST and chime? All i can think of is the cpu tray has some kind of malfunction but according to the diagnostics everything is running fine, i was also told to take out all sticks of ram and see if the power light blinks and if so its not a firmware issue so that leaves only a hardware issue.
Inspect carefully the CPU tray for bent/broken pins, as well as the pins on the baseboard where the tray slides in.
Read this manual. There is a troubleshooting guide you can follow step-by-step
Update, i figured out that my keyboard is not registering upon boot so there is no way to tell if my recent attempts at resetting the Pram actually worked? Is there a way around this? I have tried the keyboard on other systems and runs fine so its not the keyboard, also how would i know if the psu is bad if everything turns on and runs as normal? Wouldnt it not power up at all?
there is a button on the main logic board near the battery / bottom pcie slot. you could try that. i think it resets the pram too.
a bad psu could power up the system but it might be missing a voltage that's necessary too boot up the system properly (or that voltage might just be a bit too low).
a bad psu could power up the system but it might be missing a voltage that's necessary too boot up the system properly (or that voltage might just be a bit too low).
I had the exact same issue. No video signal, no chime. It turned out that the CPU tray was bad. You should be able to get a replacement on ebay for under $50. Look for a seller that accepts returns in case that does not fix the issue. The only thing you will loose is return shipping. Good luck.
Okay ill try that out and share my finding thanks for the suggestion
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Thanks for the input, I hope that fixes the issue, i ordered one from a seller who accepts them back but mine was $250 i havent really seen them much cheaper then that for a 6 core tray unless their missing parts or something? It should be here in a week or so ill post my results after installing it to see if it worked or not.
Your CPU and ram will work between CPU trays. A tray should cost around $50 and a 6-core x5690 costs around $100.
UPDATE, Replacement CPU tray came in, I swapped it with the old one and it fired right up!!! It was the tray this whole time? Too bad I had to replace all other parts first to narrow it down but atleast if other have this problem they can learn from my mistakes, thank you to all who helped troubleshoot this problem much appreciated