MP All Models What is this ? Metal thing on the motherboard ?

[Quack-R]

Hi

Last week my mac pro 2008 wouldnt wake from sleep, but after about 12 hours it randomly woke its self up and i was able to back up some files, but it fell asleep again and never woke up again. So, i opened it up and noticed that the dimm2 light was on so i googled it and switched my ram modules about and the dimm2 light is no longer on but the machine still not starting up.

Ok so then i noticed that this metal thing was at an angle lol and for a bit i thought thats how it should be, but the i touched it and it was just hanging on lol having a swing So im thinking that this has to be the problem right, but i dont know what it is. So i cant google how to fix it and the mac repair place wants £60 just to look at it.

Also i cant see a second latch for the bottom hook but it maybe covered up by the graphics card, and the arms with hooks almost have like 90 degree difference, so it dont even look like it would fix to anything but the is some holes that the latch may have been in.

So i need to know the name of the metal radiator looking bit and the latch.

Thanks

I lifted one end of the machine up to see if i could hear a rattle but i couldnt and i tried both ends.

 

[Matty_TypeR]

First things first that machine needs a dam good clean, its disgusting in there. and the latch your missing must be in there some where? most likely buried in debris. dont try and start the machine with out the chipset heatsink fitted with fresh thermal paste. Or you may fry the logic board.

long time since ive seen a machine looking that bad.

 

[DarthVader!]

So i need to know the name of the metal radiator looking bit and the latch.

Its a heat sync, and like a radiator, its used to move heat. It appears the latching mechanism broke and thus without a firm contact your system over heated and shut off to protect itself.

Since the latching mechanism is made of metal, I would definitely look for it in the case, that metal debris could short the system out.

 

[Quack-R]

lol you should of seen it before i hoovered it.

Thanks for the replies guys but how do i buy a new latch if i cant find it ? dose it have a name ?

 

[majus]

how do i buy a new latch if i cant find it ? dose it have a name ?

Ask your repair shop. They should have a parts list, but buying it new isn't likely. Probably have to get one from a dead machine if you cannot find yours.

 

[AlexMaximus]

This latch thing that is missing can be easily replaced. During manufacturing process it is basically treated as a normal electrical component, although it serves only a mechanical purpose. This means it is soldered on the back side of the board just as any other component. Sure, it would be great if you could find the missing original component in the case, but since you vacuumed it most likely is Gone for good. Now you have two options to fix it. Either you go the original route and look for a single solid metal wire (such as paper clip), form it in a way that it has the same size dimensions and solder it on the correct location. Problem will be the fact that you have to disassemble the main Bord to reach the backside. The othe quick fix I can think of is to clean everything on the chip and heat sink and glue it back on with thermal glue. (Yes there is a thermal compound glue). This would be the easiest to do.

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[Quack-R]

I figured out a guitar string would work well cause it will fit through the holes and is bendable and strong enough to work with, but i found an old machine on ebay and it has the same latches and heat sync as mine inside.

Any way this machine has arrived and my new problem for now is that there were 3 hard drives in my machine, i was only aware of 2 hard drives in the machine but theres a 3rd 4tb drive. So i took them out one at a time in order and put them in the new machine, so in my head trey 1 would of been the Macintosh HD drive but when i put trey 1 iin the new machine the ram board light dimm 4 lit up, so i switched 2 modules then dimm3 light lit up, so i switched them back and then put trey 2 from my machine into the new machine, and still dimm3 was lit... So, then i took the mysterious drive out and put that in trey 3 and then no ram lights lit up and the computer started up but its flashing a folder with a question mark. I reset the nvram, this must have worked because the machine started chiming when i turned it on. It hadnt chimed once untill i held the keys down, but it is still flashing the folder with the question mark.

Any idea what this 4tb drive would be because i know my Macintosh HD is only 1TB and i installed the second drive myself and thats 2tb.

But it seems like the new machine needed that 3rd treys drive to work. 🥴

Is there an order to the treys like dose trey 1 have to be the disk with the osx on it ? to me it has to be cause the drive size match it all makes sense for that to be the way its done.

Also the only noticable difference in the machines is the width of the ram board and risers.

I got the thermal paste tho

 

[Quack-R]

I found an old drive and iv put that into slot 1 of the new machine and straight away the screen has gone black and a message in old computer font has popped up saying "ERROR loading operating system_" and thats expected because there is no operating system on it. So the other drives work and the new machine is loading the operating system but nothi9ng is happening when i select a drive after holding down the option key on start up. I know trey 1 drive is Macintosh HD but after hold option the drives dont show up with their names they show up as HD2 and HD

any help is greatly appreciated thanks.

 

[DeltaMac]

Your Mac would show an icon, either the flashing folder, or a "prohibited" symbol (circle with a diagonal line) when something about the boot partition is not correct. That text error message sounds more like what Windows might do during boot, or some other operating system, maybe some form of Linux. Are you sure that there's not some other operating system on that drive that you put in slot 1

 

[Quack-R]

I think that the trey 3 with the 4tb drive inside must have a operating system on it and that the trey 2 drive s the one not showing up when i hold down option key because it shows the folder with a question mark.

Next i will try the trey 2 drive in he slot 1 of the ew machine. Tha should pop up like the windows-ish drive as it just a secondary drive for storage

maybe the 4tb drive in trey 3 is the main macintosh drive and it has a partition on it but for what ever reason the extra 3tb dont show up and the drive in trey 1 is dead

not sure yet but iv been thinking maybe i could just find a rod or a stick (thats the right length) with a metal cap and i could wedge it against the skirting board and it should hold it in place for long enough to copy the data to an extrenal drive.

 

[AlexMaximus]

A couple things popped in my head when I read your description. #assumption-busting
It would be possible the predecessor owner of the second Mac Pro had a different setup than you anticipate, such as software raid or hardware raid but removed the controller befor he sold it. Or he/she had many OS X installed but trashed the boot record And\or had bootcamp withe partitioned hdds. You would need to do a solid re- install of all available hdds and clean up the mess. Before you start, you will need to check the correct seating of your main Bord mounting points. It sounds to me the predecessor removed the main board and lost or interchanged mounting brackets with the result of uneven main board location or incorrect seating which transfers to your indication of leds on that ram tray you mentioned in the beginning. You can do it, the MP 3.1 was such a great workstation. Quick question on the side though, what do you use it for?