Aquired an old mac

[TeaAitchSea420]

I’ve got a really old Mac Pro I jus got hold off for free I’m wanna upgrade it a bit as it’s  for light music creation as I have a pc for games. It’s currently not working the power led flashes when plugged in but no boot. What are some steps I could take to figure out what’s wrong without getting replacement parts straight away. Jus looking for some inspiration of where to start. I’ve uploaded a picture of the model number etc 

[WhitetailAni]

Open it up and make sure nothing is disconnected.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

21 minutes ago, TeaAitchSea420 said:

I’ve got a really old Mac Pro I jus got hold off for free I’m wanna upgrade it a bit as it’s  for light music creation as I have a pc for games. It’s currently not working the power led flashes when plugged in but no boot. What are some steps I could take to figure out what’s wrong without getting replacement parts straight away. Jus looking for some inspiration of where to start. I’ve uploaded a picture of the model number etc 

 

I would reset the SMC first in addition to checking nothing is loose inside. Thankfully this isn't a PowerPC one as those things are water cooled if I remember correctly. And they had a tendency to leak... right onto the PSU that lives underneath it. Whereas Intel ones went back to air cooling if I'm not mistaken. 

Desktop computers

1. Shut down your Mac, then unplug the power cord.
2. Wait 15 seconds, then plug the power cord back in.
3. Wait 5 seconds, then press the power button to turn on your Mac.

 

[WhitetailAni]

If you can get it to start up, clear the NVRAM too:
Option+Command+P+R after the chime sounds

You will probably want an Apple keyboard to fix this - trying to figure out which keys mean what on a non-Apple keyboard will be a pain.

[TeaAitchSea420]

4 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

I’m gonna take it apart see if anything’s loose , if nothing is loose and still no boot what should be first step , I built my pc with no issues so I wouldn’t know about trouble shooting 

[WhitetailAni]

I hope you have an iFixit kit.

Apple has a tendency to use the 6-point star screws.

[TeaAitchSea420]

1 minute ago, ragnarok0273 said:

I hope you have an iFixit kit.

Apple has a tendency to use the 6-point star screws.

I do not and didn’t know that , that’s super annoying I’ll have to check if my kit has them when I’m home 

[CommanderAlex]

7 minutes ago, ragnarok0273 said:

I hope you have an iFixit kit.

Apple has a tendency to use the 6-point star screws.

By 6 point screws are you referring to Torx? Apple has their own proprietary screw head type called Pentalobe (Penta for 5) and its a 5 point screw. You see those on Macs since at least 2013 and up. 

 

From looking up the tag, this is a Mac Pro 1,1 "Quad Core" 2.66 that was released in 2006 up to 2008. 

I have attached a copy of the Apple Service Manual for you to investigate why the machine is giving you power LED flashes. Check to see if there are even any hard drives in.  

[HanZie82]

9 minutes ago, TeaAitchSea420 said:

I do not and didn’t know that , that’s super annoying I’ll have to check if my kit has them when I’m home 

If you dont have them, they are called Torx screws. (and if they have a pin in the middle they are security Torx.

[TeaAitchSea420]

58 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

By 6 point screws are you referring to Torx? Apple has their own proprietary screw head type called Pentalobe (Penta for 5) and its a 5 point screw. You see those on Macs since at least 2013 and up. 

 

From looking up the tag, this is a Mac Pro 1,1 "Quad Core" 2.66 that was released in 2006 up to 2008. 

I have attached a copy of the Apple Service Manual for you to investigate why the machine is giving you power LED flashes. Check to see if there are even any hard drives in.  

So I’ve seen the light I’ve jus opened it, it’s saying cpu a and cpu b is the issue, if reseating doesn’t fix are they dead?

[CommanderAlex]

6 minutes ago, TeaAitchSea420 said:

So I’ve seen the light I’ve jus opened it, it’s saying cpu a and cpu b is the issue, if reseating doesn’t fix are they dead?

Well one part of the issue is the fact that the thermal paste is over 14 years old on this thing, its time for a repaste. So the diagnostic LEDs are saying CPU A and CPU B are lit?

[whm1974]

12 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

Well one part of the issue is the fact that the thermal paste is over 14 years old on this thing, its time for a repaste. So the diagnostic LEDs are saying CPU A and CPU B are lit?

Is this even worth bothering with? What are the CPUs, x86-64 Intel Xeons?

[WhitetailAni]

Why are you going around hating on people's projects?

[CommanderAlex]

1 minute ago, whm1974 said:

Is this even worth bothering with? What are the CPUs, x86-64 Intel Xeons?

Yup, and power hungry as well. They are 2 core/ 4 threads each. It might be fun to tinker around with but from day to day use...its obsolete (Latest Mac OS X is 10.7 Lion). There are patchers out there such as dosdudes1 that can bring it up to El Capitan but otherwise...might as well make a PC case out of it if you want to mod it. 

[TeaAitchSea420]

3 minutes ago, whm1974 said:

Is this even worth bothering with? What are the CPUs, x86-64 Intel Xeons?

It’s a relic I’d like to get some use out of if I can

[TeaAitchSea420]

18 minutes ago, CommanderAlex said:

Well one part of the issue is the fact that the thermal paste is over 14 years old on this thing, its time for a repaste. So the diagnostic LEDs are saying CPU A and CPU B are lit?

Yeah they’re saying over temp when it’s plugged in then when I press power button it flashes fail 

[charlie_root]

I'd try fresh thermal paste and a reseat. Make sure all fans are functioning and clear of dust as well.

[TeaAitchSea420]

What would a safe cpu upgrade be as I am not sure what the power supply is rated for 

[TeaAitchSea420]

Just now, jsf said:

I'd try fresh thermal paste and a reseat. Make sure all fans are functioning and clear of dust as well.

No fans spin when plugged in

[CommanderAlex]

1 minute ago, TeaAitchSea420 said:

Yeah they’re saying over temp when it’s plugged in then when I press power button it flashes fail 

You have to go ahead and apply new thermal paste on the CPUs. Its a bit of a hassle with that plastic shroud but its not too hard (if your not careful or in a rush, you may cut your knuckles or fingers on metal). 

 

1 minute ago, jsf said:

I'd try fresh thermal paste and a reseat. Make sure all fans are functioning and clear of dust as well.

Especially in the top where the PSU is. Remove the optical drive cage in the front and blow it all out (it looks like it snows on the Mac Pros I've worked on). 

[whm1974]

3 minutes ago, ragnarok0273 said:

Why are you going around hating on people's projects?

I'm only pointing out how pointless this is.

4 minutes ago, TeaAitchSea420 said:

It’s a relic I’d like to get some use out of if I can

And how much memory does this have? A cheap modern quad core CPU will beat this silly and able to have more memory installed as well.

[WhitetailAni]

Does it matter?
Lots of things we do are pointless.

I'm restoring three computers right now - an iMac G5, a Power Mac G4, and an IBM PC clone (Am486 DX2-80).

It's pointless, but we do it anyway.

[PlayStation 2]

3 minutes ago, Caroline said:

[charlie_root]

26 minutes ago, TeaAitchSea420 said:

No fans spin when plugged in

In that case, my suspicion is a PSU issue. Fortunately, they should be easy to find on eBay.

[kpluck]

You might find some useful information here… The Definitive Classic Mac Pro (2006-2012) Upgrade Guide

 

-kp