F5F Stay Refreshed Software Operating Systems You have an old Mac Pro 3.1 hand-me-down that won't start. Need help?

You have an old Mac Pro 3.1 hand-me-down that won't start. Need help?

You have an old Mac Pro 3.1 hand-me-down that won't start. Need help?

G
Gagsu
Member
Find
195
07-14-2018, 03:08 AM
#1
I recently acquired an old Mac Pro 3,1 that my uncle was disposing of, along with a 24" Cinema HD Monitor. He said neither device was working. Both power sources are connected and the monitor functions properly so far, while the Mac Pro starts up but doesn’t show anything on screen. It has two Xeon E5462 processors, one 2TB blank HDD, 18GB RAM split between top (10GB+4GB) and bottom (8GB) RAM risers, plus an ATI Radeon RV630 2600 with 256MB VRAM. I attempted to create a bootable USB using the Commander on Windows 10 via the Transmac method. The machine powers on, fans spin, but there’s no display or Mac sound. Diagnostic indicators show yellow on standby power and green for stable power, with all other lights off when pressed. I tested various monitors, dual-link DVI ports, and even swapped in another Radeon GPU from a similar era that had a dual-link port. Trying to boot with just two RAM sticks or using the MacBook with Apple’s official Disk Creation software was also unsuccessful. Someone has experience—any suggestions? I’m considering a more DIY approach if needed, or possibly converting it to an ATX build. Thoughts?
Reply
Reply
G
Gagsu
07-14-2018, 03:08 AM #1

I recently acquired an old Mac Pro 3,1 that my uncle was disposing of, along with a 24" Cinema HD Monitor. He said neither device was working. Both power sources are connected and the monitor functions properly so far, while the Mac Pro starts up but doesn’t show anything on screen. It has two Xeon E5462 processors, one 2TB blank HDD, 18GB RAM split between top (10GB+4GB) and bottom (8GB) RAM risers, plus an ATI Radeon RV630 2600 with 256MB VRAM. I attempted to create a bootable USB using the Commander on Windows 10 via the Transmac method. The machine powers on, fans spin, but there’s no display or Mac sound. Diagnostic indicators show yellow on standby power and green for stable power, with all other lights off when pressed. I tested various monitors, dual-link DVI ports, and even swapped in another Radeon GPU from a similar era that had a dual-link port. Trying to boot with just two RAM sticks or using the MacBook with Apple’s official Disk Creation software was also unsuccessful. Someone has experience—any suggestions? I’m considering a more DIY approach if needed, or possibly converting it to an ATX build. Thoughts?

Reply
Reply
R
RulwenJr
Posting Freak
Find
786
07-14-2018, 10:50 AM
#2
Using the same 4GB drives, the apples disk creation tool works well. It's a dual 771 system and still retains some capacity. Updated on December 28, 2018 by GDRRiley.
Reply
Reply
R
RulwenJr
07-14-2018, 10:50 AM #2

Using the same 4GB drives, the apples disk creation tool works well. It's a dual 771 system and still retains some capacity. Updated on December 28, 2018 by GDRRiley.

Reply
Reply
X
XGigaPL
Member
Find
172
07-14-2018, 05:52 PM
#3
Using a GPU without Mac firmware means no display will appear until the system boots and loads the OS and drivers. The card you tried won't function in that scenario. Consider using RAM that matches.
Reply
Reply
X
XGigaPL
07-14-2018, 05:52 PM #3

Using a GPU without Mac firmware means no display will appear until the system boots and loads the OS and drivers. The card you tried won't function in that scenario. Consider using RAM that matches.

Reply
Reply
M
m0deYT
Member
Find
144
07-14-2018, 06:05 PM
#4
Started by removing the 2x1gb RAM modules. Surprisingly, the seemingly empty 2TB drive still had a backup operating system installed. However, it appears the account is tied to another Apple ID, making it unusable.
Reply
Reply
M
m0deYT
07-14-2018, 06:05 PM #4

Started by removing the 2x1gb RAM modules. Surprisingly, the seemingly empty 2TB drive still had a backup operating system installed. However, it appears the account is tied to another Apple ID, making it unusable.

Reply
Reply
F
Feng_Liu_WL
Junior Member
Find
18
07-16-2018, 11:25 PM
#5
Started with the 2x1gb RAM sticks, booting successfully. The 2TB drive had a backup OS but was tied to another Apple ID, making it unusable. I reformatted the 2TB HDD as an installer USB, but the OS won’t show up in the installer. Only the flash drive appears, claiming it’s too small for installation despite being 32GB. The EXFAT format is correct for the drive, but the installation process isn’t recognizing it properly. What format should I use to make it appear as a proper HDD for OS installation?
Reply
Reply
F
Feng_Liu_WL
07-16-2018, 11:25 PM #5

Started with the 2x1gb RAM sticks, booting successfully. The 2TB drive had a backup OS but was tied to another Apple ID, making it unusable. I reformatted the 2TB HDD as an installer USB, but the OS won’t show up in the installer. Only the flash drive appears, claiming it’s too small for installation despite being 32GB. The EXFAT format is correct for the drive, but the installation process isn’t recognizing it properly. What format should I use to make it appear as a proper HDD for OS installation?

Reply
Reply