Mac Pro chime but no boot display

[robalexclark]

Hi,

I've just bought a second hand mac pro in order to compile ios apps. This is my first ever mac. On getting it home I got it to boot a couple of times, *but* I don't ever recall seeing a boot screen or "apple logo" for any kind - it went straight to the login screen. Given that I never turned on a mac before I didn't know what to expect so just logged in using the administrator account and had a bit of a play. The problems started when I did a check for updates (Yosemite) and it installed an update. I think that this was a patch to Yosemite, not an update to El Capitan (?) 20 minutes later it rebooted and I heard the startup chime but no boot display at all.

Things I've tried:

Turning all the power off and leaving for 5 minutes
Doing a NVRAM reset using win key+alt+p+r. I do hear the boot chime again when I do this which is encouraging.
winkey+r to access recovery console
alt (options key?) on its own

The mac seems to have 2 500gb disks but when I looked in system info on the previous boots it appeared as 1gb drive. Is this a raid configuration?
I did see suggestions on the internet that if the graphics card has been changed this might be why the boot screen would not appear?
I'm using a vga connection to an old monitor, would this be a problem at all?

Any suggestions as where to go from here would be appreciated!

 

[chscag]

Welcome to our forums.

The reason you're not seeing a "Boot Screen" is because your Mac Pro probably has a non Apple graphics card in use. That's a common problem with using certain graphic cards in the Mac Pro. One of our Mac Pro "experts" will probably be able to explain all this better than I can.

 

[harryb2448]

It will help greatly if you can supply model details of this Mac Pro. As Administrator chscag said, some PC cards, and even flashed cards, cannot run the boot sequence which makes it impossible to run Recovery by using the Command R process.

Also if it is a Mac Pro 1.1 or 2.1, some were turned into 'hackintoshes' in order to run operating systems later than Lion OS X.7. The kext files and EFI are changed and upgrading the operating system again after Yosemite kills the hack. Will await your response..

 

[robalexclark]

Hi thank you all for your help with this.

I don't know the model of the mac pro - where is this information located on the mac? It is a twin xeon based pc. The graphics card is an ati radeon of some sort, but I've not extracted it to see its model number yet.

 

[chscag]

Hi thank you all for your help with this.

I don't know the model of the mac pro - where is this information located on the mac? It is a twin xeon based pc. The graphics card is an ati radeon of some sort, but I've not extracted it to see its model number yet.

Click on the Apple menu (upper left corner of screen). Select "About this Mac" and then paste details into your next reply. If you dig down even further in that information tab, you'll see what graphics card your Mac Pro is using.

 

[harryb2448]

All Mac Pros use Xeon processors. Look on the back if you can't boot it up.

See if there is model numbers such as A1186, or EMC numbers such as EMC1183.

 

[pigoo3]

Agree with what chscag mentioned above. This behavior happens (usually) when folks "hack" 1st generation Mac Pro's to run OS versions that Apple never intended them to run...and in some of these cases a video card with at least 512meg is needed. This "hacking" process changes the standard Mac booting routine. Where you don't get the normal Mac boot screen.

- Nick

 

[lclev]

If it is trying to boot then there is life. If you can supply the model numbers on the back (if it won't boot) we can go from there.

Lisa

 

[Rod]

You did not mention it but it sounds like; you turned it on and logged in with an Admin Password. You do not mention setup at all. When turning on a new or second hand Mac you should be presented with the Setup Wizard window. This guides you through the process of setting up Language, Users & Passwords, Time Zone, creating an Apple ID, a WiFi network, email account, ect, ect. If you did not get that at initial startup then the previous owner did not properly prepare the device for sale.
Instructions for which are freely available on the web.
Ignoring this process can cause all sorts of problems for you and the previous owner.

 

[robalexclark]

Thanks again for the education here.

Model No. A1186, EMC No. 2113.


I did ask if he had reset the pc (like you can with windows). He said he hadn't and that he had only removed the users from the machine. I assumed that I would be able do this myself as I had the admin password. I guess I assumed a lot of things...

I would ultimately like to get El Capitan working on this so I can compile an iOS app through Xamarin but appreciate that his may not be possible (if I can even coax some life out of it).

 

[IWT]

I did ask if he had reset the pc (like you can with windows). He said he hadn't and that he had only removed the users from the machine. I assumed that I would be able do this myself as I had the admin password.

I assume you mean you have the previous owner's Admin PW?

If so, it is linked to his name, his Apple ID and iCloud ID as well.

If he only "removed users", then he probably didn't de-authorise the Mac, de-authorise iTunes and so on. The proper procedure for him was to do all that, then erase the HDD, re-download the appropriate OS sand leave you with a welcome screen where, as Rod so elegantly explained, you could start claiming the Mac as your own.

The problem you have is that nothing on the Mac, OS included, actually "belongs" to you. You won't get updates to the OS or be able to use the apps - as everything is linked to his Apple ID.

This link tells you what he should have done. Follow the links within the article for the whole story: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201065

Then, we'll have to try and sort out what you can do now.

Ian

 

[robalexclark]

I read the links, but I'm not 100% sure whether the authorisation is linked to the mac pro hardware, or to the OSX Licence? If it is the latter then can I buy either disks or a usb boot disk with the latest compatible version of OSX and start over? If its the former then is that the end of the road for this machine?

 

[pigoo3]

Model No. A1186, EMC No. 2113.

I read the links, but I'm not 100% sure whether the authorisation is linked to the mac pro hardware, or to the OSX Licence? If it is the latter then can I buy either disks or a usb boot disk with the latest compatible version of OSX and start over? If its the former then is that the end of the road for this machine?

As I mentioned above (and was verified with the exact model info)...this is a 2006 1st generation Mac Pro. "Apple Official" newest OS for this computer ("latest compatible version") is OS 10.7.5 (first released July, 2011).

It is possible via "hacks" to run newer OS versions on this model Mac Pro (which is why the boot screen issue that started the thread is not seen). Since this computer is in "unofficial territory"...it's really up to the user to address issues on their own...because it's possible to turn the computer into a "brick" if these hack's are applied incorrectly...or if info mentioned here is incorrect, misunderstood, or applied incorrectly.

Sounds like this computer is currently running Yosmite (OS 10.10). I think that it's possible to run El Capitan (OS 10.11)...again via a hack. Each OS version has it's own "hack procedure". If you want to do any OS install's on this computer...you need to search the internet...find the appropriate OS install hack...and then proceed with the install. Again...if the procedure is applied incorrectly...the computer can be turned into a brick. We at Mac-Forums do not want to be responsible for this happening. Please proceed at your own risk.

Good luck,

- Nick

 

[lclev]

There is a lot of information you can google about upgrading the 2006 MP 1,1. I would suggest you start reading. Also there are some users on Macrumors that have done a lot of upgrading of older systems you might try posting there.

https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/mac-pro.1/

https://www.google.com/#q=upgrading+2006+mac+pro

And as Nick said - good luck.

Lisa

 

[harryb2448]

What ahappened when you bupgraded the operating system, inadvertently or otherwise, the 32bit Boot EFI has been killed this the machine will no longer boot. The correct procedure is to cancel all future upgrades to prevent nthis happening. Here is a link which may get you out of trouble updating the Mac Pro to El Capitan, but be warned it is literally thousands of posts long:-


https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/2006-2007-mac-pro-1-1-2-1-and-os-x-el-capitan.1890435/

 

[Rod]

I'm not sure where you bought this but I would be returning it to the seller. You have bought yourself a lot of work, some of which is pretty risky. This person really sold you a lemon if he was claiming it was "reset" and a working concern. You can use the link in Post #11 from IWT as support for your claim. If it was eBay or similar you definitely have grounds for a dispute.

 

[robalexclark]

At moment the mac pro is a brick (well breezeblock actually). At this point in time I would like to install OS X Lion. I don't have any install disks. Can I buy something like this off ebay and get OS X Lion installed?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mac-Os-X-...473117?hash=item3adfd665dd:g:-2MAAOSwONBZAw-o

Are these legit? Do they give a licence to install OS X again, or (as stated in the ebay description) is the OS X software free to download and install on a mac?

If I put the USB in and press the alt key will the mac automatically try and boot from it so that I can select it to boot from?

I appreciate that these are basic questions for you guys...

 

[Rod]

Not that basic, I think i should let others comment on how reliable these would be but in theory these should work. The usual process would be to get Snow Leopard and update to Lion from there but I think that will cost so if others thing the OSX Lion drive is workable then you really only need plug it in and press power on. No keys are necessary it should just boot. It will be a bit slow because of the USB connection. Then I suggest you go to Disk Utility and erase and reformat the HD as Mac OSX Extended (Journalled) then perform an installation of the OS.

 

[harryb2448]

Somehow to do that you need to get it back to 32bit Boot EFI. The hack that was performed blocked that. I think you are in for a long, long search to restore it, if possible.

I haxd this problem with my Mac Pro and rather than go this way, I sold it an d went into iMacs. I have updated 1.1 and 2.1 Mac Pros, popped in later CPUs to improve performance, but have yet to see through from searches any instructions for reverting the EFI back to 32bits. Maybe it is not even possible.

 

[Rod]

There you go, I was afraid of that. Is there no way you can get your money back from the source?