So my MacPro has been slowly getting harder to power up of late. I could get it to work, but I had to unplug the power for over 30 seconds, then plug it back in and it would usually power up, though sometimes it was not so easy.
Well last week it stopped powering up at all. If I unplugged the power and plugged it in and hit the power I got a RED LED from inside, but that was it. Not white light and no power.
Luckily I have the Service Manual for my MacPro 4,1. I went through the checklist in the service manual, and didn’t get far. Basically plugged the computer in, and hit the diagnostic button, and the only light i got was the 2 red leds, and I didn’t get the 5V STBY light. So it was either the power supply or the backplane board.
Now I thought it was the powersupply and not the backplane board. I have been running an NVIDIA Geforce and multiple PCI cards, and it is a 2009 macpro, so I figured it was the power supply.
I searched for Power Supplies on Ebay and they all looked used but working, but I didn’t want another used power supply. So my dad pointed me to DV Warehouse. And they had a new power supply for the 4,1 and 5,1 for $228 plus shipping and tax. I got the new power supply today.
It was certainly not the easiest install. First off the 4 hex screws are pretty well hidden and there is not much room to turn them. It took me a good half hour to get the screws out and pull the old power supply. And it was literally filled with dust. LITERALLY FILLED WITH DUST! The problem with Apple hiding the power supply so well, is it is so hard to clean out. You only have access from the back panel and that leaves no place for the dust to leave. Honestly it should be easier to remove so it is easier to clean. I can bet many MacPro deaths are because of all the damn dust in the power supply.
So I put the new power supply in, took the time to put those damn hex screws back in, replaced my PCI cards and hard drives.
And it powered right up. It was the power supply.
So lets hope between that and the new video card I can easily get a few more years out of this machine before I have to replace it and it is time to move to Windows.