It’s December, where is the iMac Pro? And this doesn’t bode well for the Mac Pro!

So after being announced 6 months ago, the iMac Pro is said to be coming out in December. Well it is December 4th and there is no more word on it. In fact we still don’t know any real tech specs on the speed of processors or the like. And we are right at the end of the fiscal year, so if it doesn’t make it out this year, people just might hold off. After all the rumors seem to point to the fact that the processor speed will in fact be much slower than the current iMac 5K, so only being faster in apps that make heavy use of multi-core and faster graphics cards.

And I have to be honest this makes me worry more for the next “modular” MacPro. What the hell is taking so long? I get that the iMac had to have some heavy engineering to fit pro components into the iMac frame (though why it couldn’t have been bigger and easier to clean out I just don’t know). With the MacPro the last time Apple spent so much time on thinking they knew what people wanted and needed we got the un-expandable trashcan which was a disaster. I don’t want Apple to re-invent the wheel here, I want a cheese grater mac with new technology including thunderbolt. And standard off the shelf PCI expansion with USB 3.1. I don’t need it to be Modular, it doesn’t need to re-invent anything. In fact I don’t want it to.

Hell I would go for a bigger version of the cheese grater, with more PCI slots and more RAM slots and more hard drive slots. It could have built in raid with a chasis-less housing for hard drives.

The thing is if it was going to be that it wouldn’t have needed to take 6 months. It could have been done and released by now if that was the case. Apple is trying to come up with something new again, and that scares me.

I had been on the edge of buying a PC to replace my MacPro 4,1, but the announcement gave me hope that my next computer could be a MacPro instead of a Windows Machine, but no word on the MacPro and no word even on the iMac Pro gives me pause.

I don’t think Apple really gets the pro market, and I don’t think they care about it. It is too small of a market (even though it is the market that saved them in the dark years), but they used to understand that it was the pro market’s coolness that trickled down and made people use Macs at home. Now they will string us along and give us something new that we really don’t want. And I am scared that my MacPro may be the last Mac I ever own.

Intel launches new Xeon’s, likely what will be in new MacPro

Intel is launching a new series of scalable Xeon processors. They have a new mesh architecture which will make them more optimized. They all can run dual processor from Bronze  with 8 cores at 1.7 GHz, silver with 12 cores at 2.2 GHz, gold can run up to 4 processors with 14 cores at 3.6 GHz or 22 cores at 3.4 GHz and Platinum with 28 cores at 3.6 GHz and support for 8 CPU’s.

I bet the 1.7 is too slow, but we could see the 2.2 GHz and up in a new MacPro though I doubt they have more than dual CPU options. These are certainly not the processors in the iMac Pro though.

These Skylake Xeons should have a 1.65 times performance boost over the current Broadwell Xeon’s which likely will be in the iMac Pro.

Let’s hope the new Mac Pro really is a great machine. We all just want the cheese grater though and not some design wonder.

Apple admits it was wrong and is working on a new MacPro

So Apple held a little event with Reporters to talk about it’s plans for the MacPro and Pros in general. TechCrunch has a long article on the event.

Finally Apple is saying that there is a pro future with Apple. That they realize they did wrong with the MacPro Trash can, as it was not easily upgradeable, even for them to release an upgraded model (which they finally released at the event along with a price cut, though this should have come out in 2014). They basically admit that they bet it all on dual processor gpus, which has not proved to be what people want (they didn’t mention that they were custom designed connectors that can’t be replaced, or that NVIDIA is moving away from dual GPU’s). And they made a Machine based around thermal constraints, but couldn’t upgrade it because of that afterwards.

They say they have started working on a new modular system that will include a Pro Display, to release not in 2017, which could mean years. They don’t say anything about user upradeable though, just more easily upgradable by Apple, which is good, but not great. I want to be able to use any PC graphics card, like I can in my old MacPro, and have addition PCI slots as well as Thunderbolt 3, USB 3 and the like, and I wouldn’t mind a Firewire 800 port, though I doubt it. Honestly I want an old MacPro tower with new Tech, not Apple once again trying to prove it’s inovation like it did with the trashcan release.

In the interim they have said there are going to make more Pro iMacs. No idea what that means. More cores? Real desktop graphics? NVIDIA instead of AMD!? I doubt it. User upgradeable? Doubt it? Have to get an Origin Omni for that.

I love Mac, and would love to stay Mac. The question is does Apple really understand what Video Pros want? They sure haven’t since around 2010. Still if I can make my 2009 MacPro last until the new MacPro is released, I can see if I can stay Mac.

I would love to stay Mac, and this gives me sone glimmer of hope, but I still worry as if they were so interested in the Pro user they should be much farther along than not in 2017. Must be a very recent decision. I bet with so many Pros moving to Windows they got scared, though not scared enough to add pen support to laptops!

Well that was fun. Replaced the power supply in my MacPro.

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.

Red Shark article on Mac Pro users wanting a simple powerful box

Red Shark has an article on Mac Pro users not caring about design, just wanting a powerful expandable box. I love the idea of a MacPro Classic with modern inards. Heck I would be OK with a PC box with Modern Mac innards, but the MacPro Classic is exactly what I want. Or honestly an even bigger box, with not only the 4 drive slots, but also a 4 drive raid with RAID hardware built in.

It isn’t going to happen though. Tim Cook does not get the Pro user or care about them at all. There hasn’t even been a speedramp on the Trashcan, and the video cards are old tech! Besides most pros want CUDA and NVIDIA.

Hell if Apple really cared enough they would let a 3rd party build a new MacPro. I want an Origin PC MacPro! And give me a choice of Xeon or i7 chips!

Once I can afford it my tower will become a PC, likely an Origin. I will likely keep my iPad and iPhone. They work great and do certain things better than my Surface 4 i5 can do.

It was the video card that failed, it is replaced and everything is working great

So after some posts online at various forums, it seemed to be that my crashing issues were what I feared. My EVGA NVIDIA GTX 680 4GB was causing the crashes.

Unfortunately MacVidCards seems to not have had any stock since September 2016, so I wasn’t going to get a flashed replacement card.

So I started looking for a PC NVIDIA GTX 980 4 GB with 2 6 pin power supply. This was much easier said than done. There are still quite a few new 980’s out there, but most of them either have 2 8 pin, or 1 8 pin and 1 6 pin for their power supplies. Looks like with the 10 series out (even though those won’t work in a Mac since NVIDIA hasn’t bothered writing drivers for them) that the 6 pin 980 have become rather sparse.

Finally I was able to find a ZOTAC NVIDIA GTX 980 4GB AMP! Edition which had the requisite 2 6 pin adapters, and a bit of a speed increase over stock along with 3 fans instead of 2. I had never even heard of ZOTAC before, but most reviews seem like it is a pretty good company.

I got the card and installed it, no startup screen of course, but it runs great. And speed tests show it is about 100% faster than the 670 I had installed, and it works great, the crashes are gone. And Premiere Pro runs great!

MacPro Crashes are certainly to do with my NVIDIA Video Card

So I have been having some serious crash problems of late on my MacPro 4,1 that has been firmware flashed to a 5,1 with an NVIDIA GTX 670 and 4GB of RAM. I have posted about it here and here.

I am running 10.12.2 with 32 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 4095 MB and I had started getting bad crashes with noise in the image, which I show in a previous post. And it was happening more and more, especially when trying to run Premiere Pro. I had been running the OS X driver instead of the web driver, as it seemed to be more stable, but when I switched to the web driver 367.15.10.25f01 those crashes stopped, though I did get random restarts still, and crashes when I try and run Premiere Pro (which my previous posts show was from the Web Driver).

So the fact that the different drivers have the different crashes to me seems to show that it is for sure the video card that is causing the crashes. Unfortunately I don’t really have the money right now for a replacement. Eventually I want to replace this whole rig with a PC (as the 2013 Trashcan MacPro is not a powerful enough machine for what I need) but that would be even more.

Now I currently have Premiere Pro running, but am doubtful it won’t crash again soon. And I have run TechTool Pro 12 and it showed my Graphics RAM as being fine. Are there any other tests to see if my video card is for sure failing? I posted at Apple forums, but have gotten no help.

EDIT: Well I was wrong about none of the video noise crashes with the Web Driver. I hadn’t had any, but when running Premiere they happen with consistence. I have had 4 of them in less than an hour. Seems like as soon as CUDA cuts in the issue is happened with the web driver. Basically I can’t use Adobe (the main use for my machine) or I get the crashes. SHIT!

EDIT 2: Also posted on MacRumors and at least one poster says bad video card.

Still getting bad crashes on my MacPro, seems to be connected to NVIDIA card

Still getting nasty crashes, and seems to be with my GTX 670 4 GB in my 4,1 (firmware updated to 5,1) MacPro on Sierra 10.12.2. I am running Web Driver 367.15.10.25f01 and CUDA 8.0.57. From my included Crash Log it is looking like it is the Web Driver, and it crashed as soon as I started Premiere Pro 2017, though I seem to have been not having the previous noise crash running it, but am going to try switching back to the standard NVIDIA driver with Sierra and see if that works.

Tue Jan  3 17:13:57 2017

*** Panic Report ***
panic(cpu 14 caller 0xffffff7f8c15235e): NVRM[0/5:0:0]: Read Error 0x0010a1c4: CFG 0x118910de 0x00100406 0x8a000000, BAR0 0x8a000000 0xffffff93b424d000 0x0e4090a2, D0, P3/4
Backtrace (CPU 14), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff93cd37b760 : 0xffffff800aef211c
0xffffff93cd37b7e0 : 0xffffff7f8c15235e
0xffffff93cd37b8a0 : 0xffffff7f8c22cf7d
0xffffff93cd37b900 : 0xffffff7f8c53ee0a
0xffffff93cd37b960 : 0xffffff7f8c21e17e
0xffffff93cd37b9b0 : 0xffffff7f8c21de09
0xffffff93cd37ba60 : 0xffffff7f8c2c6b82
0xffffff93cd37bac0 : 0xffffff7f8c26884d
0xffffff93cd37bb00 : 0xffffff7f8c268230
0xffffff93cd37bcb0 : 0xffffff7f8c12ebf8
0xffffff93cd37bcf0 : 0xffffff7f8c2c6a61
0xffffff93cd37bd20 : 0xffffff7f8c540530
0xffffff93cd37bd40 : 0xffffff7f8c540418
0xffffff93cd37bd90 : 0xffffff7f8c528252
0xffffff93cd37be00 : 0xffffff7f8c25e109
0xffffff93cd37be20 : 0xffffff7f8c158b71
0xffffff93cd37bee0 : 0xffffff800b4be51f
0xffffff93cd37bf30 : 0xffffff800b4bcd81
0xffffff93cd37bf80 : 0xffffff800b4bc366
0xffffff93cd37bfb0 : 0xffffff800aea0af7
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         com.nvidia.web.NVDAResmanWeb(10.1.5)[5273B57C-0D1D-344A-93A7-BEFDDD7C0F73]@0xffffff7f8c0e6000->0xffffff7f8c40ffff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[6F8D3ACB-27CB-3B57-9E06-53E377762F5C]@0xffffff7f8b69d000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(513.1)[07F97C14-C6EE-3577-9875-8BA38DDCBCCD]@0xffffff7f8c0ca000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(513.1)[578F9D07-96F4-3F09-A6A6-047F257CB3BA]@0xffffff7f8c083000
            dependency: com.apple.AppleGraphicsDeviceControl(3.13.78)[FD48FB7F-3F5F-38F1-A8C7-B82C80807726]@0xffffff7f8c0da000
         com.nvidia.web.NVDAGK100HalWeb(10.1.5)[64926FEF-8B32-39BB-AA94-06FA5E0F9AFE]@0xffffff7f8c422000->0xffffff7f8c5dffff
            dependency: com.nvidia.web.NVDAResmanWeb(10.1.5)[5273B57C-0D1D-344A-93A7-BEFDDD7C0F73]@0xffffff7f8c0e6000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)[6F8D3ACB-27CB-3B57-9E06-53E377762F5C]@0xffffff7f8b69d000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task

Mac OS version:
16C67

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 16.3.0: Thu Nov 17 20:23:58 PST 2016; root:xnu-3789.31.2~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 8DF81F81-019F-348E-B47E-40A4484B9E21
Kernel slide:     0x000000000ac00000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff800ae00000
__HIB  text base: 0xffffff800ad00000
System model name: MacPro5,1 (Mac-F221BEC8)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 23837399125361
last loaded kext at 23090533694669: com.apple.driver.AppleXsanScheme    3 (addr 0xffffff7f8e32e000, size 32768)
last unloaded kext at 23625041872161: com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub    900.4.1 (addr 0xffffff7f8e31f000, size 12288)
loaded kexts:
com.expandrive.filesystems.strongfuse    3.5.2
com.nvidia.CUDA    1.1.0
com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower    1.6.7
com.nvidia.web.NVDAGK100HalWeb    10.1.5
com.nvidia.web.GeForceWeb    10.1.5
com.nvidia.web.NVDAResmanWeb    10.1.5
com.blackmagic-design.driver.BlackmagicIO    10.8.3
jp.plentycom.driver.SteerMouse    4.2.6
com.apple.filesystems.cddafs    2.6.1
com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor    1.9.5d0
com.apple.filesystems.autofs    3.0
com.apple.driver.AppleTyMCEDriver    1.0.2d2
com.apple.driver.AGPM    110.23.14
com.apple.driver.AppleOSXWatchdog    1
com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC    1.70
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient    3.6.4
com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl    1.2.15
com.apple.driver.pmtelemetry    1
com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet    1.0.1
com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyHIDDriver    127
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA    278.56
com.apple.driver.AppleMikeyDriver    278.56
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager    5.0.2f4
com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X    7.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHV    1
com.apple.iokit.BroadcomBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport    5.0.2f4
com.apple.driver.AppleLPC    3.1
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelSlowAdaptiveClocking    4.0.0
com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin    1.0.0
com.apple.driver.MaxTranserSizeOverrideDriver    404.30.1
com.apple.driver.Oxford_Semi    404.30.1
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient    394.30.2
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage    295.20.1
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI    5.5.5
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless    1.0.0d1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib    1.0.0
com.apple.driver.Intel82574LEthernet    2.7.2
com.apple.driver.AirPort.Brcm4360    1130.3.1a4
com.apple.BootCache    40
com.apple.filesystems.hfs.kext    366.30.3
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort    326
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC    2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET    1.8
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons    5.0
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS    2.1
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC    5.0
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC    1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient    219.0.0
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall    172
com.apple.security.quarantine    3
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet    8
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement    219.0.0
com.apple.kext.triggers    1.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSurface    153.3
com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib    278.56
com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib    525
com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily2    289.27
com.apple.AppleGraphicsDeviceControl    3.13.78
com.apple.driver.AppleSSE    1.0
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusController    1.0.14d1
com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport    513.1
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport    5.0.2f4
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothHostControllerTransport    5.0.2f4
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController    278.56
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily    513.1
com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily    278.56
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusPCI    1.0.14d1
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP    2.2.7
com.apple.iokit.IOSlowAdaptiveClockingFamily    1.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleSMC    3.1.9
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginLegacy    1.0.0
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily    6.0.0d8
com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily    11
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBAudio    307.7
com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily    205.11
com.apple.vecLib.kext    1.2.0
com.apple.driver.usb.IOUSBHostHIDDevice    1.1
com.apple.driver.IOBluetoothHIDDriver    5.0.2f4
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily    5.0.2f4
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver    900.4.1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBMassStorageDriver    131.1.1
com.apple.driver.usb.networking    5.0.0
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBHostCompositeDevice    1.1
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice    394.30.2
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport    2.5.1
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireSBP2    4.2.7
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBHub    1.1
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice    394.30.2
com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily    1.8
com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily    1.8
com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily    1.8
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily    4.6.5
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCISerialATAPI    266
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily    394.30.2
com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family    1200.12.2
com.apple.driver.mDNSOffloadUserClient    1.0.1b8
com.apple.driver.corecapture    1.0.4
com.apple.filesystems.hfs.encodings.kext    1
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily    3.2
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily    288
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBEHCIPCI    1.1
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBUHCIPCI    1.1
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBUHCI    1.1
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBEHCI    1.1
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBXHCIPCI    1.1
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBXHCI    1.1
com.apple.driver.usb.AppleUSBHostPacketFilter    1.0
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily    900.4.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHostMergeProperties    1.1
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM    2.1
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime    2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily    2.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily    1.1
com.apple.security.sandbox    300.0
com.apple.kext.AppleMatch    1.0.0d1
com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore    2
com.apple.driver.AppleMobileFileIntegrity    1.0.5
com.apple.driver.AppleCredentialManager    1.0
com.apple.driver.KernelRelayHost    1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHostFamily    1.1
com.apple.driver.AppleBusPowerController    1.0
com.apple.driver.DiskImages    444.30.5
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily    2.1
com.apple.iokit.IOReportFamily    31
com.apple.driver.AppleFDEKeyStore    28.30
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform    5.0
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily    2.9
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily    1.4
com.apple.kec.pthread    1
com.apple.kec.Libm    1
com.apple.kec.corecrypto    1.0
Model: MacPro5,1, BootROM MP51.007F.B03, 8 processors, Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 2.26 GHz, 32 GB, SMC 1.39f5
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670, PCIe, 4095 MB
Memory Module: DIMM 1, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x830B, 0x4D324C344737324342344E41314E2D424520
Memory Module: DIMM 2, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x830B, 0x4D324C344737324342344E41314E2D424520
Memory Module: DIMM 3, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x802C, 0x33364A53463531323732505A2D3147344631
Memory Module: DIMM 4, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x802C, 0x33364A53463531323732505A2D3147344631
Memory Module: DIMM 5, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x830B, 0x4D324C344737324342344E41314E2D424520
Memory Module: DIMM 6, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x830B, 0x4D324C344737324342344E41314E2D424520
Memory Module: DIMM 7, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x802C, 0x33364A53463531323732505A2D3147344631
Memory Module: DIMM 8, 4 GB, DDR3 ECC, 1066 MHz, 0x802C, 0x33364A53463531323732505A2D3147344631
AirPort: spairport_wireless_card_type_airport_extreme (0x14E4, 0x111), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (7.21.171.68.1a4)
Bluetooth: Version 5.0.2f4, 3 services, 27 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Ethernet 1, Ethernet, en0
Network Service: Ethernet 2, Ethernet, en1
Network Service: Wi-Fi, AirPort, en2
Serial ATA Device: HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GH41N, 841.8 MB
Serial ATA Device: HL-DT-ST BD-RE  WH12LS38
Serial ATA Device: ST3000DM001-1CH166, 3 TB
Serial ATA Device: ST3000DM001-1CH166, 3 TB
Serial ATA Device: ST3000DM001-1ER166, 3 TB
Serial ATA Device: OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD, 960.2 GB
USB Device: USB 3.0 Bus
USB Device: USB Bus
USB Device: BRCM20702 Hub
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller
USB Device: USB Bus
USB Device: USB Bus
USB Device: Natural® Ergonomic Keyboard 4000
USB Device: USB Bus
USB Device: Microsoft Trackball Explorer®
USB Device: USB Bus
USB Device: USB Bus
USB Device: USB 2.0 Bus
USB Device: iPhone
USB Device: Hub
USB Device: Razer Orbweaver
USB Device: Hub
USB Device: PTK-540WL
USB Device: EDIROL UA-1D
USB Device: Transcend
USB Device: USB 2.0 Bus
USB Device: USB 2.0 Hub [MTT]
USB Device: USB 2.0 Hub [MTT]
USB Device: USB UltraPro
USB Device: USB 2.0 Hub [MTT]
USB Device: USB 2.0 Hub [MTT]
USB Device: Powerbeats³
USB Device: Fitbit Base Station
FireWire Device: ElitePro Qx2, OWC, Up to 800 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: Mercury Elite Pro Quad USB 3, OWC, Up to 800 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: built-in_hub, Up to 800 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: unknown_device, Unknown
Thunderbolt Bus:

My MacPro 4,1 is having nasty crashes, and I don’t know why

So my MacPro 4,1, which has been firmware updated to a 5,1 so it is running OS X Sierra is having some nasty crashes, where I get this crazy video noise and the machine is basically locked up. I have to do a hard shutdown.

The system has 32GB of RAM and it’s system is running of an OWC SSD in the a PCI Slot. It also has a USB 3 card, a Black Magic Intensity Pro and a PC NVIDIA GTX 670 with 4GB of RAM.

It started crashing in Premiere Pro, and DaVinci resolve so I thought it was video card related, but lately has been crashing at any time.

First I ran Cocktail and it’s full suite of Automation. Then I restarted and ran Diskwarrior 5.0 from it’s USB, but that didn’t fix much if anything. And I upgraded to Tech Tool Pro 9 and ran it’s full suite, and everything passed, including the video card (and I ran it’s test a few more times). Strangely it ran longer while in the E-Drive than it has lately on it’s own, which makes me think something with the system, and yet this looks like a very hardware centric crash.

And the system install is very recent, in the last 6 months it was a totally clean install.

Here is video of the crash:

I am just wondering if anyone else has seen anything like this? I am hoping it isn’t hardware. Be it Video Card, motherboard or power supply, but it is getting so I can’t do anything without a crash.

EDIT:

I have posted on the Apple Forums, and have one response.

I have looked at the console log and the files at ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ and have not seen anything that would be causing this.

I do see that Expandrive is crashing all the time, which I know.

Batch Converting Pages Documents to Word Documents with Applescript

So if you read this blog you already know that I have pretty much come to the decision that my next computer will not be a Mac. I love my old MacPro 4,1 but it is getting long in the tooth, and I haven’t even been able to do the Firmware Upgrade to get it to 5,1, so the next OS Sierra will not work on my current MacPro as it will only work on a 5,1 (I haven’t tried putting in my old video card before the upgrade, which might help, but it looks like El Capitan makes it harder).

Unfortunately in 2007 I moved over to Pages to do my invoices, resumes and cover letter. Now you can individually export your documents to the modern word format docx, but I am talking hundreds and hundreds of files that I may want to access at some point, so I wanted a way to batch those files.

This requires applescript, and while I used to be OK at Applescript all those skills have since gone away.

A quick google search showed one page dedicated to scripting the iWorks suite, and it is iWorkAutomation. Specifically there is a script to Export to Word, but it is not a batch export, just a single use, and so not of use to me, except for stealing some of it’s commands.

So then I went back to the old faithful applescript forums MacSpripter, and did a search. And I found an awesome script from Yvan Keonig, which automates the process, allowing you to pick a folder with you pages documents and then chose a destination folder, and it batch converts to PDF files.

Luckily my limited Applescript skills and the fact that the script was so well written, let me use the Microsoft Word commands from iWork Automation and combine them to make a script to convert to Word documents.

Just copy this script and paste it into Script Editor and run the script. You can also save the script to your scripts folder.

set theSourceFolder to (choose folder with prompt “Select a folder whose files you wish to convert to word:”)
tell application “Finder”
set filesArray to every file of theSourceFolder whose name extension is “pages”
end tell
set theDestinationFolder to (choose folder with prompt “Select a folder where you want the converted files to be placed: “)
tell application “Pages” to activate
repeat with aFile in filesArray
tell application “Finder”
set fileAlias to aFile as alias
set fileName to name of fileAlias
set fileExtension to name extension of fileAlias
end tell
set theOriginalName to fileName
— remove extension
set prevTIDs to AppleScript’s text item delimiters
set AppleScript’s text item delimiters to “.” & fileExtension as string
set fileName to first text item of fileName
set AppleScript’s text item delimiters to prevTIDs
— prepare desktop folder path and name
set docPathAndName to (theDestinationFolder as text) & fileName & “.docx” # EDITED
tell application “Pages”
— open the file
set targetDocument to open fileAlias — EDITED : was aFile which is a Finder reference, not what Pages requires
repeat 10 times # I added a loop which may be useful if the original document is very long
try
export targetDocument to file docPathAndName as Microsoft Word
exit repeat
on error
tell me to delay 0.5
end try
end repeat
— close it
close targetDocument saving no
end tell
end repeat
tell application “Pages” to quit
display dialog “Done!”

Awesome, now I have batch updated all my pages documents to Word documents. Sure the formatting needs some updating, but at least they will all work on a PC!