Shut down on start up

towerpower

towerpower

Registered
Hi all,
Been a while since i’ve been here, 12 years to be precise, mac’s are pretty good most the time but occasionally ...
Had this machine about 8 months, Mac pro desktop 2.1, running Lion, no problems whatsoever, except the following
One small thing, probably not relevant, is that when opening Firefox Legacy (my preferred browser) recently it was taking a few minutes to open, whereas previously it had opened promptly.

Anyway timeline:
I was on the machine Friday night before retiring, shut down as normal.
Saturday am: turned mac on went to make coffee, came back mac off, funny, turn on again, wander off, come back mac off.
Sit down, turn on again, chimes, hard disk making usual noises but not for so long as usual, 30 seconds pass, mac shuts down, before anything shows on screen
Have been through the usuals, soft start, all the different key options I can find on google searches. It will for some options stay on a bit longer but no screen and no noises.
Unfortunately It came with the system and software all loaded, which was great but no system disc to boot from. I dug out an even older 10.5 system disc with the intention of starting from that but that must be ppc compatible only (my previous machine running Leopard), I presume. I did manage to open the cd/dvd disc draw randomly during the process but I think the drive is knackered as i tried to play a music cd the other day to no avail and I can hear the familiar stuttering noises.
I’ve had the side off and done logic board resets, zapped pram etc. Tried starting with no peripherals attached.
I have an old imac running snow leopard (the wifes) so i downloaded Lion, from apple, with the intention of putting it on a stick and attempting to boot from that.
But will not copy onto stick (error 0) and cant get at the files requires anyway as its a .dmg and then .pkg and cant get any further assume because im trying to unload it on an older system.
I have looked at the led tests on the logic board but haven’t attempted a diagnosis yet (maybe out of my remit but willing to try)
Any thoughts on what could have failed, cpu, logic board, hard disk?? any further ideas. Seems odd that it was ok and then not. One faint possibility is that on the Friday there could have been a quickie power cut but the machine is connected to a power surge block and appeared to be ok last thing before shutting down.
Your thoughts/remedies would be much appreciated
 
Re link from SGilbert: What does client combo signify/mean? Is the update bootable? plus I already have this update on the mac that is down
 
I don't think the suggested 10.7.5 update will help you (as it is simply an update to try reloading the most current update), as you already have other problems that may be the clue - the sudden very slow launching of apps.
You should try to make a bootable USB installer from that Lion download that you already have. The original download was a .dmg. Running that makes a .pkg, which is what you can use to make the installer that you will need. You can do this on your wife's Snow Leopard (I just tried this on a Snow Leopard system, so I know it works!):
First, prepare a USB drive by erasing it with the Disk Utility. Format it as a Mac OS Extended (Journaled), make sure that the options for the partition shows that the drive will be GUID, and not Master Boot Record.
That's ready to use, so make sure you have the Lion installer. The download file was a .DMG - running that gives you a .pkg. Then running THAT launches the installer app. This will NOT install Lion system on your wife's Snow Leopard system. This install simply copies the files from that pkg to your wife's Applications folder, and you end up with the Install OS X Lion app, ready to use, in your wife's Applications folder.
Now, use the Disk Utility to "Restore" from the the app to the USB drive that you just prepared: Click the Restore tab in the Disk Utility. You will see empty boxes for Source, and Destination. Drag the Installer app to the Source box. Drag the USB drive to the Destination box. Check the "Erase Destination" box. And, finally, click the Restore button (bottom right corner of the DU window. And, wait for that to finish. The Restore process will copy all the files to your chosen USB drive, and make it bootable. When done, it will be ready for you to use to boot your MacPro.
You would probably want to open Disk Utility, after booting to that installer drive, so you can test your MacPro hard drive. Select your hard drive (if it appears in the Disk Utility list), and click First Aid, then Repair Disk (no need to waste your time with the Verify button, it does a verify as part of the repair anyway.)
I suspect that the drive will not pass the first aid - but if good, you could then continue on with a reinstall of OS X. You won't lose any of your files or apps, this kind of reinstall just reloads the system files, and makes sure the system files are in the right locations, and passes some kind of software verification that the installer would do.
 
DeltaMac said:
Now, use the Disk Utility to "Restore" from the the app to the USB drive that you just prepared: Click the Restore tab in the Disk Utility. You will see empty boxes for Source, and Destination. Drag the Installer app to the Source box. Drag the USB drive to the Destination box. Check the "Erase Destination" box. And, finally, click the Restore button (bottom right corner of the DU window. And, wait for that to finish. The Restore process will copy all the files to your chosen USB drive, and make it bootable.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
All ok until i try to drag Lion install app from Applications folder to disk utility source box. It just bounces back! Should it appear in the list within disk utility to the left of that window? Have tried moving app to desktop but same thing happens. Works ok with destination usb drive but this is shown on launch of disk utility on the aforementioned list.
 
Here's an alternate method:
Right-click the Lion installer app - choose Show Package Contents. Open the Contents folder, then the Shared folder.
Drag the file InstallESD.dmg to the Source box in Disk Utility.
Continue on with the restore. Should work now.
 
Firstly
DeltaMac said:
Right-click the Lion installer app - choose Show Package Contents.
Click to expand...
Assume you mean the unstuffed installer that’s been put on the Applications folder of the HD and not the .pkg icon?
Only got a single button apple mouse, is there another way to open/extract from it?
 
Last edited:
Idea ... could I burn a disc (which I need to find), which would then show up on the disc utility window? ... which I could then restore from that to the stick?
Just found a DVD-R, capacity 4.7Gb, Installer size needs at least 4.77Gb!
 
Last edited:
Bad RAM can cause that shutdown! I had this in past on 2008 Mac Pro once! All I know cheap RAM in Pros in zeros were hit and miss sometimes! Plus after a lightning strike my Mac Pro would status at all until I disconnected the monitor display port it then booted right up and once I reconnected the display port everything seemed back to normal too!
 
DeltaMac said:
And, wait for that to finish. The Restore process will copy all the files to your chosen USB drive, and make it bootable. When done, it will be ready for you to use to boot your MacPro.
Click to expand...

Right, sussed the right clicking and found the relevant .ESD file. Done restore process and I get this message, (Why isn’t my image uploading?) Stick is 8.2 Gb so should be plenty of room. Anyway message reads
Restore Failure
Could not restore - Cannot allocate memory
What exactly does this mean, doesn't the imac have enough RAM? It has 2Gb
Having looked closely I think when the .ESD disk image is unpacked it’s bigger than 8gb so i’m off to get a larger capacity stick drive.
 
Last edited:
it means toys hard went south without you! put a new drive into it and format it and install after formatting that drive for AFPS!
 
Satcomer said:
it means toys hard went south without you! put a new drive into it and format it and install after formatting that drive for AFPS!
Click to expand...
OP wants to install Lion. Lion won't even see an APFS volume, and the Lion Disk Utility can't make an APFS volume. Stay with the default Mac OS Extended (journaled)
 
Just restoring on new stick, then time for dinner, then assuming restoration has gone ok I’ll give it a spin and report back
 
Oh Sh!! Disk utility message again, as before midway through restoration
Restore Failure
Could not restore - Cannot allocate memory
Is this a lack of Ram?
 
After a spot of research on this error message it seems you should verify and scan the InstallESD.img
Verifies OK, on completion of scanning I get error message
Unable to scan InstallESD.img (cannot allocate memory)
 
DeltaMac said:
There are other options. One is using DiskmakerX, which is an app dedicated to making (working) bootable OSX installer volumes.
Click to expand...
Will give this a crack. Appears to have worked, no error messages and looks very pro. Amazing how a third party piece of software appears to out perform an Apple equivalent!
Bad news is problem mac pro is not booting from it. Insert drive on front panel, start up, on chime hold down option key, drive flashes activity briefly for 2 or 3 times, fans kick in and nothing. It doesn’t shut down though just continues whirring away until I press sta rtup button and it stops/turns off almost instantly.
Any thoughts on which piece of hardware may be failing here, PSU maybe, I have no idea??
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top