[geeks] Dead Mac Pro

[Mark]

On 10 Nov 2007, at 20:47, shannon at widomaker.com wrote:

> No, they were not running loud enough, or rather, not fast enough.
>
> They would stay at 600rpm even when the machine was getting hot.
>
> Of course, that could be the problem right there.

Right, I thought you had some issue.

> Lot's of people complain about the same small set of failures, one  
> of which
> is the one I'm having.
>
> If you filter out the noise, which is obviously excessive and mostly
> bullshit, there are a small set of issues that show up a lot:
>
> - Mac Pro arrives DoA

There have been a couple of reports this was sue to RAM risers working  
loose in a lot of cases. I can believe it - mine had an ungodly-loud  
vibration when I first powered it on because the hard drive carrier  
was loose. I think a few have genuinely been DOA though, but unlike  
iMacs they are all BTO so they get tested thoroughly before dispatch,  
but it doesn't show up ALL issues :)

> - Mac Pro dies in 1-2 months, with symptoms close to mine

Yep, I've heard that happen to a couple of others too.

> - Mac Pro SMC controller doesn't run fans fast enough to stay cool

It's been patched twice, the last one relatively recently. It doesn't  
seem to have made mine work any faster but then we've not exactly had  
high summer this year in the UK. The hottest days of this year I was  
out taking photos not processing them on the Mac Pro so I guess it's  
not very fair to look at mine.

> - x1900 graphics card dies in 4-6 months
>
> The last one has been fixed it seems.  Apple ships the new cards  
> with better
> fans and some other fix I can't remember.

Yep they have rectified that one, trouble is they now suspect the same  
problem is plaguing the NVIDIA chips in the iMac too...

> The SMC issue can usually be fixed with a small program where you  
> can speed
> the fans up to keep it cooled off.  smcfancontrol I think.  Apple  
> needs to
> fix this on the board though.

You shouldn't need to - SMC is supposed to be a smart temperature/ 
power/system controller.

> The new iMacs are dying even when idle.  Lot's of people in the  
> Apple store
> and CompUSA are coming in and they are *very* ticked off.

I don't blame them. I'd be pretty peeved too.

> I'm sure it is a fine machine, they are just having some issues.   
> For what it
> is worth, what I read and am told suggests that Mac Pro failures  
> occur very
> early in their life if they are going to happen.

Well they do say it's a bad idea to buy Rev 1 Apple hardware, and  
technically the Mac Pro is a Rev 1. I guess these kinds of glitches  
and hang-ups are the reason why...

> Agreed.  Apple needs a real mid range anyway, and they need to put  
> focus on
> reliability.
>
> The fancy designs don't mean jack when your machine dies on you.

Or if you want a separate monitor...

> For the average home user, no big deal, but some of us make a living  
> with
> these machines...

Actually, to the average home user it causes almost as much stress,  
mostly because they don't understand what's going on, or they lose  
their photos, or music, or whatever.

> I talked to a guy who buys lot's of machines, thousands at a time,  
> and he
> sais that Apple's failiure rate is now higher than Dell and IBM.

Figures, they use all the same manufacturers and push their limits  
much harder than Dell, HP or IBM.

> I hope that changes, because I have some old Apple machines that are  
> still
> running like they were brand new.

Me too.

> Right now my Mac IIci is a hell of a lot faster than my dead Mac  
> Pro... :)

Darn straight. So is mine :)

-- 
Mark Benson

My Blog:
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"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."