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MacPro 4,1 starting with grey screen after SMC and PRAM resets

My Mac Pro (Early 2009) running El Capitan starts up with a grey screen, I have to do an SMC and a PRAM reset each time. Trying to wake it from sleep mode doesn't work when a password is required to wake it up, only after deactivating this feature waking from sleep is possible. With password required, either the password field remains inactive, or after typing in the password, it keeps spinning.

The only other flaw I noticed is that trying to generate a system report (from About this mac) causes beachballing with every else inactive and inaccessible.

EtreCheck renders nothing.

Any idea?

Thanks!

Posted on Jul 27, 2024 12:52 PM

52 replies

Jul 31, 2024 5:29 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

The damaged disk is and has been removed, it is out of the picture.

I replaced it with a new and undamaged hard drive.

On that new and undamaged hard drive, I installed El Capitan from the Installer on a USB Stick.

Then I erased the USB Stick and created a bootable installer on it once again*.

Then I tried to boot the mac from that newly set up USB stick. But the system won't boot from that. I can only boot the new internal system. (In that new internal system's preferences, the USB stick isn't even recognised as bootable.)

Now if I take the new hard drive with the new system on it out of the mac (physically), so that no system remains in the mac, I can once again boot from the USB stick. But only then. (And to no avail of course, as without the new system present, I can't restore the previous system on it from Time Machine).

Briefly put:

— MacOS present on (undamaged) internal drive —> no booting from USB Stick.

— NO MacOS present on any drive —> booting from USB Stick works fine.

*(because just as you had told me: If you install on the internal disk, the Installer will be erased at the end of the process. Since I need an external drive to boot the Mac in order to be able to restore the previous system from Time Machine to the new system on the new hard drive, and since I have no other means to create a bootable second system internal or external, I created a bootable installer on that same USB stick)

Jul 31, 2024 6:04 PM in response to Nikolai Franke

What version of macOS are you running and installing through all of this?

when you say "USB-stick not bootable", do you mean not selectable in Startup Disk panel (expected behavior), or never shows up in option-Startup (unexpected behavior) ??

Aug 1, 2024 3:50 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hello Grant. macOS version is 10.11.6. (15G31). That is the one the installer (that I downloaded from Apple) installed. I didn't update it, I never even connected it to the internet.

By not bootable I mean both. I doesn't show up in Startup Disk panel (in System Preferences) and it never shows up in option-Startup.

Aug 1, 2024 8:36 AM in response to Nikolai Franke

Some drives just seem to interfere with otherwise "usual" operation. We may never know why.

What you can do to improve repeatability is to run Disk Utility FirstAid/RepairDisk on each drive, and get the directory in the best possible shape.

You may want to get another couple of USB sticks, just to be sure the anomaly is not related to that exact USB stick.

Jul 27, 2024 2:32 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hello Grant,

thanks. I'll attach it.

EtreCheckPro Report generated: 2024-07-27 21:41:15

Jul 27, 2024 1:40 PM in response to Nikolai Franke

post your etrecheck report

Jul 27, 2024 6:20 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Sorry, I wasn't very precise: I do get a grey screen but nothing beyond that. It remains grey, no options, nothing at all on it.

Jul 27, 2024 6:35 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

There is neither a wait cursor nor anything else, just plain grey.

Jul 27, 2024 6:39 PM in response to Nikolai Franke

after a few minutes with no change, that says, "no bootable drives found".

got another drive you could connect to test, or a USB stick installer, or a bootable DVD?

Jul 28, 2024 9:40 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Yes. How do you suggest I access the system preferences without booting the system? Perhaps in target mode, changing them manually?

Jul 28, 2024 2:24 PM in response to Nikolai Franke

did you get a chance to enable TRIM?

are you booting from an alternate drive?

Jul 28, 2024 2:47 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

That would have been smart. I was too confident, and now even the hardware reset doesn't allow for another boot, so unless there is yet another trick, I can't.

Jul 28, 2024 4:49 PM in response to Nikolai Franke

do you have another bootable DRIVE with MacOS 10.6.8 to MacOS 13.6 on it?

if so, disconnect (pull slightly out of slot) all internal drives and boot form that different one with Option startup.

Jul 29, 2024 4:13 PM in response to Nikolai Franke

Do you have another Mac?

If you are a Windows user, do you think like a developer?

Jul 29, 2024 4:20 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I do have another Mac, yes. A MacBook Pro 2018 (Intel), running Sonoma 14.5. No Windows, and I wouldn't know what a developer thinks like. (I'm happy to learn though.)

MacPro 4,1 starting with grey screen after SMC and PRAM resets