2008/9 Mac Pro wont turn on, front pannel LED is constant white

Question

My mac pro doesn't want to start up.

I purchased some new memory installed it (and cleaned up some of the dust on the inside of the box) and now the machine won't boot up. I get a constant white LED on the front, no fans, no chimes, no other lights light up (RAM riser boards)?

I have removed the new RAM and replaced it with the old, in an attempt to just get the machine to boot. No luck.

So now the box is back in its OEM state, but still wont boot. I've tried the 15sec unplug / hold the power button down for 5 sec rest and that didn't seem to work.

Any idea what might be going on?

I also swapped out a known working RAM riser from another box and still can't get it to boot up?

Answer 1

Sadly, the most likely cause is that you zapped your system board. If you used a household vacuum cleaner to remove the dust, this is highly likely.

Answer 2

I would take all the RAM out and see if it can tell the RAM is missing - you should get three beeps. If it can correctly tell no RAM at all is installed - proceed to try one stick at a time. If it fails with no RAM - start with the Express Lane or your hardware tech of choice since the logic board isn't working well enough to even see the RAM that you have installed.

Most of the time, it's a bad stick of RAM or just needing you to re-seat the RAM, but update your question with the results of this test and the causes will be narrowed down from the several things that can cause this boot failure condition.

Answer 3

Hold the power button and alt, then enter your wifi. Then now you loaded into Mac OS Recovery. click redownload OS X. Follow all the steps then ur done :)