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I took delivery of Mac Pro eight core 2.8 last week. Stock model, but CTO because I added Mac OS X Server. Upon receipt I used Disk Tools to reformat the drive and installed OS X 10.5.2 Client (Server is for another machine) from the DVD (I let the DVD check run to completion). ATI 2600 driving two displays - Eizo CG210 and Apple CD23.
I installed two 74gb WD SATA Drives and Striped them for scratch disk. Also installed a 180gb SATA Drive. Additional 8gb RAM from OWC. Installed Adobe CS3, LR, iWork, etc.
From the first night, the machine has given me trouble; kernel panic when I arrived the next day. Random kernel panics for next day or so. Day Three, I'm cranking on some LR editing and it panics. I reboot and begin running check on my LR catalog. Kernel panic. Reboot. Panic right after login. Reboot. Panic at login. Rinse, repeat.
I pulled all three drives and the extra ram, disconnected a couple USB devices (APC UPS, CF Card Reader, Epson inkjet, Eizo display control) and a FW800 drive. No change.
I figure something must be corrupt on the disk so I do an archive and install. After moderate use the rest of that evening, the machine remains running until two days later at which point it KPs during the night.
Through all of this I noticed a high-pitched whine that would kick on and off randomly. I eventually traced it to the fan on the ATI board. Sounds almost like an impact wrench running from across the street.
Call Apple. Reset PRAM (a ha! forgot about that trick). On phone for five minutes and the fan noise doesn't kick in at all. No KPs. Hang up phone. Whine starts, but no KPs for balance of day. Next day it starts all over again. This time, I tried pulling the APPLE RAM, thinking maybe it is bad. No change.
Call Apple once again. Reset the SMC. At this point, the machine would stay running for more than five minutes or so. They have me run Quick Hardware Test (which is accessed via holding the "D" key down when booting from OS DVD). Finds nothing. Let the extended test go for forty minutes or so. Nothing. Disk Utility finds nothing.
After some friendly cajoling they are sending a replacement machine. I really didn't think that an erase-and-install was going to make a bit of difference.
Meanwhile, I've ordered an nVidia 8800 card that should arrive tomorrow. I got this so I could test my theory that it is the ATI board causing the trouble. If so, and this fixes it, I will have a working machine sooner. I'll keep you posted.
(Did the system ship with the latest EFI firmware? (And ATI 2600 firmware updated?)
Reference - Feedback on 2008 Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.3 and Feedback on Mac ATI 2600XT Firmware Update. May not help but just curious.-Mike)
Both were applied via SWUpdate right after installation of system.
-Matt K."
