What is wrong with this 2008 mac pro?

¿is this FREE?

I do not recommend paying money for a fully functional Mac Pro 2008 or older today. Fully working, its shipping cost likely is larger than its value.

At BEST it is limited to macOS 10.11 El Capitan, and nothing more recent.

If it is not working, you may need to buy three, shuffle parts around and add more, to get two that work.

if you had such a computer "fall on you" it could be an interesting hobby project.

Yes, Readers can help you get one working if you like.

Po_is_pro wrote:

I don't need as much coz i have a mbp 2012 and the superdrive doesn't work for example on the mac studio

In this dead-SuperDrive thread is a report of the SuperDrive Studio configuration working from lkrupp:

• Connecting Superdrive to 2022 M1 Max Stud… - Apple Community

A Mac Pro from 2009 model is worth a little more attention, but not a lot more money.

A MacPro without the 3 Volt coin cell backup battery connected can not start up. it will appear dead, and the fans may twitch, but will not stay running.

A Mac that will not start up could easily have MANY other problems, and there is no way to tell without putting your hands on it.

If its does not work, would you be willing to buy a used power supply, graphics card, mainboard, or other expensive used item? One of those might be US$200.

>> if all you need is a DVD reader, you can buy Apple's add-on USB CD/DVD drive for US$79:

Apple USB SuperDrive - Apple

.

You know you can share a DVD or CD from a Mac with a dvd reader across your home network, RIGHT?

On the Mac with the hardware:

System preferences > Sharing > DVD CD sharing

on the Mac with no hardware, open a finder window, navigate to top level and choose 'remote disc '

the feature was removed at Catalina:

Use the CD or DVD drive from another computer with your Mac - Apple Support

.

<<. the superdrive doesn't work for example on the Mac studio. >.

How did you decide THAT?

I read this in the ad for that drive:

Compatible with the following computers:

The Apple USB SuperDrive is compatible with these Mac models*:

Macs from 2008 and later that don't have a built-in optical drive.

*MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iMac models with USB-C ports require a USB-C to USB adapter (sold separately) to use Apple USB SuperDrive.

<< it suddenly magically removed everything on the drive. >>

The description of that failure is bizarre, and could indicate other serious problems.

That might just need a new drive and/or a re-install, but this series of Macs has no Internet Recovery in its ROM.

On these Macs, Re-install from nothing can be quite complex.

The people who are answering your questions here are NOT Apple employees. They are other users, who Volunteer their time and energy to help you in whatever way they can.

Sometimes you might get information that is tangential to you wanted to know, or WAY more information than you wanted.

PLEASE try to be gracious in your responses. If you got more than you wanted to hear, Please do not assault the person who gave you tangential or ‘too much' information. Instead, understand that they were TRYING to be helpful, even if their answer did not line up perfectly with your query.

Just ignore the overage and get on with solving your problems, and count your blessings that someone was willing to help, even if the answer was "too much" or “way off base”.

If important parts of your question did not get answered, just ask a more pointed question and Readers will try again.