Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MP 1,1-5,1 4,1 to 5,1 for early 2009

Z

zhmmy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 9, 2016
17
2
Did all the steps to upgrade 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 to 5,1. Checked & csrutil is disabled, then shut down, held down power button. Blinking light then tone happened as stated - checked system report and still is 4,1. Why is this not working? Could it be the drive which is a 2TB WD? Or that I'm using wifi for Internet?

Hoping for a solution before I install a Samsung SSD.
 
tsialex

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,455
13,601
zhmmy said:
Did all the steps to upgrade 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 to 5,1. Checked & csrutil is disabled, then shut down, held down power button. Blinking light then tone happened as stated - checked system report and still is 4,1. Why is this not working? Could it be the drive which is a 2TB WD? Or that I'm using wifi for Internet?

Hoping for a solution before I install a Samsung SSD.
Click to expand...
Netkas forum tools don't work anymore unless you use very old installers that you can't get today and have everything downloaded.

Even with you get it done, you are hybridising your BootROM and it's a continuous source of problems nowadays. An early-2009 upgraded by MacEFIROM is just partially upgraded, only the EFI is upgraded while the BootBlock/NVRAM/hardwareIDs are kept as is inside the firmware image.

The correct way to cross-flash an early 2009 is via reconstruction, but it's not an end user job.
 
Z

zhmmy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 9, 2016
17
2
DFP1989 said:
OP you’re a bit short on details of your current software config.

I followed this guide using the Netkas tools with a 4,1 I had for a while and upgraded no problem.

www.ifixit.com

How to Upgrade the Firmware of a 2009 Mac Pro 4,1

The 2009 Mac Pro shares an identical motherboard with the 2010 model. With a firmware update, you can use newer CPUs and upgrade all the way to...
www.ifixit.com www.ifixit.com
Click to expand...
Mac Pro, Early 2009 4,1, 2.66 GHz Quad-Core, El Cap 10.11.6, 32GB Ram, 2TB WD, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 1024 MB, csrutil is disabled. Drive was partitioned when I tried the Firmware upgrade so could that have been the reason? After doing the power button the light did flicker and then when I heard the tone I let up. However, the screen did not go gray with a load scroll at the bottom. Instead it booted as normal.
 
Z

zhmmy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 9, 2016
17
2
tsialex said:
Netkas forum tools don't work anymore unless you use very old installers that you can't get today and have everything downloaded.

Even with you get it done, you are hybridising your BootROM and it's a continuous source of problems nowadays. An early-2009 upgraded by MacEFIROM is just partially upgraded, only the EFI is upgraded while the BootBlock/NVRAM/hardwareIDs are kept as is inside the firmware image.

The correct way to cross-flash an early 2009 is via reconstruction, but it's not an end user job.
Click to expand...
Here is more detail. It's actually a good setup but I wanted primarily more and better speed.

Mac Pro, Early 2009 4,1, 2.66 GHz Quad-Core, El Cap 10.11.6, 32GB Ram, 2TB WD, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 1024 MB, csrutil is disabled. Drive was partitioned when I tried the Firmware upgrade so could that have been the reason? After doing the power button the light did flicker and then when I heard the tone I let up. However, the screen did not go gray with a load scroll at the bottom. Instead it booted as normal.

I'm getting the impression that it won't give me all that much advantage and that El Capitan isn't really all that inferior to High Sierra. I'm installing a Samsung 860 SSD this weekend via PCie so that will solve the speed problem.

Are there other advantages for having 5,1? I read that for one thing I could use faster and more memory.
 
DFP1989

DFP1989

macrumors 6502
Jun 5, 2020
462
361
Melbourne, Australia
I feel like a lot of it would come down to compatibility with software you want to run, if the older OS will do it and you aren't planning on taking advantage of later hardware support, I can't really see a benefit.

I upgraded mine as I was planning to upgrade the CPUs and Mojave, but ended up not bothering (it was already 2x quad-core) and selling it on.

It took a bit of browsing around, but I was able to search up images for the OS versions I needed during my brief stint mucking around with a 4,1 and 5,1, I don't have either machine anymore though.
 
Z

zhmmy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 9, 2016
17
2
Thanks for your reply. And you are right, neither this machine nor El Capitan has a problem with running CS5 or any of the various graphics or music apps I have. I'm not a huge fan of basically wasting my time using any of the magic video apps they keep springing on us - even though some of them are fun to watch. Graphic art is important to me so I'm trying to upgrade speed and reliability more than anything else. I'm also getting into using a Huion and speed is important to that.

Since I'm 84 and living on Social Security, I no longer can afford to buy all the latest whiz-bang stuff Apple keeps throwing at us. I wish I had a better setup but it is what it is.

While it's always tempting to own the very latest hardware and apps it always gets down to how important it is to whatever you want to achieve. My old Mac Pro early 2009 does an excellent job with both graphics and music so mainly I'd like to just max it out to be the best it can be. I'll be changing over to a 1TB SSD tomorrow. Today I hooked up a second monitor as extended and that helps in my current effort to build a website using Dreamweaver. I suppose next I will be upgrading the video card.

I appreciate any advice I can get regarding improvements to my hardware. Like best value in a video card to replace the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120.

My stuff: Mac Pro, Early 2009 4,1, 2.66 GHz Quad-Core, El Cap 10.11.6, 32GB Ram, 2TB WD, NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 1024 MB
 
Z

zhmmy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 9, 2016
17
2
I want to upgrade my 4,1 Firmware to 5,1. The Netkas examples don't work right.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom