MP 6,1 6,1 2013 Mac Pro wont boot after 11.3.1 update

[p11hlf]

Hey guys

i have a problem with my 2013 Mac Pro 6,1 That I cannot resolve

ive been away from the machine for 4 weeks, upon boot I was greeted with a software update. I accepted the update and saw the normal download..... so left it to its own devices.

when returning to the machine, it wouldn’t wake.... so I turned it off. Upon boot it hung on the black screen with a white apple logo.

ive had this issue a while back when originally changing drives to a sabrent drive approved in this forum to work.

now when the system boots it loads the apple logo screen and stays with it until you shut down the machine.

ive tried the following

• Booted with alt pressed, it shows two drives. One is my boot drive the other is the update. Neither function and both show as external drives
• booting into recovery mode, just loads the apple logo screen. Ie nothing happens
• reset smc
• reset nvram
• when doing a hard system recovery, I can get to The Mavericks install but after choosing the drive it ”installs” and then upon reboot shows the apple logo screen and nothing happens
• i have a Mojave usb drive, it does the same as above
• time machine gives an error 0
• putting in the old drive does the same
• when doing a recovery, the sabrent drive isn’t visible.
• im awaiting a new keyboard to try a deep Nvram reset (5 times)
• the same issue happens when I try and install to a usb hdd

anything I can do here to help resolve the problem, I’ve been advised the change the br2032 but it’s a completed tear down so would like to try something else before adding to my problems.

thanks in advance

phil

 

[tsialex]

I may be wrong, but to me seems that you have a superseded BootROM version.

Install the AppleOEM 12+16 blade back to the GPU 12+16 socket, power on, do a deep NVRAM reset and then an Internet Recovery fully erasing the AppleOEM blade. Install whatever macOS release Internet Recovery offers, then upgrade to BigSur.

Install all the updates, after that check if you already have 428.0.0.0.0 BootROM release.

 

[p11hlf]

Thanks, I’ll try that once a new keyboard arrives.
question, should internet recovery show as a boot option once a WiFi or ethernet cable is attached?

 

[tsialex]

Thanks, I’ll try that once a new keyboard arrives.
question, should internet recovery show as a boot option once a WiFi or ethernet cable is attached?

I don't have MP6,1 right now to check, but only your disks and NetBoot shares appear at the BootPicker (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). You have to call Internet Recovery with CMD-ALT-R.

 

[p11hlf]

I may be wrong, but to me seems that you have a superseded BootROM version.

Install the AppleOEM 12+16 blade back to the GPU 12+16 socket, power on, do a deep NVRAM reset and then an Internet Recovery fully erasing the AppleOEM blade. Install whatever macOS release Internet Recovery offers, then upgrade to BigSur.

Install all the updates, after that check if you already have 428.0.0.0.0 BootROM release.

I did a deep NVRAM reset (tried twice once with 5 the other with 10) and internet recovery shows. downloads additional components and then doesn’t restart to the drive..... just a folder with a question mark.

i did a check of the system in terminal and i have 428.0.0

 

[tsialex]

I did a deep NVRAM reset (tried twice once with 5 the other with 10) and internet recovery shows. downloads additional components and then doesn’t restart to the drive..... just a folder with a question mark.

i did a check of the system in terminal and i have 428.0.0

Did you checked for SMART errors with DriveDX? Did you checked AHT/ASD?

Nuke the drive with diskutil zerodisk XX before installing with Internet Recovery.

 

[p11hlf]

Did you checked for SMART errors with DriveDX? Did you checked AHT/ASD?

Nuke the drive with diskutil zerodisk XX before installing with Internet Recovery.

How do i check AHT/ASD? And what am i looking for?

 

[tsialex]

How do i check AHT/ASD? And what am i looking for?

Any errors.

Apple Hardware Test (AHT) you can read how to install and download it below:

GitHub - upekkha/AppleHardwareTest: Apple Hardware Test Download Links

Apple Hardware Test Download Links. Contribute to upekkha/AppleHardwareTest development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Apple Service Diagnostics (ASD) is an Apple internal diagnostic tool that you can find leaked on the net, late-2013 ASD is ASD 3S159.

 

[p11hlf]

Ill try it now and report back, not the easiest things to find!

 

[p11hlf]

Holding d on boot freezes once the test starts, I’m gonna leave it for a while and see it the bar progresses

 

[Kountry]

Holding d on boot freezes once the test starts, I’m gonna leave it for a while and see it the bar progresses

Try to run by option D to connect to the Apple servers

 

[p11hlf]

Try to run by option D to connect to the Apple servers

Thanks, I’ve tried both option d and d they both require internet to perform the test.

they both start with the spinning globe and “starting internet recovery”

 

[p11hlf]

A so im getting somewhere!

i read in the service manual about taking out all the ram and put just stick 2 back in and hitting the RTC real time clock button.

i did this and it passed the test with no errors, now installing mavericks onto the original drive.

ill report once I’m back up and running fully!

Thanks forum, my faith in humanity is rising again!

 

[bsbeamer]

Had a very similar issue with the OEM SSD blade of an MBP11,3 recently. Might be the same model?

Machine was unused for months and upon trying to install Big Sur, it got stuck. Then into an issue where recovery would not work, internet recovery would not finish. Reset everything multiple times with same result.

Closest I got was target mode to wipe the SSD and reformat, but target mode partially prevents this at the most top level/layer. It’s not exactly mounting an external disk.

Ended up getting an NVMe with Sintech adapter just to run the machine. BootROM is stuck where it is. Not worth investing too much more into this. Keeping it on Catalina for internal bootable NVMe and have a spare SATA SSD with Big Sur for testing.

 

[p11hlf]

I got the Mac to boot using the old drive and updated to big sur 10.3.1 fine

however the old drive is not being recognised, I reformatted it using a pc however it’s just not showing on the Mac. So I’ve bought another adapter in case the current one has failed.

so far the fix has been to remove ram and reset the real time clock RTC