Another Mac Pro 4,1 to 5,1 EFI Update Problem

[Earl Urley]

I recently inherited an 8-core 4,1, slapped in a blank, reformatted hard drive, installed Mountain Lion (10.8.5) from a USB key, and was able to flash it with no problems. Identified as a 5,1 in ML's System Information.

Just had to make sure I had the EFIUpdate mounted and was connected to the Internet. Also lucked out in that it seems to have an EVGA 680 flashed with an EFI ROM, or it could be one of the rare actual EVGA 680 Mac cards that were sold at retail. Sheesh, two PCI power cords? Didn't think it needed that much juice.

Right after that, I booted to a High Sierra USB installer. Ran Disk Utility, wiped the drive blank, then ran the HS installer. It told me it would have to do a firmware update (yet again!) so I followed the onscreen instructions, shut it down, held the power button.. watched the DVD drive open, watched the firmware update thermometer.

A minute or so later, the machine rebooted again and happily installed High Sierra with Supplemental Update. I looked at the log and it didn't do any HFS to APFS, the machine booted from an HFS+ volume as usual, as it should if it's a platter hard drive.

I thought it was kind of weird that it literally ran the firmware update from a wiped drive, probably the firmware updater is written onto the recovery partition or something?

HS actually boots fairly quickly on a decent platter hard drive if you have decent RAM (12 GB RAM in triple interlace config, 500 GB WD drive @7200 RPM, 16MB cache)

Thinking about getting a Lycom DT120 and a Samsung 960 EVO and see if that will boot now..

 

[smcimarty]

What do you mean when you say that you got it to update? If you're not seeing it boot, it's not updated. Are you locked out of your Mac Pro?

First thanks for responding,
I did the firmware update/upgrade from 4.1 to 5.1. It will boot but will not restart, when ever I try to start or restart the first time it tries it just hangs and the fans are on and the power light flashes. I can then hold the power button to shut down and then after it shuts down I can press the power button and it will start.
So i'm not locked out it just will not start the first time when trying to start or restart.

I may also have an issue will video now, the last time I got it to start the video was not working, I'm not that concerned about that as much because I mainly use it as a headless server and use Apple Remote Desktop to control when I need to.

I hope I explained myself well, I don't do alot on the forums.

Thanks again for any insite you can give me.

 

[h9826790]

First thanks for responding,
I did the firmware update/upgrade from 4.1 to 5.1. It will boot but will not restart, when ever I try to start or restart the first time it tries it just hangs and the fans are on and the power light flashes. I can then hold the power button to shut down and then after it shuts down I can press the power button and it will start.
So i'm not locked out it just will not start the first time when trying to start or restart.

I may also have an issue will video now, the last time I got it to start the video was not working, I'm not that concerned about that as much because I mainly use it as a headless server and use Apple Remote Desktop to control when I need to.

I hope I explained myself well, I don't do alot on the forums.

Thanks again for any insite you can give me.

Still can’t understand what you mean.

1) you did the firmware update. Is that mean the update was successful? Or you attempted to do it, but fail?

2) what do you mean will boot but not start? You can hear the “don” sound but computer hang with black screen?

3) you mentioned power light flashing, how it flash? (It is an error indication light in some specific scenario)

4) you mean every time you have this “no start” issue, you can always force shutdown, then the computer can boot all the way to desktop?

5) what is your computer config? (especially important to know which GPU you are using)

Anyway, your firmware is good, no matter you are still with 4,1 firmware or 5,1.

It sounds like your PSU (or some other hardware. e.g. GPU) is failing, which cause the “no start” issue.

AFAIK, when we say “boot”, it usually means the computer can be started up normally. If we want to descript “power up but not working”, use the term “power up” is better than “boot”. Because “boot” basically means “the whole start up process”. It doesn’t quite make sense that “can boot but cannot start”.

 

[Squuiid]

Thinking about getting a Lycom DT120 and a Samsung 960 EVO and see if that will boot now..

A 960 EVO won’t work.
Your options are AHCI drives only, so:
SM951 AHCI edition
XP941
HyperX Predator

The updated 5,1 firmware only enabled APFS boot, not NVMe unfortunately.

 

[smcimarty]

Still can’t understand what you mean.

1) you did the firmware update. Is that mean the update was successful? Or you attempted to do it, but fail?

2) what do you mean will boot but not start? You can hear the “don” sound but computer hang with black screen?

3) you mentioned power light flashing, how it flash? (It is an error indication light in some specific scenario)

4) you mean every time you have this “no start” issue, you can always force shutdown, then the computer can boot all the way to desktop?

5) what is your computer config? (especially important to know which GPU you are using)

Anyway, your firmware is good, no matter you are still with 4,1 firmware or 5,1.

It sounds like your PSU (or some other hardware. e.g. GPU) is failing, which cause the “no start” issue.

AFAIK, when we say “boot”, it usually means the computer can be started up normally. If we want to descript “power up but not working”, use the term “power up” is better than “boot”. Because “boot” basically means “the whole start up process”. It doesn’t quite make sense that “can boot but cannot start”.

Thanks you and I do appreciate your patience,

1). Yes I did the firmware update and it seems to be successful. It now says 5.1 and the boot rom is MP51.007F.B03

2). I can get it to boot up in 10.12 and everything seems to be working. The issue is when I go to restart (Apple menu - Restart) it will not. That is when I get the flashing power light.

3). Not sure if there is any specific scenario it just flashes on-off with fans on ( but I do not think they are on hight)
4). Yes, when I get the flashing power light I can then force shutdown and it will boot to the desktop.

5). See attached




I have read that the video card could cause issues but I can't find anything on the card I have so not sure if that could be the issue.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[h9826790]

Thanks you and I do appreciate your patience,

1). Yes I did the firmware update and it seems to be successful. It now says 5.1 and the boot rom is MP51.007F.B03

2). I can get it to boot up in 10.12 and everything seems to be working. The issue is when I go to restart (Apple menu - Restart) it will not. That is when I get the flashing power light.

3). Not sure if there is any specific scenario it just flashes on-off with fans on ( but I do not think they are on hight)
4). Yes, when I get the flashing power light I can then force shutdown and it will boot to the desktop.

5). See attached
View attachment 726369
View attachment 726370
View attachment 726371

I have read that the video card could cause issues but I can't find anything on the card I have so not sure if that could be the issue.

Thanks again for your help.

Ok, now is much more clear. It’s nothing to do with the firmware, and you only have one problem, which is you can’t perform a warm restart.

For every warm restart, it’s basically “shutdown -> POST (the “don” sound) -> boot to desktop again”. Does your computer hang before or after POST?

 

[smcimarty]

Ok, now is much more clear. It’s nothing to do with the firmware, and you only have one problem, which is you can’t perform a warm restart.

For every warm restart, it’s basically “shutdown -> POST (the “don” sound) -> boot to desktop again”. Does your computer hang before or after POST?

Ok, tries the warm restart and it seems that it's the shutdown. It seems to start flashing almost immediately after i click the restart.

 

[h9826790]

Ok, tries the warm restart and it seems that it's the shutdown. It seems to start flashing almost immediately after i click the restart.

So you have a shutdown hang, which is quite a common bug in MacOS. Good news is most likely your Mac is completely fine. It's just the OS is buggy. By the way, how long you wait for it to "shutdown"?

 

[smcimarty]

So you have a shutdown hang, which is quite a common bug in MacOS. Good news is most likely your Mac is completely fine. It's just the OS is buggy. By the way, how long you wait for it to "shutdown"?

I have waited about 5 minutes at times just to see if it would finish.

So you think it's more of an OS bug, so I should try and reinstall the os?

Once I got the firmware updated I installed 10.12 on a SSD but I did it from a USB that I have used before on a Mac mini that works fine.

Would there be a better place to download 10.12 to install? Should start with an older OS and upgrade to 10.12?

Thx

 

[h9826790]

I have waited about 5 minutes at times just to see if it would finish.

So you think it's more of an OS bug, so I should try and reinstall the os?

Once I got the firmware updated I installed 10.12 on a SSD but I did it from a USB that I have used before on a Mac mini that works fine.

Would there be a better place to download 10.12 to install? Should start with an older OS and upgrade to 10.12?

Thx

You can just boot into recovery partiton to format the hard drive and perform a clean install at there.

 

[JedNZ]

I can wait up to 40 minutes for a restart/shutdown to occur on my cMP (see specs in my sig which includes 960 EVO). I can hear the spinners chugging away, but I leave it to do it's thing. I wouldn't recommend you interrupt this unless someone confirms it's safe to do it.

As for the 960 EVO, you can use it like I do for data (not boot) - I've got my one paired in a Fusion Drive (FD) with a 2TB spinner and it works well. I haven't updated to HS yet as aren't sure if the 960 EVO will be seen natively with the FD or if I have to create the NMVe kext (like I currently have to do when Sierra is updated).

On an aside, not sure if HS would try and convert my 960 EVO to the new APFS and thus kill my FD if I upgrade to HS. A few questions looming there for me, and no one can confirm for certain what will happen as I appear to have a fairly unique setup.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

First thanks for responding,
I did the firmware update/upgrade from 4.1 to 5.1. It will boot but will not restart, when ever I try to start or restart the first time it tries it just hangs and the fans are on and the power light flashes. I can then hold the power button to shut down and then after it shuts down I can press the power button and it will start.
So i'm not locked out it just will not start the first time when trying to start or restart.

I may also have an issue will video now, the last time I got it to start the video was not working, I'm not that concerned about that as much because I mainly use it as a headless server and use Apple Remote Desktop to control when I need to.

I hope I explained myself well, I don't do alot on the forums.

Thanks again for any insite you can give me.

I would try doing the firmware flash again, even if you've already tried it. Firstly, you NEED a genuine Mac Pro card, be it a GT 120 or whatever. Secondly, you need to disable SIP prior to the flashing process, if you haven't done so already. (And, of course, you need a genuine card to both disable SIP *and* upgrade the firmware.)

If that doesn't work, do the same procedure again, yet use an entirely different hard drive [with a clean installation of OSX on it]. I have a second 4,1 which would reboot and skip the firmware flashing procedure every time. I tried using a different HDD as my boot drive, and it suddenly worked. I am not sure why it had something to do with the HDD, but I guess it did.
[doublepost=1508631406][/doublepost]

I can wait up to 40 minutes for a restart/shutdown to occur on my cMP (see specs in my sig which includes 960 EVO). I can hear the spinners chugging away, but I leave it to do it's thing. I wouldn't recommend you interrupt this unless someone confirms it's safe to do it.

As for the 960 EVO, you can use it like I do for data (not boot) - I've got my one paired in a Fusion Drive (FD) with a 2TB spinner and it works well. I haven't updated to HS yet as aren't sure if the 960 EVO will be seen natively with the FD or if I have to create the NMVe kext (like I currently have to do when Sierra is updated).

On an aside, not sure if HS would try and convert my 960 EVO to the new APFS and thus kill my FD if I upgrade to HS. A few questions looming there for me, and no one can confirm for certain what will happen as I appear to have a fairly unique setup.

HS currently does not work with Fusion drives, nor does APFS work on HDDs. A Mac with an HDD could upgrade to HS, but the file system will not be converted to APFS. As for Fusion drives, I think they'll simply become destroyed by HS, for the time-being.

All SSDs are automatically converted, and I believe that blades on PCIe adapters should also be converted and installed to just fine. I, however, take the precautionary step of removing all other disks BEFORE I upgrade. I don't want my Windows SSD or backup HDDs to get touched.

BTW, for any firmware update (such as the one included for 5,1 or 4,1-->5,1 conversions), you have to use a genuine Mac card - be it the stock card or some sort of Mac-Edition card. I keep my Mac Pro's stock GT 120 off to the side, in case I need to do something like this.

 

[devon807]

Best bet right now would probably be a HyperX Predator. SM951's are overpriced right now for some reason.

 

[Angelus]

I would try doing the firmware flash again, even if you've already tried it. Firstly, you NEED a genuine Mac Pro card, be it a GT 120 or whatever. Secondly, you need to disable SIP prior to the flashing process, if you haven't done so already. (And, of course, you need a genuine card to both disable SIP *and* upgrade the firmware.)

If that doesn't work, do the same procedure again, yet use an entirely different hard drive [with a clean installation of OSX on it]. I have a second 4,1 which would reboot and skip the firmware flashing procedure every time. I tried using a different HDD as my boot drive, and it suddenly worked. I am not sure why it had something to do with the HDD, but I guess it did.
[doublepost=1508631406][/doublepost]


HS currently does not work with Fusion drives, nor does APFS work on HDDs. A Mac with an HDD could upgrade to HS, but the file system will not be converted to APFS. As for Fusion drives, I think they'll simply become destroyed by HS, for the time-being.

All SSDs are automatically converted, and I believe that blades on PCIe adapters should also be converted and installed to just fine. I, however, take the precautionary step of removing all other disks BEFORE I upgrade. I don't want my Windows SSD or backup HDDs to get touched.

BTW, for any firmware update (such as the one included for 5,1 or 4,1-->5,1 conversions), you have to use a genuine Mac card - be it the stock card or some sort of Mac-Edition card. I keep my Mac Pro's stock GT 120 off to the side, in case I need to do something like this.

Hi there,

I've been away from the forum for a while whilst studying for exams. I downloaded the High Sierra updater and was planning to run it next week but now you've got me rethinking that plan. Of note I do have a native GPU to apply the firmware update for High Sierra.

I've got a 4.1 2009 Mac Pro flashed to 5.1. Currently has Sierra with a DIY Fusion drive (Evo 840 256Gb and 3TB HDD). So are you saying that the High Sierra update will break my DIY Fusion drive?

 

[flowrider]

BTW, for any firmware update (such as the one included for 5,1 or 4,1-->5,1 conversions), you have to use a genuine Mac card - be it the stock card or some sort of Mac-Edition card. I keep my Mac Pro's stock GT 120 off to the side, in case I need to do something like this.

Or a properly flashed card like the one's sold by MVC. I updated the firmware, twice, on my cMP 5,1 with an MVC flashed Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 1080.

Lou

 

[h9826790]

I would try doing the firmware flash again, even if you've already tried it. Firstly, you NEED a genuine Mac Pro card, be it a GT 120 or whatever. Secondly, you need to disable SIP prior to the flashing process, if you haven't done so already. (And, of course, you need a genuine card to both disable SIP *and* upgrade the firmware.)

If that doesn't work, do the same procedure again, yet use an entirely different hard drive [with a clean installation of OSX on it]. I have a second 4,1 which would reboot and skip the firmware flashing procedure every time. I tried using a different HDD as my boot drive, and it suddenly worked. I am not sure why it had something to do with the HDD, but I guess it did.
[doublepost=1508631406][/doublepost]


HS currently does not work with Fusion drives, nor does APFS work on HDDs. A Mac with an HDD could upgrade to HS, but the file system will not be converted to APFS. As for Fusion drives, I think they'll simply become destroyed by HS, for the time-being.

All SSDs are automatically converted, and I believe that blades on PCIe adapters should also be converted and installed to just fine. I, however, take the precautionary step of removing all other disks BEFORE I upgrade. I don't want my Windows SSD or backup HDDs to get touched.

BTW, for any firmware update (such as the one included for 5,1 or 4,1-->5,1 conversions), you have to use a genuine Mac card - be it the stock card or some sort of Mac-Edition card. I keep my Mac Pro's stock GT 120 off to the side, in case I need to do something like this.

Some extra info

1) if he run the firmware updater AGAIN, he will downgrade the firmware back to 4,1, but NOT re-do the 5,1 firmware installation. If he want to install a solid 5,1 firmware again. He better run the High Sierra installer, which will install the most up to date 5,1 firmware for him.

2) Genuine Mac card is not required. All he need is just a Mac EFI GPU, self flashed or direct from Apple doesn’t really matter.

 

[DPUser]

I have had situations where USB connections caused lengthy boot times and failure to boot. Tested by removing USB devices, then booting. Rectified with a new powered USB hub.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Some extra info

1) if he run the firmware updater AGAIN, he will downgrade the firmware back to 4,1, but NOT re-do the 5,1 firmware installation. If he want to install a solid 5,1 firmware again. He better run the High Sierra installer, which will install the most up to date 5,1 firmware for him.

2) Genuine Mac card is not required. All he need is just a Mac EFI GPU, self flashed or direct from Apple doesn’t really matter.

Yeah, that's true; a flashed one will work. He either needs a flashed one or genuine one - nothing else.
[doublepost=1508707241][/doublepost]

I have had situations where USB connections caused lengthy boot times and failure to boot. Tested by removing USB devices, then booting. Rectified with a new powered USB hub.

Make sure you have a quality hub. I had a 10-port Chinese hub which died and apparently took two USB ports with it, on my 1,1 Mac Pro.
[doublepost=1508707440][/doublepost]

Hi there,

I've been away from the forum for a while whilst studying for exams. I downloaded the High Sierra updater and was planning to run it next week but now you've got me rethinking that plan. Of note I do have a native GPU to apply the firmware update for High Sierra.

I've got a 4.1 2009 Mac Pro flashed to 5.1. Currently has Sierra with a DIY Fusion drive (Evo 840 256Gb and 3TB HDD). So are you saying that the High Sierra update will break my DIY Fusion drive?

As far as I know, 'Fusion' drives don't work under High Sierra. Currently, no hard disk can be converted to the new file system; they remain as HFS. That being said, I am unsure as to whether it will break it or simply not give either drive APFS. I'd look up the issue and read further. I personally haven't looked into it much, since I don't run hybrid drives.

 

[smcimarty]

You can just boot into recovery partiton to format the hard drive and perform a clean install at there.

Well I have tried a couple of thing and still no luck.

First tried to reinstall 10.12 with no luck. Tried it from the recovery image and from a USB neither one would install. I think mostly because it will not do warm restart, again if I use the shutdown command it will Boot just fine.

So then I switched HD the old drive that had 10.11 and tried to downgrade the firmware with no luck. It creates the RamDisk, I shutdown and restart holding the power button until the tone and nothing still 5.1.

Anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks
[doublepost=1508790234][/doublepost]And regardless of what I start from 10.12 SSD 10.12 USB or 10.11 HD it will not do a warm restart.
[doublepost=1508790536][/doublepost]Would a NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT be a card I could use?
Will it help at this point since I can not get it to downgrade?

 

[Pizzaman69]

BE VERY CAUTIOUS WHEN DEALING WITH MACVIDCARDS!
I bought a GTX980 off him last fall. Died after 2 weeks. After 6 months of trying to get him to help address the issue, I finally took it into a local shop to get tested and they confirmed it was shot. MVC's finally provided me with directions on how to return it for a replacement, which I did. They then confirmed on their end that the card was bad and asked me for my address so they could send the replacement. I gave it to them. After not seeing anything for a month, I contacted him again for a status update. He replied with 'Is this your address?' but the address he had written in the email was not the address I had provided him with. I replied again with my address, including the original message I had sent, and since them I have heard ZERO from him. It's now been 4 months and he has ignored every email I have sent over that time. I have tried replying to his messages and sending new messages through his contact for, but absolutely nothing back. So at this point it looks like he sold me a bad card, cost me further money to return the old one and kept my original USD600. BE VERY CAUTIOUS WHEN DEALING WITH MACVIDCARDS!

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Look here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mvc-flashed-980-ti-used-in-a-pc.2077360/

Post #9 on.

Lou

 

[GilBavel]

So, I had a bit of a 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 catastrophic failure of my own making, and I'm wondering if anyone can help me/knows where to point me in the right direction.
After MONTHS (over a year, actually, on and off) of not being able to boot into recovery mode (I have a USB PC keyboard, and only recently realized I was not holding down the correct key), when the BootRom program asked for a password and I didn't know it (it might have been the administrator password, which until a few days ago, I didn't have--I just hit "enter" at boot to save time as no one uses it but me), after finally disabling SIP in El Capitan, I ran the firmware upgrade, which bricked the Mac Pro. Lights are on, but nobody's home*. The display doesn't come on. I'm told I can obtain and try to boot from an external SPI flash connected to the LITTLE FRANK connector or get another backplane (and maybe a dual CPU tray--mine is only a single CPU, stock 2.66 Ghz) and I'm hoping someone will be able to help me out. For instance, is there a way I can somehow get into the system and run the 2010-2009 firmware update and reverse the process?

I live in Lawrence (home of the University of Kansas) which was a big Mac town 30 years ago, but now I have to make the hour-or-so trip to the Apple store in Kansas City and I'm pretty sure they not only wouldn't be able to work on it, but would laugh me out of the store for running an "obsolete" system. All my work (I'm almost ready to release an anthology of science fiction short stories), subscription information and passwords are on the Mac Pro, and while I'm sure I can put the hard drive(s) in another machine and recover the data, I'm a chronic pain patient, not on disability and have virtually NO income. I make ends meet by selling stuff on eBay, and the occasional loan from friends and family, so I don't have much to work with, but sometimes get computers/parts/peripherals and fix them up and sell them locally to families that otherwise couldn't afford them. My Mac Pro is my pride and joy and was hoping to update the firmware to a 5,1 to run a modern OS as well as Windows with BootCamp (with a GPU I got on eBay for a really good price, I was hoping to finally be able to play Fallout 4), not to mention eventually upgrade my CPU(s) and RAM.

So, any ideas? Any help? _Any_thing would be appreciated, especially considering I have so little to work with. This is the $400 emergency that a large # of Americans can't pay for, for me. I can't afford to build even a ****** PC. Thanks in advance,

--Gil

*Yeah, same with me. I already know I'm an idiot.

 

[h9826790]

So, I had a bit of a 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 catastrophic failure of my own making, and I'm wondering if anyone can help me/knows where to point me in the right direction.
After MONTHS (over a year, actually, on and off) of not being able to boot into recovery mode (I have a USB PC keyboard, and only recently realized I was not holding down the correct key), when the BootRom program asked for a password and I didn't know it (it might have been the administrator password, which until a few days ago, I didn't have--I just hit "enter" at boot to save time as no one uses it but me), after finally disabling SIP in El Capitan, I ran the firmware upgrade, which bricked the Mac Pro. Lights are on, but nobody's home*. The display doesn't come on. I'm told I can obtain and try to boot from an external SPI flash connected to the LITTLE FRANK connector or get another backplane (and maybe a dual CPU tray--mine is only a single CPU, stock 2.66 Ghz) and I'm hoping someone will be able to help me out. For instance, is there a way I can somehow get into the system and run the 2010-2009 firmware update and reverse the process?

I live in Lawrence (home of the University of Kansas) which was a big Mac town 30 years ago, but now I have to make the hour-or-so trip to the Apple store in Kansas City and I'm pretty sure they not only wouldn't be able to work on it, but would laugh me out of the store for running an "obsolete" system. All my work (I'm almost ready to release an anthology of science fiction short stories), subscription information and passwords are on the Mac Pro, and while I'm sure I can put the hard drive(s) in another machine and recover the data, I'm a chronic pain patient, not on disability and have virtually NO income. I make ends meet by selling stuff on eBay, and the occasional loan from friends and family, so I don't have much to work with, but sometimes get computers/parts/peripherals and fix them up and sell them locally to families that otherwise couldn't afford them. My Mac Pro is my pride and joy and was hoping to update the firmware to a 5,1 to run a modern OS as well as Windows with BootCamp (with a GPU I got on eBay for a really good price, I was hoping to finally be able to play Fallout 4), not to mention eventually upgrade my CPU(s) and RAM.

So, any ideas? Any help? _Any_thing would be appreciated, especially considering I have so little to work with. This is the $400 emergency that a large # of Americans can't pay for, for me. I can't afford to build even a ****** PC. Thanks in advance,

--Gil

*Yeah, same with me. I already know I'm an idiot.

If you want us to help, better tell us more about "what have you done" in details.

Only "I ran the firmware upgrade, which bricked the Mac Pro." is really hard for us to know if really the firmware update causing the issue. And hard to tell if there is any possible fix (e.g. if that's not really bricked).

 

[GilBavel]

If you want us to help, better tell us more about "what have you done" in details.

Only "I ran the firmware upgrade, which bricked the Mac Pro." is really hard for us to know if really the firmware update causing the issue. And hard to tell if there is any possible fix (e.g. if that's not really bricked).

Sure, okay, sorry. On instructions from tsialex, who has been wonderfully patient and helpful, via email, I got a new flash drive (the one I'd been working with was bad), and turned it into an El Capitan boot drive. One of his instructions included: "Do a BootROM dump using ROMTool, attached here. You need SIP disabled and no AV/anti-malware running. ROMTool is usually a false-positive to every AV/anti-malware because flashrom and DirectHWAcess.kext." So I disabled SIP, tried to run the RomTool, it asked for a password which I assumed I didn't have after trying the administrator password, and thought running the 2009-2010 firmware update, since I'd finally been able to disable SIP, would work.

This is exactly what tsialex was trying to prevent. He wanted me to send him the results of the BootRom dump so he could help me. So, after running the firmware update, shutting down the Mac Pro and starting it by pressing the power button until it flashed and beeped, my display showed a different apple-and-status bar than I'd seen before (thicker, and sort of white with darker edges), and then turned off.

I expected, finally, to start it and be able to see the 5,1 in the "about this Mac" screen, but it just wouldn't boot as the ROM chip on the backplane no longer works due to my ineptitude. Doesn't matter if I have the hard drives out and try to boot from the flash drive, the ROM chip in the backplane has the wrong information on it and that's a hardware issue--as I understand it. After explaining what happened, and asking for clarity, as I know very little, he wrote:

"The backplane can boot from an external SPI flash connected to the LITTLE FRANK connector.

ROMTool zip package password is just to decompress the package, don't flash anything. ROMTool process at this time is just to read the BootROM. You probably did something before, like Netkas procedure [Yup].

SMC is the System Management Controller. 2009 CPU trays and backplanes have SMC 1.139f5 version, 2010/2012 boards have 1.39f11, you can't mix 2009 with 2010/2012 boards. SMC with different versions don't work and the fans go full RPM.

You should create a thread asking if someone local to you can help you repair your board.".

Instead of creating that thread, I decided to post on this one.

Is that the detail you were looking for? I'm guessing I need either an external SPI flash, another backplane, or another 2009 4,1 ROM chip and find someone that can desolder the ROM chip I hosed, and solder the new one on? Again, sorry, I'm justifiably annoying at how little I understand, so I imagine if I haven't yet offered enough/the right kind of detail, I'm not easy to help.

Thanks,

--Gil

P.S.: I want to again mention how patient and helpful tsialex has been with me. He continued to email me instructions and offer help well after the "this guy is annoyingly ignorant/unprepared" point.

 

[crjackson2134]

This guy has 2 backplane boards at a reasonable price.

Have a look, and ask @tsialex to confirm this would work for you.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mac-Pro-4-...h=item4b5e8a6c02:g:6pEAAOSwSL5ccrST:rk:5:pf:0