Help! macpro5,1 won't go into firmware update mode.

[macagain]

So, I'm trying to reinstall Mojave beta from scratch using the installer downloaded from the App Store (today), after restoring my HS from TM.

The installer boots up and as expected, says it needs to do a firmware update (I'm currently on MP51.0085.B00). I click the shutdown button and it shuts down seemingly fine.

I then press and hold the power button waiting for the flashing led, or long tone, but neither come. I keep holding the button in, and the machine just starts and shuts down and repeats.

I'm running a flashed GTX680 (PNY, reference) and also a flashed HD7950. Both cards run fine in HS, have boot screens, and the GTX680 ran fine in my previous Mojave install. I have also done firmware updates on the machine before, as recently as when I installed an early Mojave PB, while using the GTX680.

Anyone any ideas??? I've tried a few times, to no avail. I'm stumped.

 

[bsbeamer]

Update to MP51.0089.B00 from the 10.13.6 17G65 installer first.

 

[kohlson]

10.13.6 17G65 installer

I have a couple of 10.13.6 installers. How do I know which is 17G65?

 

[bsbeamer]

Download the latest 10.13.6 installer from AppStore. Run with an EFI GPU in the system and you will be prompted to update firmware since you're not yet on MP51.0089.B00.

After you update the firmware to MP51.0089.B00, then install the Mojave beta firmware if needed.

 

[macagain]

Update to MP51.0089.B00 from the 10.13.6 17G65 installer first.

Unfortunately, no joy on that installer either (I downloaded from App Store last night). Same thing. Shuts down. Hold power button, but flashes and long tone never comes. Keep holding power button, and Mac boots, keep holding and it shuts down.

I even booted into Sierra with a genuine apple ati 5770 and tried from there and still no joy.

Scratching my head... have owned a few Mac pro's and firmware updates always go fine...

 

[tsialex]

Unfortunately, no joy on that installer either (I downloaded from App Store last night). Same thing. Shuts down. Hold power button, but flashes and long tone never comes. Keep holding power button, and Mac boots, keep holding and it shuts down.

I even booted into Sierra with a genuine apple ati 5770 and tried from there and still no joy.

Scratching my head... have owned a few Mac pro's and firmware updates always go fine...

Maybe your Mac Pro is one of the missed chime group. Mine and others lost chime around MP51.0087.B00.

Do a ROMTool dump, I can extract your Mac Pro hardware identifiers and insert on 138.0.0.0.0. Do the BootROM dump, compress it and PM me the file.

 

[bookemdano]

My guess is there's something amiss with your boot drive. I recall there was someone else a month or two ago here who couldn't get firmware updates to install--turns out his drive partitioning was screwy.

If you have a spare drive you can throw in and install HS on, you should try that, and then try the Mojave update.

 

[tsialex]

My guess is there's something amiss with your boot drive. I recall there was someone else a month or two ago here who couldn't get firmware updates to install--turns out his drive partitioning was screwy.

If you have a spare drive you can throw in and install HS on, you should try that, and then try the Mojave update.

You can enter Firmware Programming Mode without any disks. Apple uses a NetBoot AHT do some tests/flashing.

 

[bsbeamer]

SIP and Gatekeeper enabled?
Authentic 5,1 or flashed?
Remove any other GPUs except for the one with EFI.

 

[macagain]

Maybe your Mac Pro is one of the missed chime group. Mine and others lost chime around MP51.0087.B00.

Do a ROMTool dump, I can extract your Mac Pro hardware identifiers and insert on 138.0.0.0.0. Do the BootROM dump, compress it and PM me the file.

Will do! Thanks for helping!
[doublepost=1536704319][/doublepost]

SIP and Gatekeeper enabled?
Authentic 5,1 or flashed?
Remove any other GPUs except for the one with EFI.

I didn't disable either, so guessing yes.

Authentic 5,1 2012
Only one GPU each time. even when back to authentic 5770.
[doublepost=1536704360][/doublepost]

My guess is there's something amiss with your boot drive. I recall there was someone else a month or two ago here who couldn't get firmware updates to install--turns out his drive partitioning was screwy.

If you have a spare drive you can throw in and install HS on, you should try that, and then try the Mojave update.

each os on it's own drive. and when booting from that, all other drives removed

 

[h9826790]

You can enter Firmware Programming Mode without any disks. Apple uses a NetBoot AHT do some tests/flashing.

You are right, but it's a known issue that some HDD / SSD can't work with the Apple native firmware updater.

No one know why yet, but quite a few guys fix the issue by simply change to another hard drive.

 

[macagain]

You are right, but it's a known issue that some HDD / SSD can't work with the Apple native firmware updater.

No one know why yet, but quite a few guys fix the issue by simply change to another hard drive.

the hd that Sierra is on is on is orig hd that came with the Mac. and I've updated fw from other drive as well...

 

[tsialex]

You are right, but it's a known issue that some HDD / SSD can't work with the Apple native firmware updater.

No one know why yet, but quite a few guys fix the issue by simply change to another hard drive.

Yes, it's a serious problem for 6,1 Mac Pro. But to just enter Firmware Programming Mode, the drive won't make a difference. You can't update after that with the troublesome drive and efiflasher, but you still can upgrade the firmware via ROMTool.

 

[crjackson2134]

Mine does this too at times. In fact, today was the last time.

I shut down and pull the plug for a full minute (shorter amount of time won’t work here). Sometimes I have to do this more than once. Afterwards I can enter programming mode and flash as normal.

 

[macagain]

Mine does this too at times. In fact, today was the last time.

I shut down and pull the plug for a full minute (shorter amount of time won’t work here). Sometimes I have to do this more than once. Afterwards I can enter programming mode and flash as normal.

tried that a couple times, unfortunately no joy...

 

[bsbeamer]

just confirming: this is currently with the .0089 firmware update in 10.13.6, correct?

 

[macagain]

just confirming: this is currently with the .0089 firmware update in 10.13.6, correct?

No.... it is MP51.0085.B00. I think it was installed when I put in the first Mojave PB.

Yes, it's a serious problem for 6,1 Mac Pro. But to just enter Firmware Programming Mode, the drive won't make a difference. You can't update after that with the troublesome drive and efiflasher, but you still can upgrade the firmware via ROMTool.

The problem seems to be that I can't even get it to enter fw prog mode....

 

[bookemdano]

So you had no problem installing the 0085 firmware, with all of the exact same hardware you've got installed now? I would pull all PCI cards except the GPU (I know you already said you pulled all drives but the boot drive).

Aside from that, not sure what to suggest, other than as tsialex suggested, trying to get it to enter firmware update mode without any drives connected. If it still won't do it then maybe something is corrupt in your firmware (which tsialex can help you figure out).

Keep us posted!

 

[macagain]

So you had no problem installing the 0085 firmware, with all of the exact same hardware you've got installed now? I would pull all PCI cards except the GPU (I know you already said you pulled all drives but the boot drive).

Aside from that, not sure what to suggest, other than as tsialex suggested, trying to get it to enter firmware update mode without any drives connected. If it still won't do it then maybe something is corrupt in your firmware (which tsialex can help you figure out).

Keep us posted!

There're no other cards of any kind in... yep, 0085 went in fine.

I went ahead and got another drive, wipe it, and re-installed Sierra clean. And still no cigar... Reset pram, smc, switched to dvi-d output. nada. It never gets to the loud tone, flashing led or dvd tray opening.

On one occasion after it shut down after holding the the button awhile, I released the button, then pressed it again to power on. I did see the firmware update program bar just pop up on the screen for a split second then the machine rebooted w/o installing the new fw.

 

[bookemdano]

Maybe clean contacts on your power button? Otherwise I guess tsialex will get you fixed up with a ROM you can flash with ROMTool.

 

[crjackson2134]

Maybe clean contacts on your power button? Otherwise I guess tsialex will get you fixed up with a ROM you can flash with ROMTool.

He can’t flash it unless he can enter programming mode AFAIK.

 

[bookemdano]

He can’t flash it unless he can enter programming mode AFAIK.

Oh, my bad then. I thought dosdude1 had made a tool that could do that. OK well here is what I would do (including cleaning the contacts on the power button if they're accessible).

Unplug power to reset SMC and drain flea power. Hold down power button after pulling the plug to help this process along. 30 seconds to a minute should be plenty. Plug it back in and then zap the PRAM. Make sure you get the second reboot to confirm the PRAM was zapped successfully. I like to use a USB keyboard to do it since BT can be finicky with the timing.

Use (make if you don't have one) a 10.13.6 installer USB stick and make a clean install of 10.13.6 onto a fresh, spare SATA hard drive or SSD connected to Bay 1. No other drives connected or cards installed other than GPU (use your 5770 since it's the stock card). Nothing connected to USB other than a mouse and kb (if they aren't bluetooth).

Download the 10.13.6 installer again from the MAS and run it to perform the MP51.0089.B00 firmware upgrade. Hopefully it works this time. If it doesn't, maybe pull out all but one of your RAM sticks and try again. If still no go, try swapping the one remaining RAM stick.

The above is all "throw things at the wall and see if any of it sticks" kinda stuff. Honestly I have no idea what would be causing that problem.

Good luck.

 

[h9826790]

There're no other cards of any kind in... yep, 0085 went in fine.

I went ahead and got another drive, wipe it, and re-installed Sierra clean. And still no cigar... Reset pram, smc, switched to dvi-d output. nada. It never gets to the loud tone, flashing led or dvd tray opening.

On one occasion after it shut down after holding the the button awhile, I released the button, then pressed it again to power on. I did see the firmware update program bar just pop up on the screen for a split second then the machine rebooted w/o installing the new fw.

Then it looks like your cMP can enter firmware flashing mode, just won't run the official updater.

I really suggest you stop here, dump the ROM, send it to tsialex, and let him make a 138.0.0.0.0 clean ROM image for you. Then use ROMTool to update the firmware.

It's a fact that the cMP BootROM can be slightly corrupted, and the error seems will be accumulated. And we actually suspect some sudden dead cMP are because the firmware finally corrupted to a level that can't boot.

Keep repeating this "flashing failure" cycle doesn't sounds good to me.

 

[tsialex]

Then it looks like your cMP can enter firmware flashing mode, just won't run the official updater.

I really suggest you stop here, dump the ROM, send it to tsialex, and let him make a 138.0.0.0.0 clean ROM image for you. Then use ROMTool to update the firmware.

It's a fact that the cMP BootROM can be slightly corrupted, and the error seems will be accumulated. And we actually suspect some sudden dead cMP are because the firmware finally corrupted to a level that can't boot.

Keep repeating this "flashing failure" cycle doesn't sounds good to me.

@macagain dumped his BootROM. It's MP51.0085.B00 version, have all the identifiers, Base_XX in the correct place, but have trash/logs/plists in the NVRAM.

I did the 138.0.0.0.0 reconstructed BootROM, but he can't enter the Firmware Programming Mode.

 

[bsbeamer]

Does anyone have the .0087 firmware update for him to attempt? Likely the same situation, but maybe worth one shot.

@macagain - You are using a single SATA drive (HDD or SDD) connected directly to bay #1, correct? All other drives and PCIe cards have been removed from the system, except for the official Mac GPU in PCIe slot #1? Single monitor with single video output connected?

Have you ever replaced the CR2032 battery on the board?

Also worth asking what brand, model and capacity is the SATA drive?