High Sierra Install Bricked My 4,1 That I had Flashed to 5,1

[Plutonius]

My early 2009 Mac Pro that was running 10.12 for months without issues, bricked after trying to install 10.13 (I know, I was stupid to update).

I downloaded High Sierra and the first thing it did in the installation is updated the flash.

The update went ok and it rebooted fine.

It then started a 40 minute installation and when I returned, the front panel LED was on, the fans were turning, but I have no power on the USB ports (keyboard / mouse) and nothing on the display. Cycling the power on gives me some noise from the optical drives but nothing else.

Does anyone have any suggestions or am I'm SOL .

 

[brossow]

My early 2009 Mac Pro that was running 10.12 for months without issues, bricked after trying to install 10.13 (I know, I was stupid to update).

I downloaded High Sierra and the first thing it did in the installation is updated the flash.

The update went ok and it rebooted fine.

It then started a 40 minute installation and when I returned, the front panel LED was on, the fans were turning, but I have no power on the USB ports (keyboard / mouse) and nothing on the display. Cycling the power on gives me some noise from the optical drives but nothing else.

Does anyone have any suggestions or am I'm SOL .

Similar situation here. Firmware updated, rebooted for the OS upgrade, came back an hour later to find it going through a kernel panic/reboot cycle. Tried reinstalling via recovery and same thing. Now restoring a Time Machine backup to another drive, but this is scary and a bit nauseating.

Can the firmware be downgraded?

 

[Plutonius]

Similar situation here. Firmware updated, rebooted for the OS upgrade, came back an hour later to find it going through a kernel panic/reboot cycle. Tried reinstalling via recovery and same thing. Now restoring a Time Machine backup to another drive, but this is scary and a bit nauseating.

Can the firmware be downgraded?

Is there anything I can do since I have no keyboard / mouse or display now (i.e. I have a time machine backup but the Mac Pro seems to be bricked)

If you have a 4,1 Mac Pro flashed to a 5,1 , don't upgrade to high sierra.

 

[Squuiid]

Is there anything I can do since I have no keyboard / mouse or display now (i.e. I have a time machine backup but the Mac Pro seems to be bricked)

If you have a 4,1 Mac Pro flashed to a 5,1 , don't upgrade to high sierra.

I upgraded my 4,1 flashed to 5,1 to High Sierra and had zero problems.
Upgrade worked perfectly. If it makes any difference I have a single SM951 SSD in it.

 

[Plutonius]

I upgraded my 4,1 flashed to 5,1 to High Sierra and had zero problems.
Upgrade worked perfectly. If it makes any difference I have a single SM951 SSD in it.

Any idea what's happening to mine (no USB / Display). Is part of the installer in the flash update (corrupted) ?

I think that it should show life with the hard drives removed ?

 

[Squuiid]

Any idea what's happening to mine (no USB / Display). Is part of the installer in the flash update (corrupted) ?

I think that it should show life with the hard drives removed ?

Remove all PCIe cards except video card.
If you have a Mac EFI video card put that in instead.
Then see if the Mac posts.

 

[Plutonius]

Remove all PCIe cards except video card.
If you have a Mac EFI video card put that in instead.
Then see if the Mac posts.

Thank you for the suggestions.

The only PCIe card I have is the video card and it's the sapphire mac version. Just in case, I put the original Radeon video card back in but no difference. Still no keyboard / mouse (USB) or display (i.e. will not boot).

Do you have any other suggestions ?

I'm not sure how to recover if it will not boot and the keyboard/mouse and display are not operational ?

 

[YZFNYC]

If you have a dual processor Mac Pro remove one processor boot it with the one. Fans will go full blast but should boot fine. Shutdown and reinstall 2nd processor. Don't forget thermal paste etc. and you should boot up fine. I've used it when all else fails. Worked every time.

 

[macirion]

I upgraded my 4,1 flashed to 5,1 to High Sierra and had zero problems.
Upgrade worked perfectly. If it makes any difference I have a single SM951 SSD in it.

[doublepost=1506487485][/doublepost]

It will work

 

[fastlanephil]

If I do eventually upgrade my 2009 5,1 to High Sierra I’ll be making a bootable FW external HD using Carbon Copy Cloner first.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

We

Similar situation here. Firmware updated, rebooted for the OS upgrade, came back an hour later to find it going through a kernel panic/reboot cycle. Tried reinstalling via recovery and same thing. Now restoring a Time Machine backup to another drive, but this is scary and a bit nauseating.

Can the firmware be downgraded?

I am curious if you were able to end up booting properly from another disk. I'm scared that this happens with my own 4,1 [flashed to 5,1].
[doublepost=1506489414][/doublepost]

If I do eventually upgrade my 2009 5,1 to High Sierra I’ll be making a bootable FW external HD using Carbon Copy Cloner first.

So, I suppose this entails a bricking of the existing boot disk and not a bricking of the machine itself? If so, I should be able to handle it fine. I've had Windows override my entire boot manager, forcing me to restore my main Mac boot disk from a backup of mine which - thank God - hadn't been affected. If the same happens with High Sierra, I can easily do just that.

 

[Synchro3]

No problems here with a Mac Pro 4,1 (flashed to 5,1). Installed it on a Apple PCI-E SSD. Drive is now APFS formatted.

 

[h9826790]

Thank you for the suggestions.

The only PCIe card I have is the video card and it's the sapphire mac version. Just in case, I put the original Radeon video card back in but no difference. Still no keyboard / mouse (USB) or display (i.e. will not boot).

Do you have any other suggestions ?

I'm not sure how to recover if it will not boot and the keyboard/mouse and display are not operational ?

Do you plug your keyboard / mouse directly to the front USB 2.0 port of the cMP?

Did you try a SMC reset?

As long as you can hear the "don" sound during boot, the firmware is fine.

 

[border terrier]

My update went fine too, 2009 4.1 flashed to 5.1 running an internal bay mounted SSD. I reinstalled Sierra first plus did a load of maintenance and updated all the apps that needed updating before the update but then I typically do that before all major updates anyway.

 

[mikeboss]

maybe the Firmware Restoration CD will help?

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL976?locale=en_US

 

[Plutonius]

If you have a dual processor Mac Pro remove one processor boot it with the one. Fans will go full blast but should boot fine. Shutdown and reinstall 2nd processor. Don't forget thermal paste etc. and you should boot up fine. I've used it when all else fails. Worked every time.

It has a single processor.

Do you plug your keyboard / mouse directly to the front USB 2.0 port of the cMP?

Did you try a SMC reset?

As long as you can hear the "don" sound during boot, the firmware is fine.

No difference plugging in the mouse / keyboard in front. No power out of the front USB connector.

No "don" sound coming out of the computer either. I press the power button and the front LED comes on, the fans turn, and I hear the optical drive spin up (i.e. power but no boot up at all) .

I followed Apple's instructions on a SMC reset for the Mac Pro, it had no effect.

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Unplug the computer’s power cord.
3. Wait fifteen seconds.
4. Attach the computer’s power cord.
5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

maybe the Firmware Restoration CD will help?

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL976?locale=en_US

Looking at the instructions for the firmware restoration cd, I just get lots of fast blinking before it turns solid, no sound, and the tray does not open.

Turn on the computer and continue holding the Power button. The sleep LED will blink rapidly, then slowly, then rapidly (3 quick blinks, 3 slow blinks, 3 quick blinks).

On Macs that don't have a sleep LED, tones are used instead. Hold down the power button until you hear 3 long tones, then 3 short tones, then 3 long tones.

On Macs that use a tray-load optical drive, the tray will open to allow the Restoration CD to be inserted.

 

[Theophany]

Turn on the computer and continue holding the Power button. The sleep LED will blink rapidly, then slowly, then rapidly (3 quick blinks, 3 slow blinks, 3 quick blinks).

On Macs that don't have a sleep LED, tones are used instead. Hold down the power button until you hear 3 long tones, then 3 short tones, then 3 long tones.

I know this isn't helpful, but Apple's attention to detail is incredible. The LED/tones replicate 'SOS' in morse code, which is basically what your machine is saying when it needs a firmware restore.

 

[brossow]

UPDATE: The Time Machine restore (to another drive) worked, so at least I'm up and running again. Going to hold off on trying HS again, at least until I can figure out what's going on. At least the fw update didn't completely bork my system. Fingers crossed for OP, who seems to be far worse off.

 

[Ubernostrum]

Plutonius,

I’m seeing the same thing you are only I’m running a MP 2012 5,1 system already. I have upgraded the processors from a 2.4 to 3.3ghz, but I’ve been running that setup just fine for over 3 years.

Tried all the tricks but when I hold the power button all I get is rapid blinking then solid. Tried taking out one processor to no avail. I’m taking mine in to an Apple Store today and I’ll let you know what they tell me.

Wost case scenario I’ll have to get a used logic board and stay with Sierra.