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iMac 17,1 (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) EFI firmware update failures
- Thread starter zorinlynx
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It's sad to say, but in the end we have very little say or effect on any of this.
The fellow who got Apple to replace his iMac due to this failure may have only reaffirmed Apple's actions. They just have another data point telling them that they don't have to fix their products or get them right - they can just give somebody a new computer to shut them up.
My wife just recently finally had it with her SUV. She'd owned three in a row from the same Japanese based manufacturer that all worked great. But, she finally got tired of dealing with the company. The company lied its keister off over a variety of things in order to pocket some extra property taxes. So, she dumped them in favor of a different manufacturer. (She is very pleased with her new vehicle.) But, do you think this company cared one bit? Did the dealer? Nope. They are hardened and immune to rejection and criticism, even when it is completely fact based and justified.
Despite their public proclamations, do you think Apple cares one bit? Is there even any mechanism, aside from whining here or even on more public social media, to lodge a complaint or make a suggestion? Even when eficheck popped up and told me that there was an out-of-date firmware version on this computer and I clicked the "send to Apple" button, nothing happened. The people I interacted with on the phone had zero interest in the eficheck report or the crash logs from the kernel panics. They just told me that I had the latest and greatest firmware already in place, even though they didn't know what version number I had or what the current revision level was.
"Go away kid ya bother me." - W.C. Fields, around 1934; also, Apple, Inc, around 2021
The unfortunate thing is that there isn't really a great alternative at present.
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Ok, that sound annoying with the trim enabler. But I thought NVMe sticks got trim working by default and it was only SATA SSDs that needed trim force command?
Yes, I know its a bit fiddly to install. Done it before, when we installed a WD SN750 on my friends 2017 iMac 27". Will try out the Aura Pro X2 first but without glueing the screen back on.
No 3rd party SSDs get Trim support automatically on Macs, regardless of how they're connected.
They do and it reported Trim enabled but the writes would degrade quickly and the drive life degraded by 3% quickly. As I said, I tried many things to get a more stable performance and this 3rd party Trimm driver worked. It may be this chipset?
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Ok, now I've installed the OWC Aura Pro X2 and I says "TRIM support: Yes" without me doing anything? I've done some more searching and there are som people claiming that TRIM support IS enabled automatically for NVMe blades. ?♂️
I have a 2.5" SATA SSD installed as well now and that doesn't have TRIM support yet. I guess I'll run the trimforce command and see if that affects the NVMe drive as well, but I shouldn't..
To get rid of the "we have detected a potential problem" message obviously. I can't sell my iMac because of it now.
Big Sur 11.2.3 (20D91), iMac 27″ Late 2015 (iMac 17,1), 170.0.0.0, SMC 2.34f3, 1TB APPLE SSD SM1024G Media, APFS, Logic Board B809C3757DA9BB8D.There have been numerous reports of this iMac model not updating to the latest EFI firmware and being stuck on 170.0.0.0.0. My machine has this problem, along with many others who commented on this post:
Do you have an iMac Retina 5K 27-inch Late 2015? (iMac17,1)
Many users of iMac 17,1 models – described officially as the iMac Retina 5K 27-inch Late 2015 – have been unable to get those Macs to update their firmware. I’m hearing reports th…eclecticlight.co
This failure to update the firmware has been happening for some time; 170.0.0.0.0 is from the Mojave days. The reason I'm posting about this here is to bring some attention to this issue, so hopefully we can either collectively come to a solution, or get Apple to fix the problem.
If you have an iMac 17,1 (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015), updated to the latest version of Catalina (released Tuesday), post your EFI version here so we can get more data. This information is available in Apple -> About this Mac -> System Report under "Boot ROM version".
Recovery Partition Gone, error -5101F Internet Recovery, Recovery mode working only from El Capitan as original, not tried.
Is this a solution?
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A follow-on to your post. The Blade SSD does report TRIM enabled but I was experiencing slowdowns in writes and a pretty quick decline in the lifetime left indicator which seemed to indicate TRIM wasn't working.
As an aside, I just installed a WD Black 750 as you did. It is a little faster on the reads and has more cache so the writes are more stable. No side effects yet either.
Sorry... Is it currently possible for me to recreate the recovery partition on my iMac17,1 while I am running macOS Big Sur? Or is the firmware issue still bugging out? Thanks!
Yes my iMac17,1 is stuck on the old firmware: 170.0.0.0.0
Is there any known easy-ish way known to guarantee to trick my iMac into updating to the latest firmware?
Thanks!
Nope, you're stuck.
Thankfully there's no real downside other than not having a working recovery partition. My suggestion is to get a 16GB USB thumbdrive and create a Big Sur installer on it, which you can use as a recovery disk if you need one.
Ugh... Thanks!
So I have two quick questions if you don't mind.
1) Is the only known way to update your firmware yourself?
Could this fix firmware updating in the iMac Retina 5K 27-inch Late 2015 (iMac17,1)?
Many iMac17,1 computers are still stuck with firmware dating back to before macOS Catalina. Could this new approach enable them to install firmware updates again?
eclecticlight.co
Cause that sounds crazy. I am not doing surgery on my iMac.
2) Or have a lot of people had success harrassing Apple into having a tech update the firmware manually for you as described here:
How to update your Mac’s firmware
iMac17,1 and other Mac models which don’t update their firmware properly can be brought fully up to date. What’s more, Apple Support is now reluctantly sorting this out those who persis…
eclecticlight.co
Cause I don't know if I have the time to spend doing all that myself...
I have a Late 2015 iMac 5K with a 4GHz quad-core i7 processor and 32GB of ram and an original Apple 500GB SSD... it is still pretty beastly and it wasn't a cheap configuration when it came out, so it's a bit disappointing to me that Apple is ignoring this failure to update the firmware on my machine. Thanks again!
Yep. I have the same machine. After 6 calls trying to get a resolution and being told I had the right firmware version, etc. - I took the machine apart and installed the SATA drive. I installed the OS on it and bingo, the curse was lifted.Ugh... Thanks!
So I have two quick questions if you don't mind.
1) Is the only known way to update your firmware yourself?
Could this fix firmware updating in the iMac Retina 5K 27-inch Late 2015 (iMac17,1)?
Many iMac17,1 computers are still stuck with firmware dating back to before macOS Catalina. Could this new approach enable them to install firmware updates again?
Cause that sounds crazy. I am not doing surgery on my iMac.
2) Or have a lot of people had success harrassing Apple into having a tech update the firmware manually for you as described here:
How to update your Mac’s firmware
iMac17,1 and other Mac models which don’t update their firmware properly can be brought fully up to date. What’s more, Apple Support is now reluctantly sorting this out those who persis…
Cause I don't know if I have the time to spend doing all that myself...
I have a Late 2015 iMac 5K with a 4GHz quad-core i7 processor and 32GB of ram and an original Apple 500GB SSD... it is still pretty beastly and it wasn't a cheap configuration when it came out, so it's a bit disappointing to me that Apple is ignoring this failure to update the firmware on my machine. Thanks again!
I've been following this thread and the ones at eclecticlight.co, and I think the answer is Yes.
I don't recall anyone posting to this thread that they've successfully had Apple address the issue. So I think, no, not a lot of people.
That seems like a good idea, but I'm wondering if there are some tasks that must be done in Recovery mode, and that maybe can't be done by booting to a USB installer? Like the 'csrutil disable' or 'resetpassword' commands (in Mojave -- I don't know if they still exist in Big Sur or not).
A booted USB installer is functionally the same as recovery mode for that OS version.
I've got an iMac model 17,1 (Late 2015) with Apple NVMe SSD and like many others it's stucked on firmware 170.0.0.0.0.
From my understanding so far the only way to solve is to strip the iMac down, connect a HDD to the internal SATA port and install latest macOS version.
Can anyone answer:
1. Does it have to be a HDD? Or does that procedure also work with a SSD on the internal SATA port?
2. Do you really have to remove Apple NVMe SSD? Or can it remain installed while installing macOS to the SATA drive?
Thanks.
From my understanding so far the only way to solve is to strip the iMac down, connect a HDD to the internal SATA port and install latest macOS version.
Can anyone answer:
1. Does it have to be a HDD? Or does that procedure also work with a SSD on the internal SATA port?
2. Do you really have to remove Apple NVMe SSD? Or can it remain installed while installing macOS to the SATA drive?
Thanks.
I used a SSD connected to the SATA port. I did remove the M2 SSD but others have reported you don't have to.
Once the machine EFI was updated it continues to update with OS updates. The last one was with 11.4, which upgraded the EFI to 429.120.4.0.0.
Once the machine EFI was updated it continues to update with OS updates. The last one was with 11.4, which upgraded the EFI to 429.120.4.0.0.
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My 2015 i7 5k first developed this issue in November 19. I became aware when the OS reported integrity check fails. Many calls to Apple and many, many hours spent on this and numerous escalations, traces, dumps and so on later and eventually someone was very candid with me. The OS update and associated EFI firmware update had failed. The flash chip was damaged and a new logic board was needed. They did agree to do this and it was collected, repaired and returned.
All flawless and worked just fine. Until the next update to 11.0. Firmware issue again - OS upgraded, EFI did not. Many more calls to Apple and same outcome. Update had damaged the flash chip. Admitted it was not my issue and agreed to logic board repair again. Machine collected. After around 10 days I was called to advise me a replacement machine would be advised. I queried why and what was happening a no they were evasive. Eventually I was advised the replacement would be current model with same or closest processor speed to what I had and same spec - 500GB and 32GB. A new machine arrived and I could even add AppleCare to it.
This issue has only happened to the 2015 model. I also have a late 2017 model and it seems fine. Any reports I found at the time online and since have suggested this is an issue with the 2015 5k and seems to affect the i7 more than others.
I was happy enough to get a replacement board then machine. I am less enthused that it happened as a result of an OS update and that it could so seriously damage the flash chip. It also made me think just how unrepairable the iMac is and how totally I have surrendered any sense of ownership or capability to repair my own computer despite paying a large fee for the privilege.
It does not seem to affect everyone. YMMV. Push Apple. Push to escalate the issue. Stay calm but remain relentless. This is a model defect in the 2015 and, IMO, a design defect in the whole iMac concept. I suspect the issue of throwaway kit will become even more pronounced with the move to M series SoC and a continued focus on minimisiation over any form of user upgrade or repair.
All flawless and worked just fine. Until the next update to 11.0. Firmware issue again - OS upgraded, EFI did not. Many more calls to Apple and same outcome. Update had damaged the flash chip. Admitted it was not my issue and agreed to logic board repair again. Machine collected. After around 10 days I was called to advise me a replacement machine would be advised. I queried why and what was happening a no they were evasive. Eventually I was advised the replacement would be current model with same or closest processor speed to what I had and same spec - 500GB and 32GB. A new machine arrived and I could even add AppleCare to it.
This issue has only happened to the 2015 model. I also have a late 2017 model and it seems fine. Any reports I found at the time online and since have suggested this is an issue with the 2015 5k and seems to affect the i7 more than others.
I was happy enough to get a replacement board then machine. I am less enthused that it happened as a result of an OS update and that it could so seriously damage the flash chip. It also made me think just how unrepairable the iMac is and how totally I have surrendered any sense of ownership or capability to repair my own computer despite paying a large fee for the privilege.
It does not seem to affect everyone. YMMV. Push Apple. Push to escalate the issue. Stay calm but remain relentless. This is a model defect in the 2015 and, IMO, a design defect in the whole iMac concept. I suspect the issue of throwaway kit will become even more pronounced with the move to M series SoC and a continued focus on minimisiation over any form of user upgrade or repair.
@rgmenke
Thanks for your reply. May I ask one more question: Is the SSD still connected to your SATA port? Or did you remove the drive after you suceeded in upgrading the EFI firmware?
Thanks.
@agregson
Mine is an i5 iMac.
I first contacted Apple in March 2020. No feedback. Upgrading to macOS Big Sur last month I noticed recovery not working any more. I was at the genius bar then. The guys there failed to upgrade EFI firmware and also failed to repair recovery. The Apple way to fix it, that's what they told me, is to replace the logic board. But I would have to pay for it, about 640 euros. They also talked to Apple Cupertino, nothing more they can do. So in my case it's pay or live with it. I am really very frustrated.