MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 2009/2010/2012 SMC

[ammoune78]

Hi there guys!
I'm wondering how i can dump the Mac Pro's LogicBoard/CPU-Tray SMC's as well. Is there a way to dump the content of both SMC chips, using smcflasher.efi from opencore shell or anything that can be able to do that? I mean from the 3 Mac Pro's 2009/2010/2012?

The reason why i want that dump, it's because i want to swap SMC' from a 2010/2012 chip to 2009. So the SMC on 2010/2012 board will be swapped from a died Logic Board to a working 2009 one, and then swap the EFI.rom, the same way, from a died 2010/2012 Logic Board to that working 2009 one.
These in the end, to have a resurected 2010/2012 Mac Pro, using a 2009 Logic Board.

Any suggestion or workaround?

 

[tsialex]

Hi there guys!
I'm wondering how i can dump the Mac Pro's LogicBoard/CPU-Tray SMC's as well. Is there a way to dump the content of both SMC chips, using smcflasher.efi from opencore shell or anything that can be able to do that? I mean from the 3 Mac Pro's 2009/2010/2012?

If you researched about the SMC, you would learned that the SMC microcontroller is not dump-able.

Read the H8S data sheet, you will see that it's a security feature of the family and there is not even a command to read the internal ROM.

The reason why i want that dump, it's because i want to swap SMC' from a 2010/2012 chip to 2009.

Not possible without desoldering the SMC itself. Btw, it's extremely difficult to desolder and solder the TQFP-144pin successfully on the other board.

So the SMC on 2010/2012 board will be swapped from a died Logic Board to a working 2009 one, and then swap the EFI.rom, the same way, from a died 2010/2012 Logic Board to that working 2009 one.
These in the end, to have a resurected 2010/2012 Mac Pro, using a 2009 Logic Board.

Any suggestion or workaround?

You have to replace the SMC and three SPI flash memories on the early-2009 backplane, the BootROM and the two Ethernet controllers SPI flash memories.

It's totally possible to do it if you have the training and equipment, but it's not economically feasibly if you don't have both - buy a real mid-2010/mid-2012 backplane.

 

[ammoune78]

I saw that DarwinDumper can read the SMC Keys and Fans, and said hey, if the SMC can be read, it can be dumped as well as flashed, like other Macs. So this is why i've managed to get more info about that, and orthered the MXIC chip and desoldered already a SMC chip from the first died board to look at. Now to solder it back again will be my next step, maybe tomorrow for training.
I've seen that the SMC chips on the CPU trays are different from single/dual sockets boards, not the chips but the SMC binaries maybe.

If the soldering is successful, then I'll do it on the backplane first to see if it can handle the 2010 CPU tray without fan problems or other things

 

[tsialex]

I saw that DarwinDumper can read the SMC Keys and Fans, and said hey, if the SMC can be read, it can be dumped as well as flashed, like other Macs.

You are mistaken. SMC based on a H8S microcontroller can be flashed, but not dumped. If you have the firmware, you can even flash again a used/already flashed H8S. Most Macs had SMC firmware upgrades during the period of support, MacPro3,1/4,1/5,1 didn't had and the firmware never leaked from Apple.

Reading the keys are a normal interaction between the SMC and macOS, nothing to do with the internal ROM of the H8S.

So this is why i've managed to get more info about that, and orthered the MXIC chip and desoldered already a SMC chip from the first died board to look at. Now to solder it back again will be my next step, maybe tomorrow for training.
I've seen that the SMC chips on the CPU trays are different from single/dual sockets boards, not the chips but the SMC binaries maybe.

AFAIK, it's the same.

If the soldering is successful, then I'll do it on the backplane first to see if it can handle the 2010 CPU tray without fan problems or other things

Good luck, some people did it successfully.

 

[ammoune78]

I saw a post on insanelymac from Andy, that made a efiflasher executable for some MacBook Pros, and was wondering if i can find one for the 5.1. That post was 6 or more years old, and i just had the idea to do that, because th4.1 boards are cheaper than 5.1, and if a died board can get resurrected from a 4.1, this will cost no thing.
Now the Intel Ethernet chips are difficult and requires more squills and materials because i think they have balls. If not swapped, will they affect iMessage services, maybe not?

 

[tsialex]

I saw a post on insanelymac from Andy, that made a efiflasher executable for some MacBook Pros, and was wondering if i can find one for the 5.1. That post was 6 or more years old, and i just had the idea to do that, because th4.1 boards are cheaper than 5.1, and if a died board can get resurrected from a 4.1, this will cost no thing.

Don't matter if a flasher exists or not, the firmware itself don't.

Now the Intel Ethernet chips are difficult and requires more squills and materials because i think they have balls. If not swapped, will they affect iMessage services, maybe not?

Like I already wrote, you also need to desolder the two SPI flashes of the Ethernet controllers, both are SOIC-8, or you will have Messages authentication problems.

If I was doing this SMC replacement, I'd also do the same for the AT93C46 that stores SMC related data just in case of different data between 1.39f11 and 1.39f5.

 

[ammoune78]

Don't matter if a flasher exists or not, the firmware itself don't.

Like I already wrote, you also need to desolder the two SPI flashes of the Ethernet controllers, both are SOIC-8, or you will have Messages authentication problems.

If I was doing this SMC replacement, I'd also do the same for the AT93C46 that stores SMC related data just in case of different data between 1.39f11 and 1.39f5.

I saw today a Post on netkas, that someone did a same thing, swapped out a SMC chip from a died 2010 board to a 2009 one, used the same CPU "tray" of that 2010, and he said everything was perfect, no fan problems at all, and everything is working.

Here's the link: http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,13876.0.html

It's a great thing as it costs nothing, if you have a spare died 2010/2012 board on hands.

Just a small thing, the soldering back of the SMC chip, needs some Flux before soldering, in addition to add the solder onto the dents on the backplane, so when you solder back the chip, it will sitting there rapidly by just hot air gun. This is what i've learned today, and do not add solder on the chip itself because of a waste of time, because this is what happened to me today.
I now know that it's just a test before doing it on the right board, but it's what I've tried after, only do the solder on the dents of the board, then it sits there in no time.

 

[tsialex]

I saw today a Post on netkas, that someone did a same thing, swapped out a SMC chip from a died 2010 board to a 2009 one, used the same CPU "tray" of that 2010, and he said everything was perfect, no fan problems at all, and everything is working.

Here's the link: http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,13876.0.html

It's a great thing as it costs nothing, if you have a spare died 2010/2012 board on hands.

Just a small thing, the soldering back of the SMC chip, needs some Flux before soldering, in addition to add the solder onto the dents on the backplane, so when you solder back the chip, it will sitting there rapidly by just hot air gun. This is what i've learned today, and do not add solder on the chip itself because of a waste of time, because this is what happened to me today.
I now know that it's just a test before doing it on the right board, but it's what I've tried after, only do the solder on the dents of the board, then it sits there in no time.

The SMC microcontroller replacement have nothing to do with hardwareIDs. It's just to have the same SMC firmware on the backplane as your CPU tray.

If you wanna replace a failed backplane and have exactly same hardwareIDs, people usually do this because of software licenses, you need to install the BootROM SPI and also the two Intel Ethernet controllers SPI flash memories, not doing that will have issues since the MACAddress will continue to be the factory early-2009 while all the rest is from your MacPro5,1.