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Mac Pro 2009 special firmware revision?

BrotherJerome

BrotherJerome

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 2, 2015
33
5
Raleigh, NC
I was thinking about hacking the firmware on my 2009 Mac Pro to the 2010 version. But I have a

refurbished model, and according to Ars: "some refurbished 2009 Mac Pros have a

special firmware revision that is not publicly available—if you have one of these machines,

you won't be able to revert back to stock."


Link - http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2...orm-a-2009-mac-pro-into-a-12-core-monster.ars



Can anyone confirm this? And if so, Is there any way to tell if I have this special firmware revision?
 
Latest Firmware available from support.apple.com - MP41.008.B07
Latest Firmware installed on some refurbished Mac Pro 4,1 - MP41.008.B08

You will NOT be able to revert back. I have already tried on my Mac Pro 4,1 that had MP41.008.B08 installed and I'm unable to.
 
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My Mac Pro 4,1 has a label that says Apple Certified Reconditioned (guessing this means refurbished) with serial number and had the MP41.008.B07 firmware. I went ahead and did the 5,1 firmware update without worrying about having to restore back to the original firmware. By the time I sell this desktop it probably won't be worth a lot of money anyway so I might as well enjoy the computer for what it is... ;)
 
BrotherJerome said:
Thanks for the info. It looks like I have the MP41.008.B07 firmware.
Click to expand...

If you're planning to keep your Mac Pro for a long time then it does not matter whether or not you update the firmware. I say do it and enjoy the benefits of upgrading your computer to faster memory and processor. Keep in mind that for the faster memory to take effect, you need a processor that will support the higher bus speed ;)
 
Thanks. I'm still considering whether to do the whole firmware upgrade/faster RAM/faster processor route, or sell the
computer. But at least I know I have the option to do so.
 
If you haven't upgraded your 2009 CPUs (already have the faster RAM), is there any downside to updating the firmware? IIRC ElCapitan was incompatible with the firmware upgrade tool last I heard, so is it worth doing while you're still running Yosemite, even with the stock CPUs?
 
mattspace said:
If you haven't upgraded your 2009 CPUs (already have the faster RAM), is there any downside to updating the firmware? IIRC ElCapitan was incompatible with the firmware upgrade tool last I heard, so is it worth doing while you're still running Yosemite, even with the stock CPUs?
Click to expand...

It's not that El Capitan is not compatible with the firmware upgrade tool. You have to disable SIP (System Integrity Protection) first then you should be able to do the firmware upgrade or you can simply dual boot into an older OS then do the firmware update and then boot back into El Capitan.

You can go to this link to see how to disable SIP... http://osxdaily.com/2015/10/05/disable-rootless-system-integrity-protection-mac-os-x/
 
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