MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 4.1 > 5.1 bricked by High Sierra security update?

[80wales]

Hi all,

need some advice please for a semi-literate/just enough to be dangerous cMP user. It’s a 12 core 3.33GHz with 96GB RAM and GT120 running, or was running, High Sierra.

I bought the 4.1>5.1 cMP in Feb 2016 already flashed and can’t remember the OS it came with (possibly may have transferred Mavericks into it from my old iMac?).

I’ve had little issue in all this time and have upgraded to High Sierra about a year ago as usually very cautious about stability issues as I use it for audio production. As such I try and avoid updating for the sake of it and don’t recall clicking yes to the annoying daily occurrence of the update reminder (I was already on 10.13.6) but a minor update started.

Upon restart my FireWire Audio interface was not working and the Audio MIDI Setup app wasn’t opening. Tried a reset and it now won’t POST/no chime.

I have tried the usual SMC/PRAM options and have confirmed in a second cMP running Mojave that it is not the Power Supply, High Sierra SDD or Processor Tray or RAM as they all work in the Mojave machine

Interestingly, both power supplies known to work will not pass power to the USB keyboard and the light above the power button did initially work for the first few times but now doesn’t work at all.
My best guess, and that’s probably not worth much, is that somehow the firmware didn’t update properly somewhere along the way from Mavericks and this has caused a conflict with the High Sierra (non-version) update. Whatever that was. For the record I have never updated the firmware myself as I thought this was automatic with OS upgrades so no idea what firmware was installed.

What would be the logical next step be please? I have read about Matt cards etc but don’t understand it to be honest.

Is there anyway of utilising the 2nd cMP to somehow reinstall everything on the 1st?

I was thinking about buying a 4.1 backplane and starting again but I don’t think that’ll work with my 2x3.33GHz processors so I’m now stumped.

Ps The 2nd cMP that I’ve tested the parts of the bricked 1st cMP in is a 2x3.46GHz, 128GB RAM, Radeon 580 8GB on Mojave.

Thanks in advance.

 

[tsialex]

Security Updates never upgrade Mac Pro 4,1 or 5,1 firmwares. Only the full macOS installer can upgrade the firmware after you power your Mac Pro via Firmware Programming Mode. If you don't power your Mac Pro via Firmware Programming Mode, you can't upgrade the BootROM at all

While you can now have a brick, if so it was an already dying SPI flash memory and the flurry of NVRAM updates being done by the Security Update was what was needed for the eleven years old SPI flash memory to finally fail.

If when you press the DIAG button on the backplane and the EFI_DONE LED is off, you now have three options:

1. Buy a replacement backplane on eBay and replace the backplane yourself, cheapest option if you can't solder SMD. Remember that you need a 2009 backplane if you have an early-2009 Mac Pro. If you have a mid-2010 or mid-2012 you can use either 2010 or 2012 backplanes. Don't mix early-2009 backplanes with mid-2010/mid-2012 CPU trays, or vice-versa - either scenario is a SMC firmware version mismatch and all your fans will run at maximum RPM, full time and without any software control.
2. Buy a Mac Pro MATT card and use it as a replacement SPI flash, this is not recommended since all MATT cards are clones and won't work for iCloud/iMessage/FaceTime. A replacement backplane is usually cheaper.
3. Desolder, reprogram and solder back the SPI flash, chip U8700 on the backplane. It's not possible to read or write to the SPI flash memory while it's soldered on the MP5,1 backplane. A cheap SPI flash programmer like ch341a will work for read/write the BootROM after the SPI flash memory is desoldered from the backplane. Start reading here, read all my posts on the subject from there. I strongly recommend that you replace your original SPI flash memory for one brand new, don't solder it back to the backplane, it will fail soon since SPI flash memories have limited lifetime (manufacture rated for just 100.000 erase/write cycles) when used as NVRAM for a Mac Pro. Again, most bricks are caused by the failure of the SPI flash, it's a US$ 2 component easily available, MXIC MX25L3206E, just replace it! Btw, yes, you can use a MXIC MX25L3206E as a modern replacement for the two older models SST25VF032B and MXIC MX25L3205D used on early-2009 and mid-2010 respectively, Apple did it for mid-2012 Mac Pros.
   
   Mojave has the generic MP51.fd firmware image inside the full installer, it's enough for boot your Mac Pro again but not for iCloud/iMessage/FaceTime login.
   
   

   Install\ macOS\ Mojave/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/Firmware/MP51.fd

P.S.:

An early-2009 backplane that was not cross-flashed yet to MP5,1 will need a CPU tray with Nehalem Xeons to boot and won't boot at all with Westemere Xeons.

You can use single or a dual CPU tray with Nehalem Xeon(s) to do the cross-flash to MP5,1 process, won't matter at all.

 

[80wales]

Security Updates never upgrade Mac Pro 4,1 or 5,1 firmwares. Only the full macOS installer can upgrade the firmware after you power your Mac Pro via Firmware Programming Mode. If you don't power your Mac Pro via Firmware Programming Mode, you can't upgrade the BootROM at all

While you can now have a brick, if so it was an already dying SPI flash memory and the flurry of NVRAM updates being done by the Security Update was what was needed for the eleven years old SPI flash memory to finally fail.

If when you press the DIAG button on the backplane and the EFI_DONE LED is off, you now have three options:

1. Buy a replacement backplane on eBay and replace the backplane yourself, cheapest option if you can't solder SMD. Remember that you need a 2009 backplane if you have an early-2009 Mac Pro. If you have a mid-2010 or mid-2012 you can use either 2010 or 2012 backplanes. Don't mix early-2009 backplanes with mid-2010/mid-2012 CPU trays, or vice-versa - either scenario is a SMC firmware version mismatch and all your fans will run at maximum RPM, full time and without any software control.
2. Buy a Mac Pro MATT card and use it as a replacement SPI flash, this is not recommended since all MATT cards are clones and won't work for iCloud/iMessage/FaceTime. A replacement backplane is usually cheaper.
3. Desolder, reprogram and solder back the SPI flash, chip U8700 on the backplane. It's not possible to read or write to the SPI flash memory while it's soldered on the MP5,1 backplane. A cheap SPI flash programmer like ch341a will work for read/write the BootROM after the SPI flash memory is desoldered from the backplane. Start reading here, read all my posts from there. I strongly recommend that you replace your original SPI flash memory for one brand new, don't solder it back to the backplane, it will fail soon since SPI flash memories have limited lifetime (manufacture rated for just 100.000 erase/write cycles) when used as NVRAM for a Mac Pro. Again, most bricks are caused by the failure of the SPI flash, it's a US$ 2 component easily available, MXIC MX25L3206E, just replace it!
   
   Mojave has the generic MP51.fd firmware image inside the full installer, it's enough for boot your Mac Pro again but not for iCloud/iMessage/FaceTime login.
   
   

   Install\ macOS\ Mojave/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/Firmware/MP51.fd

P.S.:

An early-2009 backplane that was not cross-flashed yet to MP5,1 will need a CPU tray with Nehalem Xeons to boot and won't boot at all with Westemere Xeons.

You can use single or a dual CPU tray with Nehalem Xeon(s) to do the cross-flash to MP5,1 process, won't matter at all.

Thanks for quick reply. Much appreciated.

This is where I got stuck/confused reading your threads previously.

I’m happy with my soldering
/desoldering skills but do you think it would be useful for a dummies walk through as from the thread you refer to I’m not 100% sure what is relevant and what isn’t. Is it a case of the following or am I missing something?

Just wondering as this seems to be a very common problem without a “by numbers” fix. Could we make this a sticky if it’s as straight forward as I think it might be I would guess it would be of value to many others.

is it:

1) buy the replacment chip and programmer
2) desolder the old chip and discard
3) reprogram the new chip (how exactly?)
4) solder new programmed chip to board
5) then what?

happy to keep reading your referenced thread until it sinks in but currently on the third read and I’m still not sure which bits exactly are relevant.

Thanks again.

 

[tsialex]

Thanks for quick reply. Much appreciated.

This is where I got stuck/confused reading your threads previously.

I’m happy with my soldering
/desoldering skills but do you think it would be useful for a dummies walk through as from the thread you refer to I’m not 100% sure what is relevant and what isn’t. Is it a case of the following or am I missing something?

Just wondering as this seems to be a very common problem without a “by numbers” fix. Could we make this a sticky if it’s as straight forward as I think it might be I would guess it would be of value to many others.

is it:

1) buy the replacment chip and programmer
2) desolder the old chip and discard
3) reprogram the new chip (how exactly?)
4) solder new programmed chip to board
5) then what?

happy to keep reading your referenced thread until it sinks in but currently on the third read and I’m still not sure which bits exactly are relevant.

Thanks again.

On the BootROM thread you can see exactly step by step what I did, including my dumb mistakes. It's all there, follow the link on my previous post here.

Buy a ch341a kit, plus a MXIC MX25L3206E. Use flashrom to program it. After you get your Mac Pro booting again and you confirm it working, you can hire someone to reconstruct the firmware, since when you flash the generic MP51.fd you can power it on but no hardwareIDs are present and you can't login to iMessage/FaceTime/iCloud.

 

[Perana]

On the BootROM thread you can see exactly step by step what I did, including my dumb mistakes. It's all there.

Buy a ch341a kit, plus a MXIC MX25L3206E. Use flashrom to program it. After you get your Mac Pro booting again and you confirm it working, you can hire someone to reconstruct the firmware, since when you flash the generic MP51.fd you can power it on but no hardwareIDs are present and you can't login to iMessage/FaceTime/iCloud.

Thanks for all the info to start with, either way what I thought was going to be a brick can be resurrected in some way.

Currently weighing up my options, if I was to go with reflashing a new chip as described, i know from other threads you mentioned you can reconstruct the firmware, what sort of cost is involved in doing so?

 

[80wales]

Thanks for all the info to start with, either way what I thought was going to be a brick can be resurrected in some way.

Currently weighing up my options, if I was to go with reflashing a new chip as described, i know from other threads you mentioned you can reconstruct the firmware, what sort of cost is involved in doing so?

Could you also let me know too either here or PM. Thanks again for your time.

 

[tsialex]

.

 

[Steve_Jones]

How does one go about dumping their bootrom?

I've tried dosdude1's romtool but ClamXAV reports that it's infected with PUA.OSX.DirectHW which I suspect is a false positive but want to make sure before running it.

Also tried MacPro2009-2010FirmwareTool but Catalina reports that it's too old to use.

Thanks.

 

[tsialex]

How does one go about dumping their bootrom?

I've tried dosdude1's romtool but ClamXAV reports that it's infected with PUA.OSX.DirectHW which I suspect is a false positive but want to make sure before running it.

Also tried MacPro2009-2010FirmwareTool but Catalina reports that it's too old to use.

Thanks.

If you are using OpenCore (or a dosdude1 hacked install), please boot macOS without it since OC/hacked installs interfere with System Information and with the NVRAM access. For a reliable dump, do a clean install on an empty disk and use it for the BootROM backup process.

If you are running anything newer than Mavericks, you will need to disable SIP. You can boot your Recovery partition or you can boot a createinstallmedia USB installer to disable SIP. Open Terminal and then disable SIP with the command:

csrutil disable

Note: Yosemite SIP is not compatible with ROMTool. Don’t use Yosemite at all.

[*]Do a BootROM dump using ROMTool, zip password is "rom". You need SIP disabled and no AV or any anti-malware running. ROMTool is usually a false-positive to every AV/anti-malware because it uses flashrom and DirectHWAccess.kext.

Open ROMTool:

1. Click "Dump System ROM",
2. Name your dump, press enter,
3. Now save it securely.

If ROMTool asks you to confirm what is the model of your SPI flash, it's the 8-pin SOIC flash memory next to the PCIe AUX-B power connector, label U8700. The model of the SPI flash memory is usually related to the model year:

• with 2009 almost every backplane has SST25VF032B,
• with 2010 usually is MXIC MX25L3205D, sometimes can be MXIC MX25L3206E, very rarely is SST25VF032B,
• with 2012 usually is MXIC MX25L3206E, sometimes can be MXIC MX25L3205D.
• If ROMTool don’t ask you the SPI model at all, Apple used a SST25VF032B.

 

[freddycat]

I

If you are using OpenCore (or a dosdude1 hacked install), please boot macOS without it since OC/hacked installs interfere with System Information and with the NVRAM access. For a reliable dump, do a clean install on an empty disk and use it for the BootROM backup process.

If you are running anything newer than Mavericks, you will need to disable SIP. You can boot your Recovery partition or you can boot a createinstallmedia USB installer to disable SIP. Open Terminal and then disable SIP with the command:

csrutil disable

Note: Yosemite SIP is not compatible with ROMTool. Don’t use Yosemite at all.

[*]Do a BootROM dump using ROMTool, zip password is "rom". You need SIP disabled and no AV or any anti-malware running. ROMTool is usually a false-positive to every AV/anti-malware because it uses flashrom and DirectHWAccess.kext.

Open ROMTool:

1. Click "Dump System ROM",
2. Name your dump, press enter,
3. Now save it securely,

If ROMTool asks you to confirm what is the model of your SPI flash, it's the 8-pin SOIC flash memory next to the PCIe AUX-B power connector, label U8700. The model of the SPI flash memory is usually related to the model year:​

• with 2009 almost every backplane has SST25VF032B,
• with 2010 usually is MXIC MX25L3205D, sometimes can be MXIC MX25L3206E, very rarely is SST25VF032B,
• with 2012 usually is MXIC MX25L3206E, sometimes can be MXIC MX25L3205D.
• If ROMTool don’t ask you the SPI model at all, Apple used a SST25VF032B.

Hello,
Are you based in portugal? Could you give me a hand on soldering since my iron is not a good one for SMD's.

If so I'm happy to buy a SPI chip but want to read it before install since the MP never booted on my hand (was working when the seller put it on ebay, then the seller canceled the list and relisted as faulty). I've come across the ideia of the EFI corrupted since the breakdown was upon update the OS.

The mac should arrive to me tomorrow, could you tell me the best way to diagnose for sure FW faillure? It does not chime or boot that's the first symptom.

 

[tsialex]

Hello,
Are you based in portugal?

Nope, I'm at other side of the globe.

Could you give me a hand on soldering since my iron is not a good one for SMD's.

Shipping charges would be literally insane.

If so I'm happy to buy a SPI chip but want to read it before install since the MP never booted on my hand (was working when the seller put it on ebay, then the seller canceled the list and relisted as faulty).

Sorry, but you someway got the wrong idea, I don't sell SPI flash memories at all. Look at a MATT card if you can't de-solder and solder SMD yourself, it's not exactly an easy job for someone without experience. It's easy and there are ways to do with common tools and supplies, but you have to know how or you will destroy the backplane.

I've come across the ideia of the EFI corrupted since the breakdown was upon update the OS.

The mac should arrive to me tomorrow, could you tell me the best way to diagnose for sure FW faillure? It does not chime or boot that's the first symptom.

When you press the DIAG button, the EFI_DONE LED should be always ON. If it's off, it's a brick or something more serious.

Follow the diagnostics steps on the Apple Technician Guide, if I remember correctly, it's around page 29 or 30.

 

[EddieK420]

Hi @tsialex just for education and/or prevention purposes.
- How can I tell if my MacPro 4,1-5,1 NVRAM is bad?
- How can you mess up your NVRAM to where you need to change the SPI?
- What are NVRAM maintenance/good practice measures so that I never have this issue?

I have OpenCore 0.61 with Catalina 10.15.7 and Windows 10 (EFI install) running on my MacPro. Thank you!

 

[freddycat]

Nope, I'm at other side of the globe.


Shipping charges would be literally insane.


Sorry, but you someway got the wrong idea, I don't sell SPI flash memories at all. Look at a MATT card if you can't de-solder and solder SMD yourself, it's not exactly an easy job for someone without experience. It's easy and there are ways to do with common tools and supplies, but you have to know how or you will destroy the backplane.


When you press the DIAG button, the EFI_DONE LED should be always ON. If it's off, it's a brick or something more serious.

Follow the diagnostics steps on the Apple Technician Guide, if I remember correctly, it's around page 29 or 30.

Could a solderless be used?

I know forefact that is more expensive but if i recall correctly all MATT cards have the same S/N so I want a different soluction, and solderless means easy acess for flash/debug.

I have some experience with soldering but not a small smd level, however with magnifying im pretty sure that I can do the trick.

I have a few programmers that I use with wemos, esp's and such on my home automation so maybe I can allready have the programmers. Does the FW can be loaded into the chip with arduino IDE or have to be some specific software?

If i understand from your other thread is that the following data should be set in order to have accuracy between the EFI chip and hardware right?

HardwareID:	Location inside the BootROM:
Serial Number (SSN)	NVRAM volume
HWC	NVRAM volume
Sales Order Number (SON)	NVRAM volume
Gaid	NVRAM volume
MLB	Last sector of BootROM
MLB Build Date	Last sector of BootROM

Also I dont know if was previously updated for a 5.1FW (its a early 2009 with 2* 2.8 6 core westmere) so its needed to flash the correct FW? Or should choose a early 2009 FW and from there update it?

Sorry for being a pain in the ass but you seem the best person to ask for some easy and concise answer.

Thanks

 

[tsialex]

Could a solderless be used?

I know forefact that is more expensive but if i recall correctly all MATT cards have the same S/N so I want a different soluction, and solderless means easy acess for flash/debug.

I have some experience with soldering but not a small smd level, however with magnifying im pretty sure that I can do the trick.

I have a few programmers that I use with wemos, esp's and such on my home automation so maybe I can allready have the programmers. Does the FW can be loaded into the chip with arduino IDE or have to be some specific software?

No, you need a SPI flash programmer, while an experienced firmware engineer can work with almost anything, like a BusPirate (on SPI mode) or a PicKit2 (on SPI mode), buy a ch341a kit and use flashrom to do all the programming. It's a very affordable programmer and work fine, it's what everyone here uses it.

You won't get any help on MacRumors deviating from a ch341a, even a TL866 will be a stretch.

If i understand from your other thread is that the following data should be set in order to have accuracy between the EFI chip and hardware right?

HardwareID:	Location inside the BootROM:
Serial Number (SSN)	NVRAM volume
HWC	NVRAM volume
Sales Order Number (SON)	NVRAM volume
Gaid	NVRAM volume
MLB	Last sector of BootROM
MLB Build Date	Last sector of BootROM

While all MATT cards leave cmizapper as a clone of a mid-2010 Mac Pro, the cards are field update able and you can flash a dump of your Mac Pro BootROM to it exactly like you do to the backplane.

Since you don't have a backup dump from the Mac Pro BootROM, you will need to hire someone capable of reconstructing your Mac Pro based on the ESN+MLB labels and a dump from the same HWC. This is a very complex procedure since there are nested checksums that need to be corrected after any modification, or you won't boot at all.

Buying a MATT card and paying for the advanced reconstruction is only justifiable for countries that a replacement cost of backplane is not economically viable, like Australia/NZ/East Europe/South America. For people on North America and most of Europe, it's a lot cheaper to just buy an used backplane on eBay or your local equivalent.

Also I dont know if was previously updated for a 5.1FW (its a early 2009 with 2* 2.8 6 core westmere) so its needed to flash the correct FW? Or should choose a early 2009 FW and from there update it?

Sorry for being a pain in the ass but you seem the best person to ask for some easy and concise answer.

Thanks

Westmere processors are only supported with MP5,1 firmwares and won't boot at all with a MP4,1 one.

 

[tsialex]

Hi @tsialex just for education and/or prevention purposes.
- How can I tell if my MacPro 4,1-5,1 NVRAM is bad?
- How can you mess up your NVRAM to where you need to change the SPI?
- What are NVRAM maintenance/good practice measures so that I never have this issue?

I have OpenCore 0.61 with Catalina 10.15.7 and Windows 10 (EFI install) running on my MacPro. Thank you!

Wow, lot's of complex questions on just one post. I'll answer it when I have time.

 

[freddycat]

No, you need a SPI flash programmer, while an experienced firmware engineer can work with almost anything, like a BusPirate (on SPI mode) or a PicKit2 (on SPI mode), buy a ch341a kit and use flashrom to do all the programming. It's a very affordable programmer and work fine, it's what everyone here uses it.

You won't get any help on MacRumors deviating from a ch341a, even a TL866 will be a stretch.


While all MATT cards leave cmizapper as a clone of a mid-2010 Mac Pro, the cards are field update able and you can flash a dump of your Mac Pro BootROM to it exactly like you do to the backplane.

Since you don't have a backup dump from the Mac Pro BootROM, you will need to hire someone capable of reconstructing your Mac Pro based on the ESN+MLB labels and a dump from the same HWC. This is a very complex procedure since there are nested checksums that need to be corrected after any modification, or you won't boot at all.

Buying a MATT card and paying for the advanced reconstruction is only justifiable for countries that a replacement cost of backplane is not economically viable, like Australia/NZ/East Europe/South America. For people on North America and most of Europe, it's a lot cheaper to just buy an used backplane on eBay or your local equivalent.


Westmere processors are only supported with MP5,1 firmwares and won't boot at all with a MP4,1 one.

I found out online that some seller can sell the EFI chip allready pré-programmed for the correct S/N for my machine and a pretty cheap. Can that be a soluction?

Hope is not against the rules posting ebay links

EFI Chip

BUT if I understand correctly will still need to buy 2 nehalem cpu's just to be able to boot it and then update FW for 5.1 and change again to the westmere's?

I need some guidance as I'm trying to fix it to give myself a christmas toy

 

[tsialex]

I found out online that some seller can sell the EFI chip allready programmed for the correct S/N for my machine and a pretty cheap. Can that be a soluction?

BUT if I understand correctly will still need to buy 2 nehalem cpu's just to be able to boot it and then update FW for 5.1 and change again to the westmere's?

I need some guidance as I'm trying to fix it to give myself a christmas toy

If you think that the seller is really capable of doing each one of the hardwareIDs and the nested checksums correctly, go for it. For sure it will be cheaper to buy a virgin SPI, program it with 144.0.0.0.0 MP51.fd and then hire someone capable of doing a full reconstruction based on just the labels.

Btw, you are assuming a lot of things, your Mac Pro non-working state could be a completely different hardware problem. Wait until you fully diagnose it with Apple Technician Guide to spend anything and try to spend as little as possible until you are absolutely sure that is working.

 

[mackcat]

I am, unfortunately, having this exact same problem. I installed some High Sierra security update (I think 04-2020?) earlier today, and now it won't boot into MacOS (it will boot into Ubuntu). This is a 2009 4,1 Mac Pro that was flashed to 5,1 firmware, booting from a Samsung 870 EVO SSD in an OWC Accelsior S SATA 3 PCIe card, with the rEFInd boot manager installed.

The first time I tried to install the security update, it rebooted without having installed it. The second time, it rebooted with it installed, but I noticed there was an issue with FireWire (old Cinema Display keyboard brightness controls weren't working). I then rebooted it again, and it would not complete the boot process. It hangs about ¾ of the way through the progress bar, and either shows a distorted spinning beach ball or a black screen. It won't boot into safe mode or recovery, but will boot into Ubuntu.

I don't think I fully understand some of what @tsialex has written about this subject, but it seems that somehow, the security update damaged a flash chip that is necessary to boot MacOS, and there is no way to fix this without replacing the backplane board? I really hope that isn't the case. Luckily, this isn't a machine I depend on at all, but I do have a few hundred dollars put into it.

Would re-flashing the firmware do anything?

I appreciate the help!

Thanks,
Ben

 

[tsialex]

I am, unfortunately, having this exact same problem. I installed some High Sierra security update (I think 04-2020?) earlier today, and now it won't boot into MacOS (it will boot into Ubuntu). This is a 2009 4,1 Mac Pro that was flashed to 5,1 firmware, booting from a Samsung 870 EVO SSD in an OWC Accelsior S SATA 3 PCIe card, with the rEFInd boot manager installed.

The first time I tried to install the security update, it rebooted without having installed it. The second time, it rebooted with it installed, but I noticed there was an issue with FireWire (old Cinema Display keyboard brightness controls weren't working). I then rebooted it again, and it would not complete the boot process. It hangs about ¾ of the way through the progress bar, and either shows a distorted spinning beach ball or a black screen. It won't boot into safe mode or recovery, but will boot into Ubuntu.

I don't think I fully understand some of what @tsialex has written about this subject, but it seems that somehow, the security update damaged a flash chip that is necessary to boot MacOS, and there is no way to fix this without replacing the backplane board? I really hope that isn't the case. Luckily, this isn't a machine I depend on at all, but I do have a few hundred dollars put into it.

Would re-flashing the firmware do anything?

I appreciate the help!

Thanks,
Ben

The Security Update only did it's job of updating macOS and for that a lot of variables are written inside the SPI flash in a short period, that's why it's common to almost dying SPI flash memories to fail with software updates or macOS installs - without the update maybe your Mac Pro could still have some months.

I've written anything that is needed on this topic in my posts above, please re-read it. it's a 11+ years Mac, no SPI flash memory goes on forever.

 

[mackcat]

The Security Update only did it's job of updating macOS and for that a lot of variables are written inside the SPI flash in a short period, that's why it's common to almost dying SPI flash memories to fail with software updates or macOS installs - without the update maybe your Mac Pro could still have some months.

I've written anything that is needed on this topic in my posts above, please re-read it. it's a 11+ years Mac, no SPI flash memory goes on forever.

Thanks for the help, I have read your posts more in-depth and believe I have a better understanding of the issue now. If I understand correctly, the chip was already failing and the security update writing data to it finally killed it, and it has nothing to do with that specific update nor with this being a 4,1 > 5,1 flashed Mac Pro.

I am assuming that, due to the flash chip being damaged, there is no longer a way to dump the contents and rewrite it to a replacement chip. Therefore, the most economical way for me to fix this would be to purchase a replacement backplane (and hope that the same thing doesn't happen again).

 

[tsialex]

I am assuming that, due to the flash chip being damaged, there is no longer a way to dump the contents and rewrite it to a replacement chip.

It's not unheard that in some cases the failed SPI flash is completely dead, but most times it's just a sector that fails and most of the contents can be read by an external SPI flash programmer and the needed information extracted.

While a failed dump can't be used to flash a replacement SPI flash memory or a MATT card, it can be very helpful for a firmware engineer to repair your BootROM.

It's not a job for someone without experience, it's extremely complex to do it and involves a lot of EFI 1.10 specific knowledge (like how to create the space reference of each variable in the correct endianness and know how to make the checksums and free space indicators), but a firmware engineer with Mac Pro knowledge and a lot of different reference dumps can recreate your BootROM from just the ESN and MLB labels - even if the SPI is completely dead.

Therefore, the most economical way for me to fix this would be to purchase a replacement backplane (and hope that the same thing doesn't happen again).

You have to make some calculations to see if a repair or a MATT card is not the best option, backplanes are becoming scarce, the going price right now on eBay is around 2x of 2018/19.

For people outside the continental US, repairs are more economical. For people in the EU, MATT cards are a no-brainer.

 

[80wales]

I am, unfortunately, having this exact same problem. I installed some High Sierra security update (I think 04-2020?) earlier today, and now it won't boot into MacOS (it will boot into Ubuntu). This is a 2009 4,1 Mac Pro that was flashed to 5,1 firmware, booting from a Samsung 870 EVO SSD in an OWC Accelsior S SATA 3 PCIe card, with the rEFInd boot manager installed.

The first time I tried to install the security update, it rebooted without having installed it. The second time, it rebooted with it installed, but I noticed there was an issue with FireWire (old Cinema Display keyboard brightness controls weren't working). I then rebooted it again, and it would not complete the boot process. It hangs about ¾ of the way through the progress bar, and either shows a distorted spinning beach ball or a black screen. It won't boot into safe mode or recovery, but will boot into Ubuntu.

I don't think I fully understand some of what @tsialex has written about this subject, but it seems that somehow, the security update damaged a flash chip that is necessary to boot MacOS, and there is no way to fix this without replacing the backplane board? I really hope that isn't the case. Luckily, this isn't a machine I depend on at all, but I do have a few hundred dollars put into it.

Would re-flashing the firmware do anything?

I appreciate the help!

Thanks,
Ben

Hi, after lots of frustration, and with the insights and help from tsialex, in the end I replaced the entire board and was back up and running relatively quickly.

It was a cheap fix, plenty available
on eBay at the time, and the process itself was very straightforward. There’s some good tutorials on YouTube showing how to strip the machine down.

 

[14UG]

Is SPI flash failing only an issue on 4,1s?? My backplane is a 2010 5,1. Should I be dumping my ROM and buying a new chip, flashing kit and flashing it with my ROM as a pre-emptive measure to keep my machine running in future?

Thanks in advance!

 

[tsialex]

Is SPI flash failing only an issue on 4,1s?? My backplane is a 2010 5,1. Should I be dumping my ROM and buying a new chip, flashing kit and flashing it with my ROM as a pre-emptive measure to keep my machine running in future?

Thanks in advance!

It will happen to all Macs that have the NVRAM stored inside the same SPI flash memory - it's rated for 100.000 cycles of write/erase - so yes, it happens with MP5,1 and MP6,1.

You should have a backup of your BootROM image and if you can do the replacement yourself, replace the SPI flash memory next time you'll gonna do some maintenance.

Being forced to do it in an emergency, with a deadline to comply, it's not something that I recommend to others. I have 4 backplanes, from early-2009 to mid-2012, and I already replaced in all.

 

[14UG]

It will happen to all Macs that have the NVRAM stored inside the same SPI flash memory - it's rated for 100.000 cycles of write/erase - so yes, it happens with MP5,1 and MP6,1.

You should have a backup of your BootROM image and if you can do the replacement yourself, replace the SPI flash memory next time you'll gonna do some maintenance.

Being forced to do it in an emergency, with a deadline to comply, it's not something that I recommend to others. I have 4 backplanes, from early-2009 to mid-2012, and I already replaced in all.

Thanks for all the expertise @tsialex.

I dumped my ROM as preventative measure. I had to remove my GPU (2.2 height RX 580) to ID the chip but it was a MX 25L3205D as you correctly predicted for a 2010 backplane.

I have a new chip & ch341a on order. I’ll flash the new chip and have it ready but I’ve no immediate plans to install as my backplane has very low hours.

Will my ROM dump go out of date with subsequent firmware updates? It seems a bit like 144.0.0.0.0 is the end of the road for the cMPs. Do I need to do new ROM dumps in future?