Mac Pro 5,1 Mojave startup issues (2009 firmware flash)

[MrCoBalt]

…Then I decide to do a PRAM, but I only heard chime once, then the unit hung forever. I have to shut it down, since then the unit won't boot again, tried everything, no screen, no chime, fans runs, GPU fan runs too.

I'm having what seems to be this exact same issue post-10.14.1 install/post-NVRAM reset on my 4,1-flashed-to-5,1

• My system was running 10.12.6 (sorry I didn't note the exact previous firmware version, probably whatever the netkas patcher downloaded way back when though).
• Did 10.13.6 firmware + OS upgrade w/ no issues.
• Then did 10.14.1's 140.0.0.0.0 firmware upgrade as prompted, confirmed proper version showing in System Information and my MacVidCards-flashed 7970 GPU showed 5GT/s speeds.
• Did 10.14.1 OS install and signed into user account.
• Noticed Bluetooth was showing as not available (my Magic Keyboard II was working to sign in as it was connected via USB to charge; Magic Trackpad II wasn't connected at all).
• Cleanly shut down, SMC reset via power cord disconnect.
• Reconnected power cord, waited 5+ seconds, pressed power button.
• Held cmd-opt-PR, system chimed then restarted.
• No second chime, no video, system appears "dead"

You have to find what is your problem. A brick will power on everything but just won't progress from there, USB ports get power.

My USB ports do seem to be getting power as bus-powered 2.5" drive spins up. However wired Apple keyboard & mouse have no caps lock/lights.

I added more details here rather than bulking up my post but I sure hope somebody can help…

 

[tsialex]

I'm having what seems to be this exact same issue post-10.14.1 install/post-NVRAM reset on my 4,1-flashed-to-5,1

• My system was running 10.12.6 (sorry I didn't note the exact previous firmware version, probably whatever the netkas patcher downloaded way back when though).
• Did 10.13.6 firmware + OS upgrade w/ no issues.
• Then did 10.14.1's 140.0.0.0.0 firmware upgrade as prompted, confirmed proper version showing in System Information and my MacVidCards-flashed 7970 GPU showed 5GT/s speeds.
• Did 10.14.1 OS install and signed into user account.
• Noticed Bluetooth was showing as not available (my Magic Keyboard II was working to sign in as it was connected via USB to charge; Magic Trackpad II wasn't connected at all).
• Cleanly shut down, SMC reset via power cord disconnect.
• Reconnected power cord, waited 5+ seconds, pressed power button.
• Held cmd-opt-PR, system chimed then restarted.
• No second chime, no video, system appears "dead"

My USB ports do seem to be getting power as bus-powered 2.5" drive spins up. However wired Apple keyboard & mouse have no caps lock/lights.

I added more details here rather than bulking up my post but I sure hope somebody can help…

you have 3 options:

1. Replace the backplane.
2. Buy a Mac Pro MATT card.
3. Desolder, externally reprogram the SPI flash memory, solder again, you can read all the process starting here #929.

 

[MrCoBalt]

you have 3 options:

1. Replace the backplane.
2. Buy a Mac Pro MATT card.
3. Desolder, externally reprogram the SPI flash memory, solder again, you can read all the process starting here #929.

Alrighty, that's what I figured (I apparently skipped over your soldering adventures in that BootROM thread my first time through it, whoops!)

Any idea what causes this though? Something corrupt/weird in the private portion of NVRAM that the post-firmware update NVRAM reset exposed? Or perhaps a consequence of something Apple's flasher isn't expecting due to the 4,1 -> 5,1 conversion?

 

[tsialex]

Alrighty, that's what I figured (I apparently skipped over your soldering adventures in that BootROM thread my first time through it, whoops!)

Any idea what causes this though? Something corrupt/weird in the private portion of NVRAM that the post-firmware update NVRAM reset exposed? Or perhaps a consequence of something Apple's flasher isn't expecting due to the 4,1 -> 5,1 conversion?

In the last 6 months I found a lot of motives for bricks, but no smoking gun. Seems to be a combination of factors and it’s more common with 4,1>5,1 Mac Pros. MP51.0087.B00 snafu has some guilt too.

MP4,1 firmware is organized a lot different than the MP5,1, do a binwalk with a MP4,1 LOCKED.fd and compare with a MP51.fd. Some things are the same, like the offsets of the NVRAM and the LBSN_BD sector, but the contents are different.

 

[MrCoBalt]

In the last 6 months I found a lot of motives for bricks, but no smoking gun. Seems to be a combination of factors and it’s more common with 4,1>5,1 Mac Pros. MP51.0087.B00 snafu has some guilt too.

Thanks for the quick reply! I think my best bet is a full backplane if I can find one for a decent price…

My understanding is I need a 2009/A1289/820-2337/630-9399 model since my CPU tray is a 2009 model and I don't want any weird SMC mismatches?

Aside from SMC will there be any issues with a 2009-model backplane replacement + an existing CPU tray? Like a firmware mismatch or something since it appeared the 10.14.1/140.0.0.0.0 update appeared to be successful at first?

 

[tsialex]

Thanks for the quick reply! I think my best bet is a full backplane if I can find one for a decent price…

My understanding is I need a 2009/A1289/820-2337/630-9399 model since my CPU tray is a 2009 model and I don't want any weird SMC mismatches?

Aside from SMC will there be any issues with a 2009-model backplane replacement + an existing CPU tray? Like a firmware mismatch or something since it appeared the 10.14.1/140.0.0.0.0 update appeared to be successful at first?

SMC needs to match, 2009 backplanes with 2009 trays.

It's very probable that a replacement 2009 backplane will have a MP41 firmware or an early MP51 one. So, you will need to start with El Capitan to get a working Mac Pro, then High Sierra and MP51.0089.B00, then Mojave with 140.0.0.0.0.

The safest and fastest course of action is to dump the original backplane BootROM, inspect it, extract all the hardwareIDs, then reconstruct 140.0.0.0.0, but you still need 10.11.6 to do this. When doing the 3rd stream of the NVRAM, you can match the backplane serial with the case serial too.

Btw, if you can do a BootROM dump of the bricked backplane, I'd like to take a look into it.

 

[MrCoBalt]

SMC needs to match, 2009 backplanes with 2009 trays.

It's very probable that a replacement 2009 backplane will have a MP41 firmware or an early MP51 one. So, you will need to start with El Capitan to get a working Mac Pro, then High Sierra and MP51.0089.B00, then Mojave with 140.0.0.0.0.

I found a cheap-ish 2009 backplane so I have that on order now; ideally arrives in a couple weeks (though US to Canada around the holidays can be slow). I have all the various OS installers kicking around, plus my MacBook & various Macs at work I can lean on for making installer drives, etc. so I think I can build a working system eventually…

The safest and fastest course of action is to dump the original backplane BootROM, inspect it, extract all the hardwareIDs, then reconstruct 140.0.0.0.0, but you still need 10.11.6 to do this.

Btw, if you can do a BootROM dump of the bricked backplane, I'd like to take a look into it.

I would imagine I need to remove the chip from the board to do any of that though?

 

[tsialex]

I found a cheap-ish 2009 backplane so I have that on order now; ideally arrives in a couple weeks (though US to Canada around the holidays can be slow). I have all the various OS installers kicking around, plus my MacBook & various Macs at work I can lean on for making installer drives, etc. so I think I can build a working system eventually…

You need to start with El Capitan. The first thing is to do a BootROM dump with ROMTool. If you don't know how to do a dump, I can PM instructions.

I would imagine I need to remove the chip from the board to do any of that though?

Yes. If you know how to desolder, ch341a is the cheapest SPI flash programmer that works, around $15 with a SOIC-8 clip. It's the one I used initially.

 

[Synchro3]

In the last 6 months I found a lot of motives for bricks, but no smoking gun. Seems to be a combination of factors and it’s more common with 4,1>5,1 Mac Pros. MP51.0087.B00 snafu has some guilt too.

MP4,1 firmware is organized a lot different than the MP5,1, do a binwalk with a MP4,1 LOCKED.fd and compare with a MP51.fd. Some things are the same, like the offsets of the NVRAM and the LBSN_BD sector, but the contents are different.

If a Mac Pro 4,1->5,1 had never firmware MP51.0087.B00 installed, and is now on 140.0.0.0.0, could the boot rom be corrupted and break nevertheless?

 

[tsialex]

If a Mac Pro 4,1->5,1 had never firmware MP51.0087.B00 installed, and is now on 140.0.0.0.0, could the boot rom be corrupted and break nevertheless?

Yes. People sent me dumps of bricks from 2009 Mac Pros that never were updated to MP51 firmware. You just need a checksum error and your BootROM bricks your Mac.

 

[Synchro3]

Yes. People sent me dumps of bricks from 2009 Mac Pros that never were updated to MP51 firmware. You just need a checksum error and your BootROM bricks your Mac.

Ou. If you don't mind I would send you a copy of my 140.0.0.0.0 firmware in the next days?

 

[tsialex]

Ou. If you don't mind I would send you a copy of my 140.0.0.0.0 firmware in the next days?

I'll PM instructions, I need the ESN label, LBSN/MLB label and a SPX to validate a dump.

BootROM corruption can have hardware causes too. Some of the bricks had multiple PanicInfos into it, one of them had the PanicDumps count to 15. This one had severe RAM problems, I suspect that was a mix of a bad dual Xeon upgrade with defective RAM, just one don't explain the 15 PanicInfo dumps count.

I started to check for PanicInfo dumps accidentally and late into my research, now I check for it with every dump. I learned a lot after doing more than a hundred unique BootROM reconstructions, some things I did earlier were totally wrong, like not caring for checksums or not preserving the 4th stream.

 

[Martian01]

I'll PM instructions, I need the ESN label, LBSN/MLB label and a SPX to validate a dump.

BootROM corruption can have hardware causes too. Some of the bricks had multiple PanicInfos into it, one of them had the PanicDumps count to 15. This one had severe RAM problems, I suspect that was a mix of a bad dual Xeon upgrade with defective RAM, just one don't explain the 15 PanicInfo dumps count.

I started to check for PanicInfo dumps accidentally and late into my research, now I check for it with every dump. I learned a lot after doing more than a hundred unique BootROM reconstructions, some things I did earlier were totally wrong, like not caring for checksums or not preserving the 4th stream.

tsialex, you are right, I tried to use firmware restoration CD to restore the rom, but no luck. You can hear a chime at the start, but then it hung there for hours.

I don't think I can solder this thing, seems change the logic board is the only option left.

Synchro3, please let me know if you successfully restore you cMP.

Thank you all so much, you are best!

BTW, the MATT card almost cause a logic board

 

[tsialex]

tsialex, you are right, I tried to use firmware restoration CD to restore the rom, but no luck. You can hear a chime at the start, but then it hung there for hours.

I don't think I can solder this thing, seems change the logic board is the only option left.

Synchro3, please let me know if you successfully restore you cMP.

Thank you all so much, you are best!

BTW, the MATT card almost cause a logic board

Did you tried creating a macOS install with screen sharing enabled with another Mac, then removing all other drives from your bricked one, keeping just the screen sharing enabled one and trying to access the bricked from the network? I’d try this since you still have the chime.

If you’ll have to buy a replacement backplane, at least you know that you tested everything.

 

[Martian01]

Did you tried creating a macOS install with screen sharing enabled with another Mac, then removing all other drives from your bricked one, keeping just the screen sharing enabled one and trying to access the bricked from the network? I’d try this since you still have the chime.

If you’ll have to buy a replacement backplane, at least you know that you tested everything.

I am pretty sure screen sharing on this MAC was disabled, since no screen, is there any other way can access this thing?
Thanks!

 

[tsialex]

I am pretty sure screen sharing on this MAC was disabled, since no screen, is there any other way can access this thing?
Thanks!

No, you have to do a new install into an empty drive using another Mac.

The only other way to test this is with Snow Leopard Server, it’s the only OS X installer that have screensharing enabled into the installer by default - but if you don’t have it, you can’t get it unless you have ADC access and you need to know how to access the installer via network. It’s a lot simpler to create a new install using another Mac.

 

[Martian01]

No, you have to do a new install into an empty drive using another Mac.

The only other way to test this is with Snow Leopard Server, it’s the only OS X installer that have screensharing enabled into the installer by default - but if you don’t have it, you can’t get it unless you have ADC access and you need to know how to access the installer via network. It’s a lot simpler to create a new install using another Mac.

OK, I will look into it. Thanks for all the insights.

 

[Martian01]

Hi Guys, just report back what I did to restore my cMP and some thing I learned:

1. Bought a used backplane, matched to my existing 2009 setting, went through all the hassle... switched back the old cpu, booted up with a backed up snow leopard, firmware upgraded to 5.1, then upgraded to HS, upgrade bootrom, then clean installed Mojave. I was so exhausted and am afraid to make any change any more.

2. Sorry tsialex, I did not try you remote install method, I do not have snow leopard server.

3. I am still temped to install windows to fully used the RX580 card, read through h9826790 instruction, tried to install windows 10 1809 version, but no luck, my cMP won't boot from DVD.

4. My thinking is that installing windows on a empty SSD from a PC in legacy mode should be the same, theoretically it should be able to bootup in cMP?

5. Turn out this is a big mistake, here is what I learned:

6. The installation went well on PC, but windows 10 definitely did something to PC bootmanager, after I took out the SSD with the windows 10 on it, it showed a blue screen, said the hard ware has been changed, but I still have the choice to boot into the old win 7 drive. Although I changed the boot sequence in bios, this still happened, this tells me windows 10 definitely changed the bios. I hope if I put this fresh windows 10 drive into cMP, it will not change anything to bootrom anymore.

7. Put the windows 10 SSD into cMP, mojave recognized it and I have the option to select it as a startup drive. Hold my breath, start up... It almost knock me down, cMP won't start at all, with a flashing cursor on the left upper corner. I was so pissed.

8. Now I have to save the cMP again, reset PRAM supposed to go back to mojave right away, but not in my case, I never heard the second chime no matter how long I hold the keys, it always went back to black screen with flashing cursor.

9. Tried to get into recovery mode, no luck. Tried to boot from DVD, no luck either.

10. Then I have to switch to GT120 and see whether I can get the boot option, after couple tries, I do not remember if the PRAM worked or some thing else worked, finally I get to the boot up option screen, was able to get into Mojave again.

11. at this point, I decide to not try windows 10 anymore, I think windows 10 definitely did some change again to my bootrom, even without installation, luckily I was able to get back this time. But folks, be very careful.

Thanks Alex and h9826790, you guys are awesome, I learned a lot from this site.

 

[MIKX]

I use ONLY Windows 7 installed on it's own spinner HDD.

If I DO have to use Windows 7 .. . after use I shut down and do a cold startup. No problems starting in Mojave.

I haven't used Bootcamp at all for at least 9 or10 years.

 

[Itconnects]

[QUOTE/]
Thanks for the windows suggestion, do you know of a list of metal supported GPUs that are EFI and would let me switch between OS X and windows 10? I know the GT12 isn’t supported on windows anymore.

GT-120 is still supported, but it is not a good idea to run them together. I only use them both for troubleshooting.
The only 3 good working cards with EFI for Mojave should be:

• Sapphire Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition
• Nvidia Quadro K5000 for Mac
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 Mac Edition

[/QUOTE]
I have evga GeForce gtx 680 Mac, and it seems like it’s a nightmare to get into windows 10

 

[crjackson2134]

Thanks for the windows suggestion, do you know of a list of metal supported GPUs that are EFI and would let me switch between OS X and windows 10? I know the GT12 isn’t supported on windows anymore.

Check here too...