Mac Pro Firmware Utility not working

[alphaod]

After my AppleCare ran out, when I needed more RAM, I decided to give the utility a go, at least to get RAM to run at 1333MHz.

Back when I had 10.8.2, for some reason the program just wouldn't run. It would bounce on the dock like twice and the close itself. I gave up after that.

Anyways a few days I decided to give it another go with 10.8.3; now it runs. No changes except did the OS point update.

I get to the part it tells me to shut down and the restart holding the power button.

That's not the issue. The issue is when I start it up holding the power button, it gives me the flashes and long tone, and then it boots up normally. I don't get the Apple logo or the update progress bar.

Am I doing something wrong?

I tried various boot screens and none seem to work. The only thing I had that is different is for some reason my OS X boot is stuck in verbose mode and I can't seem to figure out how to remove that.

Any helps or tips would be appreciated!

 

[wonderspark]

I know that when I ran the utility (I hope you mean the 4,1 to 5,1 firmware update utility) I reset the SMC, then booted the first time while holding the keys for a reset of the PRAM. It worked for me, but I was (and still am) in Snow Leopard. I was in the current version at the time... maybe 10.6.6 or 10.6.7? It was so long ago now.

I hope you don't take offense at the idea, but did you make sure that you're using the correct firmware utility? It could be easy to accidentally use one of the many various apps made for "1,1 to 2,1, SMC" or the "2006-2007", or the iMac or Mac Mini version... there are a few out there. Or, maybe even you got the one for the specific firmware made for Apple-refurbished 4,1 Mac Pros instead of normal 4,1 Mac Pros? They did make a special one for that.

If you checked all that and the firmware still shows up as 4,1 then I'd say login and ask on the netkas.org page.

Good luck, and I hope I helped somehow.

 

[alphaod]

Yeah, did retry the download from netkas.org, but to no avail. Same issue. I'm thinking it's perhaps that I have like multiple separate bootable OS drives that's perhaps causing the confusion especially with my Mac OS X boot mounted to a Velocity X2 instead of the internal SATA connection.

I will experiment around a bit more. Thanks for your help wonderspark!

 

[chrfr]

Yeah, did retry the download from netkas.org, but to no avail. Same issue. I'm thinking it's perhaps that I have like multiple separate bootable OS drives that's perhaps causing the confusion especially with my Mac OS X boot mounted to a Velocity X2 instead of the internal SATA connection.

It's almost certainly failing to install because you aren't booted from an internal disk, though it might also work from an external firewire or USB drive connected to the built in ports.

 

[MacUser2525]

I get to the part it tells me to shut down and the restart holding the power button.

That's not the issue. The issue is when I start it up holding the power button, it gives me the flashes and long tone, and then it boots up normally. I don't get the Apple logo or the update progress bar.

Am I doing something wrong?

No that is it just did it ten minutes ago thanks to this post, I was not holding down the power button from the start so it was failing for me until I did so. Now onto processor and ram upgrade. To add something useful to this post I do seem to remember mention of a .B08 firmware on some machines that may cause problems, perhaps this is yours.