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MP 1,1-5,1 MacPro5,1: BootROM thread | 144.0.0.0.0
- Thread starter tsialex
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Needs to be fully unprotected. MP51.fd is an incomplete BootROM image that will be re-flashed in-situ later.
Thanks to tsialex again for the reconstructed bootrom. You can verify it by temperatures to be honest. It cooled down 6 degrees celcius on idle! Highly recommended. I'll do it every season (2-3 months) as first page suggested.
I'm glad that everything went well!
The improvements of the base_21 hardware descriptor are easily noticed by dual CPU tray owners. A must for everyone with earlier Mac Pros.
For people that like you, have 8 16GB DIMMs and not much free space available, it's better to be pro-active and flash every 90 days than take a risk with Monterey Software Updates and garbage collection.
Hi All
Just reporting back as I got Alex to reconstruct my BootRom on my mid 2010 Mac Pro running Monterey and OC.
What was once pretty wobbly is now rock solid and the tell tale signs of imminent bricking are gone.
I then got him to do a second machine - a 2009 Mac Pro flashed to 2012 running High Sierra that had a repair some years ago that clearly wasn't ideal. The logic board had been replaced, the serial number was incorrectly installed and the whole thing was of a mess. It is now running very noticeably quicker. The RomDumps are clean once more, the second VSS store - missing when I first checked - is back and operating.
So two bricks avoided through sheer wizardry.
Alex was very helpful along the way and, as I think everyone here will attest, does an amazing thing researching how to keep these things running. It is certainly a relief not to be playing the waiting game for the inevitable.
So thanks Alex and would recommend his reconstruction service (which, also seems to be the only one of its type)
Just reporting back as I got Alex to reconstruct my BootRom on my mid 2010 Mac Pro running Monterey and OC.
What was once pretty wobbly is now rock solid and the tell tale signs of imminent bricking are gone.
I then got him to do a second machine - a 2009 Mac Pro flashed to 2012 running High Sierra that had a repair some years ago that clearly wasn't ideal. The logic board had been replaced, the serial number was incorrectly installed and the whole thing was of a mess. It is now running very noticeably quicker. The RomDumps are clean once more, the second VSS store - missing when I first checked - is back and operating.
So two bricks avoided through sheer wizardry.
Alex was very helpful along the way and, as I think everyone here will attest, does an amazing thing researching how to keep these things running. It is certainly a relief not to be playing the waiting game for the inevitable.
So thanks Alex and would recommend his reconstruction service (which, also seems to be the only one of its type)
After two years of great service, I have realised, that my ROM was corrupt beyond sensible repair and the machine is totally bricked.
I was willing to give the old champ one last try, having found a Backplane on Ebay for 40€ (The seller couldn't say if it was working, thats how I managed to haggle him down so much...)
Now im writing to check on the procedure of switching my Backplane for the "new" one. If youd be willing to advise me, it would be greatly appreciated.
Basic Setup:
CMP 4,1 -> 5,1
12 Core (Upgraded the CPU myself without delidding)
Opencore Running (up to the point where my ROM failed me -> 2. VSS Store completely missing)
Radeon VII (Still have the original card though)
Latest OS was Monterey
The Board I was able to get my hands on is luckily a BH9A, should be able to work with the CPUs if I understood you correctly (https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...pro-2012.2116440/?post=27227395#post-27227395)
Now to my question:
I have no clue what ROM version is currently flashed on the SMC. How should I proceed in switching the boards?
Will the Backplane work with the dual 6 core CPUs?
I Would propably start with my failsaife High Sierra disk and the Stock Graphics Card. Is that right?
I was willing to give the old champ one last try, having found a Backplane on Ebay for 40€ (The seller couldn't say if it was working, thats how I managed to haggle him down so much...)
Now im writing to check on the procedure of switching my Backplane for the "new" one. If youd be willing to advise me, it would be greatly appreciated.
Basic Setup:
CMP 4,1 -> 5,1
12 Core (Upgraded the CPU myself without delidding)
Opencore Running (up to the point where my ROM failed me -> 2. VSS Store completely missing)
Radeon VII (Still have the original card though)
Latest OS was Monterey
The Board I was able to get my hands on is luckily a BH9A, should be able to work with the CPUs if I understood you correctly (https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...pro-2012.2116440/?post=27227395#post-27227395)
Now to my question:
I have no clue what ROM version is currently flashed on the SMC. How should I proceed in switching the boards?
Will the Backplane work with the dual 6 core CPUs?
I Would propably start with my failsaife High Sierra disk and the Stock Graphics Card. Is that right?
A mistake, you should always de-lid when installing to a dual CPU early-2009 tray. Besides the risk of damaging the CPU socket pins, the power plane is not cooled correctly because of the height difference.
No, exactly the opposite, BH9 is a mid-2010/mid-2012 backplane, not compatible with a early-2009 CPU tray.
Useless at this moment.
Yes, all mid-2010/mid-2012 backplanes work with Westmere Xeons independent of the firmware installed, but not with your early-2009 CPU tray.
You should repair your current BootROM image or buy a new CPU tray.
You can't mix a mid-2010/mid-2012 backplane with an early-2009 CPU tray.
@franzmichaelheinrich Please read the post linked below, you will understand why you bought the wrong backplane (BH9A is a mid-2010/mid-2012 backplane and incompatible with an early-2009 CPU tray).
forums.macrumors.com
Switching CPU tray from Mac Pro 2010 to Mac Pro 2012
SMC: The best way to know if your Mac Pro is a real mid-2010/mid-2012 is checking the SMC version with >AboutThisMac>SystemReport>HardwareOverview>SMCVersion(system). If the System SMC version is 1.39f5, it's an early-2009 Mac Pro. If the System SMC version is 1.39f11, it's a real mid-2010...
forums.macrumors.com
Thank you for your fast reply. In that case, I believe the days of my CMP to be counted. Im obviously lacking the necessary know how at this point and sadly also don't have the time to acquire it.
I guess the next smart move would be to take it apart and sell the parts.
Its had a good run...
I guess the next smart move would be to take it apart and sell the parts.
Its had a good run...
You can buy a mid-2010/mid-2012 CPU tray and replace both the backplane and the CPU tray, single CPU trays can be bought reasonably cheap if you are not in a hurry.
If you still can boot your early-2009 Mac Pro, you didn't bricked it yet, so, it's possible to repair it with a BootROM reconstruction service.
This post will help you get it booting again if it's not really totally bricked:
@tsialex I was referred to someone to this thread. I own MacPro 5,1 recently, not sure if this is 2010 upgrade or actual 2012. Everything went well for the last couple of months, running originally High Sierra, then did clean install Monterey 12.4 with OCLP. I even upgraded to 12.6 successfully. This installation is on NVMe PCIe card.
Now, here is the problem, about a couple of weeks ago, I installed Windows 11 Pro, UEFI boot, on SSD drive, on slot 4. Installation went well and I can use Windows 11 without any issue. However, Monterey keeps shutting down after few minutes, or sometimes it does random shutdown. The random shutdown does not happen when it is on Windows 11. Do you think this is a symptom that the NVRAM gets corrupted by installing Windows 11?
What do you recommend doing at this point if in fact the NVRAM is corrupted? How can I check for NVRAM health status?
EDIT:
System Info after I wiped out Monterey and back to Mojave 10.14.6 (with several shutdown hiccups in the middle):
MacPro5,1
2x Xeon X5690 3.46GHz
32GB RAM
BootROM 144.0.0.0.0
SMC Version (system) 1.39f11
SMC Version (processor tray) 1.39f11
Now, here is the problem, about a couple of weeks ago, I installed Windows 11 Pro, UEFI boot, on SSD drive, on slot 4. Installation went well and I can use Windows 11 without any issue. However, Monterey keeps shutting down after few minutes, or sometimes it does random shutdown. The random shutdown does not happen when it is on Windows 11. Do you think this is a symptom that the NVRAM gets corrupted by installing Windows 11?
What do you recommend doing at this point if in fact the NVRAM is corrupted? How can I check for NVRAM health status?
EDIT:
System Info after I wiped out Monterey and back to Mojave 10.14.6 (with several shutdown hiccups in the middle):
MacPro5,1
2x Xeon X5690 3.46GHz
32GB RAM
BootROM 144.0.0.0.0
SMC Version (system) 1.39f11
SMC Version (processor tray) 1.39f11
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Did you checked if the default OCLP config blocks Windows SecureBoot signing of the BootROM?
This is weird. Did you already checked the northbridge heatsink push pins? The RTC battery voltage?
If you already did that the basic diagnostics, you can follow the first post of the thread for the steps on how to dump and do a basic NVRAM volume inspection with UEFITool.
I'll send you a PM.
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Yes, I did some dusting just in case. Repasting both Xeon and NorthBridge. Fan control shows no out of ordinary temperature readings. RTC battery is still 3.1V, just in case I also replaced it with a brand new one. Oh, yeah, the graphics card is MSI RX560, original, non-flashed.
I haven't done anything with UEFITool.
Got round to revisiting some scattered discussion from quite some time ago:
Turns out the Trashcan is indeed on EFI 1.x and has the same System Table details as the MP31 (which is the same as the MP51). Would suggest stuff extracted from its firmware should *generally* work on MP31 to MP51.
Wonder when Apple finally went to UEFI 2.x if not Late 2013 ... or was the Trashcan an outlier?
Turns out the Trashcan is indeed on EFI 1.x and has the same System Table details as the MP31 (which is the same as the MP51). Would suggest stuff extracted from its firmware should *generally* work on MP31 to MP51.
Wonder when Apple finally went to UEFI 2.x if not Late 2013 ... or was the Trashcan an outlier?
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Means iMac16,1 (Late 2015) onward.
Some variants of that model apparently had Broadwell CPUs though.
Wonder how they would have dealt with that. I suppose there would have been nothing stopping them from also running UEFI 2.x.
EDIT:
Wikipedia contradicting itself. One page says IMac16,1 is Broadwell and another says it is Skylake.
Late 2015 seems a bit early for Apple to have adopted Skylake (Released Aug 2015) given past form.
Probably actually started with MacBook9,1 (Early 2016)
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@tsialex Hallo, today I finally solder the flash rom on the backplane, when I start the Mac Pro no chime at all and no image on the screen , but now the withe power led not blinking anymore as before . i verify the diag led and seems all ok (attached photo) i also have tried two different GPU but the result is the same so no image on the screen.. i made a mistake on flashing procedure or the backpanel is dead ?
Attachments
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EFI_DONE is lit, seems that you flashed MP51.fd and soldered the SPI flash memory correctly.
Could be a dead southbridge like I've warned you from the start, burned fuses or even a CPU tray/PSU defect. Since you most probably eliminated the BootROM, it's time to take some steps back and fully diagnose your Mac Pro testing each component with a known working Mac Pro, one at a time, to be sure that is the backplane that failed.
Hi @tsialex ,
before changing the flash i have tested all components (Psu,Gpu,CPU Tray) on a working Mac Pro 4.1 of my friend and all the components are good. where i can find the fuses you mention ? let me know and i'm measure it .
Time to buy a replacement backplane.
There are dozens of SMD fuses/0 Ohm resistors all over the board, most are on the backside.
@tsialex Ok i start looking for a new backplane , last questions :
The replacement backplane might have the same flash problem after a while right?
If it happens, just replace the damaged flash and everything returns to work or do I have to make a backup of the flash that works with some specific software?
if I wanted to search for the fault of the broken backplane, are there electrical schematics of this board?
Maybe this is a little silly, but if I were worried about my SPI flash dying soon I think I’d buy a MATT card, because I definitely would feel more comfortable soldering a new flash chip to that than a Big Mac Pro backplane board. (Though for all I know maybe backplanes are cheaper than MATT cards right now??)
Anyway, I feel like it might make sense to look into a MATT card and flash that with a known good backup and then just take it out and keep it around, because if anything happens to the internal flash on your logic board you can just plug in the card and be done with it.
Correct, that's why a lot of people that have several Mac Pros already ask for a BootROM reconstruction service and replace the SPI flash before even installing the replacement backplane to the case.
The BootROM image dump from the replacement backplane is needed for the reconstruction service, you can dump it while testing the backplane outside the case or you can desolder and dump it.
No, Apple never made it available nor a third party did recreate it.