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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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I hope this isn't too much of a derail and/or hasn't been covered already 100x, but what exactly is the cause of the corrupt BootROM/NVRAM? How can I check my own before updating to 140.0.0.0.0? It seems odd that it's such a common issue and poses such a risk of ending up with a bricked MP, you'd think there'd be many more reports of people having issues after installing official firmware updates (unless there are and I just haven't seen them)
It's complex, have many causes and we didn't found yet what trigger a corrupt BootROM into a brick.
Seems related to trash in the private part of the NVRAM and incorrect checksums. Windows in EFI mode seems to have some fault too, since MS has the stupid habit of signing the EFI multiple times.
All bricks that people sent me dumps from the corrupted SPI flash had trash and incorrect checksums, one had three signing MS certificates, most had two.
I know of 6 bricks in the last 2 months, one yesterday here.
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Get a fast NVMe like 970PRO 512GB and compare it with a 860EVO/PRO, you will be surprised. With a old SATA SSD like 840EVO or the original Apple SATA ones from Toshiba, is just injust
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Angelbirds Wings PX1 and Aqua Computer kryoM2.
Best price (free shipping/no sales tax) for Angelbird Wings PX1 - Adorama eBay store:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Angelbird-...1977903154?epid=691190907&hash=item5b43b42432
I have just installed the Aqua Computer kryoM2 with a 970 evo in my MacPro and I must say it's really well built.
Maybe I did not need it (was using a Lycom DT-120) but now that I have seen it ... "I will advertise it" (quote)
Maybe I did not need it (was using a Lycom DT-120) but now that I have seen it ... "I will advertise it" (quote)
Was it the kyroM.2 or the kyroM.2 Evo? From looking on ebay they are two different cards. The Evo version, while more expensive, looks better designed with the double-sided heatsink.
kyroM.2
kyroM.2 Evo
Just bought another Angelbird Wings PX1 on Adorama eBay Store. Openbox for $40.
All the hard drives in my system are Angelbird SSDs, was a no brainer for me to put the PX1 on order!
It's incredible well done, I didn't had to think much before buying. Just $40 with free shipping and no sales tax.
Do you think that this card can work?
StarTech.Com 2x M.2 NGFF SSD RAID Controller Card Plus 2x SATA III Ports, PCIe
https://www.startech.com/Cards-Adap...TA-Cards/m2-raid-controller-card~PEXM2SAT3422
I like that it has two m.2 slots and to get two 6g sata port.
Get a fast NVMe like 970PRO 512GB and compare it with a 860EVO/PRO, you will be surprised. With a old SATA SSD like 840EVO or the original Apple SATA ones from Toshiba, is just unjust
Yeah, I don't comment on this much since it P..sss me off when people call me a liar. The difference on MY MACHINE is night and day. You couldn't pay me to go back to SATA SSD for main booting. It's astonishing ON MY MACHINE.
From another thread, it's me shilling for the Kryo..
After several weeks, and fiddling with Macs Fan Control, it now averages 35-37C.
After several weeks, and fiddling with Macs Fan Control, it now averages 35-37C.
Jackson I am with you. All of my Mac Pros booth off of the Samsung M.2. Love it. Thanks for all of tsialex hard work making it possible.
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mine is the EVO:
- the kyroM.2 Evo has an extra "radiator" for the bottom side of the ssd
- with a Samsung 970 512GB that has chips just on the top side, the kyroM.2 non Evo would have also been good
Is there something that should be done in advance in case this happens during a FW update when Apple officially releases 140? Should one save a copy of the current BootROM? If so, how?
Hi tsialex, thanks for all the work you‘ve been doing on this.
I am currently on 138.0.0.0.0 and wonder if I should upgrade...
What did you mean by „trying to install incorrectly“?
Could you also PM me how to check if my bootrom is corrupted?
If one ends up with a brick, can the firmware be restored with the restoration cd?
Thanks in advance
Marius
Everyone should have a BootROM dump saved on a safe place. With a BootROM dump you can reflash it to a MATT card, or even extract the original HardwareIDs to reconstruct a clean version.
Use ROMTool or flashrom to do a dump. ROMTool is a nice GUI over flashrom, easy to use.
Edit:
dosdude1 removed it from his site, since Google detected it as a false positive. Until this hassle is resolved, get it from Internet Archieve:
https://web.archive.org/web/20180927095403/http://dosdude1.com/apps/ROMTool.zip
change the * to dosdude1 dot com
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Thanks very much! I will do that.
Is there some reason to not post how to check if bootROM is corrupted? I'd like to know too!
Apple devised a specific way to update firmwares with Mac Pro 5,1. You have to use the full installer of macOS. A lot of things happen in the back when you do this (plugins).
When you force it using the Recovery as a kickstart, you bypass some of the protections Apple devised.
Yes, PM sent, but I only do this in my free time and I have some to do. Maybe I could do yours in the weekend.
Maybe… People who got real bricks had to desolder/reprogram externally/solder again the SPI flash or replace the backplane.
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It's a complex procedure, I have being studying this for more than 4 months and almost every week a learn a new thing, find that I did something wrong or presumed something incorrectly.
Only when I got more than 50 unique BootROMs I found I presumed something incorrectly. When doing reverse engineering sometimes you need patterns. Some patterns only show to you when you have lots of examples. Only last week I found that the NVRAM volume is not just two parts, but at least four. This is not documented anywhere, I found it because of patterns, more specifically I found 4 checksum places.
No one bothered with this before I started, this thread already has more info about NVRAM and Apple hardware IDs than anywhere else. I'm not going to open the floodgates of support hell, until I have all things documented.
I do this alone, in my free time. I can't do things faster than what I have been doing.
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Is windows the common denominator? Like my machine. Would be interesting to compare before and after a windows install.?
Also those wings px1's have been as out for sometime on that eBay store. Unless they just don't want to sell to us Aussies
Is there much risk of bricking even when using the Apple-sanctioned method, via an unmodified macOS installer?