OWC Aura Pro X SSD issue

[Whoop]

Hi all,

I have a pretty tough situation to share, and if anyone can help i'd be pretty happy.
Here's the story :

I just arrived in a new job, and got the Mac Pro used by my predecessor.
Unfortunately, things didn't end well with this guy, and long story short, for legal reason i could not have access to this Mac Pro, unless we removed all that could contain his personnal stuff => the SSD.
So we removed the SSD, and bought a brand new Aura Pro X from OWC.

I installed it today, but, in order to use it, I would have had to install MacOS HS 10.13 prior to install this new SSD. I didn't, and don't have access to the old SSD.

After some investigation, i realized that what is blocking is that this SSD needs an EFI firmware that comes with HS.
So i managed to install HS 10.13 on an external drive, to check what version of the BootROM is installed :

BootROM : MP61.0116.B05
SMC : 2.20f18

Does anyone know how I could fix this problem ?

As a related question, do you think i can install Windows on this Mac Pro, if HS is not an option !?

Thanks in advance, i'm sorry if i'm not completely clear, english is not my main language.
I'd be happy to provide more information if needed !

 

[bookemdano]

Not too familiar with the nMP but you could try what we cMP users do when we want the latest firmware:

1. Boot from your external HDD that you installed 10.13 on
2. Sign into the Mac App Store and click on the ad for High Sierra (or search for it) and download it. Note that you have to download the full installer, not the update.
3. Once it's downloaded, run it and allow it to reinstall 10.13.6 on your external drive. Even if you're already on 10.13.6, run the installer anyway.

As part of the install process, it should flash your firmware. It looks like the firmware version you're running is quite old (pre-Yosemite) so your trashcan definitely needs a newer one.

I would think that would work, and after the install completes then boot back into HS and check the firmware.

 

[Whoop]

Not too familiar with the nMP but you could try what we cMP users do when we want the latest firmware:

1. Boot from your external HDD that you installed 10.13 on
2. Sign into the Mac App Store and click on the ad for High Sierra (or search for it) and download it. Note that you have to download the full installer, not the update.
3. Once it's downloaded, run it and allow it to reinstall 10.13.6 on your external drive. Even if you're already on 10.13.6, run the installer anyway.

As part of the install process, it should flash your firmware. It looks like the firmware version you're running is quite old (pre-Yosemite) so your trashcan definitely needs a newer one.

I would think that would work, and after the install completes then boot back into HS and check the firmware.

Thanks for your answer,

Unfortunately it didn't work, the computer restart and then I get an error:
Cannot install MacOS. An error occurred while checking the internal program.

As a precision, I used another Mac to download MacOS since I don't have internet access on the Mac pro

 

[bookemdano]

Thanks for your answer,

Unfortunately it didn't work, the computer restart and then I get an error:
Cannot install MacOS. An error occurred while checking the internal program.

As a precision, I used another Mac to download MacOS since I don't have internet access on the Mac pro

Is it possible the download is corrupt? Perhaps try again, and if you get the error again please provide the exact text of the error (or take a photo of it and post it)

Edit: Also, please remove the OWC SSD for now if you left it installed. It's possible its presence is preventing the firmware upgrade.

 

[crjackson2134]

I’m a little suspicious of the OWC components. OWC is known to be sketchy with SSD technology and compatibility glitches.

Also I read in another thread, that where the nMP is concerned, a genuine Apple SSD must be installed in the machine to do any firmware updates. Just like cMP must have an EFI GPU installed to do firmware updates.

 

[tsialex]

MP6,1 has his own idiosyncrasies upgrading firmware and they’re different from 5,1.

Ask on this thread, people there are specialists on 6,1 and SSDs https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-internal-gpu-mac-pro-2013-6-1.2085886/unread

 

[bookemdano]

I’m a little suspicious of the OWC components. OWC is known to be sketchy with SSD technology and compatibility glitches.

Also I read in another thread, that where the nMP is concerned, a genuine Apple SSD must be installed in the machine to do any firmware updates. Just like cMP must have an EFI GPU installed to do firmware updates.

Ugh, I was afraid of that.

And I agree re: OWC. I used to think they were top-shelf but I had a really bad experience with one of their so-called "Genuine" Magsafe 2 AC adapters. Saw them touted as a good non-fake alternative to buying from Apple and got burned (almost literally. It started delivering unsafe voltage spikes to my MBP). The adapters they sell are definitely different than genuine Apple adapters (different plastic, silkscreening, and the info they report electronically to MacOS is suspect as well--reused serial numbers and part numbers that don't match up). Sorry, bit of an unrelated tangent there, but I won't buy from them anymore.

OP, is it too late to return the OWC SSD? You can buy a genuine Apple one on eBay (or probably direct from Apple if your company insists on a more official vendor). Or maybe as tsialex said, nMP experts know of some way to get the FW flashed without a genuine SSD.