Mac Pro Firmware Upgrade Utility Released!

[Rominator]

For the records: Another early Mac Pro 2009 (W3520, Quad 2.66 GHz) upgraded, thanks to your great utilty.

Of course I read the documentation before and was prepared to tweak around with the connector, thermal pads and counting numbers of turns for the screws when I found out, that my Mac Pro already came with a CPU that has a heatspreader - so the whole thing turned to be very easy.

I just had to remove the heatsink and the original CPU, replace it with the new X5670 (6-Core 2,93 GHz, best bang for the buck), apply some thermal paste and reattach the heatsink...

Only the Dual CPU 4,1 machines have the dreaded issue. Single CPU 4,1/5,1 are easy-breezy. All of them.

[Slogo]

Hello

I recently completed the upgrade with great success. Thank your for the firmware. I have been noticing a variation between the two CPUs of between 10-15 C. Is this normal behaviour.
Thanks for your advice.

Krzysztof

[linus987]

I did it. But with pain and a CPU board replacement....

Here are some pics. All information to do it were taken from this forum.

I replaced two CPU 2.26 GHZ by two CPU 3.06 GHZ (with metallic cap).

As this metallic cap add more or less 2.5 mm, I had to modify some small details that made my first try a disaster.

After first try and having too much screwed.


CPU burned after first try :


Heatskink connector modification to connect it manually to the CPU board




New 5 mm thermal band :


Washers :


To make sure will succeed in this modification, take your time, read carefully all the posts and be extremely careful when manipulating heatsinks over the new CPU. A very small pression on the CPU can shatter everything !!!! :-)

[Rominator]

interesting is that just like Anandtech and myself, the bad CPU board pins got bent in a diagonal

I was able to make that board work, but one RAM slot is invisible

[pigsyn]

Hello,

I made a patch to correct error 5570 when the app starts to download the 2010 EFI dmg.

Actually the link is hard coded as https://support.apple.com/downloads/DL1321/en_US/MacProEFIUpdate1.5.dmg but apple changed it to MacProEFIUpdate.dmg

If you have errors when downgrading to 4,1, it's the same problem as the EFI update Tool needs the two dmg for both upgrade and downgrade.
The Apple 4,1 efi.app is patched to accept 5,1efi when upgrading and vice versa.

Download Mac Pro 2009-2010 Firmware Tool and the patch provided.

Code:

tar -zxvf patch.tgz
patch Mac\ Pro\ 2009-2010\ Firmware\ Tool.app/Contents/Resources/Scripts/Mac\ Pro\ 2009-2010\ Firmware\ Tool.scpt 2009_2010.patch

MD5 for 2009_2010.patch = 674283f3cfaafad236d8f4aedff4a54a

Enjoy

[mcaudell]

Ok, newbie here so I'm sorry if I'm rehashing stuff.  I just don't want to brick my main computer.

I have a 2009 2.93, single processor "refurb" with the "special" rom.  I'm listing the steps I think I'm supposed to be doing.

1. download the Apple rom from "http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1321"
2. download the Mac Pro 2009-2010 Firmware Tool
3. mount the apple dmg file and do a show contents
4. run the Mac Pro 2009-2010 Firmware Tool

With the caveat of knowing that I cannot go back to my old firmware because it's the non-standard, unreleased b08 version.
Will this allow me to replace my current processor with a cap attached, hex-core W3xxx processor without doing any compensation for the lid-less processor because the quad-core processors still had the lids on them.

Thanks for re-verifiing this stuff.  Like I said, I really don't want to brick my main work computer.

[pigsyn]

1. download the Apple rom from "http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1321"
2. download the Mac Pro 2009-2010 Firmware Tool
3. mount the apple dmg file and do a show contents
4. run the Mac Pro 2009-2010 Firmware Tool

It's ok for upgrading but you can use the following method alternatively, as the above method does NOT work with DOWNGRADE (since most people don't understand that you need both 2009 and 2010 DMG for upgrade AND downgrade process)

1) Download firmware update tool 2009-2010.
2) Download patch.tgz from my previous post into /Users/YOURNAME/Downloads/
3) unzip MacPro2009-2010FirmwareTool.zip file in /Users/YOURNAME/Downloads/
4) open Terminal in /Applications/Utilities/
enter the following under Terminal and hit enter after each line:
cd $HOME/Downloads
tar -zxvf patch.tgz
patch Mac\ Pro\ 2009-2010\ Firmware\ Tool.app/Contents/Resources/Scripts/Mac\ Pro\ 2009-2010\ Firmware\ Tool.scpt 2009_2010.patch

Launch Firmware Update Tool. No manual DMG download or mount once patched.

Read carefully instructions when Update Firmare Tool is done.

With the caveat of knowing that I cannot go back to my old firmware because it's the non-standard, unreleased b08 version.
Will this allow me to replace my current processor with a cap attached, hex-core W3xxx processor without doing any compensation for the lid-less processor because the quad-core processors still had the lids on them.

Thanks for re-verifiing this stuff.  Like I said, I really don't want to brick my main work computer.

You can't go back to MP41 B08 firmware, only MP41 B07.  I don't think it could brick your MacPro.
Yes this will allow you to upgrade to w36** 6 cores "Gulftown". X5675-80-90 "Westmere" 6cores also work on single cpu machines, and are easier to find on ebay.

Don't downgrade to 4,1 with 6 cores cpu in your MacPro.

Edit: I guess it's probably easier to post a patched app.
Pls admin, moderate if against the rules.

Now on github : https://github.com/pigsyn/MacProFirmwareToolUpdate

[FreQuenC]

Just wanted to report that today I successfully upgraded a 2009 2.66Ghz 4,1 Quad Core-> 5,1, 3.46Ghz (W3690) 6-Core. I also bumped the ram up from 6GB/1066->12GB/1333Ghz.

Thank you and the forum.  

what about your benchmark? i think 15.800 or maybe 16.000

Sorry for the delay. Just came by after all this time and seen your question.

------------------------------
Geekbench 3 Score

2741
Single-Core Score

15574
Multi-Core Score

----------------------

Sure if I didn't have some background extensions stealing CPU, it would've been higher.

Also, I've thrown in a 512 SSD on a PCIE Card and upgraded the Ram to 32GB. Kicks butt and I'm still not done with it. 

[ComplicatedT33J]

Hi, I'm just new to this site and the info/instructions seem really straightforward. I followed the most recent steps including having the MapProEFIUpdate1.5 on the desktop. The Firmware tool runs just fine and it tells me to power down, then hold the power button on restart. I follow those steps, but the machine still boots normally and there's no change to my Boot ROM version.

Not sure what to try next. Here's a list of things that might be impacting it? I wasn't sure, but was hoping to get some advice.
- I'm running the El Capitan Beta 6
- I boot from an SSD drive

Thanks for the help!

[Rominator]

Do you have an EFI GPU?

[ComplicatedT33J]

Do you have an EFI GPU?

I was running an Apple supplied 5770...

Turns out that reverting back to OS 10.10.4 did the trick. Once I was back on the production OS the Flashing process worked without a hiccup.

Not sure why the OS 10.11 Beta was causing problems, but it did.

[bmiller79]

Nothing I do can get this firmware update to work.  I've downloaded the patch and followed the instructions to a "T" and I still get the 5570 error.  I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong!?

[Rominator]

Nothing I do can get this firmware update to work.  I've downloaded the patch and followed the instructions to a "T" and I still get the 5570 error.  I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong!?

And we'll never know either if you only type 1 sentence.

Read and try again.

Having disk image on desktop worked for me recently.

And another guy wrote a script a few posts back.

[ComplicatedT33J]

Do you have an EFI GPU?

I was running an Apple supplied 5770...

Turns out that reverting back to OS 10.10.4 did the trick. Once I was back on the production OS the Flashing process worked without a hiccup.

Not sure why the OS 10.11 Beta was causing problems, but it did.

Completed the upgrades - Installed a 3690 chip ($200) and Reset my PRAM to get the machine to recognize my 1333Mhz RAM (16GB)

My GeekBench score doubled from 8193 to 16094. Just amazing!

Thanks to the OP and all of those who've stepped in with suggestions in the thread

[DunePilot]

I can't get this to work. I have tried the mounted efi and original upgrade as well as the patched update that was linked a few post above. I can get it to go through and appear as if everything is working fine, and the system reboots and appears to be going fine. My light flashes, I get the long beep. But upon logging in, my system still says 4.1 under system report. I have made about 5 attempts at getting it to update the firmware but it always says 4.1 when I log in. My Yosemite is 10.10.5 if that makes any difference. I don't run into any errors, I just see 4.1 when I log in. I have tried PRAM and the other resets as well (the unplugged from the wall 15 seconds one, whatever that is called) I have two X5690s in the mail, if someone can help me figure this out it would be much appreciated.

Edit:
I have tried with both 10.10.4 and 10.10.5 with both the patched file and the original file with mounted update file.
I have also tried on both the original HD and on a SSD. I have a snow leopard disk laying around, should I install that and try it with that?

Any tips or ideas I will try to attempt.