Mac Pro EFI and SMC Firmware Updates

What's up doc ? Wrong forum ????

wekes said:

Maybe I'm just too old school, but I'm a bit resentful of the fact that it's touted as a priviledge to have the opportunity to pay $2 to watch a missed TV show. I hope I'm wrong, but having joined the HDTV crowd about 6 months ago, I'm struggling to find a way to do what I've always been able to do for free in the past -- record a TV show at the same quality it was piped in to my home in the first place.

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Good luck with that. The world of broadcasting is doing everything they can to keep you from doing it.

Time Warner Cable here in NC has HD DVR that works 'good enough' that has me not caring that I got rid of my TiVo after 5 years of having them. It records all the HD channels in full HD. I can get about 24 hours of programming in HD, or 70 - 80 hours in SD.

ok the first one is all i needed

the smc said it was already up

now if they would only fix the airport issues...


i hate internet sharing with my powerbook

XP/SATA Issue Question

Just to clarify...do I need to reinstall XP now after the EFI update or should the speed be correct now?

I have a feeling a reinstall is necessary and that is fine, I'm just at work now and was wondering what to expect when I get home tonight.

Thanks!

--HG

I've read the various comments about problems with the updates with RAID 0. Can anyone confirm if the update goes ok on RAID 1? I would think it would since from a boot point of view they might as well be individual disks.

Any comments before I try this?

tyr2 said:

I've read the various comments about problems with the updates with RAID 0. Can anyone confirm if the update goes ok on RAID 1? I would think it would since from a boot point of view they might as well be individual disks.

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I would say it still wouldn't work, as the OS X RAID implementation is software RAID. Hence, OS X has to boot to get the RAID array working.

In the case of RAID 1 if it did work it might break the mirror (no big deal).

Give it a shot. Worse case it won't work; shouldn't affect your data at all.

Updating the drivers should do it

Half Glass said:

Just to clarify...do I need to reinstall XP now after the EFI update or should the speed be correct now?

I have a feeling a reinstall is necessary ...

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You should not have to reinstall XP - it should be enough to update the XP driver package with Apple's latest drivers from the dual boot package.

The only way that you'd need to reinstall would be if Apple made some huge changes in the way the devices configure - so huge that XP is unable to boot using the existing drivers.

(That's unlikely, but since dual boot is beta software, Apple may have realized that they'd made a huge mistake, and only an incompatible fix was reasonable.)

Nevermind, my question was answered.

So far I just did the first upgrade, went into windows and I'm at UDMA 5 now...was at UDMA 4 with the slipstreamed driver XP install. I still get 59MB/s which is good with the 160 stock HD.

Abulia said:

I would say it still wouldn't work, as the OS X RAID implementation is software RAID. Hence, OS X has to boot to get the RAID array working.

In the case of RAID 1 if it did work it might break the mirror (no big deal).

Give it a shot. Worse case it won't work; shouldn't affect your data at all.

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Cheers for your comments Abulia, I thought I'd give it a go anyway but you're right it didn't work. I just get the flashing power light, a loud beep then the Mac startup chime and a normal boot up. Strange. Oh well will wait for a fix from Apple I guess.

bigandy said:

You can't boot XP from CD on a Mac. You can't you can't you can't. The Mac boots using EFI, which XP doesn't support.

You need to use Boot Camp to install it, as legacy BIOS emulation has to be loaded specifically for XP.

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No...the EFI room supports BIOS emulation. Bootcamp is nothing more than a GUI to access the Disk Utility to resize the HD partition, Set the proper Boot volume, and burn a Driver CD.

You can totally install XP without even installing Bootcamp, however you do need the drivers.

If you boot and hold the option key down then insert the XP cd, you WILL see it there, and you CAN boot from it. However you will need to have the HD's partitioned and set up ahead of time, and the BootCamp utility makes that easier.

The BIOS emulation is a feature built into EFI...Apple had it disabled on the MacBook Pro, and the first firmware upgrade enabled it, and since then Apple has had it enabled on all current models.

-Compufix

About 10 people have replied and corrected bigandy on his faux pas. I think we can let it go now, okay folks?

nihilisticmonk said:

That's really interesting! You just held "c" at boot to load up the XP CD?

I'm guessing you still needed to use a "slipstreamed" XP SP2 CD with the SATA drivers installed so it doesn't run in dog slow PIO mode

Where the hell did you find chipset drivers, graphics card drivers, sound card drivers etc?

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You still need a driver CD from Apple for all that...you can get that from someone that installed Bootcamp....

Supposedly the new EFI update for Mac Pro (just released) solves the PIO problem without needs to slipstream the XP CD. I won't know until tomorrow, however I already did the slipstream install....so who knows what will happen.

-Compufix

tyr2 said:

Cheers for your comments Abulia, I thought I'd give it a go anyway but you're right it didn't work. I just get the flashing power light, a loud beep then the Mac startup chime and a normal boot up. Strange. Oh well will wait for a fix from Apple I guess.

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Or if you have a spare drive sitting around that you can boot from (like an external Firewire) for the sole purpose of installing the update.

Origin said:

I hoped that this update should have throw away the X1900 XT Bug with my 23" ACD while booting XP ... but no, still here ... grrr :/

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I use the 30" ACD with mine and it works well...there IS a driver for the ACD you can install...called winacd located at sourceforge. Google winacd.

Not sure if that solves your problem, but I love the control it gives me on the ACD (like brightness controls, powerbutton behavior).

The only problem I have is that I get a weird color artifact on my screen, if I dumb down the resolution to 800x600 (can I say...OH MY GOD THATS BIG) it clears up, then up it to the proper resolution it is all good.

Updated the EFI and the beast is moving faster (I did'nt hear any loud fans), SMC was already updated so I didnt need to download it.
But I dont see the other Hard drives; can u point me to a link that has the information?

patseguin said:

Now that SATA is working in XP, has anyone tried Vista RC1?

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i got vista going.. problem is the vid card isn't working properly
althought i have yet to try the new firmware update

Origin said:

I'm a bit confused, because, I can't update the EFI ... I strictly followed the instructions. Poweron while holding the power button... then some secondes after speed flashs of the led (I mean stroboscopic) and then just a long BIIIIIP and normal boot after that ...

Tried many times, any hints ?
Thx a lot

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Did you check your current firmware revision against the update? Maybe your firmware is already up to date.

Trekkie said:

after installing the EFI update and running software update it said no updates.

So I downloaded it directly and tried to update it. It told me I didn't need it.

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Trekkie, since your machine and mine came about the same time, ours should be about the same. I checked in Profiler, and didn't need to update the SMC. Have you seen anything useful in the EFI update?

Everytime I used to reset my Mac Pro it used to make a lovely little intro chime. After getting the update it doesn't seem to be making it anymore. Anyone else having this same problem?

SMC Update & noise

Can anyone confirm that the update does not make the Mac Pro noisier?

In the past Apple has repeatedly upgraded fan speeds by these updates a couple of months AFTER all reviews had been written. I had once bought my Powerbook G4 (besides other aspects) because it was very quite. A few SMC updates later the fan was running continuously and as such probably lowering average temperatur and service return rate for Apple.

rpp3po said:

Can anyone confirm that the update does not make the Mac Pro noisier?

In the past Apple has repeatedly upgraded fan speeds by these updates a couple of months AFTER all reviews had been written. I had once bought my Powerbook G4 (besides other aspects) because it was very quite. A few SMC updates later the fan was running continuously and as such probably lowering average temperatur and service return rate for Apple.

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I did the firmware, the SMC was not needed, and no, the machine is not any louder for me.

I did the update and still can't get XP to load. Blue screen just after loading all the drivers for install. I used this same CD to install on my MBP (before I sold it to get the Mac Pro [yes, I uninstalled it before selling it, so no piracy here]), so I know it's the Mac Pro that hates Windows as much as me.

My Macpro is shipping tomorrow, I wonder if they will do the update since it's still technically in their hands.

Speaking of which, the build times are much faster! I ordered my Macpro with X1900, 2 gigs of ram, Bluetooth/Airport and 160 drive last Saturday. They placed a hold on my order until Tuesday while verifying my educational status, then sent me a notice the next day (Wednesday) telling me that my order is being processed. My Macpro is scheduled to ship tomorrow and my new 23" ACD is on the truck for delivery today. If everything goes well, I might have a new system for the weekend. That's pretty damn fast for a BTO!

Okay so, where's the changelog on the firmware?