I have a 2009 and a 2010 Mac Pro. The Power Supply is broken on the 2010 Mac Pro, so I was wondering could I slide the 2010 Mac Pro Module containing the CPU and Memory into the 2009 Mac Pro? Is it necessary to do anything before I do this, like do I need to flash the firmware on the 2009 Mac Pro first or anything else?
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Mac Pro changing CPU module from 2010 model and sliding it into a 2009 model
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The CPU tray from 2010 can not be installed in 2009.
While I know a 2010 computer “will accept” a 2009 board the fans will run at max speed.
I suspect the 2009 tower will not boot at all (depending on what CPU is in the tray) or will run with fans at full speed.
I believe 2010-2012 can be mixed.
While I know a 2010 computer “will accept” a 2009 board the fans will run at max speed.
I suspect the 2009 tower will not boot at all (depending on what CPU is in the tray) or will run with fans at full speed.
I believe 2010-2012 can be mixed.
About the SMC in Mac Pros 4,1 & 5,1:
- 2009 logic boards with 2009 CPU trays. 2009 CPU trays with 2009 logic boards.
- 2010 and 2012 can be mixed, they're the same.
- SMC in 2009 logic boards and CPU trays is 1.39f5, 2010/2012 is 1.39f11.
- If you mismatch, the fans go on full RPM, full time - but it works. You just can't be near a Mac Pro running full RPM.
- The full RPM can't be managed with software, it's a hardware protection.
- SMC in 2009 Mac Pro can't be updated, since 2010/2012 SMC can't be dumped and Apple never provided SMC updates to 4,1 or 5,1 Mac Pros.
- If Apple ever release a SMC update to mid-2012 Mac Pros, 2009 ones could be updated. If ever…
- If you updated your 2009 to 5,1 firmware, it will boot with any 5,1 supported processor. But that did not change the SMC version, so full RPM if a 2010/2012 tray is used.
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Thanks for the fast reply. After your reply on the SMC, I was able to check on the Internet and found there are people who've tried something similar to what I had in mind, and it did exactly as you say, FAST FANS. Sorry it was a little confusing for me, I am a novice at digging into Mac for anything other than ram, hard disk, SSD's, and optical drives scares me too death, the detailed explanation you gave cleared it all up. Rather than spend money on the old 2010 model to fix it's GPU and Power Supply issues, I'm taking the Ram and hard disk out and junking it.
You can find a power supply very cheap and it's very easy to change. Don't junk a Mac Pro 2010 just for a defective power supply.
If you have a better CPU on the 2010 tray, you can move it to the 2009 one, if you upgraded the firmware to 5,1. If you didn't, I can help with this.
[doublepost=1535175002][/doublepost]You can move the 2009 power supply to the 2010 and fully test it, too.
1) a cMP PSU isn't that expansive, and quite easy to acquire on the internet
2) Buy a whole used cMP and extract the PSU, then sell remaining part, you may actually able to make some money from it
3) 99% of PSU failure is due to capacitor failure, and can be fixed by replacing the faulty capacitor. Electronic repair shops should know how to do that. But if you go this route, please try replace all capacitors, otherwise, another old one may fail shortly after you replace the faulty one.
2) Buy a whole used cMP and extract the PSU, then sell remaining part, you may actually able to make some money from it
3) 99% of PSU failure is due to capacitor failure, and can be fixed by replacing the faulty capacitor. Electronic repair shops should know how to do that. But if you go this route, please try replace all capacitors, otherwise, another old one may fail shortly after you replace the faulty one.
There has to be a way to dump the firmware and then use that dump to update them, do you know if anyone has attempted to do so?
I know people who has been trying this on and off since 2010, they even bought the Hitachi S8 developer board. You can flash easily, but never dump the full code from the micro controller.
I know that Apple has a programmer that connects on the LPC/SPI port (Little FRANK) and reprogram everything on the board. This tool is used in the big repair centers where they refurbish things and was used to downgrade SMC to 1.39f5 for boards to be installed in 2009 Mac Pros.
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Just compose a warning due to repair PSUs by diy: take care of the big Condensators on the primary side: they can hold charge hours after disconnecting. Discharge them with a classic light bulb. You see a light flickering and you get an idea how much load they can carry 