MP51.0084.B00 Rom Dump Request

[handheldgames]

Well, I did the stupid thing...

I'm the adventurous type, so I proceeded balls to the wall.

No errors, rebooted, all seems fine...

I have no nvme to test with as of yet, but it didn't hurt the machine. So it's a win for now...
[doublepost=1533397080][/doublepost]

Cool, didn't know we could do that...
[doublepost=1533397199][/doublepost]

Well, the new version was just field tested, and it worked fine as far as I can tell. Flash was successful and rebooted fine.

It did scare me a little, as the 1st reboot sat at a black screen about 3 seconds longer than usual, but it may just be that I was worried and watched it more intently.

Congrats on the upgrade and the great observation...

The competition of the ROMTool Flash upgrade is a bit uneventful.
Perhaps it would benefit from a round or two of particle based fireworks, a global total flash counter 'xxx flashes served" or a 3d globe showing activity would be over the top. Some call it unnecessary, I call it production value. 🙂

 

[dosdude1]

Congrats on the upgrade and the great observation...

The competition of the ROMTool Flash upgrade is a bit uneventful.
Perhaps it would benefit from a round or two of particle based fireworks, a global total flash counter 'xxx flashes served" or a 3d globe showing activity would be over the top. Some call it unnecessary, I call it production value. 🙂

Guess I'd better work on my OpenGL programming skills...

 

[crjackson2134]

Guess I'd better work on my OpenGL programming skills...

And metal... 🙂

 

[dosdude1]

And metal... 🙂

Nope. I'll never use Swift, nor will I use Metal.

 

[handheldgames]

Guess I'd better work on my OpenGL programming skills...

Open gl isn’t necessary and it’s been deprecated. There are FREE particle Libraries out there that can be set up with a Mac OS app from the App Store.

Particles can be displayed within any nsview. It’s a trivial implementation in Xcode. Most of the fun time gets spent building the effects in the Mac app. They have plenty of prefab samples that can be easily modified. 🙂

Sorry for my game development passion bleeding over to my Mac Pro passion. It’s a way of life I’ve been on vacation from for far tooooo long.

 

[crjackson2134]

For anyone who's interested, I now know for certain that injecting the NVMe driver introduces several more seconds into the boot process on my machine at the moment.

I don't even have the hardware installed yet, but cold-booting performance is decreased. I presume it's because the machine is scanning for NVMe devices, and when none are found, it times out. Just one possible explanation.

It's spending more time on the black screen before the chime or the white splash. I hear my 2 optical drives articulating, as my noisy Hitachi Deskstar from 2000 spins up, then it just sits there for a few seconds doing nothing for 5-8 seconds.

Normally, during that 5-8 second period, it would have chimed, splashed, and be over 1/2 way to the desktop.

If I get the expected performance from my 970 Pro, the trade off is worth it, but I just wanted to put this out there and see if anyone else has seen similar results.

Further, it may also (possibly, but doubtful to me) recover that lost time when the NVMe hardware is installed and found right away. I'm hoping that will avert further buss scanning and time wasting. We'll see...

 

[handheldgames]

For anyone who's interested, I now know for certain that injecting the NVMe driver introduces several more seconds into the boot process on my machine at the moment.

I don't even have the hardware installed yet, but cold-booting performance is decreased. I presume it's because the machine is scanning for NVMe devices, and when none are found, it times out. Just one possible explanation.

It's spending more time on the black screen before the chime or the white splash. I hear my 2 optical drives articulating, as my noisy Hitachi Deskstar from 2000 spins up, then it just sits there for a few seconds doing nothing for 5-8 seconds.

Normally, during that 5-8 second period, it would have chimed, splashed, and be over 1/2 way to the desktop.

If I get the expected performance from my 970 Pro, the trade off is worth it, but I just wanted to put this out there and see if anyone else has seen similar results.

Further, it may also (possibly, but doubtful to me) recover that lost time when the NVMe hardware is installed and found right away. I'm hoping that will avert further buss scanning and time wasting. We'll see...

Count me in... I'm interested.

Read the last page here for info on boot times with NVME EFI firmware. This may give you a benchmark to work from.

I used a stopwatch for the timings.

 

[crjackson2134]

Count me in... I'm interested.

Read the last page here for info on boot times with NVME EFI firmware. This may give you a benchmark to work from.

I used a stopwatch for the timings.

Using a stopwatch (app)...

Cold for 1 full minute between tests...


Startup Disk, 512GB SSUBX - Slot 3
Button press -> Chime = 17 Sec.
Chime -> Desktop = 70 Sec.
Total Time = 87 Sec.

Startup Disk, 500GB 860EVO - Bay 1
Button press -> Chime = 17 Sec.
Chime -> Desktop = 36 Sec
Total Time = 53 Sec.

Prior to flash, black screen time with no video signal was much shorter, and chime/Apple were nearly simultaneous, with the Apple trailing 1 second behind, when booting 860EVO. Total bootup Time was approximately 30 seconds (didn’t use stop watch at the time, just counted) from button press. I have noticed over the years, that this machine has always booted a little faster than others with a comparable configuration. Those days are gone now I suppose.

When booting the SSUBX black screen hangtime was the same, but a long delay between chime and Apple loading screen, but a 58 Second total time to desktop.

Configuration
48GB
PCIe - HD7970, Solo X2/512GB 840Pro, 512GB SSUBX, Sonnet Pro USB 3.0

Bay1 - 500GB 860EVO
Bay2 - 250GB Hitachi Deskstar
Bay3 - 1TB WD Caviar Black
Bay4 - 1TB ST Barracuda
USB - 32TB File storage

USB was disconnected for boot test.

 

[dosdude1]

Using a stopwatch (app)...

Cold for 1 full minute between tests...


Startup Disk, 512GB SSUBX - Slot 3
Button press -> Chime = 17 Sec.
Chime -> Desktop = 70 Sec.
Total Time = 87 Sec.

Startup Disk, 500GB 860EVO - Bay 1
Button press -> Chime = 17 Sec.
Chime -> Desktop = 36 Sec
Total Time = 53 Sec.

Prior to flash, black screen time with no video signal was much shorter, and chime/Apple were nearly simultaneous, with the Apple trailing 1 second behind, when booting 860EVO. Total bootup Time was approximately 30 seconds (didn’t use stop watch at the time, just counted) from button press. I have noticed over the years, that this machine has always booted a little faster than others with a comparable configuration. Those days are gone now I suppose.

When booting the SSUBX black screen hangtime was the same, but a long delay between chime and Apple loading screen, but a 58 Second total time to desktop.

Configuration
48GB
PCIe - HD7970, Solo X2/512GB 840Pro, 512GB SSUBX, Sonnet Pro USB 3.0

Bay1 - 500GB 860EVO
Bay2 - 250GB Hitachi Deskstar
Bay3 - 1TB WD Caviar Black
Bay4 - 1TB ST Barracuda
USB - 32TB File storage

USB was disconnected for boot test.

To clarify here, did you actually set the Startup Disk (using System Preferences) TO the NVMe volume before your tests? Having a startup disk not set will increase boot time by around 30 seconds, as it has to scan all the system hardware looking for a boot device. Setting a volume as the Startup Disk prevents this.

 

[crjackson2134]

To clarify here, did you actually set the Startup Disk (using System Preferences) TO the NVMe volume before your tests? Having a startup disk not set will increase boot time by around 30 seconds, as it has to scan all the system hardware looking for a boot device. Setting a volume as the Startup Disk prevents this.

No. I haven’t got any NVMe installed in the system until later this week. Only the modified software is installed at the moment with my already existing boot drives as above.

Yes, I selected the correct startup disk in each case, then normal shutdown/power off for 60 seconds.

The results above are from the drives listed/selected as startup disk, from a power off condition.

My observation is that on MY cMP, the added support alone caused reduced bootup performance.

 

[tshelby73]

I have a 2014 MacBook Air that needs NVMe code added to efi for it to recognize it as and internal drive and for sleep to work correctly. From browsing through this forum am I correct this cannot be done through software on my machine due to its newer rom chip and only way is by using a programmer hooked directly to the ROM chip itself.

 

[tsialex]

I have a 2014 MacBook Air that needs NVMe code added to efi for it to recognize it as and internal drive and for sleep to work correctly. From browsing through this forum am I correct this cannot be done through software on my machine due to its newer rom chip and only way is by using a programmer hooked directly to the ROM chip itself.

Mac Pro 5,1 NVMe support and problems are a lot different from MacBooks Air/Pro, go to Upgrading 2013/2014 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe.

 

[h9826790]

View attachment 774286
It's the little 8 pin SMD chip at the left of PCIe AUX B power conector on the picture above. You will need to remove the CPU-tray cage to read it. It's a SST 25VF032B on my Mac Pro.

Just want to double confirm that I have the same chip.

Luckily, I don't have to remove the CPU cage but can still capture the chip just by my iPhone 6+ (not very sharp image, but good enough to read the print)

 

[Lovetodayeveryday]

Hey guys

How do you tell if your upgrade was successful

Thanks!

 

[MIKX]

crjackson2134

When WILL you have an M.2 NVMe blade installed and booting Sierra 10.13.6 ?

 

[crjackson2134]

crjackson2134

When WILL you have an M.2 NVMe blade installed and booting Sierra 10.13.6 ?

1701A is supposed to arrive Friday, so I’m guessing about 10 Min. Later 😉

 

[MIKX]

crjackson2134

Looking forward to your next post

 

[quedini]

Hey Guys,long time reader first time poster. Just wanted to let everyone know that I have successfully
updated my cMP 5,1 to HS 10.13.6 using the guide that someone posted found here https://docs.google.com/document/d/...NU7m-mDBLAWWJipyM/edit#heading=h.l23937sx565e

I am booting on a Samsung 970 Evo nvme. Right now i'm just using the adapter from one of my HxperX Predator SSD. But im expecting a HighPoint SSD7101A-1 this week, to see if I can hit the full speeds. Still not to shabby using a gen 2 pcie controller



I will post back after I get and install the highpoint

 

[Catsolo]

Hey Guys,long time reader first time poster. Just wanted to let everyone know that I have successfully
updated my cMP 5,1 to HS 10.13.6 using the guide that someone posted found here https://docs.google.com/document/d/...NU7m-mDBLAWWJipyM/edit#heading=h.l23937sx565e

I am booting on a Samsung 970 Evo nvme. Right now i'm just using the adapter from one of my HxperX Predator SSD. But im expecting a HighPoint SSD7101A-1 this week, to see if I can hit the full speeds. Still not to shabby using a gen 2 pcie controller

View attachment 777066 View attachment 777067

I will post back after I get and install the highpoint

Hi Quedini & Everyone,

I'm a complete newbie in attempting this having just stumbled on the whole idea of booting from an M.2 drive in the last few weeks. I'm keen to keep my MacPro 5,1 going for as long as possible and have already upgraded the Ram (64GB), Graphics Card RX580 , Processors (from 8 to 12 core 3.46) and upped the USB from 2 to 3.1.

The instructions in doc you linked look straight forward but are there any gotchas! that I need to look out for. Very happy to give this a shot, but I cant afford to brick my machine as I use it for work.

Scared

Catsolo
[doublepost=1535028272][/doublepost]Hi Guys,
I'm attemtpting to download the files in the link prosted by Quedini but I'm getting an elert report that two of the files contain malware DXEInject.zip and ROMDump.zip. Is there another link I can use or someone has that I can use?

Best regards

Catsolo

 

[Squuiid]

Hi Quedini & Everyone,

I'm a complete newbie in attempting this having just stumbled on the whole idea of booting from an M.2 drive in the last few weeks.

Probably a lot easier, and safer, to just get an XP941 or SM951 AHCI or SSUBX and be done with it. No need to modify BootROM and performance is very good on all of them.
Here's one for a good price:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FASTEST-...SD-Macbook-Mac-Pro-Air-13-15-OEM/192627877408

 

[quedini]

As Promised, here is the Speed test after installing the HighPoint SSD7101A-1 controller in my PCIe x16 slot.

As you see there's a decent speed boost, and that's with all the junk i have running. since i wanted a true to life test, I didn't bother closing everything like you are "supposed" to .

Can't wait to get a few more 970s for the other 3 slots, and then raid-0 those 3 to triple up those speeds, and then keep the original as the boot drive.
[doublepost=1535078423][/doublepost]

Hi Quedini & Everyone,

I'm a complete newbie in attempting this having just stumbled on the whole idea of booting from an M.2 drive in the last few weeks. I'm keen to keep my MacPro 5,1 going for as long as possible and have already upgraded the Ram (64GB), Graphics Card RX580 , Processors (from 8 to 12 core 3.46) and upped the USB from 2 to 3.1.

The instructions in doc you linked look straight forward but are there any gotchas! that I need to look out for. Very happy to give this a shot, but I cant afford to brick my machine as I use it for work.

Scared

It can be scary, especially for the first boot after its completed, when you are waiting to see if your drives even work.

Here's what I did that's not listed in those instructions since they came out before the latest High Sierra.


0.Before everything i did a superduper backup of my system.
1. downloaded the high sierra update that included the latest firmware update.
2. Ran the firmware update to get the bootrom updated.
3. Then i followed the instructions as listed.
4. booted up to my regular ssd to make sure my machine wasn't bricked.
5. Formatted and copied my backed up boot drive to the 970 evo.
6. updated my new boot drive to to the latest high sierra.

Most people probably would have updated to 10.13.6 first before the backup, but since my boot drive was a raid-0 set of hyperX Predators, i couldn't update so I was still on 10.12.x .

Hi Guys,
I'm attemtpting to download the files in the link prosted by Quedini but I'm getting an elert report that two of the files contain malware DXEInject.zip and ROMDump.zip. Is there another link I can use or someone has that I can use?

Best regards

Catsolo

I am not sure what about the malware errors, but the links in the files are from dosdude who built those tools and plenty of others for the mac community, so they are definitely safe. Or as safe as can be expected.


Also Squuiid is 100% correct, it is safer and easier to get AHCI ssds, like the Kingston HyperX Predators or SM951s, but where's the fun in that 🙂 This way we can potentially continue to breathe life with the latest and greatest drive storage enhancements in these cMPs as opposed to just having to settle.

 

[expede]

@h9826790

My SMD chip is different from yours. cMP 5.1 2012. [MX 25L320SD]

/Per

 

[tsialex]

It's MX 25L3205D.

Most common reported SPI flash memories by year:

2009 - ST25VF032B
2010 - mixed
2012 - MX 25L3205D / MX25L3206E

 

[crjackson2134]

I've been using the default setting as dosdude1 recommended for my machine, but the next time I rip the guts out, I'm going to have to take a picture of this thing and see EXACTLY what MX chip I have. That said, the RomTool default hasn't failed me, so it'll probably be a waste of time for me.

 

[handheldgames]

As Promised, here is the Speed test after installing the HighPoint SSD7101A-1 controller in my PCIe x16 slot.

As you see there's a decent speed boost, and that's with all the junk i have running. since i wanted a true to life test, I didn't bother closing everything like you are "supposed" to .

Can't wait to get a few more 970s for the other 3 slots, and then raid-0 those 3 to triple up those speeds, and then keep the original as the boot drive.
[doublepost=1535078423][/doublepost]
It can be scary, especially for the first boot after its completed, when you are waiting to see if your drives even work.

Here's what I did that's not listed in those instructions since they came out before the latest High Sierra.


0.Before everything i did a superduper backup of my system.
1. downloaded the high sierra update that included the latest firmware update.
2. Ran the firmware update to get the bootrom updated.
3. Then i followed the instructions as listed.
4. booted up to my regular ssd to make sure my machine wasn't bricked.
5. Formatted and copied my backed up boot drive to the 970 evo.
6. updated my new boot drive to to the latest high sierra.

Most people probably would have updated to 10.13.6 first before the backup, but since my boot drive was a raid-0 set of hyperX Predators, i couldn't update so I was still on 10.12.x .




I am not sure what about the malware errors, but the links in the files are from dosdude who built those tools and plenty of others for the mac community, so they are definitely safe. Or as safe as can be expected.


Also Squuiid is 100% correct, it is safer and easier to get AHCI ssds, like the Kingston HyperX Predators or SM951s, but where's the fun in that 🙂 This way we can potentially continue to breathe life with the latest and greatest drive storage enhancements in these cMPs as opposed to just having to settle.

Congrats. You picked up one of the last SSD7101-a’s from amazon at $275. Only one left.