Problem with EFI boot rom after trying to install catalina on imac A1224 EMC2133

[killerdude77]

Hi everybody,

I got a problem after trying to get my imac of early 2009 running catalina with dosdude1 his methode.
This machine is working on his methode to run Mojave, so i wanted to run catalina.
After reading his post of catalina install there was some important info about APFS boot rom support.

It gives you the ability to download the latest boot rom if your machine doesn't support APFS, well because myn's was not supporting i installed that update. The filename is OfficialAPFSFWUpdate.zip after selecting a boot rom it made a backup of the original bootrom file.
But because the update was taking soo long i start to get nerveus. Soo when it finished i made a copy of that backup file to another USB stick.
The file name what came out was iMac9,1_backup.bin

As my feelings gave me after the boot rom backup copy to another USB i wanted to start the catalina install with a complete prepared USB stick, another USB stick where the backup of the boot rom was on and after a reboot the machine hanged.

3 long beeps, 3 short and again 3 long.

The machine doesn't want to boot from any disk, also not from USB, i try to mess with the Firmware Restoration CD's but no luck yet. The files used on the Firmware CD are .fd files. I tried to rename the backup efi file to the .fd file but also no luck with that.
I hear the cd spins up and checks the files i put on it. But doesn't read the files i put on it.

I tried everything from my EFI backup file to rename it to the boot rom file name what it was of the original boot rom something like IM91.008D.B08 (i guess because i got an exactly the same modell imac early 2009 only 24inch and he has that boot rom)


Now my questions are:
Is there any way to make a sort of Firmware Restoration CD from my imac EFI backup?

Or can anyone help me otherwise to get this imac back running with a way to restore original firmware?

I would help a lot and will make my cousin happy because he will get this mac from me if i get it to work.

 

[Project Alice]

Hi everybody,

I got a problem after trying to get my imac of early 2009 running catalina with dosdude1 his methode.
This machine is working on his methode to run Mojave, so i wanted to run catalina.
After reading his post of catalina install there was some important info about APFS boot rom support.

It gives you the ability to download the latest boot rom if your machine doesn't support APFS, well because myn's was not supporting i installed that update. The filename is OfficialAPFSFWUpdate.zip after selecting a boot rom it made a backup of the original bootrom file.
But because the update was taking soo long i start to get nerveus. Soo when it finished i made a copy of that backup file to another USB stick.
The file name what came out was iMac9,1_backup.bin

As my feelings gave me after the boot rom backup copy to another USB i wanted to start the catalina install with a complete prepared USB stick, another USB stick where the backup of the boot rom was on and after a reboot the machine hanged.

3 long beeps, 3 short and again 3 long.

The machine doesn't want to boot from any disk, also not from USB, i try to mess with the Firmware Restoration CD's but no luck yet. The files used on the Firmware CD are .fd files. I tried to rename the backup efi file to the .fd file but also no luck with that.
I hear the cd spins up and checks the files i put on it. But doesn't read the files i put on it.

I tried everything from my EFI backup file to rename it to the boot rom file name what it was of the original boot rom something like IM91.008D.B08 (i guess because i got an exactly the same modell imac early 2009 only 24inch and he has that boot rom)


Now my questions are:
Is there any way to make a sort of Firmware Restoration CD from my imac EFI backup?

Or can anyone help me otherwise to get this imac back running with a way to restore original firmware?

I would help a lot and will make my cousin happy because he will get this mac from me if i get it to work.

Okay, so if that’s a 2009 iMac it has a Nvidia chipset, not and Intel one thus cannot be patched to natively boot APFS. There is a patch already in dosdude’s catalina patcher that will allow it to boot it anyways with an EFI script. There’s no need for you to be flashing the firmware on this thing. That firmware patch specifically has documentation that it only works on certain Macs with Intel chipsets.

I’m pretty sure it’s bricked. I don’t know if there’s a way to restore the firmware on it or not. There might be, but I’ve never had to attempt a firmware recovery on an Intel Mac before so I don’t know. Hopefully someone else will be able to help with that...

 

[mdgm]

I think with some other Macs it's recommended to use a USB CH341A programmer. Not sure if it's the same one for the 2009 Macs. You need to identify where the EFI chip is. It would be mentioned in the Apple Service Manual for the iMac if you have a copy of that.