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wr11 · Sep 19, 2006, 05:05 PM

Hey - just to let everyone know I completed all the updates and it went very smoothly. I also downloaded and burned a copy of the Intel Firmware restore CD for some piece of mind.

EFI Update:
Apple - Support - Downloads - Mac Pro (mid 2006) EFI Firmware Update 1.0

SMC Update:
Apple - Support - Downloads - Mac Pro SMC Firmware Update

Firmware Restore CD:
Apple - Support - Downloads - Firmware Restoration CD 1.1

PS. When you install the SMC update your fans will be loud for like 2 seconds.... and I mean loud, I almost fell over. We're all so accustomed to the super quiet setting, at full speed these suckers rock.

cpaek72 · Sep 19, 2006, 05:18 PM

My hard drive now says ultra DMA mode 5!!! Everything is running smoothly.

mac128k-1984 · Sep 19, 2006, 05:19 PM

I'll wait for those on the bleeding edge to try them and report back if there's any issues.

Besides any detail to what these firmware updates are addressing.

Cadaver · Sep 19, 2006, 10:48 PM

Applied EFI and SMC updates. All ran without problem.

Still get the Virtualization Locked error with Parallels (latest build).

Also, About this Mac and Apple System Profiler tell me I have 1.95GB of RAM. Weird. Always said 2GB before the update. The ASP gives me an OK status for all 4 512MB DIMMs (all Apple factory memory). Anyone else see this??

Edit: Never mind... the memory thing is a side-effect of the new Parallels build. Kinda irritating, especially since the previous beta build worked just fine without the forced sub-2GB memory reduction.

UnixMac · Sep 19, 2006, 11:09 PM

I got the software update for the EFI but not the SMC, I wonder why?

Anyone know what the SMC update addressed? The EFI is "start up issues"

UnixMac · Sep 19, 2006, 11:10 PM

Well, I just tried the SMC update and got an "Alert, this computer does not need this update" message.. so I guess mine was built after they did this fix..

wr11 · Sep 20, 2006, 01:16 AM

Originally Posted by UnixMac

I got the software update for the EFI but not the SMC, I wonder why?

Anyone know what the SMC update addressed? The EFI is "start up issues"

I believe SMC stands for System Management Controller, but I am far from 100% on that. I think they must have had a few different revisions of that firmware floating around and they're trying to get everyone in sync. Looks like all it does it adjust some fan / temperature settings - I would not be surprised if it was for all the pre X1900 machines to be able to properly monitor that card and adjust how the fans work in that setup.

macgeek2005 · Sep 20, 2006, 01:27 AM

My computer is telling me that I don't need the SMC update, but I just tried Quake 4, and it played the same as with the 7300GT. ?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????

MacKeyser · Sep 20, 2006, 03:08 AM

Originally Posted by Cadaver

Applied EFI and SMC updates. All ran without problem.

Still get the Virtualization Locked error with Parallels (latest build).

Also, About this Mac and Apple System Profiler tell me I have 1.95GB of RAM. Weird. Always said 2GB before the update. The ASP gives me an OK status for all 4 512MB DIMMs (all Apple factory memory). Anyone else see this??

Edit: Never mind... the memory thing is a side-effect of the new Parallels build. Kinda irritating, especially since the previous beta build worked just fine without the forced sub-2GB memory reduction.

Crap, I used to have the answer to this. Parallels maxes out at 3.5GB...well, actually it maxes out at 4000 MB. There is a setting via command line that will set the memory to the upper limit. In your case it would be 2048 instead of 2000. If you divide 2000 by 1.024, you'll find it equals 1.95GB ( or actually 1953.125MB). YES it is a fault of Parallels, but it can be corrected.

Here is the url:

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?...06090810203364

beginning with sudo...except type "maxmem=2048". You'll see your mem come back to 2GB.

- # sudo /usr/sbin/nvram boot-args="maxmem=4000"

mac128k-1984 · Sep 20, 2006, 06:52 AM

I noticed a lot of posts in the apple discussion forum about people having problems with applying the patches when you have raid 0 setup. It doesn't seem all inclusive as some people were successful but there' a lot of posts about those who cannot.

Xyrrus · 11:21 AM

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984

I noticed a lot of posts in the apple discussion forum about people having problems with applying the patches when you have raid 0 setup. It doesn't seem all inclusive as some people were successful but there' a lot of posts about those who cannot.

I was unable to apply it with my raid0 boot (but with no ill effects; it just wouldn't load) which makes sense - although I was curious about it at the time. Thanks for the heads up.

-Xy

Edit: Anyone know if this update affects the spare 2 sata ports on the motherboard? I couldn't get them to work with bootcamp originally and I'm wondering if they'd be visible to the xp installer now.

Cadaver · Sep 20, 2006, 01:59 PM

Originally Posted by Xyrrus

Edit: Anyone know if this update affects the spare 2 sata ports on the motherboard? I couldn't get them to work with bootcamp originally and I'm wondering if they'd be visible to the xp installer now.

Are they active in MacOS?

Xyrrus · Sep 20, 2006, 03:29 PM

Originally Posted by Cadaver

Are they active in MacOS?

I had a 160 drive in the optical bay off one of the motherboard's "extra" sata ports. It showed up on the OS X desktop and the boot camp assistant even saw it, but I never tried putting windows on it. I later filled up the 4 bays and hooked the 5th up. OS X still saw it, but the windows installer would only list the drives in the 4 bays.

My guess is that apple's EFI-BIOS bridge was only written to support the 4 bays. I haven't been able to try the latest firmware because my boot volume is RAID 0.

-Xy

macgeek2005 · Sep 20, 2006, 04:21 PM

Does Windows XP work now? Did apple fix the SATA problem?

justmetoo · Sep 20, 2006, 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by macgeek2005

Does Windows XP work now? Did apple fix the SATA problem?

FYI: in case Apple hasn't, and in case you haven't seen this:
http://macprojournal.com/xp.html

lizardgator · Sep 20, 2006, 08:03 PM

Originally Posted by macgeek2005

Does Windows XP work now? Did apple fix the SATA problem?

Yeah, I'm curious about this too. I know there is a fix by
slipstreaming an XP disc but it would be nice if this firmware update fixes the problem.

cpaek72 · Sep 20, 2006, 10:09 PM

yes, it has fixed the SATA problem.

SteevAK · Sep 20, 2006, 11:08 PM

The EFI update didn't work for me. I clicked shut down in the updater app, and instead of shutting down it just restarted, did nothing, then restarted again, and then gave me the screen saying no boot disk was found. After shutting it down again (forced it off by holding down the power button), it booted back up into OS X without the firmware being upgraded.

I can get it to flash the power light if I hold down the power button for a longer time, but it still doesn't prompt the update. Anybody else experience this?