# Boot rom won't update



## AquaAngel (Feb 16, 2007)

Alright. I am hoping that you guys might be able to help me out as i have a bit of an issue.

I went back to High sierra from Mojave as mojave started to have some issues on my newly upgraded 2010 MacPro 5.1.

here are the specs:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro5,1
Processor Name: 6-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3.46 GHz
Number of Processors: 2
Total Number of Cores: 12
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per Processor): 12 MB
Memory: 64 GB
Boot ROM Version: 138.0.0.0.0
SMC Version (system): 1.39f5
SMC Version (processor tray): 1.39f5
Serial Number (system): XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

*******************

As you can see, prior to go back to HS, i was hoping to get my boot rom to update to 140.0.0.0, but found out that it won't update to 140 or 142.

2 weeks after the upgrade, one of my SSD disk crapped out and bought a PCI card that can take a Crucial 1tb M2 NVME ssd drive.

I want to be able to boot to that drive instead of my Current one.

I also have a RX 580 Graphics card in running 3 monitors and a big screen.

My question to you is. Is there a way to upgrade the boot rom manually without installing Mojave as 10.14.x was very unstable on my macpro.

My issues with it was that one of my screen will start flickering, random screen going to sleep even though that feature was turned off and the performance wasn't there.

High Sierra is by far "in my own opinion" the most stable OS on this machine. screens doesn't flicker, runs super smooth even watching 4k video.

Here are the specs for my NVME card:

Apple SSD Controller:

CT1000P1SSD8:

Capacity:	1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)
TRIM Support:	Yes
Model:	CT1000P1SSD8
Revision:	P3CR010
Serial Number:	XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Link Width:	x4
Link Speed:	5.0 GT/s
Detachable Drive:	No
BSD Name:	disk1
Partition Map Type:	GPT (GUID Partition Table)
Removable Media:	No
Volumes:
EFI:
Capacity:	209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
File System:	MS-DOS FAT32
BSD Name:	disk1s1
Content:	EFI
Volume UUID:	0E239BC6-F960-3107-89CF-1C97F78BB46B
M2-SSD:
Capacity:	999.73 GB (999,726,694,400 bytes)
Available:	998.84 GB (998,841,233,408 bytes)
Writable:	Yes
File System:	Journaled HFS+
BSD Name:	disk1s2
Mount Point:	/Volumes/M2-SSD
Content:	Apple_HFS
Volume UUID:	43047E0D-F1F1-3186-87B9-4B57A6BA5D70


Thank you

Angel


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## gwillikers (Jun 19, 2003)

I'm amazed you even got to Mojave with that old Boot Rom version. (there is no NVME boot support with that Boot Rom)
Please carefully read the entire first post of the following thread, it contains everything you need...

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-bootrom-upgrade-instructions-thread.2142418/


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## AquaAngel (Feb 16, 2007)

amazingly enough? i went to the latest OS in Mojave 10.14.6 i think it is, then i started having issues with graphics and performance. so i went back to High Sierra. High Sierra is by far stable and not having any issues at all


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## AquaAngel (Feb 16, 2007)

gwillikers said:


> I'm amazed you even got to Mojave with that old Boot Rom version. (there is no NVME boot support with that Boot Rom)
> Please carefully read the entire first post of the following thread, it contains everything you need...
> 
> https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-bootrom-upgrade-instructions-thread.2142418/


Same site i got my info from and was hoping that you guys might know more about booting with a 140.0.x boot rom

also forgot to mention that my CPUs are X5690. i thought that would of been in there, but it wasn't. 

So i guess i will use my M2 ssd card as a production drive for video editing and gaming and all. it is actually pretty fast considering an old cheese grater.  :lmao::love2:


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## gwillikers (Jun 19, 2003)

AquaAngel said:


> Same site i got my info from and was hoping that you guys might know more about booting with a 140.0.x boot rom
> 
> also forgot to mention that my CPUs are X5690. i thought that would of been in there, but it wasn't.


Yes it was, it clearly stated that 56xx Westermere series Xeons had no issues and that only 55xx-series had some audio issues. You have an X5690... so you're good.



AquaAngel said:


> So i guess i will use my M2 ssd card as a production drive for video editing and gaming and all. it is actually pretty fast considering an old cheese grater.  :lmao::love2:


Agreed. But NVME support is there for you if you want to do the two firmware upgrades required. Both upgrades are clearly laid out in that post.


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## AquaAngel (Feb 16, 2007)

so my best solution would be to find another hard drive and upgrade to Mojave from there and once the upgrade is done, i could downgrade to my original high sierra os.

Cause like i said, i don't want to use 10.14.x on my mac pro


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## gwillikers (Jun 19, 2003)

AquaAngel said:


> so my best solution would be to find another hard drive and upgrade to Mojave from there and once the upgrade is done, i could downgrade to my original high sierra os.
> 
> Cause like i said, i don't want to use 10.14.x on my mac pro


After you apply the firmware update with both, 10.13.6 High Sierra and 10.14.6 Mojave, you simple cancel the installer to not go ahead with the OS install. The firmware update occurs before the OS installs, so you can just cancel out of the OS install after the firmware update, and carry on using your current OS.


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## AquaAngel (Feb 16, 2007)

Thanks for your help. all is good. Finally at boot rom 144.0.0.0.0

did the firmware update today. here are the results.:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name:	Mac Pro
Model Identifier:	MacPro5,1
Processor Name:	6-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed:	3.46 GHz
Number of Processors:	2
Total Number of Cores:	12
L2 Cache (per Core):	256 KB
L3 Cache (per Processor):	12 MB
Memory:	64 GB
Boot ROM Version:	144.0.0.0.0
SMC Version (system):	1.39f5
SMC Version (processor tray):	1.39f5
Serial Number (system):	xxxxxxx
Serial Number (processor tray):	xxxxxxxx 
Hardware UUID:	C2C3B2A3-xxxx-5B82-xxxx-F9FB055809AB



I can finally boot from the NVME m2 ssd card.

Thanks again :clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:


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## gwillikers (Jun 19, 2003)

AquaAngel said:


> Thanks for your help. all is good. Finally at boot rom 144.0.0.0.0
> 
> did the firmware update today. here are the results.:
> 
> ...


Good to hear!


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