| More Feedback on Mac Pro 1,1 to 2,1 EFI Updater and KP's in Lion w/Quad-Core CPU upgrades (2 more replies to Monday's post on the unofficial Mac Pro 1,1 to 2,1 EFI updater)
"I was one of the ones affected by the Lion kernel panics after upgrading from a dual X5150 to a dual X5355 Xeon pair in a 2006 Mac Pro 1,1.
Oddly enough, I didn't have problems in SL 10.6.8 like some of the others, but in Lion (10.7, and 10.7.1) I had constant KPs.
In Snow Leopard, I installed a tool that identifies the correct processor (mentioned previously here), but in Lion, the tool no longer worked. After weeks of frustration, I read about the Mac Pro 1,1 -> 2,1 updater and how there was no difference other than quad-core CPU support. I think it was mentioned on the netkas forums that there would be Microcode fixes in the 2,1 firmware that were simply unnecessary before.
(Mac Pro 2,1 models were the first w/Quad-Core CPUs from factory. Microcode in motherboard bios updates has been used by Intel to address errata in some cpus. The errata may only cause problems under certain conditions, but I understand the desire to have the later rom which may have other (unknown) fixes/improvements.)
Took a stab at it and my KP problems have gone away (for now). 4 days uptime and counting...
-Khai"
"I'm writing just to confirm the same situation your reader had. Also upgraded MacPro1,1 with two L5320 processors and after 10.6.8 (and also 10.7 and 10.7.1) update experienced kernel panics every few hours. After an (EFI rom) 1,1 to 2,1 upgrade I had none :)
-Marko"
Although other Quad-Core upgraders had mentioned KPs in Lion (and sometimes 10.6.8), A reader (Robert B.) with your same CPUs (L5320's, OC'd via bus speed boost) said he had no issues with in his (Refurb) 2006 Mac Pro running 10.6.8 and 10.7.1.
But although he had no problems in Lion or 10.6.8, he did say he'd been unable to update to 2,1 EFI however. I'm curious if his refurb Mac Pro has later/different rom than what is typical for that model. (Wrote to ask the bootrom version of his refurb. May not be the case but there were some refurbs/later builds of 2009 Mac Pros that had a later bootrom that apple never released otherwise.)
Update (re: Mac Pro 1,1 Bootrom versions):
Robert, the reader with a refubished Mac Pro 1,1 (2006) upgraded w/dual L5320's (who said he had no problems OS X Lion (or 10.6.8)) sent his bootrom versions for the record/comparison to versions from owners that did report Lion problems with their Quad-core Upgraded Mac Pro 1,1's:
(Refurb 2006 Mac Pro 1,1 - OK w/QuadCore CPUs in Lion)
- Boot ROM Version: MP11.005D.B00 (emphasis mine.)
I didn't know how this compares (same or different) to the typical Mac Pro 1,1 rom version so I wrote a reader (Khai, above) if he remembered what his bootrom version was before the 2,1 update. He quickly replied with the info:
Luckily, I saved a System Profiler report on a previous matter...
Prior to the (EFI 2,1) upgrade (original 1,1 rom):
Boot ROM Version: MP11.005C.B08 (emphasis mine.)
(After the EFI 2,1 update)
It is currently: MP21.007F.B06
-Khai"
So Rob's refurb bootrom looks to be a later version (D.xxx vs C.xxx) although I can't say that is why he did not see the KP's in Lion (or why the the 2,1 updater didn't work for him). Lots of readers have upgraded 2006 Mac Pros to various Quad-Core CPUs and to date very few reports of this problem so far. And KPs could be caused by some incompatible addon, corrupted file(s), overheating, flaky ram/cpu, etc. But so far those that did report KPs said the EFI update seemed to have fixed it - and the first to write said all the usual tips (reset nvram/smc/pram, updater reinstall from DL, etc) didn't.
BTW - someone asked about SMC versions - that is not changed by the EFI/bootrom update and both Rob and Khai reported SMC v1.7f10.
FYI/Update: The Sept. 26th news has a report on no problems with a Dual X5355 (Quad-core) upgraded 2006 Mac Pro in Lion with the original Mac Pro 1,1 EFI/Rom. (And late Sept. 27, a reader said his KP's in Lion with a X5355 upgraded 2006 Mac Pro (1,1 rom) were solved with a pram zap alone.)
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