Boot Camp - Firmware Update not Working Thread

[Dakoman]

If you have installed xp on your intel mac prior to the release of bootcamp, you'll notice that the firmware update required by apple won't work.

From what i've heard, its because of the GUID/MBR (Master Boot Record) that it installs (the way it partitions the hard disk)

<b>Unblessing the xom (setting your startup disk to OS X) won't work!</b>

So far, the only way to remediate this is to do a <u>complete reformat</u>

<b>the firmware restore disk from apple does NOT WORK</b>

To do this, you need to boot into your OS X DVD that came with your mac, and use disk utility to erase the entire hard disk (erasing all the partitions will <u>not</u> work)

I can confirm that after erasing the entire harddisk and reformatting, <b>the firmware update will work</b> on a 17" Intel iMac. When you reboot, you get a the same long beep, and then a nice progress bar that slowly crawls across the screen. After doing this, and the updating to 10.4.6 (bootcamp won't run on 10.4.4) the bootcamp installer will burn a nice Driver CD for you, partition your hard disk (really quick aswell! ~3 mins) and then ask for a XP (Home or Pro) SP2 Disk, or you can postpone installing XP.

I thought i'd put this together for frustrated people, feel free to contribute and i will edit accordingly!

[settolo]

may be someone could try to:
update to 10.4.6
install the firmware restore (http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/firmwarerestorationcdv10.html)
update the firmware

[GMR0780]

I am going to try to restore the firmware to factory now

[Dakoman]

I am going to try to restore the firmware to factory now

i tried that and it didnt work...

[anderkh]

I have also tried the firmware restore on an MBP - no go. Doing a full wipe and reinstall now.

[bhagiratha]

I just came across your post and was going to post this one:

Hi

I just tried updating my intel mac mini with the new firmware update, but running into some difficulity. I followed the instructions where it saids to hold and press the power button until the power indicator light flashes."

That happens, but soon after the flashing lights I hear a Beeeeep sound and the machine reboots itself. Is that surpose to happen?
Do I need to disconnect every device attached to the mini?
I also have the system set to automatically boot in Verbose mode, can that cause the firmware update to go bad?

Also I have a dual boot system running windows xp which I get to via the xom.efi boot manager. can that cause issues also?

SO YOU SAYING THAT I SHOULD NOW HAVE TO REFORMAT MY ENTIRE DRIVE JUST TO GET THE FIRMWARE UPDATE TO WORK?

[Londo T Boxer]

^ So far, I'm afraid so. PRAM Zap, xom.efi remove and unbless, windows XP partiton erase, and LONG BEEP and no LOVE. Repartitioning will make you a man, son.

So restoring 10.4.4 and getting ready to dive into Boot Camp now.

They did call it Boot Camp. When has anything called boot camp been easy? At least there are no push-ups required while the blue-bar is crawling across the screen.

[Dakoman]

I just came across your post and was going to post this one:

Hi

I just tried updating my intel mac mini with the new firmware update, but running into some difficulity. I followed the instructions where it saids to hold and press the power button until the power indicator light flashes."

That happens, but soon after the flashing lights I hear a Beeeeep sound and the machine reboots itself. Is that surpose to happen?
Do I need to disconnect every device attached to the mini?
I also have the system set to automatically boot in Verbose mode, can that cause the firmware update to go bad?

Also I have a dual boot system running windows xp which I get to via the xom.efi boot manager. can that cause issues also?

SO YOU SAYING THAT I SHOULD NOW HAVE TO REFORMAT MY ENTIRE DRIVE JUST TO GET THE FIRMWARE UPDATE TO WORK?

unfortunately, that's exactly what i'm saying

[sab0r]

This really blows...I think it will be easier to download the CD image for a MBPro from a torrent file than to wait for a fix for this :mad:

[sab0r]

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/21240

[neilio]

What I did was do a full backup (via SuperDuper) to my firewire backup drive. I then booted from my backup drive, set it as the default boot disk, and then reformatted my 20" iMac's hard drive. I then ran the firmware updater application off of my backup drive.

Holding down the power button, got tone, and then the firmware applied. Now I'm going to use SuperDuper to move my system back over and run Bootcamp.

I had originally tried just deleting the partitions, but as it was already noted this doesn't work. You need to completely reformat the drive.