new Boot Rom incompatible with Windows

Question

new Boot Rom incompatible with Windows

I’m not a native English speaker, so that my words may be a bit confusing, sorry for that.

I encountered some problems when I’m using Windows 10 on my MacBook Pro 2016 (MBP13,3). I believe that these problems are caused by the Boot Rom (which is called BIOS/UEFI firmware in general PCs).

My conclusions first:

The Boot Rom sometimes make Windows fail to connect to USB devices (at least all USB storage devices are affected). The problem was first introduced in MacOS Mojave 10.14.6, which upgraded the boot rom to version 259.0.0.0.0 for my Mac. And it became even worse after installing the Mojave 2020-001 Security Update, which upgraded boot rom to version 264.0.0.0.0.

Procedures to reproduce this problem:

In Boot Rom 259.0.0.0.0:

First, prepare a USB Storage Device. It can be either a USB Flash Disk or a USB connected SSD/HDD, the USB protocol (USB2.0/3.0) does not matter. And then, place a huge ISO file into the USB Storage Device, the ISO should be at least 3GB (I recommend to use some System Installation ISOs). Then boot the Mac into Windows 10, plug in the USB Storage Device and use the Windows Explorer to open the ISO file. In general, the Windows Explorer should mount the ISO file to a Virtual CD-ROM, however, on my Mac the Windows will get stuck. In the Event Viewer system logs (run eventvwr in Windows), you can see warning like “An error was detected on device {the USB Storage Device} during a paging operation”. However, if you put the ISO file into the Mac internal NVME SSD and do the same thing, it would be mounted successfully without any errors.

In Boot Rom 264.0.0.0.0:

The ISO-file-in-USB-method used in 259.0.0.0 still trigger the problem. However, there are more problems.

I found that SanDisk Cruzer Blade would cause Windows to crash in this version of Boot Rom. You can reproduce this very easily: Plug in a SanDisk Cruzer Blade in Windows 10 and try to view the files in the flash disk. If the problem did not occur, you can simply eject the flash disk and plug in again. You can see the details in eventvwr as well.

What’s more, if I boot Windows with USB Storage Devices plugged in, BSOD (Blue Screen) might occur with error code CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT.

How did I found this problem:

I meet this bug for the first time when I’m trying to start up into Windows 10. After the Windows logo disappeared and before the blue “please wait” UI, Windows suddenly got stuck (the mouse can’t move) and then a BSOD (Blue Screen) happened with error code CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT. I retried several times, but the BSOD happens every time.

Then, I reboot my MBP and started up the MacOS. I created a Virtual Machine with VMWare Fusion and started up Windows in it. When I was using the Windows inside the VM, a kernel panic happened in MacOS suddenly. After a reboot, everything went well so far, it did not happen a second time in MacOS. The system ask me if I wanted to submit the error report, I’ve submitted it, but I’m not sure whether you can find it.

Actions I had take try to solve the problem:

I tried to downgrade the Boot Rom from 264.0.0.0.0 to 259.0.0.0.0. I extracted the boot rom MBP133.fd from Mojave Installer, and used “sudo /usr/libexec/efiupdater -p /path/to/EFIPayloads --force-update”. However every time I start up MacOS, the newer boot rom gets back automatically.

Though this problem does not affect MacOS very often, I hope that you can fix it as soon as possible because it brings me very terrible user experience. At least, please provide users with a solution to downgrade the boot rom.

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.14

Posted on Mar 16, 2020 12:44 AM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Mar 19, 2020 7:01 PM in response to JemmyLoveJenny

Your MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) - Technical Specifications has no USB2/USB3 ports, only USBc/TB3. I assume you are using a USBC-to-USB2/3 adapter or a USB Hub to connect your regular USB2/USB3 devices. Can you provide details of the adapter(s)/hub(s) used?

The BootROM version looks a bit abnormal. A 2018 13-in rMBP has

Can you post a screen shot similar to this? Please remove the serial number of your Mac from the screen shot.

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Answer 2

Mar 19, 2020 7:44 PM in response to Loner T

Yes, that's right. I'm using USBV-to-USB2/3 adapters.

I have tried three different adapters, and all of them have this problem.

I bought two of the adapter from Apple Store, their Model numbers are A1621(USB-A+HDMI+USB-C) and A1632(USB-A)

The third one is made by ORICO, it's an adapter with 3 USB-A ports and 1 RJ45 port.

The Boot Rom version differs from different Macs, I don't think it is abnormal.

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Mar 20, 2020 9:31 AM in response to JemmyLoveJenny

JemmyLoveJenny wrote:

Though this problem does not affect MacOS very often, I hope that you can fix it as soon as possible because it brings me very terrible user experience.

If macOS is 99% reliable, but Window is 50% reliable, the most likely cause is the USBCVHCI driver.

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Answer 4

Mar 20, 2020 11:52 PM in response to Loner T

The only time the error occurred in MacOS is that I'm using Windows in a Virtual Machine.

I'm not sure whether the error happened in Windows(Guest OS) can affect the MacOS(Host OS).

I think that the USB devices in the Virtual Machine is not simulated, instead, it is directly connected to the Guest OS. But if this is true, why the MacOS kernel panic happened?

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Answer 5

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Mar 21, 2020 6:22 AM in response to JemmyLoveJenny

Normally, USB connections from host are bridged to the guest OS. If the bridging drivers has issues, it can cause problems with the host driver connecting the devices to the bridge. Did you preserve the kernel panic information?

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Answer 6

Mar 21, 2020 6:39 AM in response to Loner T

Yes, I did preserve the kernel panic logs.

I found the error log which is generated after having MacOS kernel panic, and more other kernel logs.

If error occurred in Windows (not in VM), after I restart the MBP, an error log is generated in Mac OS as well.

How can I give the log to you? Paste it here directly or upload it to somewhere?

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Answer 7

Mar 21, 2020 7:51 AM in response to Loner T

When I boot Windows natively with a USB Storage Device plugged in, BSOD (Blue Screen) might happen during the start up process.

In the Windows Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc/eventvwr.exe) I can only find an error says "(volmgr 161)Dump file creation failed due to error during dump creation."

I don't think this is the actual error, instead, it is an error occurred while dumping the error. You can search "volmgr 161" for more details.

If Windows is already started up, the BSOD would not happen, but I can't access the USB Storage Device.

In the Event Viewer, I can find two kinds of errors:

"An error was detected on device {the USB Storage Device} during a paging operation"

and "The IO operation at logical block {address} for Disk was retried"

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Answer 8

Mar 21, 2020 8:53 PM in response to Loner T

No, I don't. All my USB Flash Disks are USB-A.

I think that these adapters don't have problems, as they worked properly before boot rom upgrade.

I have mentioned the procedures to reproduce this error in the very first post, if you have USB-C Flash drives, maybe you can try to reproduce this error.

I have to emphasis that not all USB Flash Disks would cause BSOD or would fail to access file in Windows, but AFAIK, all ISO Files in USB Storage Devices can not be mount in Windows.

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Answer 9

Mar 24, 2020 9:40 PM in response to Loner T

In your model, the Boot Rom is managed by the T2 security chip. Maybe there are too many differences between your model and mine. I'm not surprised if you can't reproduce this problem on your model.

p.s. In the eventvwr, you should expand and choose "Windows Logs"-"System" in the left column.

And can you please have a look at the disk Event ID 51 Warning? In your last screenshot, I can see a warning in the table on the top, I can only see"EventID=51,Source=disk,Log=System,LastHour=0". It seems that this warning had happened in your Mac, but you didn't realize it.

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Answer 10

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Mar 25, 2020 5:57 AM in response to JemmyLoveJenny

Despite the Warning, the ISO is mounted, and I can navigate. A Paging operation failure can be corrected by the Windows kernel and completed successfully subsequently. In your case, it stops the Mount operation, which is not good behavior.

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Answer 11

Mar 25, 2020 8:59 PM in response to Loner T

Your warning is not happened when you are mounting the ISO file, by viewing the log, can you remember what are you doing at the time the warning occurred? I just want to know whether your warning is caused by USB Storage Device as well.

Though the warning is corrected by the Windows kernel in your case, I think this is abnormal. Because if I plug the same USB Flash Disk into other normal PCs running Windows 10, there won't be this kind of warning.

I will try to reproduce this in a Windows VM (VMWare Workstation) on my Mac again and see if it can cause Windows kernel panic.

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Answer 12

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Mar 26, 2020 4:35 PM in response to JemmyLoveJenny

I can use the same USB on the macOS side, and it opens fairly quickly, unlike Windows. I do not see any errors logged in the macOS Console.

If you use VMware Fusion, you are bridging the hardware to the VMware VM, which is then passed to the VM. It may or may not show the same issues.

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Answer 13

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Mar 24, 2020 2:47 PM in response to JemmyLoveJenny

Test using a USBc Flash drive (SanDisk Ultra T C) on a 2018 13-in rMBP, running

BIOS Version/Date Apple Inc. 1037.80.53.0.0 (iBridge: 17.16.13050.0.0,0), 2020-01-17

I do not see any issues.

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Answer 14

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Mar 21, 2020 6:44 AM in response to JemmyLoveJenny

Do you want to use PasteBin.com and post a link here? Be aware that kernel panic logs can have some personally-identifiable information.

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Answer 15

Mar 21, 2020 6:58 AM in response to Loner T

OK, I've pasted them there

Kernel Panic VMWare https://pastebin.com/4hZSzN4E

Kernel Panic After Error Occurred In Windows (1 of 8 similar ones) https://pastebin.com/7n8h4gDa

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new Boot Rom incompatible with Windows

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