How can a person tell if their Firmware has been updated recently?

Question

worksafe Author

Level 2

180 points

How can a person tell if their Firmware has been updated recently?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7), MacBook Pro (2007) (2010)

Posted on Oct 19, 2012 11:36 AM

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Answer 1

Courcoul

Level 6

18,558 points

Oct 19, 2012 11:46 AM in response to worksafe

Quickest way would be to run Software Update in System Preferences and check if any patches are pending.

If you want to do it manually, check your current fw levels by doing an Apple Menu / About This Mac / More Info... / System Report and reviewing the Boot ROM and SMC versions as listed there. Compare with this for the latest levels for your specific model: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237

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Answer 2

worksafe Author

Level 2

180 points

Oct 19, 2012 12:01 PM in response to Courcoul

Do the update thing at least once a day and did it yesterday. There was'nt anything there. The reason I asked was because I got some tech that said the my firmware had to be updated which I did'nt believe. Is there anyway of checking anything that might have been backed up on TimeMachine that might I might compare to see if he did a Firmware update?

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Answer 3

Courcoul

Level 6

18,558 points

Oct 19, 2012 1:02 PM in response to worksafe

Firmware doesn't end up in TM. When applied, it resides in the deep dark bowels of the hardware. As in some corner of the HDD or the SuperDrive controller, some mysterious chip in the logic board, etc. Only way to check it is by querying the component, like the System Profiler does in the system report. Only stuff that might end up in TM would be the FW installer, if you didn't delete it after use.

And when a tech spouts the classical "yer firmwer is nah good" line, many times it is a CYA for not doing what they're supposed to complete.

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