Firmware Update and hardware test problems

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Level 1

8 points

Firmware Update and hardware test problems

I've just upgraded my RAM on my early 2011 Macbook Pro, and I went to test it was working ok by using hardware test only to find I'm not able to access it at all. I do't have boot discs and I've tried using restart-D which does nothing, so I tried Restart alt-D to use the online hardware test. It sort of works but I get connected to a grey screen with a spinning earth and a message telling me its trying to connect that just stays there forever. Some googling tells me that this may be because my firmware is not up to date. I've checked and found that this is indeed true (I'm running Boot Rom Version MBP81.0047.B27 SMC Version 1.68f99). So I've gone to update the firmware only to find I'm not able to do that either. When I try to click on any firmware updates I get the message "This software is not supported on your system." I'm feeling a bit stuck and like I'm going round in circles. What should I try next? I'm really hoping I can avoid having to do a clean install as I'm not sure my skills are up to it!

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on May 3, 2015 3:41 PM

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Answer 1

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

May 3, 2015 3:49 PM in response to Flipjango

An early 2011 MBP came with Snow Leopard installed. Use the original install disk with the Apple Hardware Test instructions written on it to run the AHT>

How much RAM are you trying to instal and who is the vendor?

Are these the specifications for the new RAM? 204-pin PC-10600 (1333 MHz) DDR3 SO-DIMM

Ciao.

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Answer 2

Flipjango Author

Level 1

8 points

May 4, 2015 12:44 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

I'm 99% sure (as it was 4 years ago!) that I got no discs with this mac. I've turned the house over just in case but I"m pretty certain there aren't any. It came with Lion installed, not Snow Leopard as I clearly remember upgrading to Leopard.

I've installed 8G (two 4G modules) from Crucial. They are definitely the correct ones.

Thanks

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Answer 3

spudnuty

Level 5

7,116 points

May 4, 2015 1:34 AM in response to Flipjango

"I went to test it was working ok by using hardware test only to find I'm not able to access it at all."

So nothing else has been done to the machine but add more RAM? It was working fine before the RAM upgrade?

"Boot Rom Version MBP81.0047.B27 SMC Version 1.68f99"

So if you have an early 2011 MBP 13" the current ROM boot and SMC version is:

MBP81.0047.B27 (EFI 2.7)

1.68f99 (SMC 1.6)

That's from here:

EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Macs - Apple Support

So you're up to date.

What I'm on here is an early 2011 MBP 13" and that's the exact ROM Boot and SMC that I have here.

I'm running Mavericks with 8 GB RAM w/ a 120 GB SSD all from OWC. Been avoiding Yosemite due to problems I see around here.

Here's the original specs on this machine.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-i5-2.3- 13-early-2011-unibody-thunderbolt-specs.…

and the original OS and build numbers:

Pre-Installed MacOS:

X 10.6.6 (10J3210)

Leopard would have been 10.7.X. This is Snow Leopard and the original installer would have been 10.6.6. A retail installer is 10.6.0 so that won't work. You'd have to move to Lion 10.7.X which is available online.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/D6106Z/A/os-x-lion

As is Mountain Lion.

It's been said around here that you can get Apple to send you duplicate original install disks for your system.

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Answer 4

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

May 4, 2015 2:26 AM in response to Flipjango

Download and run the appropriate test for your MBP from this link:

https://github.com/upekkha/AppleHardwareTest

Ciao.

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Answer 5

Flipjango Author

Level 1

8 points

May 4, 2015 12:02 PM in response to spudnuty

Thanks, yes, nothing else done other than new RAM. It was working fine-ish, though the Yosemite upgrade has made things very slow and I'm getting the spinning beachball of death quite a lot. It was taking forever to connect to wifi and hanging a lot, and the fans had started to come on regularly. Since the upgrade I'm not noticing a great deal of difference in terms of connecting to wifi and the fans are still coming on, so I definitely want to test the RAM to make sure its working ok. Its possible I may need to upgrade to a new SSD though - I've cleaned up the HD as much as possible and now have about 70GB space left, but that's still not a lot so moving to a new SSD might help.

I bought the MBP (yes, 13") reconditioned in the later half of 2011 and it definitely came installed with Lion and no disks, which may be confusing things?

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Answer 6

Flipjango Author

Level 1

8 points

May 4, 2015 1:00 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

Thanks for trying to help. I've followed your link and the link for my model (MacBook Pro 8.1) seems to contain an empty folder, unless I'm missing something?!

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Answer 7

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

May 4, 2015 1:38 PM in response to Flipjango

Flipjango wrote:

Thanks for trying to help. I've followed your link and the link for my model (MacBook Pro 8.1) seems to contain an empty folder, unless I'm missing something?!

You are the first person to report that to be a problem, to me. I don't have an 8.1 MBP so I cannot test.

Try starting the MBP holding the D key and/or OPTION + D keys. Perhaps miracles will happen.

Ciao.

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