A screen appeared on my 2008 Mac Pro advising that I set up a firmware password.....which I did. Now when I attempt to enter recovery mode I am presented with the padlock screen and a frozen mouse pointer....No way to enter the password which I creat

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Level 1

12 points

A screen appeared on my 2008 Mac Pro advising that I set up a firmware password.....which I did. Now when I attempt to enter recovery mode I am presented with the padlock screen and a frozen mouse pointer....No way to enter the password which I creat

Created firmware password on my 2008 Mac Pro when offered on my screen....Now, when using command R to enter restore mode, am met with Firmware password lock and a frozen mouse pointer. Requires force shutdown to escape. Now I see that 2013 Mac Pro is the earliest Mac Pro recommended for Firmware Password.....

Now....What to do?????

OBS Mac Pro (Early 2008), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Aug 20, 2016 11:39 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 20, 2016 11:45 AM in response to jbd2u2

can you access the Utilities menu within recovery mode?

If so click Firmware Password Utility from the menu > then click the Turn off Firmware Password button > Enter the password you used > click Turn off Firmward Password and restart your computer.

Or I've heard that if you remove the ram and swap it with different ram, then do a PRAM reset, this will remove the firmware password. Although this does not work on recent hardware, don't know if 2008 is classed as recent.

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Answer 2

jbd2u2 Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 20, 2016 12:10 PM in response to think.different

Nope....I can't enter recovery mode at all. Tried to use disk utility live mode with first aid process....no cure there....Re installed OS X 10.11.6...again no cure.......Do you think a carbon-copy or time machine fall-back might help???

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Answer 3

lllaass

Level 10

210,519 points

Aug 20, 2016 12:13 PM in response to jbd2u2

As think.different said try this method. It should work on your old Macv

http://osxdaily.com/2009/10/19/bypass-mac-firmware-password/

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Answer 4

jbd2u2 Author

Level 1

12 points

Aug 20, 2016 12:30 PM in response to lllaass

Thanks for your suggestion! I don't really trust my Mac mechanical skills enough to attempt removing the ram myself but I do have an Apple certified technician who has worked on my machine a couple of times..I'll call him tomorrow..

..a month ago I just maxed out my ram to 32gigs using his help.....Machine has been wonderfully fast since then.......Too bad obsolescence seems to be based on the ability to upgrade as a user.....

Thanks so much for your attention to my situation

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Answer 5