Firmware for Macbook Late 2009 (MB6,1) ?

Question

Firmware for Macbook Late 2009 (MB6,1) ?

G'day,

I've inherited a Macbook Late 2009 which I'm trying to install Mac OS X Sierra (10,12) onto.

Unfortunately i've found it doesn't have the correct firmware (It should have MB61.00C8.B00 or B02) as it identifies as a MBP Late 2009. It's definitely a white unibody and otherwise works almost perfectly - other than the usual trackpad click issue and the ACPI bug with a SSD only linking at 1.5Gbit.

When you go to Apple's support/download pages, the only machine that's missing from the downloadable firmware list is the Macbook above (it jumps from MB5,2 to MB7,1) and there's no reason or notes to indicate why it's not there either.

So I'm wondering - does anyone have a copy of the above firmware ? Alternately, is it possible (not easily I understand) to use the MB7,1 firmware on a MB6,1 with no ill effects - i.e. bricking..

regards,

-jason

MacBook, macOS Sierra (10.12.2)

Posted on Jan 15, 2017 1:02 AM

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Answer 1

tjk

Level 9

51,126 points

Jan 15, 2017 2:19 AM in response to jason andrade

Hi,

"If you don't see a firmware version listed in this article, it means that either a firmware update is only available as an automatic update, or no firmware update is needed."

About EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Mac computers - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Jan 15, 2017 4:29 AM in response to tjk

Lets exclude the latter case - when browsing the web there's a number of people who are looking for the B00 or B02 update so from an end user POV it's definitely 'needed'.

Where the firmware might be included in an update, any pointers as to which update it might be located in ? I'm assuming if you could identify the update you could then find the individual file which in turn would let you flash the firmware to what it should be.

I've looked at opening an apple support call on this but as the machine itself is so old, it would be a paid call - for the sole reason that apple for this _one_ particular model and vintage of laptop (and no other?) don't make the firmware available. That seems odd.

The link you've provided, while normally useful, is not in this instance as there's no firmware for the Macbook 6,1

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Answer 3

Jan 15, 2017 11:17 AM in response to SeaPapp

It has a clean install of El Kapitan on it.

It should be able to have Sierra but of course that won't work as Sierra needs a "Macbook Late 2009" to install and doesn't work on a "Macbook Pro 2009"..

There should be firmware for the 6,1 as there's definitely a thread of people who appear to have had access to it in some way - around 5 years ago ?

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Answer 4

Jan 15, 2017 1:00 PM in response to SeaPapp

Yes,

I've found a couple of threads in forums that give people explicit instructions. It's not so much 'hacked' as it appears the hardware for the Macbook Late 2009 and the Macbook Pro 2009 are almost identical and the firmware works.

I've figured from the thread that Apple may have fixed a SATA bug with the Pro firmware but didn't update the Macbook firmware to fix the same bug. As such the community found a workaround. In this instance, several years later it's caused an issue where Apple have excluded one model/vintage from an OS upgrade. It's interesting as Sierra will actually boot on the machine (but not install) - however the keyboard/mouse input doesn't work at all.

Works perfectly with El Kapitan.

In any case I'm back to trying to figure out how to get the 'correct' firmware back onto the Macbook as I'd prefer to have Sierra installed..

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