Saturday, June 27, 2020

Visually Identify Apple Mac Pro 2006 2008 2009-2012

How to Visually Identify Apple Mac Pro 2006 2008 2010-2012

Mac Pro 1,1 and 2,1 (2006-2007)

Mac Pro 3,1 (2008)

Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 (2009 -2012)

 If there is a doubt in identifying a Mac Pro you have or are looking to buy one thinking you will be getting the deal of the century only to find out its a 1,1 stuck with maxing out at El Cap.

Check Out the YouTube Channel and Subscribe if you want more info on any thing Tech related!!


If there is a 400 FW port its a 1,1 2,1 or 3,1

2 X 800 FW ports Square 4,1 5,1




 Closer look at the differences between the 1,1 or 2,1 and the 3,1 if you notice the Memory boards on the 1,1 / 2,1 are both facing the same way and memory is loaded on the top. On the 3,1 the top board is facing down and the bottom board is facing up. 


 Also there is this cool sticker that should be on all Mac Pro's that you can look up the info on at https://everymac.com/


1,1 / 2,1 will Max out at El Captain and you must use a modified version to get it installed. "Piker-Alpha bootloader" or an image from @Greg Hrutkay over at his YouTube channel Hrutkay Mods.

3,1 can go up to Catalina with DosDude1's installer, But remember the Xeon processors lack some of the instructions sets of the 4,1 and 5,1 like SSE4.2 and Native APFS support which makes them a bit more difficult to get things working properly. DosDude1 has work around for all of this baked in to his Post installer but just remember these are a work around. As well there is a flash for APFS on the 3,1 want to know more?
http://www.cesgeekbook.com/2020/06/opencore-mac-pro-2008-31-mojave.html

4,1 / 5,1 Also can run up to Catalina and Mac OS (BS) Big Sir beta with OpenCore spoofing the ID or Catalina as of writing this with DosDude1's installer I am sure he will get something put together for Mac OS "BS".

Saturday, June 20, 2020

OpenCore install on Mac Pro 5,1 Easy

Installing OpenCore on a Mac Pro 4,1 flashed to ,1 or a 2010 -2012 Mac Pro 5,1

 



The Easy Install of OpenCore on a Mac Pro 4,1 flashed to 5,1 or a 2010 -2012 Mac Pro 5,1

**** Don’t Do This *** do you research and make sure it is something you want to do.  Just a warning!! I may not be able to help if this is your primary machine and something goes south! 

Make sure you have a back up when ever you are doing something that is not supported by Apple.  This is My CYA!!

Reasons why and How To.

First thing is to disable SPI (System Integrity Protection) !!! Super Important !!
Command for that is as follows

    1.    Turn off your Mac (Apple > Shut Down).
    2.    Hold down Command-R and press the Power button. ...
    3.    Wait for OS X to boot into the OS X Utilities window.
    4.    Choose Utilities > Terminal.
    5.    Enter csrutil disable.
    6.    Enter reboot.



Second you can download OpenCore from:
Man tat Lo

https://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/opencore-0-5-9-zip.920640  . FYI this is the New Version 0.5.9 with open canopy.

Don’t for get to check out https://www.facebook.com/groups/926701850730668/ user name @Martin Lo

As well as h9826790   On Macrumors Forums
 

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Logitech Got It Right

Logitech Long Battery Life and Unifying Receiver!

 Marathon Mouse Performance Plus / M705

 

 It is widely accepted that Apple’s MacBook Pro’s touch pad are one of the best out there,
and the touch screen on the surface pro is great.  
I don’t disagree with any of that but sometimes for better productivity and ease of use sometimes it is just easier to have a mouse available to use.
Yes wireless mice have been around for a while. But what happens if you loose the USB receiver or it gets broken.  In the past you would have just had to buy a new one.  
Well Logitech took care of that!
The Logitech Productivity Plus mouse with the Logitech Unifying Receiver features up to 36 month battery life
Ergonomically it feels relatively comfortable in my hand maybe just a bit on the small size.  For years I used a large ball mouse that had some mass to it.  
Mind you I have a medium size frame so your mileage may very if you have larger or smaller hands
Now one thing it seems that Logitech is super proud of is the scroll wheel Quote “hyper-fast wheels can go up to 1000 lines a second in speed mode, without high resolution enabled Hyper-Fast Scrolling “
And in the video I said Mac OS 10.11 but Logitech says 10.4 and later so there is that! But not sure I believe that fully cause the web site has a bit of confusing info


Tuesday, June 2, 2020

OpenCore Mac Pro 2008 3,1 Mojave

Mac Pro 3,1 2008 OpenCore full video acceleration with  Radeon GPU's in Mojave


The Mac Pro 3,1 from 2008 is perfectly capable of running Mojave DosDude1 but there are somethings you may want to have that OpenCore will provide.


Sometimes OpenCore default config will show odd things with the Processors this is purely cosmetic



Like a Boot Picker with out having a Mac flashed EFI card that shows native Apple Boot screens like when you press the ALT key on boot with a native Mac card or a stupidly expensive flashed card from Macvidcards?




You want the say RX 580 or an RX 570 in the system for video editing and  want to be able to utilize the full potential of the card's Hardware acceleration?

So lets put OpenCore on the system.

Well that is not so simple if you installed DosDude1's Mojave on an APFS drive.  With @Martin Lo's or  Man tat Lo  How to install "OpenCore for Mac Pro" package. 

You can use clover open the EFI drop all the files and bless the drive till the cows come home and it will never work.  Due to the helper partition and scripts that DosDude installs as helper for the system to use APFS.  

DON'T do this ... I am just telling you now.  Don't

So there is another way.  Hrutkay Mods has a video WATCH IT!!

Collin "DosDude" has a ROM Flash that will allow native support for APFS drives on the Mac Pro 3,1 2008 ***** WATCH THE VIDEO ALL OF IT FIRST!! 

How to Flash Your Unsupported Intel Chipset Mac for Native APFS Booting!


Okay, still DON'T DO THIS.. IF YOU PROCEED I CAN NOT HELP YOU YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN.

Once you have installed the APFS patch / rom flash you can boot to APFS drive YAY!!! But you can not just deleat the helper files for APFS that DosDude installed.  

You have to reboot from your DosDude Mojave patcher USB again.  

Re-install Mojave after that is done re-run the patcher tool from the USB patch for your system 3,1 making sure that the APFS helper is unchecked. 

Boot in to Mojave and open the EFI drive with clover, drop the Boot and OC folder in to the EFI drive.

Bless the system re-boot and voila you have a boot picker hadrware acceleration for you RX 580 and you are ready to rock.  

 

Need more detailed info.  Drop a comment and I will do a step by step.

 

 


Saturday, March 14, 2020

Asus Dual RX 580 8GB in Mac Pro 3,1 (2008) in 2020

Installation of an RX 580 in a Mac Pro 3,1 from 2008 is it worth it??
Did it work??

Well yes sort of!!
The Mac Pro 3,1 was from the $100 Tech haul https://youtu.be/_h1UGYwTTlg

Dual 2.8 Ghz Quad Core Xeon processors had the HD 5770 installed, ended up putting a 250GB SSD in bay 1 and 2 3tb HDD's in bays 3 and 4 in a software raid one for storage.

Wanted the RX 580 Metal support and the graphics compute power for rendering and exporting videos. Well for better performance may have to wait for my unicorn the Mac Pro 5,1 Dual processor. I will find it!!!

MAYBE!!


macOS Mojave patcher from @DosDude1 http://dosdude1.com/mojave/

Well the install did not go exactly as planned.
The Mac Pro 3,1 dose not have the SSE4.2 instruction set so the drivers for the RX 580 will not install properly. High Sierra appeared to be working and showed the card properly but there was no video acceleration. @DosDude1 to the rescue again. Installing Mojave with his patcher tool.. Link in the description Got the RX 580 working. Although not the best seems to be running in slow-mo in in OS X and just ok in Windows 10.

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Success RX 580 8GB Card Working in Mac Pro 3,1

Was having sse4.1 issues .. Thanks to @Dosdude1 the patch is in Mojave. Was not ready to go up to Mojave but was the easiest way to do it.
So in looking for upgrades for the Mac Pro 3,1 do your due diligence on finding compatible upgrades.  I did not.. there for ID10T errors..

Subscribe to our youtube channel so you don't miss the how it was done SUBSCRIBE HERE

Saturday, March 7, 2020

RX 580 8GB Failure in Mac Pro 3,1


Tried putting the RX 580 in ... Showed up in system as RX 580 but would not load any graphics acceleration what so ever even with an external power source.. so back to the drawing board..

Back to the HD 5770 for now

$100 Tech Haul an Apple affair







I am an "ID10T" in technical terms!!

Keep me off of the Market Place, Offer Up, Craigslist and the like.

Well needless to say here is the run down.. Later videos will go through the full installs of OS X cleaning, repairing, and testing the systems to make sure they will be good for the next home they get.

**** Who knows I may gift one or two of them here on the channel so make sure you are subscribed and hit that bell to know when new videos come out!! ****

None came with power supplies and only 1 or 2 hard drives and batteries / Memory will have to be sourced later.

MacBook Pro 13" 2.26 GHz Model: A1278 ID: MacBook Pro 5,5
MacBook Pro 15" 2.53 GHz Model: A1286 ID: MacBook Pro 5,1
MacBook Pro 15" 2.93 GHz Model: A1286 ID: MacBook Pro 5,1

A Dead Power Mac G5 Dual 2Ghz maybe @HrutkayMods Wants it!
Thank you so much to him for creating his channel, all the videos have been instrumental in helping me with some of the things I have been able to do with the Mac Pro's.
Check him out here: https://www.youtube.com/user/HrutkayMods

Also a big thank you to @dosdude1 for the help with getting unsupported OS X versions on older equipment. With out his diligent work none of this would be possible. We would all be stuck with El Cap or the dreaded Lion. UGH!!
https://www.youtube.com/user/dosdude1

And Finally the one I was really after!!
The Mac Pro 3,1 Dual Quad Core Xeon 2.8 GHz E5462 Processors Model: A1186

Subscribe so you don't miss the follow up videos testing these and getting them ready for new homes.

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Building the Beast Mac Pro 1,1 Dual Quad Core 3GHz




It has been over a week since the last Post on the $20 Mac Pro 1,1 find.
 


In the condition it was purchased it was perfectly usable in 2020 even though it was stuck with El Cap.

But can it be better?

Upgrading from the dual Woodcrest Xeon 5150 dual core processors running at 2.66 GHz with 4mb L2 Cache..

To a matching set of Clovertown Xeon X5365 Quad Core processors running at 3 GHz with 8 mb L2 cache.

On a side note the ATI X1900 that came with the system is not compatible with El Cap so an Nvidia GTX 750 has been working but does not play well with others so after the benchmarks and other tests it will be permanently replaced with an ATI Apple Radeon HD 5770 1 GB. Not the best card out there but it does have a DVI port and 2 Mini Display ports.

Now this is just a quick run through on the replacement of the processors if you want more detailed run down let me know in the comments and I will try to put to-gather something more detailed.

You will need a 3 mm hex wrench with an extension, a Phillips head screwdriver, and Rubbing Alcohol 95% or better, or Wipes. Thermal paste and new processors. The only gotcha I can see with this is the thermal sensors on the heat sinks you need to be careful with the connectors on the logic board. Other than that it is pretty simple to do with the elegant built from apple.


Was it worth it? Lets find out.

Saturday, February 22, 2020

2006 Apple Mac Pro 1,1 in 2020 REALLY, WHY??? Pt.1




Friday, February 21, 2020

Mac Pro 1,1 to 2,1 Error 5530 firmware MP11.005D.B00


Mac Pro 2006-2007 Firmware Tool Mac Pro 1,1 to 2,1.

Check out our YouTube Channel for future Videos of these adventures

And the reason to do the Firmware Upgrade is here:

Finally after pulling my hair out (What little I have left!) I have successfully upgraded the Mac Pro 1,1 to 2,1.  I had been trying unsuccessfully to upgrade the firmware for a few days continually getting the dreaded 5530 error just after the ram disk was created.  With netkas Mac Pro 2006-2007 Firmware Tool

Little back story on this. WHY Would You Do this?? 

I have since installed OS X El Captain 10.11.6 on the Mac Pro 1,1 it currently resides on a 250GB SSD living where the supper drive use to live.  And drive bay 3 and 4 now are populated with 3TB drives in a Raid 1 (Mirror) set.  It is running great other than a few minor issues.  

First the GPU has been replace with a GTX 750 1GB which will not run in 16x pcie configuration.  
Second the system seems to have a problem whit the second memory board.  Will work through all that later.   But now the Firmware.

My firmware was MP11.005D.B00 apperantly a notorious version that resisted all attempts of flashing to MP21.007F.B06.
And even worse my system matched a user going by ant0 over at netkas forum saying he patched the file to work with exactly my system MP11.005D.B00.0709141354
So downloaded it tried it on Lion to no avail with original GPU and every thing back to base still Error 5530 after the ram disk was mounted.
Out of desperation tried an older version 10.6.8 Snow Leopard that I keep around on an old hard drive to work on older system.
Still Error 5530 AAAAGGGHHH!!

Maybe it is not that important to upgrade to 2,1 right... WRONG I want to put a Matching Pair of Intel Xeon Processors X5365's in the system and already have them ordered and on their way!!

And 2,1 is the only way they will show up in the system and work properly.

****WARNING DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE IF YOUR SYSTME BECOMES A BRICK OR JUST A VERY LARGE PAPER WEIGHT!!!***


Finally this worked..  step by step.

    1.    Get the Upgrade tool from netkas.org
    2.    Download the Apple firmware update
    3.    Mount the .dmg files and run both.  Leave them both running in the background during every step with errors and all
    4.    Use the upgrade tool to create the RAM Disk which in my case directly failed after creating   the RAM Disk with the error code 5530 (Leave it open in the background)

    5.    Right click the upgrade tool and click show package of the upgrade tool




 and copy the following scripts from /Contents/Resources to the RAM Disk:

    1.    ExtractAndPatchEFIFiles.sh
    2.    UpgradeEFI2006-2007.sh

    3.    DowngradeEFI2007-2006.sh

    4.    MacProEFIUpdater2006.patch

    5.    MacProEFIUpdater2007.patch



    6.    Open ExtractAndPatchEFIFiles.sh with textedit

    7.    Remove the following lines:
    1.    Code: 
hdiutil attach -nobrowse MacProEFI2006and2007.dmg



    2.    Code: 
rm -R Expanded



    3.    Code: 
rm -R System



    4.    Code: 
rm Payload



    8.    Save the script


    9.    Open a terminal Application/Utilities terminal and run it with Code: 
./ExtractAndPatchEFIFiles.sh




eazy way of doing this is to type the period . then click on the file and drag it in to the terminal it will give the right path for it and it will run.

    10.    Run the actual upgrade script with sudo rights via Code: 
sudo ./UpgradeEFI2006-2007.sh


 same with this one type sudo .  then drag the file to the terminal
    11.    If everything runs trough without error proceed with the firmware upgrade:

    1.    Shut down the Mac
    2.    Press and hold the power button until it blinks
    3.    Wait for the upgrade to finish
    4.    Check the firmware version
    5.    Reboot in case it does not detect your CPUs correctly until it does.
That did the trick for me.

BOOM!!!! 

Now I also did the SMC update as well but that will be in a different Post.

Thanks..

$20 Mac Pro saved from the Grave Yard BUT WHY???

Why would any one want to get a Mac Pro Xeon 1,1 in 2020???

I did it!!

Check the Upgrade here


Check out our YouTube Channel for future Videos of these adventures

Also Check This out!! Upgrading the  Mac Pro 1,1 to a 2,1 for Dual Quad Xeon support

 A bit over a week ago I was stumbling through OfferUp looking for storage related hardware.  Just on a whim I came across a listing that I almost bypassed out of shear disbelief. I have been wanting to pick up a Mac Pro 4,1 or 5,1 for some time now but the prices on these computers even though they are 10 years or more old is outrageous local listings of over $500 to $1200 USD for systems of this age.

The title just stated Computer desktop apple.  No other context just saying need it gone with a price tag of $10 bucks USD.

Here are some of the pictures of it.


Now from the pictures I knew that this was at least an Intel model not a Power Mac G5 model (Had one of those a few years ago) but I was unsure if I were to get lucky and come up with a 4,1 or 5,1 (hind sight those models don't have fire-wire 400 connections).
Messaged the seller, they got back to me in an hour or so.  I want to buy it.  Sight unseen not even asking if it works.  He said he had another buyer that was interested but would meet me right now for $20.  "Heck ya be there in 15 min"

Twenty buck later back in my office opened it up to find it had all of its internals 2 GB's of ram in the memory boards. All of the Hard Drive trays intact with a 250GB hard drive and a Radeon x1900 GPU.  Good enough to get at least to get a semblance of an OS on it.

Plugged it in crossed my fingers as I pressed the power button.  And was greeted with the Apple classic Chime.  YAY!!! Boots directly in to Lion recovery.  Not bad but when I try to install it wants to verify that it eligible for Lion and down load it.  After plugging in a network cable and waiting for over an hour for something to happen.  I said screw it and went to the internet low and be hold an hour later I had a fully working Mac Pro 1,1 running 10.7 Lion.

2 Xeon Dual-Core processors running at a blistering speed of 2.66 GHz and now a total of 8 GB of DDR 2 ECC  memory scavenged from an old Dell Server.

Running Lion in 2020 is a futile attempt to call something usable.  Safari is sourly out of date, Chrome will not run, and even though I have old versions of FireFox available to install web browsing and any type of media will just not be pleasurable to run.  Even at the $20 price tag still would be mostly a hot running paper weight.  Possibly a file server and that is about it.

Bit more research and yes I can get El Capitan running on it wich is still useable in 2020 and I can upgrade the ram, processors, Hard drives (too SSD) and have at least a cheap NAS and usable system. 

Stay tuned as I will try and cover all of the upgrades as they get done.

Thursday, February 20, 2020

Tonor BM-700 Microphone Kit? WHY?

Unboxing the Tonor BM-700 kit and hopefully that is not $48 bucks wasted.  Let me know what you think and don’t forget to hit the subscribe button.  Like, Share, Comment… WhatEver!!

#Condencer #Tonor #BM-700 #NW-700 #Microphone #Studio #Office


Free project music: This is Not Jazz by True Cuckoo of youtube’s project audio library

How is it going,  in an effort to possibly revive this channel and to make some better quality videos as well as other content creation I order this inexpensive Microphone kit from Tonor.

The kit cost was just over $48 use on amazon after ordering a Newer NW-700 kit off eBay for $20 buck less but that never shipped and the seller refunded the purchase.

This is a Condenser mic so phantom power is required for it to work properly
What is phantom power?  Phantom Power is a term given to the process of delivering DC (Direct Current) to microphones requiring electric power to drive active circuitry. For studio microphones it is 48 volts


Why is it called phantom power?
Condenser microphones made in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s required a special power supply to operate. This power supply would often be located quite near the microphone and was usually large, heavy, and cumbersome. In the 1960s, work began on a new powering concept that would eliminate the need for a separate power supply.

Schoeps and Neumann (German microphone manufacturers) were leaders in this development. Eventually, a new condenser mic powering standard emerged. The DC power to operate the condenser mic was provided by the mixing board and delivered via the mic cable; eliminating the need for an external power supply. And what does one call a power supply that is working, but invisible? It is a phantom power supply! - Source Shure Inc Applications Engineering

So I wanted to make sure what I was ordering was a full kit including the mic, suspension scissor arm, shock mount, phantom power, and pop filters..  This kit also says it includes a USB sound card as well not sure we will need that. 
Well lets get in to it.

Cardioid polar pattern reduces pickup of sounds from the sides, improving isolation of desired sound source, which is ideal for podcasting, streaming, youtube video and also can be used for recordings at home or professional studio.
Specifications
Polar Pattern:Uni-directional (Cardioid)
Sensitivity:-38dB±2dB
Frequency Response:20Hz-20KHz           
Sample Rate:44.1KHz-48KHz         
Bit Rate:16 bit     
Let me know what you think.

Lone Star Custom Lapel Pins

Lone Star Custom Lapel Pins
Veteran Managed Lone Star Pins are creators of custom lapel pins. We offer a free digital how to PDF on our site, Free Artwork, and quote. Contact us today for your proof and quote.

Share

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More