Hi, I’ve been experiencing some fan spin-up issues on my Mac Pro 1,1 (late 2006 1st gen. Intel model). After posting at discussions.apple.com, I was encouraged to run Apple Hardware Test to test for any hardware faults. Unfortunately, ever since I set up a firmware password -- to prevent tinkerers/younger brothers/etc. from messing around with my computer -- I’ve had troubles disabling that firmware password temporarily, so as to run the Apple Hardware Test.
As you will know, setting up a firmware password prevents booting the computer from external media (for example, from the OS X system CD/DVD), or flashing the PRAM, amongst other things. I spent a couple hours last night trying to disable my EFI password temporarily, and couldn’t! According to Apple's documentation, the user must reboot their computer while depressing the Option key to pull up the EFI password prompt. When I do that, my Mac Pro appears to start the boot process normally (all the ordinary spin-up sounds of hard drives/fans/etc.), but the monitor never illuminates, and the boot process seems to stall. If I press the power button to re-boot, the machine shuts down immediately, without requiring a "hard" reboot.
Has anyone else witnessed this scenario? I HAVE tried removing the firmware password by navigating to “/Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/Applications/Utilities/” on my OS X Snow Leopard retail DVD, and running Firmware Password Utility. The same thing still happens when I Option-boot, though.
Is it possible that my EFI password prompt DOES come up, but ISN'T being displayed on screen? I have noticed that since I purchased a new graphics card (the ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card, a replacement for an nVidia GeForce GT 8800 for Mac, that "burnt out" a couple months ago from excessive use, I guess), my screen remains blank right up until the end of the boot process. Maybe the updated OS X boot ROM doesn't initialize the new graphics card early enough in the boot process to view the EFI password entry prompt, or some-such thing?
Does anyone know of ANY OTHER WAY besides depressing the Option key during boot to access the EFI password prompt, so as to temporarily disable it? I will call Apple Corp. and ask them if I have to, but I can’t stomach their Apple Care tech. fees for out-of-warranty Apple products.
Thanks for any help you can offer!
-jabroni5 (that guy who insists on coddling his 5-year old Mac Pro instead of upgrading)
As you will know, setting up a firmware password prevents booting the computer from external media (for example, from the OS X system CD/DVD), or flashing the PRAM, amongst other things. I spent a couple hours last night trying to disable my EFI password temporarily, and couldn’t! According to Apple's documentation, the user must reboot their computer while depressing the Option key to pull up the EFI password prompt. When I do that, my Mac Pro appears to start the boot process normally (all the ordinary spin-up sounds of hard drives/fans/etc.), but the monitor never illuminates, and the boot process seems to stall. If I press the power button to re-boot, the machine shuts down immediately, without requiring a "hard" reboot.
Has anyone else witnessed this scenario? I HAVE tried removing the firmware password by navigating to “/Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/Applications/Utilities/” on my OS X Snow Leopard retail DVD, and running Firmware Password Utility. The same thing still happens when I Option-boot, though.
Is it possible that my EFI password prompt DOES come up, but ISN'T being displayed on screen? I have noticed that since I purchased a new graphics card (the ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card, a replacement for an nVidia GeForce GT 8800 for Mac, that "burnt out" a couple months ago from excessive use, I guess), my screen remains blank right up until the end of the boot process. Maybe the updated OS X boot ROM doesn't initialize the new graphics card early enough in the boot process to view the EFI password entry prompt, or some-such thing?
Does anyone know of ANY OTHER WAY besides depressing the Option key during boot to access the EFI password prompt, so as to temporarily disable it? I will call Apple Corp. and ask them if I have to, but I can’t stomach their Apple Care tech. fees for out-of-warranty Apple products.
Thanks for any help you can offer!
-jabroni5 (that guy who insists on coddling his 5-year old Mac Pro instead of upgrading)
