Theta Posted August 18, 2007 Share Posted August 18, 2007 Let me start by saying that while I don't have a lot of posts under my best, I've been actively reading this group for nearly two years and building various flavors of these "custom" Macs for almost as long. The current computer is a Dell Precision 490 (dual Intel Xeon @ 3 GHz). The memory and hard drives were replaced and a PCI Ethernet card was added since I could never get the built-in Ethernet working, but for the most part, this is a "stock" Dell machine that has been working quite well for me for most, if not all, of 2007. Recently, I upgraded the firmware to A05 from A04 and WHAM--the thing doesn't boot up (into OS X) anymore. The "gray screen of unhappiness" comes up immediately when the kernel is loaded. Stranger still, the various OS X DVDs (JaS, Uphuck, etc.) don't boot up either. If I go back to A04, everything is once again OK. I don't really see the need for A05 (other than running the latest and greatest firmware) so that part really doesn't bother me too much. I'm more concerned that Dell did something that might foreshadow things to come. The documentation for A05 doesn't really state much and its quite possible that I'm just a little paranoid, but why would a firmware upgrade suddenly render a PC incapable of running OS X--one that ran it just fine one firmware revision earlier? Its not like the firmware changed any of the architecture so that other components that were available during one install are now different and incompatible. More curious than anything else at this point.... Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/60503-dell-precision-490-fireware-strangeness/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Synaesthesia Posted August 18, 2007 Share Posted August 18, 2007 Well, we saw the same thing with some other motherboards. The problem was that when they upgraded their firmware, it stopped letting the Sata ports work in compatibility mode. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/60503-dell-precision-490-fireware-strangeness/#findComment-430047 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proteo Posted August 18, 2007 Share Posted August 18, 2007 Also, it may have reverted some BIOS values to the default ones, for example the CPUID thing which causes kernel panics when using 10.4.9 or above. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/60503-dell-precision-490-fireware-strangeness/#findComment-430177 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theta Posted August 21, 2007 Author Share Posted August 21, 2007 Thanks for the quick replies! Both are good possibilities. I'll play with it some more to see if the BIOS settings changed but the unit seems to function properly under A04 so I'm not going to lose too much sleep over it. For the most part, this thing is a really good powerhouse of a Mac. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/60503-dell-precision-490-fireware-strangeness/#findComment-432101 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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