[Tech/Mod] IF NEW PROCESSOR, THEN UPDATE FIRMWARE?

As many of you can understand, one of the more popular items we sell here at YourMacStore is are many different processor upgrades. Of the people that purchase them, there are rare problems here and there...but nearly anything can be fixed. However, in many of the reported that come in to us, the error is something that the average user who wants to upgrade doesn’t know about…updating their firmware. Now not everyone needs to update their firmware with a processor upgrade, but for those of you who are looking to purchase a 7447 or 7448 CPU upgrade, then that is something you will need to do. (Those of you interested in a 7455 CPU upgrade, you won’t need to upgrade your firmware.)

While updating your processor isn’t for your newbie computer user, anyone can do it, they just need proper direction. It isn’t simply a matter of pulling out the old one and jamming the new one in there, there is actually a dance that has to go on to prepare your computer to have the part of it that works so hard yanked out and replaced. What you do to install the firmware depends on what company produced that processor, and I’ll try to detail that for you here as best as possible.

For Powerlogix and Newer Tech processors:

1) Make sure your computer is powered on, the OS X desktop is up and no other programs are running.
2) Insert the firmware disc into the dvd/cd-rom drive.
3) Shutdown your computer.
4) Hold down the programmer button, and press the power button. Hold the programmer button in until after the special long tone sounds.
5) Hold down “C” and boot from the CD.
6) This opens a special Firmware area. Just select from the list presented “Apply All Patches” and let that run.
7) Exit the special Firmware area. Once you see the “Completed Successfully” message, you can shutdown your computer and physically install the new processor.

For GigaDesigns processors:

1) Make sure your computer is powered on, the OS X desktop is up and no other programs are running.
2) Insert the firmware disc into the dvd/cd-rom drive.
3) Open the installer file on the disc and run the installer file.
4) Shutdown the computer
5) Hold down the programmer button, and press the power button. Hold the programmer button in until after the special long tone sounds.
6) Make sure all patches are applied.
7) Reboot the computer.
8) Shutdown the computer and physically install the new processor.

For Sonnet processors:

1) Make sure your computer is powered on, the OS X desktop is up and no other programs are running.
2) Insert the firmware disc into the dvd/cd-rom drive.
3) Open the installer file on the disc and run the installer file.
4) Shutdown the computer
5) Hold down the programmer button, and press the power button. Hold the programmer button in until after the special long tone sounds.
6) Make sure all patches are applied.
7) Reboot the computer.
8) Shutdown the computer and physically install the new processor.

It is our hope that these reminders will help all of you who are upgrading their processors for the first time. While not always the easiest upgrade, it can be worthwhile and allow you to keep your older computer around a bit longer than it was designed to.

-Mike Leader