Thunderbolt Port not working correctly!

Double check to make sure your ports are indeed Thunderbolt.

The older MacBook Pro's had mini DisplayPort which looks the same! The port needs to have a lightning bolt next to it. As an example, the 2009 & 2010 models have a DP port, both 2011 models have Thunderbolt.

Hello Wolfgang.

Thirst thing : thank you very much.

I’ve install Sierra and the response of Firmware Thunderbolt 1.0 is the same :

“This update is not necessary for the Thunderbolt port of your computer”

I think it’s dead for my computer.

It’s too bad .

Have a good day.

John.

REVISION from 01/01/2021

Hello everyone !

Here is a good news to start the new year.

Lately I worked on the case of creating a Mac OS installation key in Recovery mode with an El Capitan or Yosemite installer which comes with a dmg containing a pkg that we can find here for El Capitan.

I have been looking around for a while and found how from Recovery mode, with this dmg we can create an installation media without too much effort: D

And this is the method that allowed me to explore the firmware pkg and figure out how to force the system to take it into account.

Here is how I was able to successfully force the installation of Thunderbolt Firmware.

Be careful though: I was sure that this Firm was suitable for my MBP and that it was not going to break everything.

However it is highly risky if you do not really know what you are doing.

In short, I had the pkg from the dmg downloaded that I copy and extract in the directory Firm_Thunderbolt on the Desktop of the Mac :

pkgutil --expand ~/Desktop/ThunderboltFirmwareUpdate.pkg ~/Desktop/Firm_Thunderbolt

Which gives the following structure:

drwxr-xr-x@  7 jean  staff    224  1 jan 09:28 21.5-inchiMacThunderboltFirmwareUpdate.pkg

drwxr-xr-x@  7 jean  staff    224  1 jan 09:27 27-inchiMacThunderboltFirmwareUpdate.pkg

-rwxr-xr-x@  1 jean  staff  28896  4 avr  2012 Distribution

drwxr-xr-x  24 jean  staff    768 31 déc 07:38 Resources

drwxr-xr-x@  7 jean  staff    224 31 déc 07:39 ThunderboltFirmwareUpdate.pkg

The directory I'm interested in here is ThunderboltFirmwareUpdate.pkg.

 The others are either for the iMac or not used here. So I work in the  ThunderboltFirmwareUpdate.pkg directory

cd ~/Desktop/Firm_Thunderbolt/ThunderboltFirmwareUpdate.pkg

And here is its structure:

-rw-r--r--@ 1 jean  staff  87688  4 avr  2012 Bom

-rw-r--r--@ 1 jean  staff    500  4 avr  2012 PackageInfo

-rw-r--r--  1 jean  staff  84153  4 avr  2012 Payload

drwxr-xr-x  6 jean  staff    192 31 déc 07:38 Scripts

And here is the command that changes everything:

tar -xvf Payload

x .

x ./System

x ./System/Library

x ./System/Library/CoreServices

x ./System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware Updates

x ./System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware Updates/MacBookProTBUpdate10

x ./System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware Updates/MacBookProTBUpdate10/HPM-em-00020007.bin

x ./System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware Updates/MacBookProTBUpdate10/MBP-22-01.bin

x ./System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware Updates/MacBookProTBUpdate10/ThorUtil.efi

And now here is the new directory structure:

-rw-r--r--@ 1 jean  staff  87688  4 avr  2012 Bom

-rw-r--r--@ 1 jean  staff    500  4 avr  2012 PackageInfo

-rw-r--r--  1 jean  staff  84153  4 avr  2012 Payload

drwxr-xr-x  6 jean  staff    192 31 déc 07:38 Scripts

drwxr-xr-x  3 jean  staff     96  4 avr  2012 System

A System directory with the correct tree structure has been created by the tar command with the correct firmware. All you have to do is copy the MacBookProTBUpdate10 directory from ~/Desktop/Firm_Thunderbolt/ThunderboltFirmwareUpdate.pkg/System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware Updates into the native system structure of the Mac : /System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware Updates

There is however a little problem with Catalina, as the system is mounted in read only. Never mind. To go ahead you must first deactivate SIP from the Recovery mode terminal:

csrutil disable

Then restart and type the following command:

sudo mount -rw /

Then we copy the MacBookProTBUpdate10 directory which contains all necessary information for the installation of the Firmware on the System.

First we go to the install directory :

cd ~/Desktop/Firm_Thunderbolt/ThunderboltFirmwareUpdate.pkg

then

sudo cp -a System/Library/CoreServices/"Firmware Updates"/MacBookProTBUpdate10 /System/Library/CoreServices/”Firmware Updates”

Then you have to enter the command that allows the firmware to be updated.

The flashTBFirmware script which is in the Scripts / postinstall_actions directory gives us all we need. You have to open it with any editor (textedit for example) and here is its content:

#!/usr/bin/perl

####################################

my $targetVolume = $ARGV[2];

my $FirmwareDirectory = "/System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware Updates/MacBookProTBUpdate10/";

my $firmwareTool = "ThorUtil.efi";

1. yes this is secure

my $debug = (-e "/tmp/com.apple.pkg.testing");

#####################################################################

#set NVRAM for tbft (<rdar://problem/9282793> Use Safe Mode for T29 updates (EPROM, Micros) to prevent PCIe unplug during update)

system("/usr/sbin/nvram tbt-options=%04");

# bless the firmware

my $retVal = system("/usr/sbin/bless", "-mount", "/",

"-firmware", $FirmwareDirectory . "ThorUtil.efi",

"-payload", $FirmwareDirectory ."MBP-22-01.bin",

"-payload", $FirmwareDirectory ."HPM-em-00020007.bin",

"-options", "-o -ee -f efi-apple-payload0-data -em efi-apple-payload1-data");

debuglog("blessFirmware the result of the bless command is: $retVal");

########################################################

1. always exit 0

exit 0;

########################################################

sub debuglog

{

1. $_[0] is the argument to debuglog

system("logger -p install.info '$_[0]'") if ( $debug );

}

The part that is interesting us is here:

# bless the firmware

my $retVal = system("/usr/sbin/bless", "-mount", "/",

"-firmware", $FirmwareDirectory . "ThorUtil.efi",

"-payload", $FirmwareDirectory ."MBP-22-01.bin",

"-payload", $FirmwareDirectory ."HPM-em-00020007.bin",

"-options", "-o -ee -f efi-apple-payload0-data -em efi-apple-payload1-data");

This is the bless command which will start the Firmware installer during the next boot. You just have to adapt it to create the terminal command which match with your system and which can be found below:

sudo bless -mount / -firmware /System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware\ Updates/MacBookProTBUpdate10/ThorUtil.efi -payload /System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware\ Updates/MacBookProTBUpdate10/MBP-22-01.bin -payload /System/Library/CoreServices/Firmware\ Updates/MacBookProTBUpdate10/HPM-em-00020007.bin -options "-o -ee -f efi-apple-payload0-data -em efi-apple-payload1-data"

I admit that I was a bit anxious when I restarted the Mac, but I quickly saw the famous Firmware update bar progressing and then the Mac restarted and there I plugged in the Thunderbolt DDE which was recognised without any concern.

And now here's the Thunderbolt info:

Bus Thunderbolt :

  Vendor ID: : Apple Inc.

  Nom du périphérique : MacBook Pro

  UID : 0x0001000A156383E0

  Logical Unit: 0

  Version du programme interne : 22,1

  UUID du domaine : B6969003-5485-245E-8FED-2538703498FC

  Port :

  État : Aucun périphérique connecté

  État du lien : 0x101

  Vitesse : Jusqu’à 10 Gbit/s x2

  Réceptacle : 1

  Version du programme interne de Port Micro : 2.0.7

to compare with the old ones.

Bus Thunderbolt :

  Vendor ID:: Apple Inc.

  Nom du périphérique : MacBook Pro

  UID : 0x0001000A156383E0

  Logical Unit: 0

  Version du programme interne : d.0

  UUID du domaine : B6969003-5485-245E-8FED-2538703498FC

  Port :

  État : Aucun périphérique connecté

  État du lien : 0x101

  Vitesse : Jusqu’à 10 Gbit/s x2

  Réceptacle : 1

  Version du programme interne de Port Micro : 1.2.1

End of the adventure, thank you for staying all along this journey. : D

Many many thanks to my friend Dominique for the translation in English.

You can find the French version here : https://forum.macbidouille.com/index.php...

Bye

First of all thank you for finding out a way to fix the thunderbolt problem on the 2011 MB Pro. I’d like to install the newer firmware on my 2011 machine too. Because I have a recent OS running (Catalina) I need to boot from a Mountain Lion image which I have on a USB key. I can boot from it but does anybody know how I can then run the firmware update file? Do I need to go into terminal to do it because the only options I have when I boot from USB are restore time machine backup, install Mountain Lion or disk utility but there seems to be no way to browse to the firmware update file to install it. Thanks in advance. Rob

I still can’t install the firmware update (getting that software is not supported by this system). I’m suspecting it’s because my firmware version is up to date (27.1), but not the Port micro Firmware version 0.15.0. I’m suspecting it’s that latter one causing the problem of not detecting the device.

Do you have any other clue how to update that micro firmware?

It turns out my newer laptop, despite having an identical model# to my older laptop, has a slightly different quirk. The “newer” one’s DVI port does not double as a Thunderbolt like my older one. No amount of firmware updates will enable this function. I blew a bunch of money for the wrong device completely.

Hey.

I have a MBP Early 2011 and the Thunderbolt version are there :

Bus Thunderbolt :

  Nom du fournisseur : Apple Inc.

  Nom du périphérique : MacBook Pro

  UID : 0x0001000A156383E0

  Chaîne de routage : 0

  Version du programme interne : d.0

  UUID du domaine : B6969003-5485-245E-8FED-2538703498FC

  Port :

  État : Aucun périphérique connecté

  État du lien : 0x101

  Vitesse : Jusqu’à 10 Gbit/s x2

  Réceptacle : 1

  Version du programme interne de Port Micro : 1.2.1

My os version is 10.13.6 and the update firmware 1.0 :

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1407?view...

don’t work. I have try with Mountain Lion, Maverick, Yosemite and the response is alway :

“Cette mise à jour n'est pas nécessaire pour le port Thunderbolt de votre ordinateur.”

“This update is not necessary for the Thunderbolt port of your computer”

Il don’t know if there is a way to force this update?

I will try later with a clone of Snow Leopard 10.6.8.

If somebody as an genial idea, thank you in advance.

John

I have try with Snow Leopard, same response : “This update is not necessary for the Thunderbolt port of your computer”

i'm desperate. :-(

Hi, I've got the same problem with my MBA Early 2015. My firmware was updated but the thunderbolt controller firmware was not. Tried everything but my skills are not up to this task. Can you help-me somehow? Maybe with a tutorial for MBA? I think a lot of users have this problem, and Apple does not care. Thank you so much.

My Thunderbolt config:

Barramento Thunderbolt:

Nome do Fabricante: Apple Inc.

Nome do Dispositivo: MacBook Air

UID: 0x000100180A528C40

String de Rota: 0

Versão de Firmware: 27.2

UUID de Domínio: B117FEDF-264B-0D5C-94ED-E3BBDEC0C844

Porta:

Estado: Não há nenhum dispositivo conectado

Estado do Link: 0x101

Velocidade: Até 20 Gb/s x1

Largura do Link Atual: 0x1

Receptáculo: 1

Versão do Firmware do Controlador de Link: 0.15.0