To upgrade or not to upgrade ?

[Michael G R]

I'm considering an El Capitan fresh install to resolve a few minor issues that have shown up recently. My interests are Graphic Design and Auto Cad.

Mac Pro (early 2009 > 2010 EFI 5.1)
El Capitan v. 10.11.6
3.33 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon
(I have the 4.46 processor on a separate tray but it runs hotter)
48 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2048 MB
with Parallels and W10

Generally speaking, I'm happy with things the way they are. Fast machine. Gets the job done.
I like to stay up to date but this time around I don't feel like doing the leg work.
I'm not interested in 'bells and whistles' just speed and efficiency.
Are there any practical reasons to upgrade to a newer operating system?

Thanks for your time,
MGR

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

-Sounds like you hacked the firmware to the 2010 model?
-What do you mean by "(I have the 4.46 processor on a separate tray but it runs hotter)"?
-What kind of issues appeared recently?

Depending on what software and versions you are already running, it may not be wise to upgrade the OS. The 2009 Mac Pro maxes out at El Capitan. If you did upgrade the firmware, there still may be other things that prevent you from moving to a newer version of OS X.

C

 

[Michael G R]

Hello Cory Cooper,

Yes. I upgraded the firmware to 2010 and replaced the original 2.66 GHz processor with the Xeon 5690 (3.46 GHz) which also allowed for a ram speed upgrade.

I own two processor trays. One has the Xeon 5690 (3.46GHz) installed the other has the 3.33 GHz processor installed. I use the 3.33 because the speed difference isn't that great and it runs, on average, 10 degree cooler. The fan speed from the 3.46 was getting on my nerves.

Re: issues
I have two partitions that I use often and so I'm always going back and forth.
Issue #1 - When I go to 'Startup Disk' to switch disks it is asking for my password twice before I get to select 'Restart'. This occurred after a bad restart session where it wouldn't recognize any discs. I did a PRAM and an SMC reset and that seemed to sort things out.

Issue #2 - I also use windows 10 on the same Mac via Parallel14. Recently, in W10, some of keys have started mapping incorrectly. The Quotes key and the '@' key have changed places for example.

With these two minor problems and the bad 'start up session' I thought it might be time for a clean install. The computer has been running great for over two years.

Thanks for your time,
MGR

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK, thanks.

It may be best to try reinstalling El Capitan over the top of your current install. That may solve some of the issues, without resorting to a full erase and clean install. The Parallels/Windows 10 issue may be a setting in Parallels, or something in Windows 10 itself. Is your Windows 10 up to date with version 1903 yet?

C

 

[Michael G R]

Hello Mr. Cooper,

Yes Windows is up to date and the last update fixed the keyboard problem.

How do I reinstall El Cap over top of the current install without loosing everything?

Thanks
MGR

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries.

Normally, you can simply run the Mac OS X Installer from the Applications folder, and it will install over the top of your current installation without erasing anything. Of course, it is always best to have a current Time Machine or other backup of your data.

Some versions of OS X won't allow the installer to run if the same version is already installed, so you would need to create a bootable install disk with something like DiskMaker X.

C