SP 1.8Ghz PowerMac G5 (Late 2004) Firmware Patch

It's about damn time.

Apple's finally fixed the freezing problem associated with the Late 2004 single processor 1.8Ghz G5 towers with the 600MHz frontside bus. I've been struggling with this problem since Apple shipped Tiger. It only affects this specific model. I've been on the phone with Apple no less than five times, opened two separate cases with them, argued with customer service, talked to two different senior product specialists (one very nice one who actually called me back!), but the problem persisted. Apple finally acknowledged the problem about six weeks ago and has apparently identified it. Tonight, there's a firmware patch they claim will fix the problem. I'll know soon.

This issue only affects this specific model running Tiger. It does not happen when running Panther. I've blogged about this and one guy even set up a site chronicling the problem.

I've applied this update to one machine as a test and so far it hasn't locked up. I'll test a few more tomorrow at work and report back in the comments (or update the post) with a success/failure update. Check back in about two hours for an update.