Firmware update on late 2012 Mac Mini w/o DVD drive

I have read all the current posts regarding this topic and I’m still stuck.

Here is where I am:

I have made a CD with the proper firmware update installed.  I can get that CD to boot on my Mac Mini.   After the drives have settled I’m presented with a screen which includes my Sandisk SSD, but the arrow keys on my Mac keyboard don’t work.   Neither does the return (enter) key.  The eyboard is a standard Mac USB keyboard.  The model number is A1243.

We are a total Mac household, so I don’t have the option of trying to do this on a PC.  I don’t run a Windows VM either.

ANy sugestions?

Just an update.

Unlike others, I was able to get an external CD drive to boot on a very new Mac Mini.  If Apple had disable that sort of thing, they undid that recently.

I have all my other external disks disconnected.  The only disks are the SSD and the original 1TB HDD.

I’m wondering if it would be worth the trouble to try connecting a PC USB keyboard while booting up the CD.  I could try that if I could find a neighbor with a spare one.

The USB ports in this machine are USB3.  Could that have something to do with the problem?  The external CD drive goes thru those ports, but that is at POST time.  It’s possible that once Linux is running the default drivers can;t talk to a USB3 interface.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give…

i dont think the linux kernal for the update tool has the USB 3 drivers. are there any USB 2 ports on the mac mini?

No.  All the USB posts are USB 3.  I went out and bough a Microsoft keyboard.  That was not recognized either.

I’m pretty sure that the problem is the USB3 controller.

I don’t know if you know this, but for the record Crucial has a similar method for updating their SSD firmware.  They have you create a bootable CD using a small Linux system.  Their boot CD works on my Mac Mini.

I’m pretty sure that you could make this work.  If you send me an email off the forum perhaps I could do some beta testing for you.

For now I’m just going to wait…

I should use that spell checker.

I bought  a Microsoft keyboard.  It has the same problem…

I tired to insert a USB 2 hub between the keyboard and the USB 3 port on the Mac Mini.  No joy.

That would still use the USB 3 driver. You may need to move the SSD to a different machine to update. If you can connect the ssd in a machine with USB 2 ports you should be able to update no problem.  

Getting the disk out of that machine and into another is not easy.  I’m out of town this week.  When I get back home I will try moving the disk to another machine.  However, my preference would be for you to send me an updated installer if that is possible.  As I mentioned earlier, Crucial has exactly the same problem and their firmware installer runs on this machine with no problem.  I believe this is a competitive situation.  If SanDisk is really interested in the market represented by all the new iMac and Mac Mini computers which only come with USB 3 ports, you will try to figure this out.  On the other hand, if it’s to much trouble I would personally advise any owner of one of these newer Mac computers to avoid your product.

I will be back to my computer and your disk next Thursday…

I have he same setup as you and experienced a similar problem with any Apple USB keyboard not working when booted into the Firmware Update OS. I ended up trying an Apple Bluetooth wireless keyboard on the chance that the boot OS supported Bluetooth. To my surprise it worked and I was able to update the firmware on an Extreme 480Gb SSD.

Well, well, well.  Thanks.  I will try that when I get back home.  I have one of those keyboards, but didn’t consider that it might work where the USB keyboard did not.

The wireless keyboard was the key.  I was able to update my firmware and this problem is solved…