Level 1

0 points

Firmware update and SATA II hard drive

Has anybody had any problems with new MacBook Pro after yesterday's firmware update with third party hard drive? I got a MacBook Pro 13" recently, swapped the 320 GB hard drive from my old MacBook. After reinstalling the OS for new hardware drivers, everything was working fine.

After the firmware update yesterday, the machine has started freezing randomly; the spinner comes up sometimes when reading or writing to the drive. The hard drive, a WD Scorpio Blue, supports SATA II. My suspicion is that there are intermittent data errors when using the SATA 3 Gbps interface. It could be an incompatibility between the controller and drive or the ribbon cable isn't good enough for newer SATA.

Does anybody know of a way to force the drive or the controller to use SATA 1.5 Gbps? Can I revert to the old firmware?

MacBook Pro 13", Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Jun 23, 2009 10:08 AM

1,980 replies

katmeef

Level 1

5 points

Oct 15, 2009 12:19 AM in response to fishbert

fishbert wrote:

They look pretty similar to me, no?

Additionally… yes, the other identified symptom of this EFI 1.7 issue — increasing CRC errors — is present as well.

not everyone having problems had CRC errors fishbert. Some (myself included) have reported no CRC errors yet we too experienced problems prior to todays update when running a 3.0 drive with 1.7....

perhaps your 'identified symptom' statement should come with a qualifier? 🙂

pasckal

Level 1

0 points

Oct 15, 2009 12:19 AM in response to rumeon

After my 3 months nightmare (since Half July 2009) with a 7200 rpm 500 Gb Toshiba that came with my Macbook pro 17 Unibody, I decided to change it with a SAMSUNG HM500JI.

Performance increased dramatically, 2 hours more of battery, very fast, since three days of extensive use (CS4, Itunes, Audacity, some rapidsh download, some final cut editing) no sign of spinning wheel or pause of 30-40 secs as ususal.

Drive is also very quiet, bit it stays the problem evidenced by rumeon:
shhhhhhhh if you stop the music and listen.

It's ok for me, I'll keep this drive, waiting to buy the new WD 1TB.

fishbert

Level 1

14 points

Oct 15, 2009 12:36 AM in response to katmeef

katmeef wrote:

fishbert wrote:

They look pretty similar to me, no?

Additionally… yes, the other identified symptom of this EFI 1.7 issue — increasing CRC errors — is present as well.

perhaps your 'identified symptom' statement should come with a qualifier? 🙂

You're right, it should come with a qualifier…
+Additionally… yes, the other main symptom (identified in the very first days back on page 5 - http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2054387&messageID=9712558#9712 558) of this EFI 1.7 issue — increasing CRC errors — is present as well.+

Is that better?

not everyone having problems had CRC errors fishbert. Some (myself included) have reported no CRC errors yet we too experienced problems prior to todays update when running a 3.0 drive with 1.7….

Not everyone having problems is having this EFI 1.7 problem.

There are tons of people that have come through here claiming to see this issue on stock drives, on 17" MacBook Pros… heck, I'm surprised people haven't come by complaining that they see this on their Toshiba running Vista!

Incrementing CRC errors was identified long ago as a very basic symptom of this issue that helped narrow it down from just "well, it beachballs every now and then" … if one is not experiencing this specific symptom, then one likely is not seeing this specific issue.

katmeef

Level 1

5 points

Oct 15, 2009 12:50 AM in response to fishbert

fishbert wrote:
Not everyone having problems is having this EFI 1.7 problem.

There are tons of people that have come through here claiming to see this issue on stock drives, on 17" MacBook Pros… heck, I'm surprised people haven't come by complaining that they see this on their Toshiba running Vista!

Incrementing CRC errors was identified long ago as a very basic symptom of this issue that helped narrow it down from just "well, it beachballs every now and then" … if one is not experiencing this specific symptom, then one likely is not seeing this specific issue.

Since I'm not reporting CRC errors, am I understanding correctly that you believe my problem could not have been due to the EFI 1.7 firmware update and SATA II hard drive issue?

If this is the case, please explain why a) I did not have any problems until upgrading my hard drive to a third party SATA II device, and b) locking my drive to 1.5 resolved the issue while I was running EFI 1.7 prior to the performance update (thank you apple btw).

katmeef

Level 1

5 points

Oct 15, 2009 12:54 AM in response to katmeef

perhaps the EFI 1.7 brought up multiple issues in the 13" and 15" MBP.

a) screwed up hardware in some units causing CRC errors (ie: fishberts)
b) opened up the 13" and 15" units to a problem that was affecting much wider line of mac's which (already) had SATA II... (people who will enjoy the performance update)

fishbert

Level 1

14 points

Oct 15, 2009 1:08 AM in response to katmeef

katmeef wrote:

fishbert wrote:
Not everyone having problems is having this EFI 1.7 problem.

There are tons of people that have come through here claiming to see this issue on stock drives, on 17" MacBook Pros… heck, I'm surprised people haven't come by complaining that they see this on their Toshiba running Vista!

Incrementing CRC errors was identified long ago as a very basic symptom of this issue that helped narrow it down from just "well, it beachballs every now and then" … if one is not experiencing this specific symptom, then one likely is not seeing this specific issue.

Since I'm not reporting CRC errors, am I understanding correctly that you believe my problem could not have been due to the EFI 1.7 firmware update and SATA II hard drive issue?

If this is the case, please explain why a) I did not have any problems until upgrading my hard drive to a third party SATA II device, and b) locking my drive to 1.5 resolved the issue while I was running EFI 1.7 prior to the performance update (thank you apple btw).

I am not an encyclopedia of all that can and does go wrong with Apple products. Suffice it to say that (and I'm going to sound a little repetetive here) incrementing CRC errors were identified very early on, and by multiple people, as specific symptoms of this issue.

If you want to believe that you had this EFI 1.7 issue, despite the fact that a) you didn't see all the symptoms specific to this issue and b) had your "firmware" issue resolved by an operating system software update, go right ahead.

But for the rest of you out there, I'll repeat what I've said multiple times before already today:

Install the update; there is no reason not to, and it may solve what you are seeing. But it does not fix the issue this thread is based on.

katmeef

Level 1

5 points

Oct 15, 2009 1:08 AM in response to fishbert

fishbert wrote:

katmeef wrote:
If this is the case, please explain why a) I did not have any problems until upgrading my hard drive to a third party SATA II device, and b) locking my drive to 1.5 resolved the issue while I was running EFI 1.7 prior to the performance update (thank you apple btw).

I am not an encyclopedia of all that can and does go wrong with Apple products. Suffice it to say that (and I'm going to sound a little repetetive here) incrementing CRC errors were identified very early on, and by multiple people, as specific symptoms of this issue.

Maybe it would have 'sufficed to say' if you had made some sort of logical attempt to answer my question.

pasckal

Level 1

0 points

Oct 15, 2009 1:23 AM in response to IanBurrell

this: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL947 (14 October 2009) solved my problems :

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL947

fishbert

Level 1

14 points

Oct 15, 2009 1:28 AM in response to katmeef

katmeef wrote:

fishbert wrote:

katmeef wrote:
If this is the case, please explain why a) I did not have any problems until upgrading my hard drive to a third party SATA II device, and b) locking my drive to 1.5 resolved the issue while I was running EFI 1.7 prior to the performance update (thank you apple btw).

I am not an encyclopedia of all that can and does go wrong with Apple products. Suffice it to say that (and I'm going to sound a little repetetive here) incrementing CRC errors were identified very early on, and by multiple people, as specific symptoms of this issue.

Maybe it would have 'sufficed to say' if you had made some sort of logical attempt to answer my question.

I am not your monkey. I refuse to dance for you.

Mazda3s

Level 1

9 points

Oct 15, 2009 1:37 AM in response to pasckal

pasckal wrote:
this: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL947 (14 October 2009) solved my problems :

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL947

Just saw this on Gizmodo. Gonna install this, then SuperDuper my drive over to my Patriot Torqx SSD and see what happens.

Oct 15, 2009 3:22 AM in response to IanBurrell

Hello everybody,

Quite often, the hard drive of my computer stops and restarts. But it never lasts more than 2 seconds. Stopping it sounds like a cracking noise and my screen freezes just 1 or 2 seconds. I made this update "Performance Update 1.0" hoping that it would solve the problem...

But no.. I still hear the sound of clapping that sounds at any time and freezes the screen for a very short time.

Apple, I'm desperate ... What should I do?

fishbert

Level 1

14 points

Oct 15, 2009 3:42 AM in response to Apple Addict 972

Apple Addict 972 wrote:
Hello everybody,

Quite often, the hard drive of my computer stops and restarts. But it never lasts more than 2 seconds. Stopping it sounds like a cracking noise and my screen freezes just 1 or 2 seconds. I made this update "Performance Update 1.0" hoping that it would solve the problem...

But no.. I still hear the sound of clapping that sounds at any time and freezes the screen for a very short time.

Apple, I'm desperate ... What should I do?

Make an appointment with your nearest Apple Store Genius Bar or contact Apple Support.

What you are describing is not the issue this thread is about, but I'm sure Apple can help you if you contact their support services directly.

Samplex

Level 1

31 points

Oct 15, 2009 5:01 AM in response to Apple Addict 972

Apple Addict what drive do you have?

Mazda3s

Level 1

9 points

Oct 15, 2009 6:16 AM in response to IanBurrell

Well, I just tried Apple's recently released "Performance Update" on my system with a 128GB Patriot Torqx. It didn't do a ****** thing -- I'm still beachballing with the 1.6 firmware (I can't even boot with the 1.7 firmware with my Torqx).

It also locked up in the exact same place it did before -- I was doing a time machine backup, then went to open up my Windows 7 image in VirtualBox. It started counting down the time left to finish opening the image and got to 0:00 and then started beachballing.

I never have that problem with the stock 160GB HDD. Seems like it freezes when it's processing a lot of data at once -- only in my case, the whole system gets taken down instead of a 10 second to 20 second pause.

wdbutrym

Level 1

10 points

Oct 15, 2009 7:06 AM in response to Mazda3s

Mazda3s wrote:
Well, I just tried Apple's recently released "Performance Update" on my system with a 128GB Patriot Torqx. It didn't do a ****** thing -- I'm still beachballing with the 1.6 firmware (I can't even boot with the 1.7 firmware with my Torqx).

It also locked up in the exact same place it did before -- I was doing a time machine backup, then went to open up my Windows 7 image in VirtualBox. It started counting down the time left to finish opening the image and got to 0:00 and then started beachballing.

I never have that problem with the stock 160GB HDD. Seems like it freezes when it's processing a lot of data at once -- only in my case, the whole system gets taken down instead of a 10 second to 20 second pause.

I have had the same thing happen to me, same drive, and same computer. It is really frustrating. I guess we are left waiting still for an update to the firmware on the computer or for Patriot to change something on the drive hardware. Apparently Indilinx has a firmware update that I am still waiting for Patriot to implement on the Torqx drives. From the OCZ forums it appears that it may help as they have implemented the new firmware. These drives are nearly identical. This is not how this should work.

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Firmware update and SATA II hard drive