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IanBurrell Author

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

rumeon

Level 1

0 points

Jun 30, 2009 11:36 AM in response to IanBurrell

argh! I an answer from apple! I want to use my MBP!

jlamarp

Level 1

0 points

Jun 30, 2009 1:08 PM in response to rumeon

FWIW,

I just spoke with Apple technical support and was told that they are receiving a lot of calls regarding this issue and that another firmware update will be released to correct it.

I wasn't given a specific timeframe for the firmware release, but let's hope it's sooner rather than later.

markt21

Level 1

0 points

Jul 2, 2009 12:29 PM in response to jlamarp

So after emailing Phil Schiller, I got a call back today from someone in the Executive Customer Relations Dept. He basically told me to take it back to the store to see what they could do.

It seems they are not fully aware of this issue yet (or can't say that they are). So everyone that has this problem really needs to start sending feedback and emails so we can get a response to this issue.

You can leave feedback at http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html

<Edited by Host>

Jun 30, 2009 11:57 PM in response to IanBurrell

Just received my 2nd (replacement) Intel X25 drive and it, like the drive it replaced, is not recognized by my MBP. The "stock" drive is working, however.

Confirms for me that the drive is not the issue. Sigh.

Jul 1, 2009 3:42 AM in response to markt21

Just emailed his address as well. Not actually holding breath though, fairly convinced I'd die waiting 😟

Jul 1, 2009 5:13 AM in response to IanBurrell

I have also "try" to replace the build in Harddrive with a WD 500 GB
Model. But it does not work at all. A friend of me with the same MacBook
but with Efi 1.6 has no problems at all.

I'm very disappointed about this. If there is no solution in short time, than i will (and all my >1000 Friends, Familie and so on) will never buy a Mac at all.

Apple's only respond was: "This is a third party Firmware and we not support..."
Sorry Apple but if this is a third party Firmware, than NEVER DISTRIBUT THIS IN THE MAC OSX SOFTWARE ACTUALIZE SYSTEM only make a notice at your Website.

I love Macs and i'm very frustrating about this situation.

Regards
maverick777

Jul 1, 2009 5:58 AM in response to IanBurrell

Here's a really strange fact, when I connect my OCZ Vertex in the hard drive bay, it doesn't work well (unstable as ****), but when I connect it to the optical bay using my optibay (adapter to replace the superdrive) it work perfectly as it was working in my previous uMB, there's clearly something about the new sata cable.

nizmoz

Level 1

4 points

Jul 1, 2009 6:48 AM in response to efenska

Wrong. There are jumpers on the Scorpio drives. Two of them.

Jul 1, 2009 6:51 AM in response to nizmoz

Yes, there are jumpers, but neither of them are related to the speed of the drive (as per my message above).

Check this link :

Change the RPS and SSC settings via jumper pins

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?p_faqid=2670&pcreated=#jumper

guykuo

Level 1

44 points

Jul 1, 2009 7:27 AM in response to maxbaillargeon

Does the EFI update also change the optical drive SATA port to 3.0 GBps?

Mini-Mac

Level 3

819 points

Jul 1, 2009 9:04 AM in response to guykuo

On my configuration the answer is YES, the optical drive is now at 3.

randman

Level 1

0 points

Jul 1, 2009 10:44 AM in response to jlamarp

So, is it safe to assume that Apple can provide true 3.0Gbps SATA II support that works via a future firmware upgrade, and this is not a hardware issue at all?

JoeyR

Level 6

8,305 points

Jul 1, 2009 10:53 AM in response to randman

At this point who knows... It should have been safe to assume that the recent firmware update would have provided support without a problem. I'm hopeful as the problem only seems to exist with third party drives... so it clearly should be able to support 3.0. I'm sure they're working on it. First the fiasco about the machines shipping in 1.5Gb mode... now this after the firmware to fix the first problem (which actually made things worse for most people who wanted the 3.0 mode enabled in the first place).

Jul 1, 2009 10:57 AM in response to IanBurrell

Today, I ordered a MacBook Pro 2.26 and am intending to upgrade the HD to the WD 500 blue scorpio... but the EFI 1.7 Firmware has me scared now.

Will my new MacBook Pro come with the EFI 1.7 already updated on it? If not, I guess I could avoid updating it...

AlecGold

Level 1

0 points

Jul 1, 2009 11:00 AM in response to rootbeerdan

Don't worry about it, my new motherboard came with 1.6 on it and I won't update it to the 1.7 for the world.
So just use the new nice WD500 and have fun 🙂
Take care!

Firmware update and SATA II hard drive