Level 1

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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

Jul 27, 2009 10:25 AM in response to Christopher B

Same here...500Gb 7200RPM...occasional chirp...I notice maybe 1-5 per day. Not overly annoying, and knowing that it is a normal operational noise makes me feel better.

Jul 27, 2009 10:57 AM in response to Christopher B

Christopher B wrote:

Wilbur507 wrote:
There is another thread about clicks and beeps 5 + 17" macbook are suffering from, I wonder if the 13" macbooks are experiencing something related?

Clicks and beeps are a part of normal operation of the 500 GB 7200 BTO HD in the current generation MacBook Pros (the drive is the Seagate Momentus 7200.4, model number ST9500420ASG), and need not be reported to AppleCare or taken to a Genius Bar.

I have one in my 15" MBP (5,3), and a 5400 RPM version in an external enclosure for backups, and both drives are healthy and work fine, but are a bit chirpy/clicky.

Wrong info. It's not normal to have this beeping on a harddrive. Every harddrive makes sounds but the beeping referred in the other thread is not normal and is very disturbing. Of course this noise pollution should not be tolerated and the harddrive should be exchanged for a silent one.

JD08DMAX

Level 1

0 points

Jul 27, 2009 10:52 AM in response to Jory Lane

What firmware are you running?
Do you have any of the beachball etc isues reported on this thread..

Jul 27, 2009 10:59 AM in response to JD08DMAX

I'm not sure if System Profiler has enough info to determine the FW version on the drive:
Model: ST9500420ASG
Revision: 0006APM2

I've applied the EFI 1.7 update to this machine, and am not seeing any system-wide beachballing, either on this drive or a Optibay-attached Intel X25-M SSD. I've run both drives through a battery of tests with AJA System Test this morning. I haven't done any jumper hackery on either drive, and System Profiler reports both buses are running at 3.0 Gbps.

Jul 27, 2009 11:23 AM in response to katmeef

Yes and yes

Jul 27, 2009 12:26 PM in response to IanBurrell

My 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) MacBook Pro 15-inch Glossy Widescreen Display
Backlit Keyboard (English).The machine has started freezing, the colored spinner comes up every time i star the machine. The firmware update was pushed to my laptop through software update.

Does anybody know what to do, my laptop is near-unusable, i can't open Safari,iTune.....anything? I'm working with my son Macbook 13 (black) and is perfect!!!!!!!!!

rumeon

Level 1

0 points

Jul 27, 2009 12:30 PM in response to Thor 15 2.8GHz MBP

Wait until Apple release an update and while you are waiting call Apple support and tell them what problem you have.

Jul 27, 2009 5:06 PM in response to Thor 15 2.8GHz MBP

I swapped my HD with my wife's from her 2008 13" mb. First I time machined them. It took a couple hours for the whole process.

Jul 27, 2009 5:10 PM in response to rumeon

I've got my MPB13 from the apple store today, they fixed it. They replaced the stock 250gb hard drive and now it's working like a charm with 1.7 firmware.
They don't know why the previous one wasn't working properly but since they couldn't find the root of the problem they decided to replace it.

Thank you guys for this thread and hope you get yours fixed soon too.

Federico

ps: i will keep my subscription to this thread for a few more days, in case you have any questions. bye.

Jul 27, 2009 8:33 PM in response to immortalis

I have the same machine as you do, no issues. We didn't get the EFI 1.7 update. 1.7 came out after I bought my computer, and I don't recall ever updating the EFI.

My Boot ROM Version is MBP52.008E.B00

I looked at the Apple support page listing all the firmware versions, and the above seems to be in-between the 1.6 EFI update and the 1.7 EFI update. So looks like we are lucky for now, and if there is any EFI update for the 17", I am not going to install it for at least 3 months 😉

fishbert

Level 1

14 points

Jul 27, 2009 8:46 PM in response to Nikolaus Heger

Again, this does not affect the 17" MacBook Pro.

Jul 28, 2009 2:12 AM in response to mrWoodo

mrWoodo wrote:
Seagate jumper settings (I've tried this on my Momentus 7200.3, fingers crossed seems ok)

http://www.seagate.com/images/support/en/us/cudasatablock.gif

My (June 2009) Mac mini with EFI 1.7 exhibits the same problem with a Seagate 7200.4 (ST9500420ASG) - beachballs and CRC errors. Listening closely, the drive appeared to park and restart every ten seconds or so.

However, after placing a jumper across the jumper block closest to the SATA connector, the problem is resolved. This limits the SATA interface to 1.5Gb/S. Obviously, I would have preferred to have the firmware fixed, but for the moment, this works fine.

Those with the pitchforks and flaming torches would do well to remember that this issue is as much Nvidia's fault as Apple's.

K.

fishbert

Level 1

14 points

Jul 28, 2009 2:27 AM in response to Karl Davis

Karl Davis wrote:
My (June 2009) Mac mini with EFI 1.7 exhibits the same problem with a Seagate 7200.4 (ST9500420ASG) - beachballs and CRC errors. Listening closely, the drive appeared to park and restart every ten seconds or so.

However, after placing a jumper across the jumper block closest to the SATA connector, the problem is resolved. This limits the SATA interface to 1.5Gb/S. Obviously, I would have preferred to have the firmware fixed, but for the moment, this works fine.

Those with the pitchforks and flaming torches would do well to remember that this issue is as much Nvidia's fault as Apple's.

K.

You will still get occasional beachballs of the same kind, but it won't be nearly as often and there won't be any CRC errors to go with them. It's a temporary workaround that I was happy with initially, but am getting a little tired of this late in the game.

I don't think we know enough detail on what the exact cause of this problem is to assign blame to anybody just yet. Me? I don't care whose fault it is, so long as it gets fixed soon. It's been a bit more than a month now, so I hope something is just around the bend.

nathojg

Level 1

0 points

Jul 28, 2009 2:35 AM in response to fishbert

i found that using the jumper to limit to 1.5gbps on my 500gb 7200.4 stopped the CRC errors, but it still had the 30-second pause/beachball occasionally. However it would take a few minutes to boot up, unless booting straight after the PRAM was zapped. booting in verbose mode shows the kernel 'waiting for root device'.

juditta

Level 1

0 points

Jul 28, 2009 5:13 AM in response to IanBurrell

I just wanted to update my last post withmy experience.
Changed 3 mbp 13 2.53 ghz that wouldn't work with a ocz vertex 120 gb ssd mac edition (both with and without efi 1.7, although problems wereworse with 1.7: difficoult osx install, frequent freezes, resets and reinstalls not useful).
I am now using a mbp 15 2.66 shipped with efi 1.6 and the ssd and have no problems at all: superfast, boot in 23 sec...
Decided to risk efi 1.7 and...now everything still works !!!!????
Disk write speed 190 mb/sec, read 210 mb/sec.
I am now happy but have no clues on what is happening (different logic board, install errors??)

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Firmware update and SATA II hard drive