Firmware update and SATA II hard drive

Well, I just got off the phone with Apple Technical Support regarding this issue.

Basically they told me that Apple is not responsible for maintaining compatibility with 3rd party aftermarket hardware with their firmware updates. So, since my WD Scorpio 500GB was not shipped with the computer if the firmware update rendered it virtually useless, I'm just outta luck until Apple issues the next firmware release, which may or may not even fix the problem!

It's NOT possible to roll back a firmware upgrade, so the only solution they could offer is to put the 500GB in a USB enclosure and use it externally.

Wow, this is the LAST time I'll trust an Apple firmware upgrade!!!

"You" can't roll back the firmware... but an Apple Genius at an Apple Store can. You may want to give them a call and set up an appointment. Frankly, the comment they made to you was pretty much like saying anything you get that isn't from Apple may or may not work. I'm pretty sure that would "irritate" more than a few people. The SATA interface is a standard... there is something wrong with their implementation.

The Apple Genius at my local Apple Store told me that they could not roll back the firmware either. Apparently, you can only roll back the firmware if there was a problem during the upgrade itself. If the firmware upgrade was successful, then it can't be rolled back.

I too was under the impression that the SATA interface was a standard, and that a firmware upgrade shouldn't break compatibility with something that was working before and that I'm sure a lot of folks are using besides myself.

I analyzed this further and the root cause seems to be UDMA CRC errors counting up when analyzing with SMART. This causes the Beachballs as I was able to see them right when the SMART counters incremented. These are communication errors between the SATA controller and the SSD. However these do not appear when I test the SSD on other controllers in a different PC at full speed.

In conclusion, the Samsung 250G SSD is just too fast for the controller or the flat ribbon SATA cable of the Macbook (which is flimsy). I hope I have not damaged the cable when I put the SSD in. As this issue seems to appear with some HD/SSDs there is a remote chance that the drive controller is the culprit by maybe being too tight/inaccurate with the CRC checks at high speeds. But as I said, it seemed to work fine on a different SATA II 3GB/s controller.

Anyway, one of the few cases where faster is not better 😉 I am back to the original Apple drive now. Feels like the stone age after being used to my SSD.

I also wonder about the Apple 250G Samsung SSD which is the same as the one I have down to the FW rev. I guess nobody ever buys it from Apple as a BTO given the pricing...
If anybody out there who has it could confirm it would be great.

I guess it's time to wait for a response from Apple on this one.

PS: i tried PRAM reset, reinstall and so on to no avail

Ollie.

So is it possible to return my Macbook with the updated firmware to get a new one that has old firmware without restocking fee if im still within 14 days period ?

To all having the issue:

- Have you tried reset not only the PRAM, but also the PMU?
- Have you tried deactivating the "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" option on "Energy Saver" preferences?

Message was edited by: iFrodo

I tried to reset PRAM and SMC, and then I tried to reinstall OS X, this didn't work, it just hang in the middle of the installation, so can't really test the harddisk sleep option.

Same here.

I came across a french forum where somebody suggested that it could be a compatibility with the sudden motion sensor.

Does anyone know if it's possible to deactivate it?

HI All,

I to have the same problem. All was fine on my 500GB 7.2 CTO drive. Then I see the update, say well why not.... Oh was I wrong!! My MBP works fine for say 20 mins, then all I get is the 'Ball of slow down'. It keeps doing this every 5 mins!!!!

I guess that the flat SATA cable is the reason for the CRC errors. It's built differently than in the previous Macbook (Pro). I'm pretty shure that the original constraint of only 1.5GB/s was because 3.0GB/s didn't work well. Too bad they forgot that and rushed out a badly tested firmware update.

I hope they'll provide a downgrade to 1.5GB/s soon again.

It can't be if everything works fine when booting on windows.

With a Western Digital drive, you may be able to set a jumper to force the drive into SATA 1.5gb mode. (I know the desktop drives have this jumper option.)

Other makes of drives typically allow you to change the SATA data rate with configuration software. Since almost all of this software runs in DOS, you'd have to hook the drive up to a system where you can use DOS.

It has to be something else. The intel x25-m 160GB works flawlessly before and after the update. (Much better after of course)

I'm using a 500GB WD Scorpio Blue HD and it's working fine for me after applying the firmware update (fingers crossed). I guess the difference is that I cloned the original 250GB drive onto the new drive first before switching the drives out, days before the firmware update was released. I also formatted the new drive before cloning so that may also have helped.

Hope you guys get this sorted out.

Looks like the EFI 1.7 firmware update direct link page has been pulled. That's how I originally applied the update, the stand alone update. It's been working fine post the 3Gbps update on my MBP13 but I have an APPLE SUPPLIED Seagate 7200.3 320 GB drive.

If they pulled the firmware update, I'd suspect work on a resolution is underway. I have an Intel XM25 in another machine. It is very fast and does use up SATA 2 rates. I'd love to be able to do the same type of speed on the MBP 13 in the future.