Q: Firmware update and SATA II hard drive

Oliver F:

This is the current listing on my 15 inch Unibody MB Pro mid-2009 laptop computer:

Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP53.00AC.B02
SMC Version (system): 1.49f2
Serial Number (system):(XXXXXXXXXXXX)
Hardware UUID: 961058BB-22A8-5F4C-A2DE-386511CF01C1
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

Please recall that I had the Apple Store Genius remove the EFI 1.7 Firmware version that prevented me from using my 3rd party Seagate 500 GB Sata II 7200 RPM drive internal drive which my dealer installed.

I have a different version which appears to be EFI 1.6 though I do not see where this is shown in the System Profiler which now displays MBP53.00AC.B02 which according to a previous posting seems to be a EFI 1.6 Firmware version.

I can not recall what was displayed when the 3rd Party Seagate 500 GB SATA II 7200 GB internal HD was installed. That configuration locked up my MB Pro twice when I updated the Firmware to 1.7 and it had to be removed. I am now using a 250 GB Hitachi HD that came as original equipment on my MB Pro in mid July, 2009 until i can get the 3rd party HD reinstalled.

bobg

I don't have access to an Apple Store where i live. Is there a way to go back to the old HD firmware my myself? If so, how?

Thanks.

Flipside_edispilF wrote:
Just tried this out from this other thread in regards to beach ball lagging, http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2077220&start=75&tstart=60 and it's seemed to work so far.

iamsilou wrote:
FIX!!! i was doing some searching for days to fix this problem and i finally found one, been a few days without a hitch.

so what you will have to do is:
-Open finder> Macintosh HD> System>libary>cache...
or you could use the finder/search bar to get there.

Then Drag the cache folder to the trash can(or just select to send to trash).
after this RESTART.
After the restart the Osx should create a new cache folder that is infact uncorrupted by whatever is creating this issue, either after the start up or when you open safari.
Whatever the issue with this firmware update is, it seems to be flash based and i hope they fix it so tohers wont have to go through ** because it seems to get worse with time.

It's been about 2 hours and no hangups. The apple store said they could replace the hard drive on monday but if just clearing the cache fixes things then I'll just leave things be. They couldn't find a firmware downgrade at the genius bar so I'm still using 1.7.

I am thinking this does not fix the 3Gb hard drive beachballing as everyone would be saying "YES! this works!".... or does it fix it?... anyone else tried it?

mvillarreal

Amigo:

There is a post on Sept 3, 2009 at 9:47 by P3Ncil that has the complete instructions on how to "roll back" the EFI 1.7 FW updater that was posted by Panzo. It has screen shots.

I do not know if this is the one the Apple Genius used.

Search for that post and give it a try if you have the same problem that most of us had.

It is casued by having a mid 2009 Unibody MB Pro with a 3rd party larger drive 320 GB or 500 GB Sata II with 7200 RPM.

When I updated the FW 1.7 on the drive my computer locked up twice.

If the HD is placed in an enclosure, it seem to work OK.

You want to be sure you have those symptoms.

You might have to check with Apple Care to be sure if you can not get to an Apple Store. I am sure they have an Apple Care access to this service in Mexico.

bobg

espanol

Roberto Vaquerro Peletero (Sp?)

Guys/Gals:



This is a thread of my e-mail between my very helpful Apple Genius at the Apple Store. It contains some answers to some of the question which some of you may have with respect to the EFI 1.7 Firmware roll back confirmation.

*Question to Genius:*

On Sep 11, 2009, at 9:52 AM, Gulyas Robert wrote:

Rex:

Thanks for all your help!

I think I got the FW back-dated--but I can not really tell where the current version of Firmware is recorded on the Mac.

I checked the System Profiler and under Applications and see the following displayed:

Mac Book Pro EFI FW Update 1.7 7/29/09 - Intel

I type in Firmware in Spotlight and a screen comes up for the F/W updater to 1.7 shows up. I cancelled out of that ASAP.

How can I tell that the roll back in FW took place and what version is it?

I believe it should be FW 1.6 is it not?

Answer:

Bob

What's going on is behind the scenes, you had previously updated the firmware and it was installed to the Utilities folder. That can be safely deleted. It is only an application to update 1.6 to 1.7.

The firmware is on 1.6, and this was confirmed by running software updater, and getting the message that a firmware update was available. We then told software updater to ignore that update in the future so that it would not prompt you to install that.

Rex

coolas wrote:

Flipside_edispilF wrote:
Just tried this out from this other thread in regards to beach ball lagging, http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2077220&start=75&tstart=60 and it's seemed to work so far.

iamsilou wrote:
FIX!!! i was doing some searching for days to fix this problem and i finally found one, been a few days without a hitch.

so what you will have to do is:
-Open finder> Macintosh HD> System>libary>cache...
or you could use the finder/search bar to get there.

Then Drag the cache folder to the trash can(or just select to send to trash).
after this RESTART.
After the restart the Osx should create a new cache folder that is infact uncorrupted by whatever is creating this issue, either after the start up or when you open safari.
Whatever the issue with this firmware update is, it seems to be flash based and i hope they fix it so tohers wont have to go through ** because it seems to get worse with time.

It's been about 2 hours and no hangups. The apple store said they could replace the hard drive on monday but if just clearing the cache fixes things then I'll just leave things be. They couldn't find a firmware downgrade at the genius bar so I'm still using 1.7.

I am thinking this does not fix the 3Gb hard drive beachballing as everyone would be saying "YES! this works!".... or does it fix it?... anyone else tried it?

There are many things that cause beachballing issues. Perhaps he had some other issue that was resolved by his method, but no, it does not fix the SATA II bug.

Robert Gulyas wrote:
It is casued by having a mid 2009 Unibody MB Pro with a 3rd party larger drive 320 GB or 500 GB Sata II with 7200 RPM.

This is false.
Any drive that supports a SATA II interface will potentially expose this issue with the laptop. Size is unrelated, and platter rotation speed is unrelated … especially when talking about SSDs.

fishbert, then why is it that this issue is not consistently seen with the stock drives.
I am still a little concerned that this may be a hardware issue. Doesn't make sense that the same 3rd party drives work flawlessly for some folks and not for others. Only thing I can think of is that the SATA 2 interface is faulty on some of the MBPs

Ashit wrote:
fishbert, then why is it that this issue is not consistently seen with the stock drives.
I am still a little concerned that this may be a hardware issue. Doesn't make sense that the same 3rd party drives work flawlessly for some folks and not for others. Only thing I can think of is that the SATA 2 interface is faulty on some of the MBPs

This issue is not consistently seen, period. And some have reported seeing this issue on stock drives.
Apple has apparently also told people in this forum that they don't ship any SATA II laptop drives. All of this has been discussed... in the last week or two, even.

This is interesting indeed. When I got my MBP new, it came with 1.7...I'm pretty sure that version showed as MBP53.00AC.B03. Now, I have rolled back (using the files from Macrumors) and my version shows as MBP53.00AC.B00. So I don't know if this is indeed 1.6, or perhaps an earlier firmware? Either way, Software Update does offer me 1.7 since the rollback, and my beachballing has completely stopped as well.

fishbert wrote:

Ashit wrote:
fishbert, then why is it that this issue is not consistently seen with the stock drives.
I am still a little concerned that this may be a hardware issue. Doesn't make sense that the same 3rd party drives work flawlessly for some folks and not for others. Only thing I can think of is that the SATA 2 interface is faulty on some of the MBPs

This issue is not consistently seen, period. And some have reported seeing this issue on stock drives.
Apple has apparently also told people in this forum that they don't ship any SATA II laptop drives. All of this has been discussed... in the last week or two, even.

I have been tracking this thread for a while now (and also the one on macrumours). Do you see the beachballs with your stock drive? The way I look at this, the faster 3rd party drives work fine with 1.6 (1.5 Gbps). As soon as we upgrade to 1.7, the faster drives don't work (event though its unlikely that they may be crossing that 1.5Gbps threshold). My guess is, with 1.7, the faster drives might be triggering something that is resulting in the beach balls. Again, this is just me hypothesising.
Obviously its sad to see that this issue has not yet been addressed (or acknowledged)
Sigh! I have been sitting on the fence on upgrading my Power book. Sigh!

Below is the letter I'm about to send to Apple. I urge others to do the same. Let me know what you think:

Hello.

I'm writing today about an issue I'm sure you at Apple have already heard complaints of multiple times, as it is affecting a large number of your customers who purchased a 2009 MacBook Pro from your company. ANY third-party hard drive installed in one of these machines, will cause the machine to freeze up at random intervals for anywhere from a few seconds to 2 or 3 minutes. This issue is happening regardless of third party hard drive brand, size, or speed. I myself have installed my own 500GB hard drive into my BRAND NEW MacBook Pro, and I am having this problem as well. This issue is being caused by the EFI 1.7 firmware upgrade for these machines. Some users have downgraded back to the 1.6 firmware, but are still having the issues. It is well documented on message boards all over the internet as well as Apple's OWN online support forum. I believe as of right now, the topic regarding the issue is over 90 pages long with around 1,000 replies. It is now past the point of arguing over whether this issue even exists, or if it's serious enough to fix. It is time for Apple to make a statement about this issue, as myself and many others are feeling severely left out in the cold by Apple.

Coming from the standpoint of a longtime customer such as myself who has bought many Apple products through the years (2 MacBooks, 3 iPhones, multiple iPod's and accessories), this issue is VERY dissatisfying. This is NOT the kind of quality control that your customers expect from you, nor is it even close to acceptable, especially for the premium price of your products over your competitors. Apple has been known for making the best quality products on the market for years, so myself and many others are hoping for a fast solution to this problem. I purchased my new 13" MacBook Pro from you in early September and am very close to returning it for this issue. Replacing a Hard Drive is a very simple procedure that many users will perform during the life of their machine, so not supporting this type of procedure is simply illogical. Other then this one issue, my new machine is absolutely perfect, but the freezing issue is something that is too big to overlook. I will be going back to using my 2007 MacBook, which is disappointing since i paid Apple $1500 for a "Pro" computer that is rendered next-to-worthless in my eyes, because of the fact that it is freezing up every 20 or so minutes.

I also happen to work at my local Best Buy, where I am employed in the computers department and have sold HUNDREDS of MacBook's and MacBook Pro's to the customers I help. Normally, Apple is hands-down my number one recommendation, and it's what I try to steer customers towards, because I felt that Apple made the best machines on the market. Now, I don't know if I can continue to persuade customers to buy a machine from my store that I KNOW will become basically worthless if they install a third party hard drive into the machine. This issue is very discouraging to your users, both new and old, who pay the large price for your otherwise unrivaled products.

Please, please fix this issue for your customers that continue to buy your products. Myself, and many others are VERY anxious to Apple's response to this very serious matter. Thank you for your time and consideration, and eventually your solution to this problem.

A longtime Apple user,

(And in case you were wondering, my computer froze SIX times while composing this letter, for about 5 seconds each time.)

The1Payday wrote:
Below is the letter I'm about to send to Apple. I urge others to do the same. Let me know what you think:

Hello.

I'm writing today about an issue I'm sure you at Apple have already heard complaints of multiple times, as it is affecting a large number of your customers who purchased a 2009 MacBook Pro from your company. ANY third-party hard drive installed in one of these machines, will cause the machine to freeze up at random intervals for anywhere from a few seconds to 2 or 3 minutes.

...

A longtime Apple user,

(And in case you were wondering, my computer froze SIX times while composing this letter, for about 5 seconds each time.)

Not a bad letter, but I would note that if you are seeing freezes lasting only 5 seconds or so, the cause is probably a different issue… which also would make sense if you are "still seeing the issue" on firmware 1.6.

A wide variety of problems have freezing/beachballing symptoms.

Hm....I doubt it, but do you have any recommendations as to what these other issues could be if it's by chance the case? I also can't seem to force enable my Sudden Motion Sensor. I've tried the Terminal commands, and they show the results indicating that it's on, but "System Profiler" shows it being disabled.

The1Payday wrote:
Hm....I doubt it, but do you have any recommendations as to what these other issues could be if it's by chance the case? I also can't seem to force enable my Sudden Motion Sensor. I've tried the Terminal commands, and they show the results indicating that it's on, but "System Profiler" shows it being disabled.

I can't tell from your earlier post whether you downgraded to EFI version 1.6. You mentioned that others have.