Q: Firmware update and SATA II hard drive

While I am very glad to hear that this measure seems to be working for Hitachi drive owners, I have tried jumpering down to 1.5Gbps on my brand new Seagate 7200rpm (500Gb AS model) and it didn't solve the problem. I initially installed the drive and tried formatting it at 3.0 Gbps (unjumpered) but I could not even get the drive to format. I then tried jumpering as a few people said that it would help. It did but not enough. I managed to get it formatted and OSX installed but when I rebooted, it gave me the flashing folder with the X through it. I booted again with the Install DVD and tried reformatting but it would not format. Now the drive is sitting on my desk doing nothing until the enclosure I ordered arrives and I can try formatting it and using it as an external backup drive. I did not buy my MBP at the Apple store but from a third-party reseller and Apple has made it clear to many that they do not support problems with third-party drives. I did contact Apple Support but they said the same thing. I may try again later and see if they woud replace the logic board (if next tuesday doesn't yield a new firmware).

Is there a jumper setting to disable spread-spectrum clocking? If so, try forcing that. Also see if seagage publishes any drive firmware tools.

In addition, once you have reconfigured the drive's interface by jumpers or firmware, you should erase the drive and repartition it using OSX's disk utility on the install DVD. Overwriting with zeros helps by also finding and flagging any bad sectors.

Hmmm... I've never really noticed this before (or at least thought about it in any depth)...

+*MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 addresses an issue reported by a small number of customers using drives based on the SATA 3Gbps specification with the June 2009 MacBook Pro. While this update allows drives to use transfer rates greater than 1.5Gbps, Apple has not qualified or offered these drives for Mac notebooks and their use is unsupported.*+

They basically say "we don't support third party drives, but here's an update specifically for third party drives". The "we don't support it" seems like a bit of an excuse. They say that they have not "qualified or offered these drives for Mac notebooks". As such the only purpose for the update would be to support third party drives... no? I'm not sure I see any other way to interpret this. The only purpose of the update was to fix third party drive issues and all the update seems to have done was break third party drive compatibility. If this wasn't the case, then what was the update for?

The reason why they came out with this update is that their dirty trick of downgrading both the sata bus and sata on the drive was exposed and picked up by every tech blog out there. I suspect the real reason for this downgrade was that the sata chipset is defective and unable to support SATA II.

So then they come out with this upgrade for "a small number of users using UNSUPPORTED drives" So 99% of the population reads techcrunch and is like wow they fixed the problem. But the people really using SATAII speeds with SSDs find that their system is totally unstable. The only way you will get action on this is if news picks up on the fact that this does not seem like an oversight that the chipset was downgraded to sata I. Appple does this all the time, and will not admit fault until there is a groundswell of news.

Got off the phone with their support line.

As it turns out, in upgrading the HDD on the Apple Website, an unsupported Hitachi 320GB drive made its way into my machine. I am assured that this is a unique situation, to quote my support person, and that it will be fixed up for me (probably by replacing the drive) as soon as possible.

Life (vacation) is interrupting my quest for a MacBook without beachballs, but when I am able to attack this problem again, I'll be having it looked at in-store and hopefully resolved.

If you've already tried the PRAM, the disk verification, the clearing of system and user caches, then say so during the call. It'll speed things along.

I created a case for my problem at the Seagate Support website and got a prompt email in return from Tech Support which I'm pasting below:

"Thank you for contacting Seagate.

Sorry to hear you are having problems with your new drive.

The drive is not affected by any firmware issue. I verified it by the serial number you supplied. Please try the following steps to format/partition the drive.

Under partition tab do this:
Volume Scheme: 1 partition, click options, choose GUID, click ok, change format to Mac OS Extended, change the name to whatever, click Partition or Apply./
Specifically, choose the GUID.
Don't choose Apple Partition Map.

If you still get an error or it fails try disk repair and see if you also get an error.

If you do, then I would suggest returning the drive. You can complete a warranty return from the following link.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/warranty%26_returnsassistance

Select "Return a drive as Guest User"."

I followed the instructions to a T and was able to format the drive but upon installing OSX, got a Time Remaining of 11 hours, 58 minutes! I quit the install and tried once again but got an Install Failed this time. I am now going to return the drive and try my luck with a new drive.

I have been having the same problem with my new 13 inch MBP. It is only 2 weeks old and started this problem straight from the box.

I just got off the the phone with apple and they are shipping me a new MBP.

Good job that's what everyone on this thread with this problem should do, unfortunately it seems as Apple is not treating every case the same...

I'd been having the same problem with my mid-2009 MacBook Pro 15" with an OCZ Vertex 120GB (with 1.31FW on the drive, 1.7 EFI on the Mac) and was unable to install the OS on it (or boot from the drive once I installed the OS to the drive over USB).

I took the computer to the Apple store and pleaded my case. I kept stressing that the drive DID in fact work, and could be booted over USB, but was useless inside the computer--so obviously something was faulty with the computer. I was initially turned down, but asked to speak to the manager. I explained the situation again and he agreed to replace the logic board as a matter of "appeasement". I will have the computer back in 5-7 days and will report in.

TO EVERYONE EXPERIENCING THIS PROBLEM: DON'T STAND FOR IT. DON'T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER!

Note: After they agreed to replace the board free of charge (this once), the manager said softly to me, "Tell me if it works, here's my card..."

katmeef wrote:
Small update,

I have started a case with applecare... Once I mentioned the thread, I was placed on hold immediately while he spoke to a product expert. He advised they might want to take the call 'as they examine upcoming issues', however he returned after about 5 minutes with some stuff to do.


I have been asked to perform the following steps:
-repair volume by booting into OSX install disc (as opposed to by booting in safe mode, nothing was found to be repaired)
-create new user account for test purposes.

I have been advised to use my standard user and when the issue occurs next (I have it more intermittently than some) to A) login to the test account and note if it occurs. If still occurring under the test user, I am to B) boot into safe mode and see if it occurs there as well - then call back with results.

I didn't get any direct acknowledgment of this being a known issue, but the fact he put me on hold to speak to expert first thing leads me to believe they are aware.

katmeef wrote:
Forgot to mention one other thing: I was also asked to reset the SMC prior to the disk repair. Waiting for next iteration of beachball freeze and will let you guys know if the other user / safe mode has any effect.

I know you used the hitachi feature tool as a workaround, but have you heard anything back from AppleCare regarding the avenue of communication you have opened with them? I tried what they suggested above, and there was no change (actually seemed to be a bit worse in safe mode... but not by much).

Message was edited by: fishbert

fishbert wrote:
I know you used the hitachi feature tool as a workaround, but have you heard anything back from AppleCare regarding the avenue of communication you have opened with them? I tried what they suggested above, and there was no change (actually seemed to be a bit worse in safe mode... but not by much).

Hey fishbert,

No they haven't contacted me back. As we left it, I was going to call them back after the next occurrence to advise if any of the aforementioned steps helped with the issue (still no issues since forcing drive to 1.5 and disabling spread-spectrum clocking).

If no update comes out tomorrow (and I haven't just jinxed myself into the problem with this post) I'll give them a buzz to advise what steps I've taken as a workaround.

From the way they put me on hold ASAP, and did not request a logic board replacement - it felt like they were just giving me things to try to stall a bit while they worked on a fix.

Friends,

got my brandnew MBP 5 days ago, immediately did all updates and got the "beach ball" - issue right out of the box. Called Apple Support Germany, they looked into their database and told me that problem was "uncommon" and new to them. So I ask everybody in Germany experiencing this error to call the german support to make them aware of the issue, posted my feedback to apple already.

I performed some low level hardware resets with that support guy; the situation got better (beach ball only once every hour) but is basically unresolved.

Frustrating with such expensive chunk of hardware.

Pretty sure Germany has the same 14 day return policy... So tale it back and have them exchange it, cause this problem has been on going for well over a month and still no fix. Protect your investment, make them fix it!

Guys!
TUAW has FINALLY posted an entry about this (and a related) problem w/ the new MBP. Here it is, visit and post some comments: http://www.tuaw.com/2009/08/03/macbook-pro-owners-report-hard-drive-lag/

kcpedro wrote:
Guys!
TUAW has FINALLY posted an entry about this (and a related) problem w/ the new MBP. Here it is, visit and post some comments: http://www.tuaw.com/2009/08/03/macbook-pro-owners-report-hard-drive-lag/

That TUAW story is about a different problem. One that only affects the 17" MBP (which the issue of this thread specifically does not affect), and one that has already received press (from Macrumors, I believe).

So far, there has been zero coverage that I've seen of this issue.