Q: Firmware update and SATA II hard drive

UnexpectedBill wrote:
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.)

Before I put my WD Scorpio Blue drive in my 13" MBP, I checked the jumper settings... there isn't an option to restrict the drive to 1.5Gb/s, the only jumper settings are 'Reduced Power Spinup' and 'Spread Spectrum Clocking' which are both disabled by default.

No it has not been pulled, direct download is still possible:
http://support.apple.com/downloads/MacBookPro_EFI_Firmware_Update_1_7

Maybe the power consumption of the drive could have some influence?

To be clear: My Apple supplied 250GB drive has worked flawlessly so far. But I don't want to be worried about upgrading later.

Must've been a glitch on my browser. I couldn't get that page earlier...

BTW are we all using GUID partitions on our drives?

I have a 13" MBP with new SATA II firmware and an Intel X25 and it works flawlessly. I'm going to install a 500GB Scorpio Blue WD and see if I get any problems.

It almost sounds like it could be electric interference (RF). Maybe the length of the SATA cable has it acting as an antenna. Anyone with the problem want to try wraping the cable in a small amount of alum. foil to provide some shielding? Make sure the foil doesn't short anything on the mainboard - maybe wrap electical tape over the foil if there is room. If I get the problem with my new WD Scorpio Blue 500 I'll try the shielding. It's worth a shot.

In response to the question:

Anybody buy the 500GB SATA drive as a CTO option from the
online Apple store? What is the model & manufacturer?

I did, system profiler reports it as a Seagate:
ST9500420ASG:

Capacity: 465.76 GB
Model: ST9500420ASG
Revision: 0006APM2

Just for the record, I've been having a few random crashes since I got my Mac last week. I upgraded the firmware to hopefully resolve the issue. Things have gone significantly downhill, I get the spinning beachball and a kernel panic more frequently now. I've ran disk repair several times and it always seems to find something wrong with the drive.

Maybe the reason I've been successful with my 500GB HD install and firmware update are:

On June 10th I installed my WD Blue 500 GB HD and did the following:

1. After the initial HD install I reset PRAM(3 bongs).
2. After the install (and migration from my 2.2 GHz MBP) I repaired permissions. And ran Disk Warrior (DW). The first run with DW I had errors (rebuilt), the second time with DW everything was clear. P.S. DW will find errors that "Disk Utility" can not.
3. I ran file optimization, and then volume optimization which took about 5-6 hours to complete. (Used TechTool Pro 5)
4. I repeated step 1 (no errors)
5. I repeated step 2 this time volume optimization only took about 1 -1 1/2 hours to complete.

On June 23rd I updated to MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7

1. I ran DW (no errors)
2. I ran file and volume optimization. Volume took about 35 minutes to complete.
3. I repaired permissions.
4. I started the firmware update.
5. I ran DW (no errors) but I rebuilt anyway.
6. I ran file and volume Optimization. Volume took about 45 minutes.
7. I reset PRAM (3 bongs).

No problems with lag or anything else, as far as I can tell.

The only lag I have is if Im doing something network intense like....
Time Machine backup or large video file transfer to network drive. But that's always been a bit laggy.

Im not sure if the steps I followed keep me out of trouble unlike the most of you or not. I will for sure follow this post and try to post things as they do or do not occur.

Here's an idea:
Clone to the new drive and make repairs and optimization ( I think optimization is similar to defrag) prior to installing the new HD into the computer.

i was going to buy a macbook today, but this has really made me second guess my purchase until it's corrected

I used Carbon Copy Cloner to image my Intel X25 160GB SSD over to the WD 500GB Scorpio Blue and it seems to be working great as well. This is with the newest apple firmware. I'm trying a full install from a Time Machine backup now to see how that goes. So far it seems to me like the problem might be limited to certain computers more than the specific drives.

I installed the 1.7 firmware update on my new MacBook Pro, got a "successful" install message, however on subsequent boots of the laptop the next day the computer froze up completely and would not recognize the drive.

Luckily, I had a firewire backup (bootable using SuperDuper) and was able to boot from that drive, then erased the main disk, then do a restore from the firewire drive. So, its good that the main disk was responsive to the erase command.

Also, I ran the Apple hardware tests (no errors); ran disk utility repair on the main disk (from external boot); S.M.A.R.T shows no errors, wrote 10 gig to the drive, all seems ok and the speed of the drive is listed as "3" which I think was the purpose of the firmware.

Apple has offered to replace the computer completely, not sure if it is necessary now though.

It might be because the hard drive is from an older computer.

I'm calling Apple in the morning and asking for a box with return shipping to return this piece of crap that is a MBP 15". Unbelievable! Freaking software update tells me to update firmware and I end up with a non-working computer. The stupid thing wouldn't boot at all.. just got a flashing apple logo/folder w/ ?/etc. Apple said that I should use my Install Disc to "Archive and Install" which did nothing after 2hrs. I then rebooted the computer (with Install Disc) and attempted to format my drive via disk utility... it wouldn't even format! I got "Operation Timed Out." I'm completely over messing around with this piece of crap... I'm going back to using my pre-unibody 15" MBP that never had any of these dumb issues. If Apple won't issue me a full refund.. I'll be charging everything back on my AMEX. These last two weeks have been miserable thanks to Apple and their new MBPs!! Enough is enough.... release crap that "just works" ... again.

The motion ("free-fall") sensor idea is interesting, b/c I upgraded my new macbook pro 13 (stock 2.26mhz) with a 320 WD Scorpio Black (WDC WD3200BEKT-00F3T0), and all has been fine since applying the firmware. My HD model is one WITHOUT the free-fall sensor. Here is my sys profiler info if it helps anyone:

NVidia MCP79 AHCI:

Vendor: NVidia
Product: MCP79 AHCI
Speed: 3 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.20 Supported

WDC WD3200BEKT-00F3T0:

Capacity: 298.09 GB
Model: WDC WD3200BEKT-00F3T0
Revision: 11.01A11
Serial Number: WD-WXMY*456
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Skip 2:
Capacity: 297.77 GB
Available: 151.06 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /


<Edited by Host>

So, once you recover a computer from this firmware "bug", is everything ok or can something go wrong again.

I have a replacement waiting to be shipped, however my computer seems to be working again. Just want to make sure this does not come back to haunt.

I'm in the same boat! I have a 160GB Intel X-25 M to install in a MacBook Pro that I was going to buy today. I think I'll wait until it gets sorted out though.