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IanBurrell
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Q: 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

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IanBurrell

Q: Firmware update and SATA II hard drive

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  • by khassani,

    khassani khassani Aug 21, 2009 9:55 AM in response to JoeyR
    Level 3 (945 points)
    Aug 21, 2009 9:55 AM in response to JoeyR
    Yes, it's still there. I get a message every week telling me to update. I don't want to ignore it b/c the wording on the alert seems to say that 1.8 would be ignored as well.

  • by Wizang,

    Wizang Wizang Aug 21, 2009 10:55 AM in response to khassani
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 21, 2009 10:55 AM in response to khassani
    Can anyone comment on whether the Hard Drive 2.0 addresses this issue at all?

    http://support.apple.com/downloads/HardDrive_Firmware_Update_20

    I suspect it doesn't... but here's to hoping.

  • by fishbert,

    fishbert fishbert Aug 21, 2009 11:10 AM in response to Wizang
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 21, 2009 11:10 AM in response to Wizang
    Wizang wrote:
    Can anyone comment on whether the Hard Drive 2.0 addresses this issue at all?


    Yes, someone can ... and has already.

  • by tungbh,

    tungbh tungbh Aug 21, 2009 8:13 PM in response to IanBurrell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 21, 2009 8:13 PM in response to IanBurrell
    I just found out last night my 15" MBP 2.66 with Express Card and (self install) WD 320GB 5400rpm got clicking sound. The Beach Ball thing didn't really occur often. Even if occur, it just 1 or 2 sec. So, it's not the Nvidia controller, then what's the problem here? The Hard drive itself? What do you thing? The stock Hitachi 320GB 5400rpm hard disk works quite good.

  • by W1ld Ch1ld,

    W1ld Ch1ld W1ld Ch1ld Aug 21, 2009 8:23 PM in response to IanBurrell
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 21, 2009 8:23 PM in response to IanBurrell
    Just installed a Intel X25-M 80GB 1st generation into my 13" MBP, purchased on the first week they were available, with EFI updated to 1.7. The SSD runs very fast with no beachball problem here. The stock hard drive was put in a USB enclosure. Installation of MacOS X took under 20 minutes and I transfered my data from the old hard drive to the SSD in under 1h (50GB of data). Based on the fact that after some people had the problem solved after the logic board was swapped, even with EFI 1.7 installed, it sounds to me like a hardware problem with the chipset.

  • by fishbert,

    fishbert fishbert Aug 21, 2009 9:30 PM in response to tungbh
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 21, 2009 9:30 PM in response to tungbh
    tungbh wrote:
    I just found out last night my 15" MBP 2.66 with Express Card and (self install) WD 320GB 5400rpm got clicking sound. The Beach Ball thing didn't really occur often. Even if occur, it just 1 or 2 sec. So, it's not the Nvidia controller, then what's the problem here? The Hard drive itself? What do you thing? The stock Hitachi 320GB 5400rpm hard disk works quite good.


    You should start a different thread about that question.
    It's unrelated to the issue being discussed here.

  • by JoeyR,

    JoeyR JoeyR Aug 21, 2009 10:16 PM in response to fishbert
    Level 6 (8,280 points)
    Aug 21, 2009 10:16 PM in response to fishbert
    Accepting donations yet fishbert? It looks like policing this thread is becoming a full time gig for you.

    Kidding aside... it's important for someone to keep something like this on topic.

  • by fishbert,

    fishbert fishbert Aug 21, 2009 11:45 PM in response to JoeyR
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 21, 2009 11:45 PM in response to JoeyR
    Sure, I'll take your money.

  • by Jerry H.,

    Jerry H. Jerry H. Aug 22, 2009 4:06 AM in response to W1ld Ch1ld
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 22, 2009 4:06 AM in response to W1ld Ch1ld
    very good news

    i'm sure both generations of Intel SSD work

    Postville is cheaper than the 1st gen

    less than 2 weeks to go before SL and i'll buy a SSD for my 13" MBP


    thx for your feedback !!

  • by iain_nl,

    iain_nl iain_nl Aug 22, 2009 4:26 AM in response to Jerry H.
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 22, 2009 4:26 AM in response to Jerry H.
    i'm sure both generations of Intel SSD work


    I'm not that sure. My 1st gen Intel SSD doesn't work. My MBP is at Apple Netherlands now for repair. I've included my SSD, and they'd take a look. It's been a week now, but no news so far.

    As I said before: Beach balls, sometimes not booting at all, performance all over the place (benchmarks sometimes report 240MB/s and sometimes 0.2MB/s).

  • by bobrudge,

    bobrudge bobrudge Aug 22, 2009 6:11 AM in response to IanBurrell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 22, 2009 6:11 AM in response to IanBurrell
    Unfortunately it's not as simple as listing models that are compatible. Some people have reported problems with the same model of drive that someone else has had no issues with. On the macrumors forum someone with an Intel G2 is suffering these problems.

    If you buy a new drive you may find it works perfectly in your machine or you may find it is incompatible. Until Apple sorts out a fix you can't otherwise be certain. The only solution that has shown to guarantee a fix is a reversion to 1.6 firmware (by whatever means).

    I implore people to keep hassling Apple over this and to do all they can to draw attention to their shocking failure on this issue.

  • by Jerry H.,

    Jerry H. Jerry H. Aug 22, 2009 6:58 AM in response to bobrudge
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 22, 2009 6:58 AM in response to bobrudge
    what a pain in the a**

    2 weeks to go before Snow Leopard comes

    it HAS to fix this up !!!!

  • by JryArch,

    JryArch JryArch Aug 22, 2009 8:26 AM in response to IanBurrell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 22, 2009 8:26 AM in response to IanBurrell
    Just to add to this thread: I'm waiting for some fix too to install the Intel 2nd gen SDD in my MBP 5.5 (2.26).

  • by bobrudge,

    bobrudge bobrudge Aug 22, 2009 9:08 AM in response to IanBurrell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 22, 2009 9:08 AM in response to IanBurrell
    Snow Leopard will have no impact on this. This is a firmware issue not an OS issue.

    Having installed the latest version of SL myself I can confirm that this did not fix the problem.

  • by Ella Price,

    Ella Price Ella Price Aug 22, 2009 10:04 AM in response to bobrudge
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 22, 2009 10:04 AM in response to bobrudge
    I can second that SL does not fix the issue.
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