Q: Firmware update and SATA II hard drive

Jerry H. wrote:
if don't want to know, please don't read

others want to know, why blocking them ???

As I said before, this thread is already 60 pages. Adding in this drive-by-drive filler only makes it more difficult for people to find the relevant and potentially useful information.

Jerry H. wrote:
does drive X work?
if one says yes, another says no,
ok i agree it doesn't prove anything

but with the time, if 10 says yes for the same drive against one no, then it's the evidence that the drive is working

This drive-by-drive hearsay is not "relevant and potentially useful information" because, as has been repeatedly demonstrated in here, the issue is not limited to only certain drives, and it is not predictable based on the drive used.

In other words, it has been shown that saying "drive X works for me" will not predict whether drive X will work for someone else... entirely defeating what you're trying to do, and relegating such posts to "useless filler material" status. Which, again, we do not need more of in a 60-page thread.

If you wish to continue your quixotic quest of going drive-by-drive to find a magical make/model that the broken EFI 1.7 firmware plays nice with, please start a different thread.

people are free to post dude

nobody is forcing you to read or take part of the thread if it's too long for you...

how selfish of you :/

I think fishbert is just suggesting to keep the thread strictly on topic... which is noble and respectable.

The goal of the thread - from my perspective, anyway - is to find solutions to firmware 1.7 issues. With that, perhaps the better idea is not to just post a working drive model, but also the precise process used to get it running.

I'm one of the lucky ones... my SSD worked, but it wasn't a straight forward installation. I had to set it all up on my MacPro - running updates, etc - prior to my MBP accepting it.

This whole thing takes me back to my days of building performance PCs for gaming... hardware is very fickle... each part has a personality - some having bad attitudes. You sometimes have to do really stupid, senseless things to make it all work together. I was once convinced that my overclocked CPUs refused to boot up if I was drinking coffee. It had to be a soda.

Hello Folks,

Has anybody installed this update yet? I saw it today for the first time on my software update from Apple, but haven't yet installed it.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/firmware_hardware/harddrivefirmwareu pdate20.html

As I mentioned before I had the same issue with the stock 500 gig drive and the EFI 1.7 that was pushed to my machine. I have since gotten my machine replaced by apple and the new one came with the 1.7 FW installed on it and everything is fine.

aaroninvt wrote:
Hello Folks,

Has anybody installed this update yet? I saw it today for the first time on my software update from Apple, but haven't yet installed it.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/firmware_hardware/harddrivefirmwareu pdate20.html

That release updates the firmware on a specific hard drive that was included in some MacBook Pro configurations in order to address an unrelated issue. It does not touch the EFI 1.7 firmware that is responsible for the issue discussed in this thread.

There is a different (and longer) thread in this forum that covers the issue that release addresses.

Jerry H. wrote:
people are free to post dude

nobody is forcing you to read or take part of the thread if it's too long for you...

how selfish of you :/

I was going to just let theARGIOPE's reply be the end of this...

Remember when I suggested that you start your own thread about all this drive-by-drive stuff? There already is one! (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2060516)

Not only that, but you were cross-posting that whole "tell me if any of you have one of these drives that works" thing from earlier today in both that thread you started AND in here! That's a big no-no in basic internet forum etiquette, pretty much on the same level as email spam.

---
+edited due to initial thread author confusion ... and to not go off on the poor guy too much+

If only Quality control and field testing was as strict as the forum policing, these 60 pages wouldn't be here if that was the case.

Im suffering from the same issue with a stock drive.

The apparent rollback tool does not work and the alternative ive been suggested by the apple tech was to replace the logicboard with one which has the prior firmware.

Im with fishbert on this one, this thread is about "Firmware update and sata II hard drive" not "Firmware update and Hard drvie compatibility"

The reason why thread derailing is being reprimanded by fishbert is to keep this thread as accurate as possible for apple to deal with the people having this issue, if every one starst popping in and saying ya well my hard drive works yadda yadda, then it will cripple the cause.

Every one has the right to post freely (even though the forum policing is questionable) lets just try to keep the apples and the lemons in different baskets.

*Disclaimer: For future references, please refrain from thread jacking/derailing, as it produces off topic debates and posts such as the one i just finished typing."

I installed the 1.7 EFI the day it was released.

In anticipation of an early 10.6 release, I ordered the Seagate 500GB 5400 from Newegg last Sunday. Was waiting for me when I got home from the office today. I dropped it in my 13" MBP and ran the 10.5 installation disc that came with the laptop. Everything ran fine and booted up. I ran the various updates that were available (10.5.8, etc). No freezes / beachballs as indicated in this thread.

I took the drive out and put back the stock 160GB since I didn't feel like migrating all my stuff over to the 500 when I'm going to clean install on the 500GB on Friday when I get 10.6.

Anyway, the drive I have is the Seagate Momentus 5400.6 500GB (ST9500325AS), PN 9HH135-500, FW 00012DM1.

Hi Jonathan,

I hate you (not really, LOL). I have the same drive in my 15" that was in my MacBook 13" unibody (pre-SD) with no issues. I got my new 15" and slapped it in and nothing but problems. I actually had my firmware rolled back to 1.6 and still seeing issues with it. Thanks for posting your firmware. I am going to compare to mine. Thanks for posting!


Cheers, John.

Well Guys, i need help!

I bought this Seagate ST9500420ASG 500GB 7200RPM few months ago, and i used as external drive in my PC.

Now i have new Macbook Pro 2009. Since my macbook came with 250GB 5400 RPM, i just wanted to intall my Segate... My problems start here...

I removed the 250GB and insert the 500GB inside my macbook. Then boot with my MAC OS DVD, formated... Everything is fine....

But after the installation begins...an error occurred after 20 minutes...i tried to install 3 times...adn had the same problem...

Looking for another way...i put the Seagate in a external case and installed MAC OS through the USB... Installation was flawless...booting very well...I launched the TERMINAL and disable the SMS protection...set to 0....BUT...

After i put the Segate back in my MACBOOK with the MAC OS installed through USB...they can't boot... HA!

I power up the MACBOOK and the apple appears and suddenly this image Ø appears ...

What i have to do??? Does anyone know?????

Regards,

Tiago.
I don't know why this is happening...

Your drive is fine because you can use it in an external enclosure, but when connected via the internal SATA II interface, reliability issues ensue. If your 2009 MacBook Pro is a 13" or 15" model, you likely have EFI firmware version 1.7... and that firmware version is broken.

It may be something else with the interface in your case (bad cable, etc.), but you should take your laptop into an Apple store (make an appointment with the genius bar), explain what is wrong, and tell them you heard they have a firmware rollback tool to downgrade the EFI firmware to version 1.6. This version doesn't have the stability issues of 1.7, but it's also limited to half SATA II speed (something that 1.7 was supposed to fix).

I'd also highly suggest that you give Apple feedback about your experience by going to: http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html
Apple has not officially acknowledged this issue, nor indicated whether they intend to fix it. It can only help to have another customer raising their hand to say "hey Apple, this is a problem and you need to fix it."

I wanted to add something based on my experience, though it might have limited applicability.

As I reported earlier, I had the logic board replaced and my SSD was working perfectly but then I started getting some freezeups that required me to hard restart. I narrowed it down to Safari for some reason. So I have now switched to Firefox and the freezes I was having - which are related to this thread's topic because they do not happen with the stock drive - have finally been fully vanquished.

Jonathan Ocab wrote:
I installed the 1.7 EFI the day it was released.

In anticipation of an early 10.6 release, I ordered the Seagate 500GB 5400 from Newegg last Sunday. Was waiting for me when I got home from the office today. I dropped it in my 13" MBP and ran the 10.5 installation disc that came with the laptop. Everything ran fine and booted up. I ran the various updates that were available (10.5.8, etc). No freezes / beachballs as indicated in this thread.

I took the drive out and put back the stock 160GB since I didn't feel like migrating all my stuff over to the 500 when I'm going to clean install on the 500GB on Friday when I get 10.6.

Anyway, the drive I have is the Seagate Momentus 5400.6 500GB (ST9500325AS), PN 9HH135-500, FW 00012DM1.

Correction to my drive information. The FW on the drive label is listed as FW 0001SDM1.

Hi there,

I called apple and the guy in the helpcenter gave me a tip, that seems to be kind of a solution.

1. shutting the computer down
2. keep cmd + alt + p + r pressed while pressing the power button
3. whait till you heard the starting sound 5 times

looks like looks like forced reboots in the middle of the startup

The result is that I had no beachballing for the last few hours, which is very good, because before that procedure I got them every 3 to 5 minutes in safari and randomly in quicktime.

Did someone try this before? Is it a permanent solution?

Greets from Germany.

That resets the PRAM. See here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

Other people have tried this, but it has not helped everyone, so I don't think it fully addresses the underlying problem. In my case, my stock Hitachi 250 GB drive had significantly lower sequential write speeds after installing EFI version 1.7, and the PRAM reset did help me. What's strange about this SATA issue is that it seems to affect people with the exact same hardware differently.