Q: Firmware update and SATA II hard drive

fishbert wrote:
I hope the 17" is also affected. It's possible, with all the focus on the click/beep issue, that the same misbehaving 3.0 Gb/s SATA II is implemented in their seperate firmware and has just been overlooked on the larger MacBook Pro.

It is affected. It's not as frequently reported, though, but I'm guessing that's simply because the 17" model is the least popular by far... everyone's whining about how huge it is so they go for 15" or less.

Hrm... Been experiencing this issue since I purchased my Unibody 17" about a month ago (5.2). I was actually hopeful that I could live with it, but it seems to be getting progressively worse.

I have the stock Hitachi drive, nothing aftermarket.

I actually expected to have seen a fix since the issue had gotten some pretty significant press across the mac blogs - alas - it seems to be something I'm supposed to live with for a while. I guess they might fix the problem when some fed up executive takes his 15" MBP up to a "Genius" and smacks him across the face with it.

OK,

So I thought I'd report my experience here.

I have a 15" Macbook Pro Matte screen bought a couple of weeks ago. The machine came with a 500gb 5400 RPM stock drive. It has the 1.7 firmware.

I tried putting my old 128GB Corsair SSD drive in it when it had Leopard, and it wouldn't load the OS to the SSD when connected internally.

Yesterday I tried it with my new Snow Leopard disk (clean install from the SLeo disk to the SSD internally) and it worked.

I've been running on the SSD now for 24 hours with no beach balling and it's screaming fast.

Maybe Snow Leopard was the answer?

What do you think:

-Is the firmware downgrade only a workaround?

-Does it mean, that the HDD is a bottle neck and limits the overall System performance, because Apple fails to implement SATA II - Standard correctly in Mid-2009 MBP's ???

-Do I have a chance, that they will replace my Logic Board? What facts/arguments will Apple convince to replace my Logic Board

-Why did Apple wait so long, before they rolled out the Firmware Rollback Tool?

BTW:
After downgrading my firmware to 1.6 everything I have no problems. My Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500gb and my Samsung HM500-Drives works perfect.

The logic board replacement is only a way of downgrading the firmware in the absence of a rollback tool. So if you're already on 1.6 and your drives are working perfectly, why are you looking for a repair?

The firmware downgrade limits the drive to 1.5Gbs but my understanding is that the current generation of drives rarely, if ever, get above that anyway so there isn't an actual impedance on performance.

Gcarswell mate, is your SSD still working? nothing changed? My SSD worked for 4-5 hours before it failed to boot (With Leopard 10.5.8)

I know it's been suggested and explained why nothing will change with Snow Leopard given this is a Firmware problem and not OS related but it won't hurt getting some feedbacks and experiences with the new Snow Leopard. The only reason I'm not reporting my experience is the fact that I broke my screwdriver and have yet to buy a new one...

pinnocio wrote:
Gcarswell mate, is your SSD still working? nothing changed? My SSD worked for 4-5 hours before it failed to boot (With Leopard 10.5.8)

I know it's been suggested and explained why nothing will change with Snow Leopard given this is a Firmware problem and not OS related but it won't hurt getting some feedbacks and experiences with the new Snow Leopard. The only reason I'm not reporting my experience is the fact that I broke my screwdriver and have yet to buy a new one...

Yes, it will hurt because it distracts from the real issue at hand. It's about as useful as someone saying "I replaced my memory with new sticks of RAM, but my firmware is still broken!"

Besides, people have already provided feedback from Snow Leopard... both developer preview releases and the final retail release. Guess what? Not fixed. So let's not sidetrack the thread, ok?

Good morning,
I know it is getting repetitive but I also got a brand new Macbook Pro 13" with an hitachi HDD and it's doing exactly the same.
I wanted to know if the tipp given page ten for the Hitachi disks is safe or if I sould sit and wait for a fix... or give my laptop back to apple...
This is getting really annoying, I cannot even listen to a full song...
I'm pretty sure we don't know when this "fix" or new firmware will be released but could you give me an estimated date?

Thank you very much. I'll try to make some noise about it as well!

Gaëtan Goldberg wrote:
I wanted to know if the tipp given page ten for the Hitachi disks is safe or if I sould sit and wait for a fix... or give my laptop back to apple...

The best thing that can be done now, is to take the machine back to Apple and have them downgrade the EFI firmware to version 1.6. Your SATA speed will be limited to half of what the hardware is capable of, but it will get rid of the problems you're seeing until Apple fixes the SATA II support of their new laptops (which they may - or may not - be working on).

You're right, it's because I'm so frustrated.

I had my firmware rolled back to 1.6 and everything's working smoothly now (albeit at SATA I). While I was chatting with one of the geniuses (who seemed to be well-informed), he did mention that they are working on an update for 1.7 (but again, take that with a grain of salt based on how much information Apple actually releases to their "geniuses").

I'm sorry if this sounds a bit dumb but I'm really not that good at computer knowledge.
Do you lose anything when they roll you back to 1.6 except what 1.7 could do?

Someone said Snow Leopard makes the issue less important... Would it be very bad for the machine to install it on without waiting for a fix?

markt21 wrote:
I had my firmware rolled back to 1.6 and everything's working smoothly now (albeit at SATA I). While I was chatting with one of the geniuses (who seemed to be well-informed), he did mention that they are working on an update for 1.7 (but again, take that with a grain of salt based on how much information Apple actually releases to their "geniuses").

When I had my firmware rolled back (shortly after the tool was made available), the "genius" I dealt with was talking about rolling the firmware back until a new version of the firmware was released... but when I asked him directly if Apple was working on a fix or new firmware release to solve the issue, his reply was "I don't know; that's above my pay grade."

Gaëtan Goldberg wrote:
I'm sorry if this sounds a bit dumb but I'm really not that good at computer knowledge.
Do you lose anything when they roll you back to 1.6 except what 1.7 could do?

Someone said Snow Leopard makes the issue less important... Would it be very bad for the machine to install it on without waiting for a fix?

EFI firmware 1.7 was released because of the outcry that the new 13" and 15" MacBook Pros were limited to a SATA I speed of 1.5 Gb/s, when the hardware (and indeed the previous generation of the same laptop) supported full SATA II speeds of 3.0 Gb/s. And as far as I know, that's all that 1.7 was supposed to do, and would be the only difference when rolling back to 1.6.

If someone said Snow Leopard makes this issue less important, you should stop listening to them. The operating system (be it Leopard, Snow Leopard, Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Linux, etc.) doesn't have any effect on this firmware issue.

I dont' think you get it Fishbert:

I had the same issue that this thread is about: 1.7 firmware, unable to load the OS with 10.5.

It now works fine with 1.7 firmware and a 3rd party Sata II SSD drive and Snow Leopard. The OS loaded fine on clean install.

I know it seems counter-intuitive if it is really a firmware 'under the OS" issue, but maybe it's not...and maybe that's why Apple hasn't done anything (with new firmware per se) about it. Just because some developer seeds of the Snow Leopard OS didn't work doesn't mean the gold master experience that I'm having is any less valuable to other people in this thread.

It's been two days and it's working fine. The bottom line is that I have a 3rd party SSD drive in my 1.7 firmware MBP and you don't. Open your mind a little bit geez.

Message was edited by: Gcarswell

I have a newer model Macbook Pro 13" that is having very similar issues as others here on this thread. It was purchased Aug 8th from Best Buy, and it already had the 1.7 firmware on it. My husband put in a Seagate Momentus 5400 RPM 500GB SATA drive (says on the Seagate box that it works with MacBook Pro). Ever since that upgrade, I have been getting the beach ball freezes. It was just a few seconds here and there at first, but it's progressively been getting worse and worse and now the beach balls hang for so long I end up having to hard boot it to get it working again.

Since this model shipped with the firmware update already applied, does anyone know if it can still be rolled back to 1.6? Also, since I purchased it from Best Buy, would I still be able to go to a local Apple store for this, and if so is there a charge?

It's just so frustrating to have a brand new system that is having such a big issue.