Firmware update and SATA II hard drive (continued)

Thanks for your feedback.

I had a similar story

Macbook Pro 5,4 mid 2009 model - OSX 10.7.5

Factory HD failed.

Brought new Western Digital 500GB Blue model WD5000BPVT and it take 3x longer to do anything. Installing, booting, and would freeze randomly when it could boot.

I had to replace it with a non "BPVT" version.

So got the Black version WD5000BPKT instead

Black version acted as expected (responsive) however I would experience "beach ball of death" randomly for no apparent reason.

Again long story short I had to flashback back to EFI v1.6 from v1.7 as others have suggested. SATA link speed is now down to 1.5 (SATA 1 speed) but I have a stable system again.

(obviously I did the usual troubleshooting first, reset PRAM, repair disk, reinstallation's, test other HD's etc)

I havent tried the trick with using a newer 2010 model SATA cable as others have advised.

Hello All,

From what I've found, the downgrade to EFI 1.6 is the ONLY way to solve this issue. I tried everything else.

Hi,

Do you have the .dmg file still for this?

Having the same problem with my 2009 MBP and can't find a live link to this file anywhere!

Cheers,

- Joe

I just rebuilt my 2009 MBP with a new

Sata 2 WD 750 gb. Started from scratch

And everything is working perfect. I will not restore

From time machine but will drag over need data

All apps have been installed fresh and I have seen no beach balls

I am running efi 1.7

You guys are a LOT more tech than I.

I've got a 2009 MBP 15".

Over Xmas, while I was using it, it went haywire and I had to use the power button to shut it down. Upon a reboot attempt, it didn't see the HD.

I tried several other HDs in it, which it didn't see, either.

It DID boot from an old external "mirrored" drive... via USB. This clued me that with so many HDs internally not even seen, it might be the cable and not the drives. I had ordered a brand new HD already, which is still on-hand because...

I ordered a replacement cable online and installed it. Success. The original HD was fine.

It's only been maybe three weeks. And earlier today... I had the SAME failure (I think). I'm running from the backup external drive right now.

What's killing these cables, and now so quickly?

Additional problems:
I'd bought this MBP used. It did not come with any install CD's. It was running Lion. I discussed this with Apple (several different "reps" on several occasions). I couldn't find any where/way to simply buy a Lion install disc. Turns out they don't exist.

So Apple had me purchase a Snow Leopard disc, telling me that once that was installed I'd be able to go online and then "upgrade" back to Lion. Not true. I could upgrade to the latest, final version of Snow Leopard... and that's all.

Plus, over the past couple of years, I'd purchased some other things from them via the online Apps Store: a version of QuickTime Pro and a version of iMovie and a version of iPhoto. They'd told me I could go to my App Store account and re-download those, too, since there's no hard backup discs or copies. Also not true.

I couldn't find ANY record of those items/purchases. Now, I may have forgotten passwords or even just which email/ID I'd used at those times. So I suggested we could use my purchasing card # to locate the purchases. Not possible.

I've since attempted to use my THREE email accounts to check for App Store ID accounts/records. I can get that far, but there's NO showing record for those purchases, either. I also note that Apple doesn't appear to sell those anymore, anyway.

And then they came to a complete stop with me, telling me that's all they could do. Essentially nothing, other than selling me the S.L. disc, period. Even THAT took the better part of TWO WEEKS to deliver to me. I'd asked if I couldn't just go to a local Apple Dealer and pick one up. Nope. Not an option.

So -- it appears I have to get yet another HD cable. I'm worried that something ELSE is wrong that's frying these cables now. Anyone know?

Also, how could I "upgrade" back to Lion 10.7 from Snow Leopard, assuming I can get that far?

Can you try installing snow leopard on a fresh drive, either reformatted or new? This has solved 99% of my problems. I have seen others say the same thing. Its definitely worth a shot.

Hi. I'm looking for the 1.6 EFI file - can anyone help?

I've just installed the WD7500BPKT disk and I;m having the same problem now 😟

Here you go https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8741087/EFI_1.6_downgrade_MacBookPro_2009.dmg

Thaks a lot. It solved my problem!!

Appreciate I'm a little late to the debate but just wanted to thank everyone out there for the invaluable advice on this topic – am now running mid-2009 MBP 5,4 with an (internal!) Crucial M4 512mb SSD after successfully downgrading efi to 1.6. Even though negotiated link speed is half the possible throughput, still has massively rejuvenated this machine (Ram upgrade to 8mb also helped). One thing that I did notice was that cloning the SSD (externally) prior to install with CCC didn't work for me whereas Disk Utility nailed it first time... Thanks again for the tech support – hope I can contribute with something meaningful in the future!

David Emery4

Currently Being Moderated

Re: Firmware update and SATA II hard drive (continued)

Mar 15, 2013 5:12 PM (in response to Brett L)

Appreciate I'm a little late to the debate but just wanted to thank everyone out there for the invaluable advice on this topic – am now running mid-2009 MBP 5,4 with an (internal!) Crucial M4 512mb SSD after successfully downgrading efi to 1.6. Even though negotiated link speed is half the possible throughput, still has massively rejuvenated this machine (Ram upgrade to 8mb also helped). One thing that I did notice was that cloning the SSD (externally) prior to install with CCC didn't work for me whereas Disk Utility nailed it first time... Thanks again for the tech support – hope I can contribute with something meaningful in the future!

I've been following this issue for a while. I've got a mid 2009 13 inch macbook pro (model 5,5) and I'm going to give it a try and switch out the HD with a Crucial M4 SSD. Am I correct in that the "only" way this can be done successfully (ie to avoid all of the beach ball effects of EFI 1.7) is to first downgrade to EFI 1.6 and accept the link speed of 1.5? If so, that's okay as I'm sure I'll still see great benefits.

I just hoping to verify that the only thing I need to do in order to make this work is downgrade to EFI 1.6 (ie no other changes necessary......such as changing out the HD cable, etc....). I suppose I could always give it a try with EFI 1.7....just to see if it works! Thanks!

Hi, I think you should be fine with your upgrade as stated.

I've got the 15" MacBook Pro so not completely sure if it's the same for your 13" but I only had to downgrade my efi to 1.6 and the new Crucial SSD popped up fine (didn't have to change any internal cables etc). As you say, even with the reduced link speed there's a massive improvement over the previous 320gb 7200 HDD.

If, after downgrading your efi, the drive still doesn't mount, you could try a new cable which other posters seem to have had success with. I found a refurb cable for my 15" MacBook Pro here: http://www.ifixit.com/MacBook-Parts/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Unibody-Mid-2009-Hard-Dr ive-Cable/IF161-039 – might be worth checking if the 13" requires a different set up.

In a fit of desparation I even wrapped the original cable with aluminum foil (although think this was only a fix for the 17") Still didn't help with efi 1.7 tho...!

dstofel,

Fantastic to hear about the rejuvination!

Again for anyone stumbling on this thread, dstofel's and my results are showing that the ONLY solution to this problem that --> I <-- have seen work is to downgrade your EFI to 1.6.

I believe this HDD incompatibility is a purposeful move in 1.7 in order to force customers to upgrade to higher-capacity machines.

But what can I say? I would do the same if I owned a business like this too 🙂

Yeah, but the weird thing is, that I read somewhere that you could buy a Samsung 830 SSD, put it in a MacBook Pro 2009, and without downgrading, be able to get rid of the beachballs. And this is what I did. I now have a MacBook Pro 2009, 2.66GHz with a Samsung 830 SSD, on EFI 1.7. And I get the full 3 Gbps speed! 😀 So i would recommend a 830, because you don't need to downgrade. 🙂

Congrats! Glad you found another solution. I purchased THREE diff hard drives last spring to try and resolve my issue. Nothing worked 😟 and couldnt return any of them.

EFI Downgrade to 1.6

Or Samsung 830 SSD.

There you go.