Firmware update and SATA II hard drive (continued)

If this thread is so long that it's timing out browsers(and continued in another thread), shouldn't Apple get a clue and get to fixing this problem for people?

that's right,
it's impossible for me, buying an 1.500 € notebook, which can't handle with 320gb harddrives -.-

but thank's to apple care trying to solve the problem (hope it will work)...

yayaasd wrote:
I've got a few News:

i just get in Touch with Apple Care. There was a really nice Guy, who Is trying to help me during the solving Process.

He'll call me back in a few days..

Now i have another question;
Is it possible, that Apple had used cables wich don't Support 3gb/s

i mean just like the Ethernet Cable and the Support of Full Duplex vs. Half Duplex.
It's just an idea..;)

That's possible. A few people have remarked how flimsy the SATA cable is, and how it may be prone to damage or have shielding or other signal integrity issues at high speed.

yayaasd wrote:
that's right,
it's impossible for me, buying an 1.500 € notebook, which can't handle with 320gb harddrives -.-

but thank's to apple care trying to solve the problem (hope it will work)...

Give it a few days, I'm sure Applecare will let you know they "don't support 3rd party hard drives, sorry" soon. They've been fairly consistent with that particular BS excuse (BS because it's not a problem with the hard drive).

Brett L wrote:
This thread is a continuation of [Firmware update and SATA II hard drive| http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2054387 ]. The original thread is getting long and causing some browsers to time out.

Is the locking of our thread the first and ONLY textual admission by an Apple employee that they are aware of the thread, and therefore the issue?

fishbert wrote:

oldmanpants wrote:
I'm interested to hear how Fishbert is doing with cable replacement…

So far, so good.
One of the symptoms of this issue is an incrementing of the drive's CRC error count.* Back on the 28th (right after doing the cable replacement), S.M.A.R.T. Utility told me my CRC error count was at 6322. From early July when I upgraded to EFI 1.7, until the rollback tool was released (in August?), this was how high the counter had climbed… plus a bit from testing back-and-forth when PU1.0 showed up.

Anyway, 6322 was the count on 11/28/09. A bit ago, it read 6324 (12/05/09). I don't know where those 2 extra came from over the last week, and I'm going to continue checking in on it, but 2 is a far cry from the 6000 or so over a month, maybe a month and a half. And as for user experience, I haven't seen any of the freezing typical from this issue, either.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Again, there seems to be more than 1 issue that people have come in here with, but CRC errors was identified fairly early on as a characteristic of this issue, and is one I definitely saw on my machine, so I use it here to illustrate the difference I see.

it seems like only solution is changing the SATA-cable, the problem; it's out of stock at third party vendors. (hot Christmas gift, everyone is buying it), Fishbert how is it holding? give us an update.

Adding my voice to the complaints here. I have a week old MacBook Pro 15". I swapped the HDD for a 320gb Western Digital Scorpio Black (WD3200BEKT). It has no free-fall sensor, and is also brand new and confirmed to work in an external case with my Mac Pro. Firmware in the MacBook Pro is Boot ROM Version: MBP53.00AC.B03

The Scorpio Black drive freezes every 30 seconds for about 5 seconds or so when installed in the MacBook Pro, rendering the computer unusable. I have tried with 10.5.8 and 10.6.2, both with and without performance upgrade and with and without the sudden motion sensor turned on. The drive always freezes.

Re-installing and using the 250gb 5400 Seagate, the MacBook seems to work perfectly. All be it with a slower and smaller capacity drive. There is nothing in the instructions in the manual included in the MacBook that mentions incompatibilities with any SATA II large capacity or high speed hard drive.

Apple should be working on a fix for this issue right now, as the fault is obviously with the MacBook and not the hard drive.

What would be interesting is the week of production of the computer. My MBP 13' is working perfectly with a 250Go OCZ Vertex SSD and it has been manufactured during week 37 of that year (September). To check this, see:
http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php
(I bought a 15' MBP in july which i sent back to Apple due to problems with EFI 1.7)

Manu

My MacBook was built in week 50 (December) 2009. Built in China.

fishbert wrote:

yayaasd wrote:
that's right,
it's impossible for me, buying an 1.500 € notebook, which can't handle with 320gb harddrives -.-

but thank's to apple care trying to solve the problem (hope it will work)...

Give it a few days, I'm sure Applecare will let you know they "don't support 3rd party hard drives, sorry" soon. They've been fairly consistent with that particular BS excuse (BS because it's not a problem with the hard drive).

At my first try, there was a "nice" woman told me the story of "don't support 3rd party hard drives & max. 200gb capacity ⚠".

after i told her that i want to speak to someone else, she get really annoyed and forwarded me to her colleague.

He just told me that he could also tell me the story of "...", but agreed with helping me.
I sayed him sth. that i'm already told here in the support forum:

why i'm buying a lot of money, but the system isn't able to manage a basic HDD.
Any other 300$ notebooks are able to do this...

why can't i edit my previous post anymore?

i just forgotten the production data:

Model: - MacBook (13-inch Late 2006) (CTO)
Codename: - ?
Build Country: - Your Mac was built in China.
Build Year: - Your Mac was built in 2007.
Build Week - Your Mac was built in week 10 of that year (March).
Production Nr.: - Your Mac was number 77 to be built that week.

+*why can't i edit my previous post anymore?*+

You can only update your post for a few minutes after you post it. This is to prevent people from constantly going back and making changes. A thread is a continuous stream of comments... one based on the next. If you let people go back for an unlimited period... you lose the continuity of the thread. It's fine to just make a new posting when you can no longer edit your previous one.

I'll add that I've been using a 320gb Western Digital Scorpio Black (WD3200BEKT) in my 13" Macbook Pro for over 2 months, all software and firmware up-to-date, and haven't noticed any problems.

I have the 'can't see your hard drive' issue that most of this thread is about. Apple refuses to acknowledge the issue and I've begged but they won't simply sell me the replacement cable, I suppose I could go in there and test it if they'd be willing to bring one out but based on the few phone calls with phone based support and store support staff I'd say they will not allow me the opportunity to test.

Model: - MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2009) (CTO)
Codename: - ?
Build Country: - Your Mac was built in Changhai, China.
Build Year: - Your Mac was built in 2009.
Build Week - Your Mac was built in week 25 of that year (June).
Production Nr.: - Your Mac was number 280 to be built that week

I purchased my MBP 15" about a 2 months back. I tried to install a WD 750gb drive into my nice new laptop. I did manage to get it to load and boot from another image restored to it. But, all kinds of issues. I like many others went to Apple Care and this forum to no avail from Apple. I then went and purchased a Seagate 7200 500gb hard drive and could not even get it to format with DiskUtility. It is their issue and they should growup and face their clients and fix this problem. I was treaded like a dummy on this issue. i did finally download the rollback to EFI 1.6 from my current EFI 1.7. I installed this version and installed my WD 750gb 5200rpm again. I did an image restore again and it works great !! I have had this up and running now for over a month with out any problems Period !!

So tell me now, who is the one who can't figure out how to fix it. APPLE ! It is a shame that Apple makes a great product but can't get their head out of the Sand when it comes to issues like this..

the guy from apple care doesn't call me back until now 😟