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

wow, i thought apple fixed this problem? i have the same mbp and hd as you michee (320gb WD Black w/o free fall right?) and have noticed nothing but great speed improvements. i used to get beachballs on the stock 250gb hitachi, but the black is just a godsend with no beachballs.

the only problem is the noise level. sounds like my mbp fans when they are at like 4000rpm.

Hi,
I just bought a Macbook Pro 13 a two weeks ago.
I would like to exchange the HDD with a SSD.
Will I also have these problems?????
I updated to EFI 1.7 before I read this.
How can I find out when my Mac was produced?
Which production dates have this SATA problems?

As far as I know all of them have this issue or maybe better put a sensitivity to replacement HDs. I have replaced my drive with an SSD from Patriot Memory in my 13" MBP. I used the Patriot Torqx 128gb drive and had many issues with stalling and drive failure until they released firmware 1819 for the drive. After that it has been perfect, less than 15seconds, usually around 12seconds, for the system to boot up into a fully useable state. Until this firmware came out the computer was useless with the SSD. From what I have seen SSDs based upon the Indilinx chip with the latest firmwares have been working. YMMV

Message was edited by: wdbutrym

Ok,
that means some HDD / SSD work others don't work.
Is there any table that shows the compatible drives?
Maybe we start here a list????!?!?!?!?!?

just bought Patriot Torqx and want to put on my mbp 13''.update to 1916 wont work.down to 1819.same issus,mac os x wont even install,alway stop at helf way.
******* why applle wont fix this!!

I would contact Patriot and get an RMA for the drive. I had to do this twice until finding a drive that works consistently. I am currently using and have been for 3-4 months now a 13" MBP with a perfectly working and fast Patriot Torqx drive. Where did you purchase the disk from, according to reps from Patriot on their forums they had a bad batch of drives mostly sold at NewEgg.com, it is possible that you have received one of them.

This issue does not perfectly mimic what others have seen with the SATAII drives, for quite a while I was convinced it was an Apple issue but I am not so sure anymore.

My advice would be to go to Patriot's support pages, describe the issue and ask for a RMA. It is frustrating working though these issues but Patriot has been helpful.

I bought at retail shop,in sydney.before i was using corsair X64,same issus.then i check on mac-ssd-drivers.com they said Patriot can work very well.not really sure they gona do that for me.
anyway what is RMA?

Sorry, RMA is an authorization to return the product for replacement. It is possible that there are still bad drives in stock. I replaced my drive with one from the vendor first and had the same issues, the second time I replaced it I got it from Patriot and it has been working perfectly now.

Thx i will try it:)

BYW which EFI you using and for Patriot which Firmware is good for MBP?
Thx

Tested with 1.6 EFI using Patriot Troqx 128G ssd,with no issue.after i changed to 1.7 EFI can't boot up.i dont think my ssd have any problem.

I am running EFI 1.7 and Patriot firmware 1916.

Just updated my standard 250Gb drive to a 640Gb WD blue Scorpio drive and getting 3 second or so pause if I don't access the drive within about 30seconds, with EFI 1.7 installed.

Which sounds like the same issue discussed here... Need to read though the thread to see if I can get any of the fixes posted to work on my system...

It is indeed a long thread -- the first portion of the thread was closed because the mods said it was causing some browsers to time out. Here is the first portion:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2054387&start=0&tstart=0

Some posters have reported that they tracked the cause of the problem to the SATA cable. When they replaced the cable or wrapped it with aluminum foil and electrical tape, the problem went away. So shielding or routing of the cable may be causing the problem. Also, people have posted that drives that might exhibit long interruptions in data transfer when installed in June 2009 revision MBPs running EFI 1.7 firmware (that enabled SATA 2 speed) worked perfectly in an external USB enclosure. Consequently, it's possible that many perfectly good drives were returned to the retailer.

I don't believe that Apple has ever explained why the June 2009 13" and 15" MBPs may exhibit this problem, so it appears unlikely that it will ever be addressed -- except possibly when Apple releases the next revision of the MBP. While Steve Jobs may express disdain for netbooks, at least netbooks can have their hard drives upgraded without worrying about unreliable data transfer over the SATA 2 bus.

Guys
this thread has saved me from going insane... now i know why my SSDs dont work.

I will post the results of my tests however i can tell you at this stage with my MacBook Pro 15" mid2009.

OCZ Vertex 120GB
FW 1.4 & FW 1.5
works fine when connected via Firewire (external casing, firewire - in my macbook 13" in target disk mode, USB 2.0 external casing)
does NOT work when attached internally (1.4 install fails, 1.5 wont even recognise the drive)

Crucial M225 256GB
FW 1819
Install fails, (have not tried the other tests that i did with the OCZ as the drive is back to the vendor after it died - when i get it back though i will post a table showing the tests i performed)

Next i am going to try
- to wrap the SATA cable and also
- move the disk to a Optibay
- downgrade firmware to 1.6

I expect all of these to work as i am confident after reading the loooooooong threads that the problem is the 3GB/s signalling speed on the cable that comes with these macbooks. Looks like some people got lucky and it works fine, unfortunately i am not one of them.

Apple Support: No help. Told me there were no KNOWN compatibility problems with these drives, didnt see any issue with me installing them.

Message was edited by: siliconspy