Negotiated Link Speed only 1.5Gbps for 256GB SSD on 15" mid-2009 MBP?

Same problem with my Mac Pro. I have four 500gig SATA II HDDs in a RAID 0. All rated for 3Gbs. Negotiated Link Speed is 1.5 when it should be 3.0. Only once have I seen them connect at 3.0 speeds. Sometimes 2 of the drives will connect at 3.0 speeds but not the other two. I need to see if this is HDD related or SATA port related.

Be nice if there were a EFI update or something to fix the issue. Considering how many users are affected. When all HDD do connect at 3.0 speeds I love the speed bost I get. With Apples Software RAID I was Geting close 200MBs in speeds based on ATTO. This is my main working RAID. I am using the two other ports located behind the fan for additional drives. So I have 6 drives in my tower. And I hve tried various configuartions to get things to work.

It is possible that my HDDs firmware may need to be upated. I have read that some of the Samsung drives have issues in RAID.

I am having the same issue with a 17" Mid 2009 MBP 5,2. With original 500GB 7200 HDD in it. Both the HDD & DVD both say negotiated link speed of 1.5GB/s. Need a solution.

Ok, so after a bit more research...

The EFI 1.8 Firmware update added a new field showing "negotiated link speed", which it did not display before. However it was always running at SATA 1. The reason being, is that Nvidia SATA chipset was running terrible with SATA II, with people reporting beachballs galore, so apple decided to reduce the firmware to SATA I, since that runs at 150MB/s, and the HDD's wouldn't run at that speed anyway, even the Apple supplied SSD's.

So the general consensus is that all HDD's supplied by Apple are firmwared at SATA I.

So it seems that this problem which repeats itself with Apple when the SATA interface upgrades. Since these problems have been going on since 2008 with SATA II.

However, what is also surprising, is that the latest Early 2011 17" is reporting SATA issues. This occurs & is noticable when a SATA III SSD is installed, but it happens on random machines. Some work, others don't. They seem to now have SATA II down pat, but SATA III now having the issues. And the DVD SATA cable is locked on SATA II.

And what's further, is that Apple have now released the new iMac, with a CUSTOM SATA cable, so there is no user replacing on those going on as far as I know. I'm sure there will be updates on this in the coming weeks.

Hi Everybody. I've got a Late 2008 MBP 5,1. I want to install an SSD, but I'm afraid that I won't be able to get the SATA II speeds I am supposed to have. Is there any way to make the computer use the 3.0 Gb/s link speed it's supposed to? Buying an SSD would be a waste if I can't get it above 1.5 Gb/s. Thanks!

ajb

is it because the hard drive interface?my mbp is ATCI,but you know,the interface of hard drive mostly is SATA3 or 2.i mean maybe the negotiated link speed is limited because of the difference of interface between the mbp and the hard drive you bought.

I also have the same issue after installing a Crucial M4 256GB SSD in my MacBookPro 5,3 (mid-2009 15" 3.06ghz core 2 duo). Negotiated link speed is 1.5 and I have all updates (OS 10.6.8). The SSD is still pretty quick but if this computer is capable of 3.0gbps I'm wondering if it can be quicker!

So what you are using basically is:

Forget SATAII on your late 2008 Macbook with MCP97 Nvidia Chipsets, right?

When I boot the system with the Install DVD my Vertex 3 on my late 2008 Macbook shows 3 Gigabit and no "negotiated speed" entry.

So I guess it could work, we would have to figure out which EFI Firmware Update introduced the throttle?

Any idea how to revert an EFI Firmware Update?

It seems this thread was referring specifically with Mid 2009 Macbook Pro's.

Yes, this may be specific to mid 2009 macbook pros (mine has MCP79). If I recall, EFI 1.7 was supposed to enable 3.0 gbps but this does not seem to be the case. It could also just be specific to certain SSDs like mine although the crucial m4 supports SATA 3. Oh well, to be honest, the difference between 1.5 vs 3.0 gbps probably isn't noticeable in real-world day-to-day performance unless you're constantly transferring very large files and I'm happy that the drive is completely stable so far.

Hi Folks,

I have exactly the same problem: MBP 5,3 (Mid 2009, 15'', 2.66) and SSD Crucial M4 128GB Firmware 0002 - running MacOSX 10.7.

- Sometimes it negotiates 3GB, mostly 1,5...

- It has nothing to do with TRIM support, which I have enabled.

- I have the "feeling", that when you clear the kernel caches (which you need to do to enable TRIM support), next time it connects 3GB with a higher probability.

-> My solution is to avoid shutdown of the system (using hibernation mode). Not really statisfying.

But: 3 GB/s is noticable faster than 1,5 GB/s! Benchmarking shows that the data transfer is exactly doubled.