Anyone have issues with Sata 3 SSD in the 2011 Macbook Pro

Stephen,

I argued to my case owner (the senior advisor who started the case) that it is a flaw in the logic board and that if replaced I believe will resolve the issue.

I have an OCZ Vertex3 SATA3 ssd which is now 100% working, can install windows and run bootcamp and run Lion GM AND RUN Snow Leopard, where before installing windows 50 times only 1 or 2 work and then i run an SSD benchmark it will hang and stop working.

Now 2 installs of windows 7 x64 in bootcamp, both times it installs first time, their excuse was the same as what you said "this is a compatability issue"

and now where is my "compatability issue ???" I spoke to my orgional senior advisor and asked him , he was speechless, I told him he played it safe relying totally on Engineering's analysis and could not make the hard decision,

I was without a Macbook pro working for over 1month , another good advisor who I rang told me I had this problem for a long time and out of goodwill he is authorising a replacement, which made a HUGE difference

now if One senior advisor can make the hard decision (gamble he said , but he was right), and it works, and they keep a loyal apple customer, isnt it worth it ? they turn around so much money that this logic board is peanuts to them.

Jase

SdeS wrote:

Hi Jase,

It was worth a try I suppose, but I didn't hold out much hope to be honest.

A new logic board sounds like a great idea - but given that I was told by my 'Genius' that only the original configuration, as built by apple, is what Applecare support, I'm not sure how I can (or indeed how you managed) to persuade them to swap the Logic board.

Is there a way to give you my email without publishing it here? I get enough spam on my .mac account already and it's not published anywhere.....

Thanks for your help - much more than Apple manage!

Stephen

Like I said stephen go to OCZ Discussion forums

and sign up

go to my thread:

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?89970-A-call-to-all-Macbo ok-Pro-2011-Users-with-SATA3-Issues

and post 2 replies which entitiles you to a private message:

Send a Private Message to : hotjase

and we can take it from there !

Regards,

Jase

stembre wrote:

Stephen,

You are aware that Apple is only putting SATA II drives in their SSD machines, right?

Ed

Got good news for you Ed, Samsung just created the world's fastest and smallest Toggle NAND, 27nm, so rumours are since samsung make the SSD for Apple, looks like sata 3 apple branded ssd are coming soon, maybe with the new macbook air !! since it will sport a similar sandy bridge platform !

And I have a Vertex3 running in a macbook pro so please dont re quote the company line, Intel makes the core logic for Apple, its up to Apple to integrate the features but one of the features of the Intel Mobile Express Chipset HM65 is native Sata 3 support.

Read my forum and you can see how many people are trying to use Sata3 SSD Drives !!! on the 2011 macbook pro !

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?89970-A-call-to-all-Macbo ok-Pro-2011-Users-with-SATA3-Issues

Regards,

Jase

stembre wrote:

I'm continuing to follow this issue, but did want to follow up that I returned the Crucial M4 SSD and got an OWC Mercury Extreme (SATA II) SSD to replace it. Obviously not as fast, but it works 100% of the time. This being my first SSD, I'm super happy with the performance. My MBP is a production machine, and I couldn't sit around waiting on Apple to fix the problem, and felt I had already wasted enough time trying to solve it on my own.

The OWC Mercury Extreme III has no problems with sata3 with current logic boards, we all have production machines, just apple fixed a bad batch (launch feb-april 2011) with the current June-July batch, they have quality control issues.

Why do you have to solve their problem ? you might have a bad logic board, why pay $2400+ and they pay more to fix their problem ?

Keep persisting for a logic board change, quote my forum if you must, send the info to the senior advisor ! I wont talk to anyone less than the senior advisor to get it resolved If I was you !

Regards,

Jase

SdeS wrote:

Yes, totally, which is why it even more annoying that that they charge such a premium for them, that they don't support a standard that was launchged in 2009 but do support thunderbolt that doesn't even have any drives available yet - besides some monster raid thing.

That is exactly why I didn't buy the machine with an SSD, Insrtead I looked at the Crucial website - saw their claim of 'guaranteed-compatible' and having purchased memory from them several times in the past, I actually believed them.

More fool me. Crucial have provided absolutely nothing to substantiate this claim of the Crucial M4 SSD's compatibility other than to say and I quote from their support reply:

"Unfortunately, there are no such tests. But if the website says it's guaranteed compatible, that means that it's been tested before it was up for sale."

So, Apple flakey / no support for SATA interface, Crucial, misleading and unsubstantiated website 'guarantee' of compatibility.

One possible clue, although there are loads of proud owners of fast SSDs posting bootups etc on Youtube,

try searching on macbook pro 2011 17 Crucial M4 ssd, and guess what, you get:

No video results for “macbook pro 2011 17 Crucial M4 ssd”

It would be nice if Crucial themselves could post something.

Ho, hum. Enough time wasted - more than the equivalent of a two years worth of booting from SATA II v SATA III i suspect, so I'm just going to learn to love my nice slow but sure Apple spec Toshiba probably SSD.

Stephen

I had an Apple Macbook Pro 2009 model

and it was dreaded with the then Sata2 issues, where an EFI update to 1.7 enabled SATA2 but SSD's at the time, Intel's X25-M SATA2 had major issues. It was fixed by downgrading the firmware EFI to 1.6 to disable SATA2 and have it in SATA1 mode.

The toshiba 128GB SSD I got with the machine at the time was only SATA1 , an Apple OEM SSD Drive, looks like its all happneing again with SATA3 on the MBP 2011 with Apple's OEM again 1 generation behind at SATA2.

Turns out the Logic Board on the 2009 was at fault, the Nvidia Chipset which was used then was faulty with SATA2 and they brought out a revised B spec board which solved all the issues !

Here we go again De Ja Vu all over again with Macbook Pro 2011 and Sata3 Issues, what does apple do again ?

Play it safe with yesterday's technology, how ironic when they are touting thunderbolt !

2010 Macbook Pro seems the best so far I had, had 2009, 2010 and now 2011.

but it also was not a proper "quad core" machine but the Sata2 worked straight out of the box !

Anyway I am happy that I got the logic board replaced and running Windows/OSX the way I want it !

Just feel sorry for you guys !

Keep fighting this, dont give up, thats how I got mine resolved !

Jase

Crucial , like all manufacturers of SSD base their SSD around the Sandforce SF-2281 controller.

Only Corsair's P120 was recalled, I believe, even OCZ's Vertex3 240GB is very fast.

The issue is not the SSD, its the logic board, why people keep on saying SSD's and pointing the finger there without looking at the main issue ., the logic board I cannot know !

epecially when i tried to post links for you guys to look at !

Jase

SdeS wrote:

Hi Jase,

Well I am now the 'proud' owner of a 2011 MBP with a Mac / Toshiba SSD. The store could not open the machine to boot and find what SATA info it had umtil I paid the 'upgrade' fee. So, we could see from the label it was made 03 May 2011, so at least two months newer than the 'old' one.

Stephen , didn't you have a 2011 Macbook Pro to start with ? Should never get Apple SSD, overpriced and underperforming, but from a warranty point of view, I guess worth it. Did you get the 2 yrs additional apple care ? worth every penny !

Having paid the additional - just over £1k for a 750GB HDD to 512GB SSD swap effectively plus hopefully a different logic board. I opened the box and booted the machine in the shop. Still the same 6MB on the Hard drive connection + 3 MB on the optical bay as per the other machine - so I am still not sure if I have achieved anything more than the most expensive Mac SATA II SSD in the world.

Well you have paid for a logic board replacement via an upgrade machine. Yep it is expensive, even an OCZ Vertex 480GB is cheaper , faster and SATA3 !

They called an engineer who was working on a June build one and it was also 6MB on the Hard drive connection + 3 MB on the optical bay.

So looks like no one is certain if its 6/3 or 6/6 and when they changed it and when they went back to 6/3

Having returned my SSD to crucial I have no idea if this new board will work with a SATA III drive at the moment

Crucial is very good for memory, their memory is even good for an aftermarket upgrade for macbook pro's but their SSD, well the m4 is a good SSD when it works.

So, a question for you, is your setup that is now flying with a SATA III drive a 6+6 or a 6+3 when you look at the system info?

My machine is flying on 6/3 I would of liked 6/6 due to moving my SSD to the optical drive port and being able to use a 1TB mechanical drive as data in the HDD bay, oh well. And in the future maybe I get another OCZ Vertex3 and put it in RAID0 I would get over 1000MB/sec when it works, oh well its all wishfull thinking now !

I fear the worst but have just a shred of optimism left - even if no money.

You should of at least called the Apple Manager out to speak to him, and tell him about your case and my case and argue calmly and stand your ground that you want it resolved, (IF you purchased your original macbook pro from them , but since you did not I guess you didnt have much of a choice) I Assumed you purchased from online or in an Apple Store.

Nothing can be done now, just hope you do not get lockups or any issues, if you do you have 14 days to return it for full refund no questions ask ! So test like mad !

Regards,

Jase