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

Hi Guys and Gals.


Does anyone have issues with the Macbook Pro 2011 Model with a Sata3 Solid State Drive ?


I have issues and have a Vertex3 made by OCZ. I am in active discussions with OCZ to find a resolution on their end. I have also contacted Apple Care and Intel and have run into dead ends.


However I am bringing my MBP for a repair, logic board replacement and will post the results after they change the logic board for me.


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


Regards,


Jase

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7), Sata 3 Issues !!!

Posted on Jun 23, 2011 6:01 PM

Reply
28 replies

Jun 24, 2011 12:39 PM in response to hotjase

I have a MBP 17" (Early 2011), 2.3GHz, built the week of June 13, so SATA III (6Gb) is supported on both internal ports. Installed a Crucial M4 256GB SATA III SSD, and have had all the same stalling and beachball problems everyone else is having.


I've flashed the SSD to the 0002 firmware, tried enabling TRIM, installed the LPM patch, reset the SMC controller and finally last night, upgraded to 10.6.8.


None of these have worked, and the machine still stalls out with the SSD in the internal HD bay. I'm now going to try returning it for a SATA II SSD, which are known to work fine.


Basically, SATA III is broken in the Early 2011 MBP...

Jul 1, 2011 5:46 AM in response to stembridge

I got a logic board replacement, its still a 6/3 from the original 6/3 and it seems to be a lot better., Very rarely does it hang and windows via bootcamp installed 2 out of 2 times.


I am afraid to go to 6/6 now, since many are saying this configuration is worse !


Maybe get your logic board changed, i doubt its the SSD !


Jase

Jul 4, 2011 11:25 AM in response to hotjase

Oh yes, lots of problems. I have a new Crucial M4 SSD 512GB in a one week old MacBook Pro 17" 2011 model. According to the Crucial UK website "Guaranteed to work" in this MacBook. Crucial have updated the firmware from 0001 to 0002 which was meant to solve the MacBook issue - but doesn't.


Took 3hrs 51 mins to install OSX from the system DVD to the SSD - should take about 35 mins to a HDD.


Then doesn't boot, well that's a lie, it has rebooted once inside the machine, it took overnight to start up.


In an external FW800 enclosure it works fine - just slow obviously.


Wrapping apple's internal SATA cable in foil allowed it to boot in 'only' 10 mins, and then ran Black Magic's DiskSpeedTest - it showed a write speed of about 260MB/s - but a read of only around 6MB/s - but there is obviously a problem there.


So, I feel it time Apple owned up to having an issue here, there are obviously lots of people out there with the same thing happening:


http://www.hardmac.com/news/2011/04/06/sata-iii-problem-in-the-2011-macbook-pro- the-cable-is-truly-the-problem


I'm off to see a "Genius" at the Regent St Apple Store on friday - so hopefully they have an updated properly shielded SATA cable they can swap in for me - we will see.

Jul 5, 2011 11:25 PM in response to SdeS

I, as so many others, are also facing issues with my SATA 3 SSD. I've been reading about people having issues on OCZ's forum, on Intel's forum and all over the web. I have a MBP 2011 13" bought last month with the 6/6 setup.


Hotjase, have you come to understand that the issue lies with the logic board? One would hope that Apple would owe up and come forward if there are in fact faulty logic borards. I have read that Apple have gone from 6/3 to 6/6 and then back to 6/3, though I do not know if this is applicable to all MBP models, or just some. As I sayed, I have the 13" model.


SdeS, what was the result of your talk with the Genius? Did you receive a new cable? If so what result?

Jul 6, 2011 7:05 AM in response to eni

eni wrote:


I, as so many others, are also facing issues with my SATA 3 SSD. I've been reading about people having issues on OCZ's forum, on Intel's forum and all over the web. I have a MBP 2011 13" bought last month with the 6/6 setup.


Hotjase, have you come to understand that the issue lies with the logic board? One would hope that Apple would owe up and come forward if there are in fact faulty logic borards. I have read that Apple have gone from 6/3 to 6/6 and then back to 6/3, though I do not know if this is applicable to all MBP models, or just some. As I sayed, I have the 13" model.


SdeS, what was the result of your talk with the Genius? Did you receive a new cable? If so what result?

No official confirmation on 6/3 6/6 or 6/3 again, I asked my Senior Advisor for the Serial of the Replacement Logic Board but he could not give me, only told me Made Mar-June 2011


Looks stable, Lion , Snow Leopard, Windows all run fine , just 3 sticky issues:


1. No 6Gbps in the Optical Port, so cannot put my SSD there if I want Sata3

2. Temps somtimes jump up and down causing the fans to act like hair dryers.

3. My Vertex 3 OCZ SSD FW 2.09 not 100% performance, hope post 2.09 will fix it !


Jase

Jul 6, 2011 7:11 AM in response to hotjase

Looks like Apple is gambling that the fanboys, users of the Macbook Pro are those with hard disks in the majority, those who have SSD's are in the minority, especially "third party drives" so they will gamble that the issue is not widespread and fix it silently with a "silent hardware fix"


or they have quality issues and some boards just are not up to spec coming out from FOXCONN in china


I believe the above 2 are the issues, should of approached apple care and call them instead of seeing genius as the genius generally has 15 min max available and you need more than 15 min to get a result, it took me over a month with apple care, 1st 2 weeks casual, last 2 phoned them very often sending emails doing tests, they may not replace the logic board based on a single appointment but good luck anyway


hope they dont say "this is an unsupported config/third party drive !!!"



Regards,


Jase

Jul 8, 2011 9:16 AM in response to eni

Well, my My Genius appointment went very much as anticipated - it might well be a SATA III connection but Apple they do not support SATA III drives - least of all other people's.


Furthermore, they do not actually support anything other than the original configuration as sold - so given that I bought a 750 GB HD version, that is what I am stuck with - I asked Apple (London Regent St) if they could upgrade it to one of their own SSDs if I paid for it - they could not. They can only repair the machine to its original condition. They could not even advise me as to what Apple co-branded SSD I should look for to be compatible with this model - 512 Gb drives do come up on Ebay - Apple / Toshiba seems to be the normal one - but they couldn't advise if that would work or not. So it could be good money after bad.


Anyhow, they finally agreed to swap the cable, for a charge, so that will take two or thee days, plus the 5mins to do the job. I will post the results of the cable swap when I have it. They could not tell me whether it would be a different version of the SATA cable to the one already in the machine - but I asked to keep the old one so I can see if there is any visible difference.


It does seem strange that Apple support thunderbolt drives - which you can't even buy yet, but don't support SATA III in either Mac Pro or MAcBook Pro given that the full 3.0 standard was released on May 27, 2009.


Two and a bit years is a long time in tech terms.


Stephen

eni wrote:


I, as so many others, are also facing issues with my SATA 3 SSD. I've been reading about people having issues on OCZ's forum, on Intel's forum and all over the web. I have a MBP 2011 13" bought last month with the 6/6 setup.


Hotjase, have you come to understand that the issue lies with the logic board? One would hope that Apple would owe up and come forward if there are in fact faulty logic borards. I have read that Apple have gone from 6/3 to 6/6 and then back to 6/3, though I do not know if this is applicable to all MBP models, or just some. As I sayed, I have the 13" model.


SdeS, what was the result of your talk with the Genius? Did you receive a new cable? If so what result?

Jul 9, 2011 7:48 PM in response to SdeS

Here on the OWC website, they discuss about the problem around march/april and how they got a replacement 6/6 setup which in RAID0 gets around 1000MB/sec.


I find it interesting how later on people who got the magic 6/6 setup mid April to early may onwards (prior to another change back to 6/3 in June !) cannot even get their second or (their only ) Sata3 SSD to be recognised let alone work in "Sata3" on the optical drive port.


http://macperformanceguide.com/index.html


regards,


Jase

Jul 11, 2011 2:18 AM in response to eni

Well, just an update on the cable issue. Apple store in Regent St London changed the cable for me. I made a specific request for them to please keep the cable for me so I could compare it. They charged me for the 'repair' given the original one was working with the HDD.


So, two trips to the late running chaotic genius bar, four hours spent and a new cable installed, but surprise surprise - despite the written request being on the work slip - they binned the original cable.


So, as far as I can tell there is no obvious change to the cable - sheilding can often be seen and it is certainly no thicker than the original - so I think I just have another cable as opposed to a different one.


Performance is as expected, still cannot boot from the Crucial M4 SSD if it is on that cable.


I also asked Apple Genius if they could install an apple SSD for me, no they couldn't

Could they reccomend an SSD for this model to me, no they couldn't

Could they tell me what drive would have gone into this mac if it had been built as an SSD model - no they couldn't.


Genius! Basically they can only support the exact config as purchased.


Next steps.... try a vertex III 240 GB, the 480 is a mad price, and try connecting using an OCW data doubler (just purchased on eBay as you can't buy in the UK) to see if that can even see the drive at SATA 2 speed (given that it works at SATA 2 speed in my MacPro)

Send the Crucial SSD back to Micron UK (yes they are the same company) for a swap - given that it still says 'guaranteed-compatible' on their site, see if a newer drive with the 0002 firmware pre-installed is any better.


Will let you know if any of that works.


Stephen

Jul 11, 2011 3:08 AM in response to SdeS

Hi Sdes,


I had a feeling the cable would not resolve the issue without also replacing the logic board, I tried replacing the cable myself with an ifixit part which made no difference,


Only by having the logic board replaced with the flex sata cable did it work , I have an apple care case number which I can give you if you let me know your email !


Regards,


Jase

Jul 11, 2011 3:23 AM in response to hotjase

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

Jul 11, 2011 3:26 AM in response to SdeS

Send me your email , I have a case with AppleCare, that can help you, quote my case number !!!


I am here to help but I do not know your email !!


You can ask Apple Care to escalate to Customer Relations !!!


And you can also do like me, call another senior advisor and keep trying till you get one changed out of "good will" thats what happened to me !


Jase

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

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