Why are some people having issues with OEM drives?
I noticed no difference after the update with my stock 250GB HDD.
I noticed no difference after the update with my stock 250GB HDD.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 Problems
- Thread starter jlamarp
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
well, it was pre-1.7. I've installed the ram and Scorpio Blue 500gb and it's running very fast... I'm staying away from 1.7 like it's the plague.
The sequential write speed of my stock Hitachi 250 GB drive was degraded after the firmware update. I didn't notice this until I ran Xbench and compared the results to my pre-update tests. A PRAM reset seems to have fixed the problem.
13" MBP 2.53ghz...
Installed a WD 500/5400 today, replacing the stock Hitachi 250gb. EFI 1.7 was already installed last week after my first software update.
Cloned the stock 250gb to a FW800 drive with Super Duper, then cloned the FW drive to the WD 500 via SATA dock. Almost 4 hours later, the clone was ready. Popped in the WD, held my breath, booted up. That was at 3pm. Been using the computer ever since with zero issues.
Maybe I'm one of the few lucky ones, or maybe you guys with the problems are the few.
Installed a WD 500/5400 today, replacing the stock Hitachi 250gb. EFI 1.7 was already installed last week after my first software update.
Cloned the stock 250gb to a FW800 drive with Super Duper, then cloned the FW drive to the WD 500 via SATA dock. Almost 4 hours later, the clone was ready. Popped in the WD, held my breath, booted up. That was at 3pm. Been using the computer ever since with zero issues.
Maybe I'm one of the few lucky ones, or maybe you guys with the problems are the few.
I think this problem mostly occurs for those whose drives are capable of transferring data over 1.5gbps (particularly sustained transfer). I don't have problems with my stock HDD (5400RPM 160GB Hitachi; it has frozen twice however), but my 80GB Intel X25-M is unusable it pauses so often. The X25-M has sustained reads of over 200MB/sec., and many people are having issues with this drive. These are the only two drives I have tried in my machine. so this answer is only speculation.
Having the same problem with stock hard drive
I bought my 2.8 MBP with stock 5400rpm 500gig hd a little less than 2 weeks ago. I installed all the updates right away, and installed this firmware update since I'll probably get a SSD in a year or two and didn't want to worry about a bad firmware flash after the warranty expires. I noticed the random beach balls right away because I switched from an older Macbook that never had this problem.
When watching a DVD that was on the HD, I tried running macpar deluxe and verify another dvd, this caused the video to start stuttering and pausing. While it unrared it continued this. It wasn't possible to do both at once. This was fine on my old Macbook.
I think I'm going to try to take it back and swap for another MBP. Will they let me swap my hard drive into the new computer? I have Time Machine backups, but I don't really want to go through all that.
By the way, I tried resetting the PRAM and still have this problem.
I bought my 2.8 MBP with stock 5400rpm 500gig hd a little less than 2 weeks ago. I installed all the updates right away, and installed this firmware update since I'll probably get a SSD in a year or two and didn't want to worry about a bad firmware flash after the warranty expires. I noticed the random beach balls right away because I switched from an older Macbook that never had this problem.
When watching a DVD that was on the HD, I tried running macpar deluxe and verify another dvd, this caused the video to start stuttering and pausing. While it unrared it continued this. It wasn't possible to do both at once. This was fine on my old Macbook.
I think I'm going to try to take it back and swap for another MBP. Will they let me swap my hard drive into the new computer? I have Time Machine backups, but I don't really want to go through all that.
By the way, I tried resetting the PRAM and still have this problem.
installer disk is the problem??
I just updated to 1.7 without any problems... at the moment. I've come to many conclusions while reading multiple forums and consumer complaints and issues.
!) using your old hard drive form any mac does cause problems. I personally tried to directly swap my hd from my unibody macbook. it works, but has problems.
-no sound
-long white/grey loading screen
-stuttering
fyi-some stuttering might be fixed with the ilife support download.
2)for some odd reason, i think the dvd installer disk can also be faulty. I have also done a fresh install on a third party drive prior to the 1.7 firmware. and have also experienced problems as listed above. these problems have persisted without any migration whatsoever. pure, fresh formated install. reinstalled a second time and went smooth(prior to 1.7). strange.
I also tried migrating my data to my original osx hdd and ran onyx to make sure all things were in order. from there, i carboncopy cloned my original hdd to my freshly erased third party disk and everything ran and worked as it should. this method produced the best results for me.
I ended up updating to 1.7 out of curiosity. it works for me. but it got me thinking about the whole installer disk. why would a fresh install cause issues while repeating the install caused zero problems? I have seen this kind of problem from people burning copies of os systems before. Could apples disk be faulty? verifying the disk in osx just checks for dust or scrathches. not the integrity of the disk. i wonder if it is possible that the installer disk is the issue, not the computer or drives.
i hope this post can help or spark further inspiration into the matter.
my hd specs
WDC WD3200BEKT-00F3T0:
Capacity: 298.09 GB
Model: WDC WD3200BEKT-00F3T0
Revision: 11.01A11
Serial Number:
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 297.77 GB
Available: 233.78 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /
I just updated to 1.7 without any problems... at the moment. I've come to many conclusions while reading multiple forums and consumer complaints and issues.
!) using your old hard drive form any mac does cause problems. I personally tried to directly swap my hd from my unibody macbook. it works, but has problems.
-no sound
-long white/grey loading screen
-stuttering
fyi-some stuttering might be fixed with the ilife support download.
2)for some odd reason, i think the dvd installer disk can also be faulty. I have also done a fresh install on a third party drive prior to the 1.7 firmware. and have also experienced problems as listed above. these problems have persisted without any migration whatsoever. pure, fresh formated install. reinstalled a second time and went smooth(prior to 1.7). strange.
I also tried migrating my data to my original osx hdd and ran onyx to make sure all things were in order. from there, i carboncopy cloned my original hdd to my freshly erased third party disk and everything ran and worked as it should. this method produced the best results for me.
I ended up updating to 1.7 out of curiosity. it works for me. but it got me thinking about the whole installer disk. why would a fresh install cause issues while repeating the install caused zero problems? I have seen this kind of problem from people burning copies of os systems before. Could apples disk be faulty? verifying the disk in osx just checks for dust or scrathches. not the integrity of the disk. i wonder if it is possible that the installer disk is the issue, not the computer or drives.
i hope this post can help or spark further inspiration into the matter.
my hd specs
WDC WD3200BEKT-00F3T0:
Capacity: 298.09 GB
Model: WDC WD3200BEKT-00F3T0
Revision: 11.01A11
Serial Number:
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 297.77 GB
Available: 233.78 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /
For what its worth, I installed a G.Skill Falcon prior to 1.7 and was having regular freezing problems. SBBOD (spinning beach balls of death)
I then upgraded to 1.7 and the SSD was recognised as usual. I am now running with 1.7 (for a couple of hours) and are yet to experience a SBBOD (knock on wood)
I knew there was a risk it wouldnt be recognised, but I went for it anyway
EDIT
Here are my xbench results post 1.7
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.7 (9J3050)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro5,3
Drive Type G.SKILL FALCON 128GB SSD
Disk Test 262.28
Sequential 212.07
Uncached Write 285.21 175.11 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 238.53 134.96 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 115.02 33.66 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 405.05 203.57 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 343.63
Uncached Write 129.16 13.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 443.55 142.00 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1860.20 13.18 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 904.34 167.81 MB/sec [256K blocks]
I then upgraded to 1.7 and the SSD was recognised as usual. I am now running with 1.7 (for a couple of hours) and are yet to experience a SBBOD (knock on wood)
I knew there was a risk it wouldnt be recognised, but I went for it anyway
EDIT
Here are my xbench results post 1.7
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.7 (9J3050)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro5,3
Drive Type G.SKILL FALCON 128GB SSD
Disk Test 262.28
Sequential 212.07
Uncached Write 285.21 175.11 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 238.53 134.96 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 115.02 33.66 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 405.05 203.57 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 343.63
Uncached Write 129.16 13.67 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 443.55 142.00 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1860.20 13.18 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 904.34 167.81 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Can you try running SMC Fan Control and setting the fans to 'higher speed' - say 3000/3500 rpm and seeing if this helps with your X25-m ? At least one user elsewhere has reported that setting the SMC Fan App for higher fan speed helped with his EFI 1.7 and SSD instability
I had numerous problems with a Seagate Momentus 500gb 5400 hard drive. After swapping out that hard drive and getting another one, I still had those same problems. I finally got whole new laptop from Best Buy which is the new 13" MBP 2.53GHz and used the OEM 250gb hard drive for about a week without any problems at all, no beach balls or freezing like I had on the previous MB. Two days ago I swapped out the 250gb OEM hard drive for the Seagate 500gb hard drive and have regular spinning beach balls but no freezing like before.
I had a Apple Tech support call me this morning about the problem I was having and he walked me thru some resetting SMC or something like that and the PRAM. I told him as of now I haven't had much beach balls except for when I'm using itunes and safari [which are about the only programs I use as of now] and while looking at the Activity Monitor I see that when I have the spinning beach balls on Safari & iTunes it say in red letters (NOT RESPONDING) the whole time it is spinning.
The Apple tech support guy told me it might be because I have about 150gb's of music (about 27000 songs) and it hanging because of the shear amounts of files it's accessing. I'm sure I'm not the only one with that many song files.
Anyways, I told him I'd continue to monitor it and call back if I had experienced the same problems.
I had a Apple Tech support call me this morning about the problem I was having and he walked me thru some resetting SMC or something like that and the PRAM. I told him as of now I haven't had much beach balls except for when I'm using itunes and safari [which are about the only programs I use as of now] and while looking at the Activity Monitor I see that when I have the spinning beach balls on Safari & iTunes it say in red letters (NOT RESPONDING) the whole time it is spinning.
The Apple tech support guy told me it might be because I have about 150gb's of music (about 27000 songs) and it hanging because of the shear amounts of files it's accessing. I'm sure I'm not the only one with that many song files.
Anyways, I told him I'd continue to monitor it and call back if I had experienced the same problems.
I tried this, but setting the fan speed higher had no effect on the SSD performance. My system has beachballed twice (for 30 seconds each time) just while typing this short response.
I have a x25-m Intel SSD in my 13" MBP 2.53. I have only had it for 4 days but I have had zero problems with it yet. Everything is VERY fast. Never see any spinning beachballs.
I am still experiencing intermittent freezing when watching video via front row. It freezes completely, then resumes after 5-10 seconds. This is on a 13" MBP with the factory 500GB drive and 1.7 update. I'm hoping there'll be another firmware update that will address the issue.
i have both my intel ssd's will run slow as death in the hdd bay , but work fine in the optical bay or externally....
very disappointing, have to send this 15" back and figure out a new solution
very disappointing, have to send this 15" back and figure out a new solution
True that
Its like the Mac OSX equivalent of Windows Blue Screens of Death (BSOD)
The SBBOD (Spinning Beach Balls of Death)!
fixed my issue,
reinstalled os , shut off SMS sensor , reset SMC
no more spining balls o' death.
im happy
EDIT - Spoke to soon. beachballs again....sigh....im getting a macbook air...
reinstalled os , shut off SMS sensor , reset SMC
no more spining balls o' death.
im happy
EDIT - Spoke to soon. beachballs again....sigh....im getting a macbook air...
i have both my intel ssd's will run slow as death in the hdd bay , but work fine in the optical bay or externally....
very disappointing, have to send this 15" back and figure out a new solution
why would you return a computer for a software issue? what makes you think Apple will let you? Have you tried any of the things that have fixed it for others?
That's the problem. Nobody has found a solution yet (other than changing the hard disk back). I (and I'm sure many others) have tried nearly every method to fix this issue, but nothing short of another EFI update from Apple will fix it I fear...
Originally Posted by glavoie84
Since the EFI Firmware Update to version 1.7, I'm also experiencing frequent beach-balling for 20-30 secs doing almost nothing on my new MacBook Pro 13". I'm still using my stock Fujitsu 160GB hard drive. I hope it will be solved soon...
If they are not offering SATA II drive, why does my STOCK Fujitsu 160GB hard drive shows as SATA 3Gbps in system informations since the update?
I've had the same problem as glavoie84 on my new two weeks old MBP 13" 2,53GHz 4GB RAM. 20-30sec beach ball hangs running just safari and itunes.
Now I did the PRAM reset and it seems ok.
I'm a very happy man if this is a permanent sollution for the problem. Because aside this issue I absolutely love my MBP 13"
Since the EFI Firmware Update to version 1.7, I'm also experiencing frequent beach-balling for 20-30 secs doing almost nothing on my new MacBook Pro 13". I'm still using my stock Fujitsu 160GB hard drive. I hope it will be solved soon...
If they are not offering SATA II drive, why does my STOCK Fujitsu 160GB hard drive shows as SATA 3Gbps in system informations since the update?
I've had the same problem as glavoie84 on my new two weeks old MBP 13" 2,53GHz 4GB RAM. 20-30sec beach ball hangs running just safari and itunes.
Now I did the PRAM reset and it seems ok.
I'm a very happy man if this is a permanent sollution for the problem. Because aside this issue I absolutely love my MBP 13"
Hi, new to this forum, some will have seen me posting on the oczforum as tony. I do work for ocztechnology.
You guys with SSD FW1.7 and issues, can you do something for me, monitor the temperature of the chipset at all times, when you get hangs etc try to note down the temperature of the chipset. Also keep an eye on temps when you have no issues...
I have a feeling the new EFI may have increased heat output on the chipset and this may be the root cause of the issue along with the additional heat running an SSD causes.
I don't have a mac so i am guessing here...is there an application you can use to slow down the clock the of the GPU also...this would also reduce heat output?
Post what you find here, i come by most days reading
You guys with SSD FW1.7 and issues, can you do something for me, monitor the temperature of the chipset at all times, when you get hangs etc try to note down the temperature of the chipset. Also keep an eye on temps when you have no issues...
I have a feeling the new EFI may have increased heat output on the chipset and this may be the root cause of the issue along with the additional heat running an SSD causes.
I don't have a mac so i am guessing here...is there an application you can use to slow down the clock the of the GPU also...this would also reduce heat output?
Post what you find here, i come by most days reading
hey tony,
your idea sounds about right, when using software raid 0 on my SSD's i notice they cause beachballing alot more frequently due to the excess load on the chipset maybe ?
I've been experimenting with smcFanControl, a utility which can set a minimum fan speed, over the past few days. Keeping the fan speed above 3000RPM (and the machine at 45 degrees C at idle) seems to have slightly mitigated, but not eliminated, the pausing issue. This result is purely anecdotal, as I'm too busy to do a proper analysis. Would you say the chipset temperature is that closely linked to the speed of the SATA bus, or is it just a poor EFI implementation?