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MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 Problems
- Thread starter jlamarp
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Mid-2009 MBP + Mountain Lion + EFi 1.7 = less beach balls than with Lion, BUT
I've got a mid-2009 MBP 5.4 and I've upgraded to Mountain Lion and upgraded the EFI to 1.7. I've downgraded it to 1.6 like everyone else here after major freezes. It was virtually unusable from first boot. Well, I am now typing this after the upgrade and only freezes with SSD-intensive tasks, ie..e file copying, maybe backup. However it's a lot more stable and actually looking useable. The 120GB OWC SSD doubled in speed from 110 to over 250mb/s. This actually did make quite a difference to everything (unlike before). I think I'll stick to it and see how it goes. Everything else is much snappier, just the file copying produces beach balls so far. At least it works, unlike before.
I've got a mid-2009 MBP 5.4 and I've upgraded to Mountain Lion and upgraded the EFI to 1.7. I've downgraded it to 1.6 like everyone else here after major freezes. It was virtually unusable from first boot. Well, I am now typing this after the upgrade and only freezes with SSD-intensive tasks, ie..e file copying, maybe backup. However it's a lot more stable and actually looking useable. The 120GB OWC SSD doubled in speed from 110 to over 250mb/s. This actually did make quite a difference to everything (unlike before). I think I'll stick to it and see how it goes. Everything else is much snappier, just the file copying produces beach balls so far. At least it works, unlike before.
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i upgraded to ML and try to upgrade to 1.7....the first reboot runs flawlessly and i thought that the problem were gone...but....after several reboot the beach balls come back...so i still decide to back to 1.6 
I decided to upgrade my mid-2009 15" MBP (MacBookPro5,4) to an SSD rather than dropping the big bucks on a rMBP. I already went through the whole 1.7/1.6 downgrade routine when I upgraded it to a conventional 500GB drive last year so I was ready for it. OWC was confident that the Mercury Electra 3G would work with 1.7 so I ordered the 120GB model for testing. It ran fine at 1.5Gbps with the 1.6 firmware and continued to work fine at 3.0 after upgrading to 1.7. Boot time dropped from 1:25 to 20 seconds so it really smoked.
Based on that success, I ordered the 480GB model and cloned the existing system disk on to it. It's a faster drive than the 120 due to the number of channels used so boot times with it are 15 seconds and Black Magic Speed test shows write speeds about 20% higher and read speeds about 50% higher than the 120GB model. I've very pleased with it at this point.
The 120GB OWC went into my niece's 2008 aluminum MacBook where it runs without any issue at 3.0Gbps.
I'm not sure what's in the OWC secret sauce but while I had the machine open, I tried four other drives I had on-hand and they all worked at 1.5Gbps w/ 1.6 and all had problems trying to run at 3.0 on 1.7. The drives are: 1) Seagate Momentus 5400.6 (SATA2), 2) Samsung HN-M500MBB (SATA2), 3) Seagate Momentus XT 750GB (SATA3), and 4) Western Digital WD500BEVT (SATA2).
As suggested by several people, I've ordered a replacement disk cable for the mid-2010 15" MBP. Unfortunately, an epic fail by UPS turned 2 day delivery into 7 day delivery so I don't have it yet. Once I do, I'll repeat testing the other drives with the new cable installed.
BTW, The XT hybrid running at 1.5Gbps booted almost as fast as the SSD's which leads me to think that OS X boot times are much more about access speeds than transfer rates. It would have been my choice except that SSD prices have dropped by 50% in the last year and the SSD makes everything. It still is a compelling upgrade for someone that needs space but isn't prepared to drop 5x the price for an SSD.
Based on that success, I ordered the 480GB model and cloned the existing system disk on to it. It's a faster drive than the 120 due to the number of channels used so boot times with it are 15 seconds and Black Magic Speed test shows write speeds about 20% higher and read speeds about 50% higher than the 120GB model. I've very pleased with it at this point.
The 120GB OWC went into my niece's 2008 aluminum MacBook where it runs without any issue at 3.0Gbps.
I'm not sure what's in the OWC secret sauce but while I had the machine open, I tried four other drives I had on-hand and they all worked at 1.5Gbps w/ 1.6 and all had problems trying to run at 3.0 on 1.7. The drives are: 1) Seagate Momentus 5400.6 (SATA2), 2) Samsung HN-M500MBB (SATA2), 3) Seagate Momentus XT 750GB (SATA3), and 4) Western Digital WD500BEVT (SATA2).
As suggested by several people, I've ordered a replacement disk cable for the mid-2010 15" MBP. Unfortunately, an epic fail by UPS turned 2 day delivery into 7 day delivery so I don't have it yet. Once I do, I'll repeat testing the other drives with the new cable installed.
BTW, The XT hybrid running at 1.5Gbps booted almost as fast as the SSD's which leads me to think that OS X boot times are much more about access speeds than transfer rates. It would have been my choice except that SSD prices have dropped by 50% in the last year and the SSD makes everything. It still is a compelling upgrade for someone that needs space but isn't prepared to drop 5x the price for an SSD.
I got the new cable and gave it a try with all the drives. None of the drives showed the intermittent sad Mac during startup that they showed with the old cable. Performance with the new cable, EFI 1.7, and 3.0Gbps connections were about the same as with the old cable, 1.6, and 1.5Gbps connections except with the WD drive which was noticably slower than the others. Black Magic showed the WD speed was less than half the speed of the next slowest drive (the Samsung).
I didn't use any of them long enough to say if there were going to be other issues but it looks like the new cable does solve the 1.7 problem for at least some drives. Changing the cable is pretty easy although I managed to strip the head on one of the small screws.
The WD XT was significantly faster than the others so it would be my first choice for a non-SSD upgrade w/ a new cable. The OWC 3G SSD drives blew the rest away and gives the mid-2009 MBP a new lease on life. My guess is that it wildly outperforms a 2012 MBP with a conventional disk on non-CPU workloads.
I didn't use any of them long enough to say if there were going to be other issues but it looks like the new cable does solve the 1.7 problem for at least some drives. Changing the cable is pretty easy although I managed to strip the head on one of the small screws.
The WD XT was significantly faster than the others so it would be my first choice for a non-SSD upgrade w/ a new cable. The OWC 3G SSD drives blew the rest away and gives the mid-2009 MBP a new lease on life. My guess is that it wildly outperforms a 2012 MBP with a conventional disk on non-CPU workloads.
I just installed a crucial m4 SSD into the main bay and a WD Scorpio Blue into the optical bay without any issues. However, I installed both AFTER I reverted to 1.6, then once they were installed and running I upgraded to 1.7 without any issues and both have been running perfectly since. Now with the SSD I am getting close to SATAII speeds. I hope this helps!
For those who downgrade EFI to 1.6, do I need to re-install OSX after the downgrade? I am currently running Lion 10.7.4 on a mid-2009 13" MBP. Thanks.
ST750LX003 hybrid works on 2009 15'' after downgrade
Thank you guys. I've already upgrade to Seagate 750gb hybrid on my 17'' 2009, running on 3gbs and very smooth. Wanted to do the same on another 15'' 2009 with EFI 1.7 and failed at installation, and stop sign or question marked folder sign appeared when booting up.
Just came back from an apple genius bar and was told the one-week-old hard drive was defective. I know it's not because it worked and booted normally in external USB. Requested them to replace the cable, they did, but for sure a 2009 version, still failed. Fortunately I have an applecare for over $300 and everything went free. But they're not helpful in this case, not at all.
Following the instructions above and down to 1.6, the installation passed quickly , boot successfully, disk running at negotiated 1.5gb, like the stock one, but feels much faster. Finally it's usable!
So in my case with the XT 750gb, it's definitely the problem with the EFI instead of the hardware. The 1.7 just doesn't accept the new hard drive.
Running a fresh installation, I will transfer data over, if still OK, will try to upgrade EFI to 1.7 again to see what happens. It'll be very interesting if only a paired disk with 1.6 will work with 1.7 upgrading, but not a new disk. Anyway, the worst is to downgrade again.
Thank you guys. I've already upgrade to Seagate 750gb hybrid on my 17'' 2009, running on 3gbs and very smooth. Wanted to do the same on another 15'' 2009 with EFI 1.7 and failed at installation, and stop sign or question marked folder sign appeared when booting up.
Just came back from an apple genius bar and was told the one-week-old hard drive was defective. I know it's not because it worked and booted normally in external USB. Requested them to replace the cable, they did, but for sure a 2009 version, still failed. Fortunately I have an applecare for over $300
and everything went free. But they're not helpful in this case, not at all.Following the instructions above and down to 1.6, the installation passed quickly , boot successfully, disk running at negotiated 1.5gb, like the stock one, but feels much faster. Finally it's usable!
So in my case with the XT 750gb, it's definitely the problem with the EFI instead of the hardware. The 1.7 just doesn't accept the new hard drive.
Running a fresh installation, I will transfer data over, if still OK, will try to upgrade EFI to 1.7 again to see what happens. It'll be very interesting if only a paired disk with 1.6 will work with 1.7 upgrading, but not a new disk. Anyway, the worst is to downgrade again.
What a nightmare after getting this drive. I am trying to install Momentus XT 500GB on mid-2009 13" MBP. Hard drive's firmware was update from stock ST27 to SD28. My MBP is running Lion 10.7.4. Here is the story:
1.initially was EFI 1.7, didn't get beach ball. But many apps crash after certain time of usage (anywhere between 5 mins to even days after boot). I think it is due to I/O error, symptons are Chrome open tabs become blank, Lightroom cannot write to temp files, TextWrangler reports error -50 etc.
2.after downgrade to EFI 1.6. On top of previous problems, not I got beachball. Open a pdf in Acrobat may cause beachball spinning forever. Now I can't even boot into MacOSX, the wheel will spinning forever.
3.I took drive out and put into an external USB enclosure. It boots and runs just fine.
This makes me think the SATA cable is not working, but the stock Fujitsu 160GB 5400RPM drive still work perfectly on the internal HD bay (both on EFI 1.6 & 1.7).
p.s. I did use SuperDuper when migrating from Apple's stock drive to Momentus XT. One thing I could try is to clean install Lion on Momentus XT and see if problems are still there.
I really don't know what to do now. I just want a faster drive a bit more storage. Btw, I only had the drive for 20 days, so I should probably be able to return/exchange for the same or other drives if I know they will work. Thanks.
1.initially was EFI 1.7, didn't get beach ball. But many apps crash after certain time of usage (anywhere between 5 mins to even days after boot). I think it is due to I/O error, symptons are Chrome open tabs become blank, Lightroom cannot write to temp files, TextWrangler reports error -50 etc.
2.after downgrade to EFI 1.6. On top of previous problems, not I got beachball. Open a pdf in Acrobat may cause beachball spinning forever. Now I can't even boot into MacOSX, the wheel will spinning forever.
3.I took drive out and put into an external USB enclosure. It boots and runs just fine.
This makes me think the SATA cable is not working, but the stock Fujitsu 160GB 5400RPM drive still work perfectly on the internal HD bay (both on EFI 1.6 & 1.7).
p.s. I did use SuperDuper when migrating from Apple's stock drive to Momentus XT. One thing I could try is to clean install Lion on Momentus XT and see if problems are still there.
I really don't know what to do now. I just want a faster drive a bit more storage. Btw, I only had the drive for 20 days, so I should probably be able to return/exchange for the same or other drives if I know they will work. Thanks.
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Looking to upgrade drive
I'm looking to put an SSD in my 2008 MBP 2.5, which I know doesn't currently have the 1.7 on it. Everything works fine with internal 250GB original drive, I just want some more speed, battery life, etc.
I'm okay with sticking with SL at this point, don't need Lion (although I HAVE Lion installers, my concern would be reduced battery life with Lion), but what is the best process for upgrading, and NOT getting this new EFI firmware?
I can install from the original SL disks, do the "software update" updates, but WITHOUT the EFI update?
Or, is it better to go LION and just be done with it, is there a way to keep the EFI from installing?
Or, do I NEED the new EFI with an SSD or with Lion?
thanks in advance for any comments.
I'm looking to put an SSD in my 2008 MBP 2.5, which I know doesn't currently have the 1.7 on it. Everything works fine with internal 250GB original drive, I just want some more speed, battery life, etc.
I'm okay with sticking with SL at this point, don't need Lion (although I HAVE Lion installers, my concern would be reduced battery life with Lion), but what is the best process for upgrading, and NOT getting this new EFI firmware?
I can install from the original SL disks, do the "software update" updates, but WITHOUT the EFI update?
Or, is it better to go LION and just be done with it, is there a way to keep the EFI from installing?
Or, do I NEED the new EFI with an SSD or with Lion?
thanks in advance for any comments.
Thank you guys. I've already upgrade to Seagate 750gb hybrid on my 17'' 2009, running on 3gbs and very smooth. Wanted to do the same on another 15'' 2009 with EFI 1.7 and failed at installation, and stop sign or question marked folder sign appeared when booting up.
Just came back from an apple genius bar and was told the one-week-old hard drive was defective. I know it's not because it worked and booted normally in external USB. Requested them to replace the cable, they did, but for sure a 2009 version, still failed. Fortunately I have an applecare for over $300
Following the instructions above and down to 1.6, the installation passed quickly , boot successfully, disk running at negotiated 1.5gb, like the stock one, but feels much faster. Finally it's usable!
So in my case with the XT 750gb, it's definitely the problem with the EFI instead of the hardware. The 1.7 just doesn't accept the new hard drive.
Running a fresh installation, I will transfer data over, if still OK, will try to upgrade EFI to 1.7 again to see what happens. It'll be very interesting if only a paired disk with 1.6 will work with 1.7 upgrading, but not a new disk. Anyway, the worst is to downgrade again.
I went into (About this Mac) and found "SMC Version 1.70fS" - is that the EFI version?
I recall upgrading my EFI some time ago, and only recently bought a Momentus XT 750GB. It installed just fine. Only once did I have a problem (the MBP wouldn't power off during shutdown) but otherwise no problems here to report...
I took the plunge and suceeded
I must confess I was reluctant to downgrade using the procedure and files mentioned on this thread. But, after struggling for several days trying to make my new Western Digital (WD7500BPVT Sata 3 - 750 Gigabytes) disk work on my MacBook Pro (15 Inches, 2.53 Ghz, Mid 2009) I realized my options were pretty limited.
Long story short, I followed the step by step instructions from post 305. Although the link to download the DMG image from Rapidshare was broken I could find a copy here: http://hotfile.com/dl/109001076/5dfaf39/aluminum.macbook.pro.recovery.dmg.html
Running Mountain Lion 10.8.2 now, no freezes, no beach balls so far.
Just in case links get broken again: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tqmr4w8gl49e1w2/sKwwRRf1XH
I must confess I was reluctant to downgrade using the procedure and files mentioned on this thread. But, after struggling for several days trying to make my new Western Digital (WD7500BPVT Sata 3 - 750 Gigabytes) disk work on my MacBook Pro (15 Inches, 2.53 Ghz, Mid 2009) I realized my options were pretty limited.
Long story short, I followed the step by step instructions from post 305. Although the link to download the DMG image from Rapidshare was broken I could find a copy here: http://hotfile.com/dl/109001076/5dfaf39/aluminum.macbook.pro.recovery.dmg.html
Running Mountain Lion 10.8.2 now, no freezes, no beach balls so far.
Just in case links get broken again: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tqmr4w8gl49e1w2/sKwwRRf1XH
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Thank you, thank you, thank you!
My fellow Mac fans, I registered for the sole purpose to say thanks for your invaluable help. I was on the verge of selling my Mid-2009 MacBook Pro (15", 2.53Ghz, ST9500420AS HDD, 8GB RAM, EFI 1.7, OS X 10.8.2) because of the dreadful spinning wheel problem. Curse you EFI 1.7!!!
The only thing I regret now is that I didn't search this forum an year ago.
Thank you again!
My fellow Mac fans, I registered for the sole purpose to say thanks for your invaluable help. I was on the verge of selling my Mid-2009 MacBook Pro (15", 2.53Ghz, ST9500420AS HDD, 8GB RAM, EFI 1.7, OS X 10.8.2) because of the dreadful spinning wheel problem. Curse you EFI 1.7!!!
The only thing I regret now is that I didn't search this forum an year ago.
Thank you again!
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Is it possible to downgrade the new EFI on the retina MBP?
The new EFI is causing nothing but trouble for me.
The new EFI is causing nothing but trouble for me.
EFI 1.7 update is not even available for the Retina MBP, so you must be mixing things together.
Sound like I have to get a Mercury OWC drive! Can anyone else confirm that this drive is working with EFI1.7 and running at 3Gbps?
So all this means, that if i get a 2010 MacBook's SATA cable, I will be able to run EFI 1.7, Mountain Lion and a Samsung 830 256 SSD?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Simple way to lock to 1.5Gb/s
The manual for the Momentus XT500GB (first gen, not the newer gen with the 8GB Flash) has a JUMPER selection for locking to 1.5Gb speeds!
This drive is also at clearance at computer stores now.
The Next Gen 750 GB momentus XT does NOT have that jumper config.
Yesterday ran out, bought two of the drives, clean Mtn lion install with latest f/w, efi etc. but amazingly I don't even need to lock the link speed to 1.5Gb/s!
Spinning beach balls are gone. this thing is zippy, this computer is working like a dream. Previous drive was WD Blue 750GB and used to get the beach ball for 10-20 seconds frequently. It took 1-2 minutes just to log in after typing password.
With new 1st gen momentus XT 500GB drive for clearance price of $79, my boot up time was 40 seconds fro off and my login time with 5 windows open and all my apps was 14 seconds. This computer feels quite nice now.
Sorry, did not test the 1.5Gb speed lock as i don't need it.
Here is link to manual for drive
http://www.seagate.com/files/staticfiles/support/disc/manuals/notebook/momentus/XT/100610268b.pdf
page 20,
jumper the two pins furthest away from the other connectors to force 1.5Gb link speed.
That sure beats downgrading f/w and I am now using Mtn Lion OK.
The manual for the Momentus XT500GB (first gen, not the newer gen with the 8GB Flash) has a JUMPER selection for locking to 1.5Gb speeds!
This drive is also at clearance at computer stores now.
The Next Gen 750 GB momentus XT does NOT have that jumper config.
Yesterday ran out, bought two of the drives, clean Mtn lion install with latest f/w, efi etc. but amazingly I don't even need to lock the link speed to 1.5Gb/s!
Spinning beach balls are gone. this thing is zippy, this computer is working like a dream. Previous drive was WD Blue 750GB and used to get the beach ball for 10-20 seconds frequently. It took 1-2 minutes just to log in after typing password.
With new 1st gen momentus XT 500GB drive for clearance price of $79, my boot up time was 40 seconds fro off and my login time with 5 windows open and all my apps was 14 seconds. This computer feels quite nice now.
Sorry, did not test the 1.5Gb speed lock as i don't need it.
Here is link to manual for drive
http://www.seagate.com/files/staticfiles/support/disc/manuals/notebook/momentus/XT/100610268b.pdf
page 20,
jumper the two pins furthest away from the other connectors to force 1.5Gb link speed.
That sure beats downgrading f/w and I am now using Mtn Lion OK.
I followed the instructions on how ot downgrade, but when I restart and selcet the restore volume I just get the grey screen with a "forbidden sign" (sorry not sure about the name in English).
WHat I´m I doing wrong?
THe beach balls are killing me.
PS Crucial SSD
WHat I´m I doing wrong?
THe beach balls are killing me.
PS Crucial SSD