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Apple Releases MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.1

Croatian said:
I got 2 MacBooks for my business and i just got them shipped to me the other day, i installed the SMC Firmware update and tested the machine under the core-duo test for 45 minutes and nothing.

I did notice the fan was going like a jet engine and was waitin for the macbook to lunch off the desk but that never happend

when checked the temp before the test it was 40 C ... during the test it was 78 C ... after the test it went down to 56 C and it stayed like that for 45 minutes on idel before it went down to 45 C

how do i know if the heat sink on my MacBooks have been replaces or not, they were both costom orderd MBs and i did wait 1 month to get them from apple website
Click to expand...

Your Macbooks are perfectly fine. Basically the fan control does the following:
1. Keep the CPU below a certain temperature (It's 57°C or something, don't
know with the new firmware)
2. Minimum fan speed is 1500 rpm (even at 2500 rpm, you don't hear the fans, the hard drive spin and CPU noise are still louder)

So in your case the Macbook cooled down below the threshold after the test. Thenthe fans on low speed slowly cooled it down. Try out SMCFANCONTROL and play around with the slider. If you put the fans to max speed when the macbook is idling, the temperature should go below 50°C within a few seconds. Beliece it or not, the room temperature ant the heat conductivity factor of the surface your macbooks are on (wood = bad, cold metal = good) are a big factor. Lift the hinge of the Macbook up with a pack of smokes if you want good air flow :)
 
aristobrat said:
I don't think Apple changed their assembly line until week 35. If the serial number of your Mac is less than WH8635, then I don't think it has the new heatsink.
Click to expand...

how do i know witch week is my macbook
also the serial number is 4H640203Uxx

so i take it it is less then WH but my doesn't even start with WH anywhere in the serial number line
 
YoNeX said:
Reset PRAM, apparently that broke CoreDuoTemp sensor because mine is reading 12°C, iStatPro is reading 12° C as well, but smcFanControl is reading 72° C. Week 27 MacBook by the way. So my suggestion is, if your MacBook has no issues or you are fine with how it is running right now, DO NOT UPGRADE THE FIRMWARE.
Click to expand...

My Macbook also has false CPU Temp readings with all apps running Speedit. That is CoreDuoTemp, iStat widgets etc...
smcFanControl uses a different sensor. My guess is the new firmware somehow disables the CPU core sensors (there is one in every core) and uses the other one instead. So the values SpeeIt gets refresh only every time you reboot.
 
Here's my roommate's macbook. Hasn't been serviced yet, you can tell by the screws.
just kidding
 

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MrCrowbar said:
Here's my roommate's macbook. Hasn't been serviced yet, you can tell by the screws.
just kidding
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so if u have 3 screws, that means it was serviced

my 2 macbook for business came out of the box with 3 screws so would that indicate that they serviced that macbooks before they were shipped to me
 
Croatian said:
so if u have 3 screws, that means it was serviced

my 2 macbook for business came out of the box with 3 screws so would that indicate that they serviced that macbooks before they were shipped to me
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No. It has been established already that all the MacBooks have 3 screws. Mine was one of the first to arrive in the UK and It has 3 screws. The pic you just saw is actually from page 6, posted to show how it had 3 screws. This is a photoshop job.
 
Croatian said:
how do i know witch week is my macbook
also the serial number is 4H640203Uxx

so i take it it is less then WH but my doesn't even start with WH anywhere in the serial number line
Click to expand...
I totally screwed up on my last post about this -- I apologize (and edited it).

4H635 is when I think Apple made the change based on this ThinkSecret post:
http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0908macmini.html

If you have a 4H640, then I think you have a week 40 and should be OK. Someone should correct me if I'm wrong reading your serial#. ;)
 
dagaz said:
I think the original poster was talking about the speaker volume, and I happen to agree - I think my speaker volume is slightly louder.
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volume is definitely louder. it was actually one of the first things i noticed with this update because when i first got my macbook i was disappointed in the maximum volume. my heat sink was replaced also. it has been 24 hours and i've been on my computer a considerable amount...no problems so far.
 
At the end of my tether with apple hardware

Switched to macs back in 2001 and while I love the OS I have had a continuous stream of hardware problems with all apple products I have bought:

iBook G3: logic board died and replaced 3 times

iMac G5: CPU got so hot the machine almost melted! So far I have had the logic board replaced 3 times.

MacBook: Random shutdown syndrome, faulty mouse and track pad, palm rest discoloration. Currently in for repair again!

iPod: hard disk and battery both died

EDIT: and don't get me started about the abomination that is the so called mighty mouse. The thing barely lasted a week!

Apple have really got to get there quality control sorted out. So what if the OS is great if the continual hardware faults mean you can't actually use the damn thing!

One cheesed off mac user.
 
Croatian said:
so if u have 3 screws, that means it was serviced

my 2 macbook for business came out of the box with 3 screws so would that indicate that they serviced that macbooks before they were shipped to me
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LOL. YOu fell fgor it. Awesome :D
 
MrCrowbar said:
LOL. YOu fell fgor it. Awesome :D
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I didn't fall for it.

And you're an idiot.

Seriously, these forums are so Mac users can help one another. What kind of little person gets joy out of posting false information that could cause another person grief or concern?
 
I don't really notice a louder volume. I think apple can still improve on the volume.

have you guys realize how bad the volume controls are on the macbook? when the volume is at half, basically nothing is audible. the first 5-6 bars on the volume control are absolutely garbage (except when headphones are plugged in).
 
japanime said:
I didn't fall for it.

And you're an idiot.

Seriously, these forums are so Mac users can help one another. What kind of little person gets joy out of posting false information that could cause another person grief or concern?
Click to expand...

Didn't you see the white 'just kidding' above the picture?
Once I started the rumor of the black Macbook actually beeing made of aluminum with some black vinyl on it (thus the $150 premium). A week later, I heard from someone totally messing up his Macbook trying to remove 'the black layer' on his brand new Macbook with a cutter. I laughed my ass of for a week. Totally worth it. :D
 
What an a**.


MrCrowbar said:
Didn't you see the white 'just kidding' above the picture?
Once I started the rumor of the black Macbook actually beeing made of aluminum with some black vinyl on it (thus the $150 premium). A week later, I heard from someone totally messing up his Macbook trying to remove 'the black layer' on his brand new Macbook with a cutter. I laughed my ass of for a week. Totally worth it. :D
Click to expand...

So convincing someone to destroy their expensive computer is your idea of a goodtime? What a jerk!
 
Well.. I called AppleCare and they sent me a box.. The same time the lady told me to update to the new 1.1 Firmware and see if there would be a difference. She said that she would in fact send the box anyway and if the FMC didn't fix it then I needed to ship in.

My MacBook worked great until one day it crashed. AppleCare said it replaced a harddrive when I got it back. That evening... that VERY evening RSS started. What a crock. Never before, but after apple touches it it starts this garbage.

I am writing a dissertation. I am writing a dissertation that needs my portability of a laptop to be successful because of the amount of travel involved in gathering data.

What am I to do??? Well.. I updated the Firmware today. I upgraded everything that Software update had me do and then I put the new firmware on there.. *** Forgot to say that currently I am running at 46deg C. That seems pretty good. The bottom of the computer I don't think that you could cook eggs on like you could have a few weeks ago. something must be working.

So far so good. I have a blank box that I hope that I don't have to send to Apple as my dissertation is on it : ) (don't worry.. i have other copies) Maybe no more RSS this weekend and I will not put my computer in the box. We will see want we?!?!

Hmm.. Saw a good Dell price today.. thinking maybe I should buy one for just my dissertation as it could be more reliable than my current setup.

thoughts?
 
YoNeX said:
Reset PRAM, apparently that broke CoreDuoTemp sensor because mine is reading 12°C, iStatPro is reading 12° C as well, but smcFanControl is reading 72° C. Week 27 MacBook by the way. So my suggestion is, if your MacBook has no issues or you are fine with how it is running right now, DO NOT UPGRADE THE FIRMWARE.
Click to expand...

Just become some hacky software to read chip temperatures broke doesn't mean you shouldn't install an important firmware update.

MrCrowbar said:
Didn't you see the white 'just kidding' above the picture?
Once I started the rumor of the black Macbook actually beeing made of aluminum with some black vinyl on it (thus the $150 premium). A week later, I heard from someone totally messing up his Macbook trying to remove 'the black layer' on his brand new Macbook with a cutter. I laughed my ass of for a week. Totally worth it. :D
Click to expand...

Duuude, you're soooo cool (and quite a fibber).
 
slb said:
Just become some hacky software to read chip temperatures broke doesn't mean you shouldn't install an important firmware update.



Duuude, you're soooo cool (and quite a fibber).
Click to expand...

If you bother to read the previous stuff, you would have found out that its not the fact its reading the temps wrong, I could care less, its just the fact that my fans are being blasted @ 6K RPM on idle. I personally don't mind the heat, and would gladly sacrafice some silence for heat.

And as a general rule, if stuff is working fine, don't mess with it, because you are asking for trouble.
 
In case this of use to anyone, I have a week 23 2.0Ghz macbook which was demonstrating no random shutdowns or any other problems prior to the 1.1 update. After the update, my system idle temperature has dropped by about 10 degrees C, from ~50-52 degrees to ~40-44. Nothing has appeared to have broken and temperatures under max load remain unchanged at around 73-76 degrees.

An interesting change appears after the machine has run at full load. The fans now run until the CPU temp has scaled back to the low 40s, whereas before the update they stopped running at full tilt once the CPU temp had reached around 50 degrees.
 
YoNeX said:
And as a general rule, if stuff is working fine, don't mess with it, because you are asking for trouble.
Click to expand...

I guess my position is that the temperature monitoring system is clearly not working fine in MacBooks, which they claim is resolved by this update. If Apple wants me to update my SMC firmware regardless of whether or not I'm having problems, I'm going to trust their engineers that this is an important update to install for every MacBook owner to avoid potential future issues.
 
Just my luck I was gona take my macbook in for RSD tomorrow to get the heatsink replaced and now they come out with this fix. There is defiantly something wrong with the hardware though(i believe the heatsink has burned through some of the wires) besides the random shutdown when my system is at idle my fans will kick in suddenly at full speed then run for about a minute that fast or sometimes cut out completely then start up again. Something that it never did before rsd developed.

I bet if i take it in tomorrow they will just tell me to apply this update which does nothing to solve the damage that has already been done to my macbook. My guess this is a fix apple has done to get them out of the 1 year warranty period were the macbook will then develop further hardware problems. Then you will have to pay out of pocket to get it fixed unless you buy apple care. Also this temporary patch helps them sell more apple care subscriptions.

All i can say is i better not have hardware issues after my year is up or I'm done with apple :(
 
instantdan said:
the key issue in my case was that my macbook couldn't go to sleep or be closed, everytime it woke up, it wouldn't last longer than 3 seconds and then shut down and all of the other known symptoms.

I ran the firmware upgrade and it works fine now, it's not hot or anything and the fans seem to be working at a normal pace.

Well, I am grateful for the fact that I don't have to turn in the mac for 5 days or more for servicing... I make a living out of this thingy...:D
Click to expand...

I second instadan. MacBook was working fine until the last Apple update, then started RSS.
After the new update it's fine. Running same temp a previously and fans also working as previously. Happy (for now).
 
WillMak said:
Does your screw stick out a little bit or is it leveled with the plastic?
Click to expand...

It's level in the plastic, and dead center, so it's really hardly noticeable. Not sure why they had to do that though, you'd think they could fasten it the same way they do the old heatsink. Of course, I don't know much about heatsink placement and MB mobo's, so I should just keep my mouth shut I guess.
 
Back in business

I started experiencing shutdowns a couple of weeks ago. I downloaded the firmware update and it only seemed to make the problem worse. I had to hold down the power button to turn it back on, and then the computer would stay on for a couple of minutes tops. I could barely keep it alive to make an appointment online at the local Genius Bar.

When I brought it in, they immediately said they would replace the heatsink and change the top panel (discoloration issues). They got the job done in 24 hours, as they said they would.

So far, no problems whatsoever. Even though this problem was driving me crazy, I'm quite happy with the way Apple took care of my computer once I brought it in.

BTW, I can't get a temp reading on my iStat Nano widget, any suggestions on how to fix that? Also, what is a normal temp. range?
 
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