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2011 MBP uses bad SATA II for ODD?!

vipergts2207

vipergts2207

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Original poster
Apr 7, 2009
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Columbus, OH
According to the OP's information in the following thread the 2011 MBP uses SATA II for the optical drive (SATA III is being used for the HDD.) I think it's safe to assume that the MBP's shipping at this early stage are likely using the faulty Cougar Point chipsets. If you're planning on making extensive use of the ODD or doing an optibay setup, buyer beware. Hopefully someone can provide some evidence that says otherwise, but so far it's not looking good.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1102430/

Edit: One alternative explanation is that OS X doesn't have support for SATA III in the ODD port, but is still using a SATA III port.
 
Last edited:
vipergts2207 said:
According to the OP in the following thread the 2011 MBP uses SATA II for the optical drive (SATA III is being used for the HDD.) I think it's safe to assume that the MBP's shipping at this early stage are likely using the faulty Cougar Point chipsets. If you're planning on making extensive use of the ODD or doing an optibay setup, buyer beware. Hopefully someone can provide some evidence that says otherwise, but so far it's not looking good.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1102430/
Click to expand...

i believe thay ports 1 and 2 were fine. it was the others that were fried. so if apple had an eSata port or something then that would be bad but currently only 2 ports are being utilized and i think the fixed boards are shipping now.
 
wywern209 said:
i believe thay ports 1 and 2 were fine. it was the others that were fried. so if apple had an eSata port or something then that would be bad but currently only 2 ports are being utilized and i think the fixed boards are shipping now.
Click to expand...

Ports 0 and 1 (SATA III) are fine. Ports 2-5 (SATA II) were initially buggy. There's a way to check your chipset revision, but I don't remember how. Intel is shipping fixed chipsets, but I doubt Apple's turn around on them was this fast. Especially not in the quantities that the MBP's are being purchased.

Edit:

Fixed chipsets should have a revision ID of 05h and B3 stepping. I don't have a 2011 MBP to check though.

http://www.techpowerup.com/140250/I...ng-Cougar-Point-Chipset-from-February-14.html
 
If Apple is indeed using a bad chipset, then they've agreed to NOT use the flawed ports. More than likely, Apple used software to limit the ports bandwidth, which is something they've done on older MBPs (later fixed by an EFI update).

Furthermore, maybe Apple didn't even mess with the bandwidth. The guy only bothered testing with an optibay. Maybe the optibay itself doesn't support SATA III?

Edit: My mistake about the last part. It's probably Apple's own software cap. I'm guessing to support 6 Gbps at all in the HDD port they had to rewrite some software. Probably were lazy about the ODD port, so the software itself only supports 3 Gbps.
 
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axu539 said:
If Apple is indeed using a bad chipset, then they've agreed to NOT use the flawed ports. More than likely, Apple used software to limit the ports bandwidth, which is something they've done on older MBPs (later fixed by an EFI update).

Furthermore, maybe Apple didn't even mess with the bandwidth. The guy only bothered testing with an optibay. Maybe the optibay itself doesn't support SATA III?
Click to expand...

Optibay doesn't have any electronics; it is just a mounting system.
 
vipergts2207 said:
According to the OP in the following thread the 2011 MBP uses SATA II for the optical drive (SATA III is being used for the HDD.) I think it's safe to assume that the MBP's shipping at this early stage are likely using the faulty Cougar Point chipsets. If you're planning on making extensive use of the ODD or doing an optibay setup, buyer beware. Hopefully someone can provide some evidence that says otherwise, but so far it's not looking good.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1102430/
Click to expand...

You have to realize, apple only uses TWO of the SATA it doesn't use the other ports because there's nothing in the computer to USE those. You have the HDD and the ODD, ports 0 and 1. Both of them are fine, there wasn't any reason to delay the mbp's for a fault that isn't going to affect the systems.
 
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Well, I was all set to buy -- now it looks like I'll wait for the ifixit.com tear-down to see just what is hooked up where.

Also, why put a software bandwidth cap on the ODD? What's the point?
 
idea_hamster said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Well, I was all set to buy -- now it looks like I'll wait for the ifixit.com tear-down to see just what is hooked up where.

Also, why put a software bandwidth cap on the ODD? What's the point?
Click to expand...

I don't think it's an actual cap, but just Apple not updating OS X just yet. To support the 6 Gbps in the HDD port, Apple might have had to rewrite some software. Since most users won't touch the ODD, maybe Apple figured there was no point spending time to update the code for the ODD port.
 
This is what I feared all along.
I'm going to wait until May when they give you a free iPod Touch (sell that) and most likely all the MBP's will have the fixed chips by then.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

axu539 said:
idea_hamster said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Well, I was all set to buy -- now it looks like I'll wait for the ifixit.com tear-down to see just what is hooked up where.

Also, why put a software bandwidth cap on the ODD? What's the point?
Click to expand...

I don't think it's an actual cap, but just Apple not updating OS X just yet. To support the 6 Gbps in the HDD port, Apple might have had to rewrite some software. Since most users won't touch the ODD, maybe Apple figured there was no point spending time to update the code for the ODD port.
Click to expand...

I suppose -- part of me was thinking it had to do with that data rate lock-down that some ODDs have to discourage movie ripping.

But even if it's just garden-variety sloth and greed rather than malicious avarice, I'm still not impressed. All this time and they couldn't write a bit of code for the other SATA III connector? Weak!

Hopefully (1) this incorrect, or (2) someone writes a patch for Optibay users.
 
This does seem similar to the original Unibody issue where the ports weren't reporting as SATA II ports and it was fixed with software.
 
axu539 said:
I don't think it's an actual cap, but just Apple not updating OS X just yet. To support the 6 Gbps in the HDD port, Apple might have had to rewrite some software. Since most users won't touch the ODD, maybe Apple figured there was no point spending time to update the code for the ODD port.
Click to expand...

Is it not possible to have the HDD and ODD on either port 0 or 1 or vice versa? I'd think if they fix the code, that it'd apply to both ports, not just one.
 
slapple said:
Is it not possible to have the HDD and ODD on either port 0 or 1 or vice versa? I'd think if they fix the code, that it'd apply to both ports, not just one.
Click to expand...

I think after the design is set, all the computers will use the same ports for the same things (ie HDD always on port 0). Also, I believe the OS addresses each port in a separate string of code. For all we know, this is just a glitch that'll be fixed in a new firmware update. The only real way to test it is to just use Windows to check the ports, since Windows should have had 6 Gbps support for a while now.
 
Hi,

i've bought a new 15 Inch Macbook Pro yesterday.

In System Profiler i have the Following Infos (German):

First Port:
Code: 
Intel 6 Series Chipset:

  Hersteller:	Intel
  Produkt:	6 Series Chipset
  Verbindungsgeschwindigkeit:	6 Gigabit
  Aufgebaute Verbindungsgeschwindigkeit:	3 Gigabit
  Beschreibung:	AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

Second Port:
Code: 
Intel 6 Series Chipset:

  Hersteller:	Intel
  Produkt:	6 Series Chipset
  Verbindungsgeschwindigkeit:	3 Gigabit
  Aufgebaute Verbindungsgeschwindigkeit:	1,5 Gigabit
  Beschreibung:	AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

Is there a way to find out the Chipset Revision?
 
CyberLine said:
Hi,

i've bought a new 15 Inch Macbook Pro yesterday.

In System Profiler i have the Following Infos (German):

First Port:
Code: 
Intel 6 Series Chipset:

  Hersteller:	Intel
  Produkt:	6 Series Chipset
  Verbindungsgeschwindigkeit:	6 Gigabit
  Aufgebaute Verbindungsgeschwindigkeit:	3 Gigabit
  Beschreibung:	AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

Second Port:
Code: 
Intel 6 Series Chipset:

  Hersteller:	Intel
  Produkt:	6 Series Chipset
  Verbindungsgeschwindigkeit:	3 Gigabit
  Aufgebaute Verbindungsgeschwindigkeit:	1,5 Gigabit
  Beschreibung:	AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

Is there a way to find out the Chipset Revision?
Click to expand...

According to: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2380921,00.asp apple have assured them that they're using the new revision.
 
Grrr. I demand SATA 3s in the optical bay!

*sigh* I guess I'll be moving by SSD into the main drive bay now. Assuming that the system profiler is showing what the hardware is capable of, not what the OS X is recognizing.
 
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