13" Mbp Only 1.5gb Sata ? - SOLVED!!!!!!!!!

[fpnc]

The old unibody Macbook Pros used the exact same chipset and the exact same optical drive, and there have been no reports of any problems.

You're suggesting Apple replaced a problem that no one has ever noticed with a problem that everyone is noticing? Doesn't sound logical to me.

Except that the problem may only affect the fastest SSDs under rare situations. When the original unibody MacBooks were under development these types of drives were practically non-existent. For example, the OCZ Vertex drives didn't begin shipping until Feb/Mar 2009 so these drives have only been available for a few months (although the more expensive Intel X25-E drives have been available since last fall). By limiting the SATA speed to 1.5Gb Apple may be trying to prevent problems that happen only with these faster drives. In fact, it wouldn't be unfair to say that the entire industry has been caught somewhat off guard with these super-fast SSDs.

As for my suspicion being a "problem that no one has ever noticed" under the conditions that I've proposed it possible that VERY, VERY few could have ever noticed. The scenario may be something like writing large blocks of data to the SSD while simultaneously reading/writing to a DVD/CD. That's probably a condition that happens fairly rarely but even if it was rare it would be pretty bad if the result was a corrupted SSD.

But, once again I'm NOT claiming that this is the reason why the newest MacBook Pros are running with only 1.5Gb SATA -- it just seems to me that this could be one of the more plausible explanations.

Frankly, if Apple doesn't address this issue with a simple firmware update then we can be fairly certain that there IS/WAS a problem with the 3.0Gb SATA interface on the MacBooks.

In any case, I repeat my request. Can someone with one of the new (June 2009, preferably the 2.8GHz entry-level model) 17" MacBook Pros check and see if the SuperDrive is running with a PATA interface. Check with Apple's Disk Utility, not with the system profiler.

 

[ImaBigD]

All I can say is, what are we going to do with ourselves once this mystery is resolved by Apple (by either releasing a firmware upgrade, or telling us nothing can be done on this generation)?

I heard Steve Jobs had a liver transplant. Maybe we should all get together and send him a "Get Well/Fix the 1.5GB SATA Card?"

It's the least we can do. Anyone know of a good florist that can make an arrangement shaped like a SATA bus?

 

[justit]

That's probably a condition that happens fairly rarely but even if it was rare it would be pretty bad if the result was a corrupted SSD..

What if it's a condition that occurs with the CTO Samsung SSDs? That because of their contracted order commitments they had to deprecate. Like when they went with Samsung PATA (slow) on the original MBA SSDs.

 

[goMac]

Except that the problem may only affect the fastest SSDs under rare situations. When the original unibody MacBooks were under development these types of drives were practically non-existent. For example, the OCZ Vertex drives didn't begin shipping until Feb/Mar 2009 so these drives have only been available for a few months (although the more expensive Intel X25-E drives have been available since last fall). By limiting the SATA speed to 1.5Gb Apple may be trying to prevent problems that happen only with these faster drives. In fact, it wouldn't be unfair to say that the entire industry has been caught somewhat off guard with these super-fast SSDs.

As for my suspicion being a "problem that no one has ever noticed" under the conditions that I've proposed it possible that VERY, VERY few could have ever noticed. The scenario may be something like writing large blocks of data to the SSD while simultaneously reading/writing to a DVD/CD. That's probably a condition that happens fairly rarely but even if it was rare it would be pretty bad if the result was a corrupted SSD.

Again, people have been using super fast SSD's with the 2008 unibodies, no one has noticed any issues.

Heck, the cache of any old hard drive can saturate a SATA 3.0 Gbp/s bus more than a super fast SSD. If there were problems people with normal hard drives would have noticed.

 

[TheBrew]

Except that the problem may only affect the fastest SSDs under rare situations. When the original unibody MacBooks were under development these types of drives were practically non-existent. For example, the OCZ Vertex drives didn't begin shipping until Feb/Mar 2009 so these drives have only been available for a few months (although the more expensive Intel X25-E drives have been available since last fall). By limiting the SATA speed to 1.5Gb Apple may be trying to prevent problems that happen only with these faster drives. In fact, it wouldn't be unfair to say that the entire industry has been caught somewhat off guard with these super-fast SSDs.

As for my suspicion being a "problem that no one has ever noticed" under the conditions that I've proposed it possible that VERY, VERY few could have ever noticed. The scenario may be something like writing large blocks of data to the SSD while simultaneously reading/writing to a DVD/CD. That's probably a condition that happens fairly rarely but even if it was rare it would be pretty bad if the result was a corrupted SSD.
..
Frankly, if Apple doesn't address this issue with a simple firmware update then we can be fairly certain that there IS/WAS a problem with the 3.0Gb SATA interface on the MacBooks.

I personally don't buy that there IS/WAS a problem with the interface. I've been using a Vertex drive in my uMP since march. I practically live and breathe with my computer and I thoroughly enjoy pushing it to its limits. I work with Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I work with and encode HD video and I program in xcode. I have tens of thousands of mail messages that I often have to work with and search through.
And I have -never- had a problem with data corruption or beachballs (except for those I caused myself).

If this was a problem that they "fixed" - then wouldn't they have released a firmware update for the old line of Macs that run 3.0Gb?

 

[SportyMac]

Gee guys,

all that I read page over page are speculations that you are trying to prove wrong or right...why are only the minor of us sorting this out with apple????

As I stated acouple of pages ago, i got a case number from tech support about this matter...
and they agreed about me returning this MBP up until december 2009 unless apple corrects the problem ( email from tech support )
greetz

 

[alphaod]

Gee guys,

all that I read page over page are speculations that you are trying to prove wrong or right...why are only the minor of us sorting this out with apple????

As I stated acouple of pages ago, i got a case number from tech support about this matter...
and they agreed about me returning this MBP up until december 2009 unless apple corrects the problem ( email from tech support )
greetz

6 month return policy? What store is this?

 

[SportyMac]

6 month return policy? What store is this?

as stated earlier:

My case got escalated, in agreement between apple tech support and apple online store, I negotiated stressfully my unhappiness with the time-uncertainty of apple fixing this issue. In agreement they allow me the return of my mbp if this issue is not cleared by december - all of that fixed in an email referring to both case and online store numbers and issued by apple store customer support !!!!
Greetz

 

[MacModMachine]

6 month return policy? What store is this?

a store built in la-la land....where there are big apple marsmellows you can hug when somthing breaks.

 

[SportyMac]

a store built in la-la land....where there are big apple marsmellows you can hug when somthing breaks.

stuff you guys, instead of making fun of me, do something about it!
here is the original mail in german, all direct date blanked:

Sehr geehrter Herr XXXXXXX,

vielen Dank für Ihren Anruf im Apple Store,

Wie telefonisch besprochen, bestätige ich Ihnen hiermit, dass wir Ihnen als Ausnahme die Möglichkeit geben, dass MacBook Pro 13.3" innerhalb des ersten halben Jahres (bis Mitte Dezember 2009) zurückgeben können, und Ihre Geld zurückerhalten können, falls die Schwierigkeit der Firmware bzw. Software in dem MacBook Pro bezüglich der Übertragungsgeschwindigkeit bei den Serial ATA Festplatten nicht behoben werden kann.

Bitte notieren Sie die beiden folgenden Bearbeitungsnummern als Referenz:

Bearbeitung des After Sales*(issue) 12XXXXXX
Bearbeitung von Apple Care (case) 12XXXXXXX

Vielen Dank!


Mit freundlichen Grüßen

AnXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXX
Apple Store Customer Support

Apple Sales International
Hollyhill Industrial Estate
Cork*
IRELAND

Fax: 00353-21-4284840

Tel.: 0180 - 300 0061 (D)
Tel.: 0810 -**00 11 24 (A)
Tel.:*0844 - 00 00 78 (CH)

Directors: Cathy Kearney (Irish), Gary Wipfler, Jae Allen, Peter Oppenheimer and Timothy Cook (United States of America).


The highlited words translated are:

-Middle of december
-problems concerning firmware
-return or money back
-transfer speed problems concerning sata



 

[Matze20111984]

stuff you guys, instead of making fun of me, do something about it!
here is the original mail in german, all direct date blanked:

Sehr geehrter Herr XXXXXXX,

vielen Dank für Ihren Anruf im Apple Store,

Wie telefonisch besprochen, bestätige ich Ihnen hiermit, dass wir Ihnen als Ausnahme die Möglichkeit geben, dass MacBook Pro 13.3" innerhalb des ersten halben Jahres (bis Mitte Dezember 2009) zurückgeben können, und Ihre Geld zurückerhalten können, falls die Schwierigkeit der Firmware bzw. Software in dem MacBook Pro bezüglich der Übertragungsgeschwindigkeit bei den Serial ATA Festplatten nicht behoben werden kann.

Bitte notieren Sie die beiden folgenden Bearbeitungsnummern als Referenz:

Bearbeitung des After Sales*(issue) 12XXXXXX
Bearbeitung von Apple Care (case) 12XXXXXXX

Vielen Dank!


Mit freundlichen Grüßen

AnXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXX
Apple Store Customer Support

Apple Sales International
Hollyhill Industrial Estate
Cork*
IRELAND

Fax: 00353-21-4284840

Tel.: 0180 - 300 0061 (D)
Tel.: 0810 -**00 11 24 (A)
Tel.:*0844 - 00 00 78 (CH)

Directors: Cathy Kearney (Irish), Gary Wipfler, Jae Allen, Peter Oppenheimer and Timothy Cook (United States of America).


The highlited words translated are:

-Middle of december
-problems concerning firmware
-return or money back
-transfer speed problems concerning sata



Good news, thanks a lot. I'll call them too, when my MBP 13,3" has arrived here tomorrow!!!

 

[MacModMachine]

im not making fun of you,

i believe you, im just playing around.

 

[TheBrew]

Gee guys,

all that I read page over page are speculations that you are trying to prove wrong or right...why are only the minor of us sorting this out with apple????

As I stated acouple of pages ago, i got a case number from tech support about this matter...
and they agreed about me returning this MBP up until december 2009 unless apple corrects the problem ( email from tech support )
greetz

Who says we didn't contact Apple? (but I sure do understand your frustration)

 

[SportyMac]

I aint frustrated..worst case i return my book and buy the latest release at that time
simply dont understand a mere 1500 plus replies theorizing about whether sata2 is sensible or not, yet only minimal energy put into getting apple to sort it out...

 

[MacModMachine]

to be aunest i dont see i being fixed for reasons,

6gb issues were never fixed, i had case numbers open and promises it would be looked into...same run around you guys are getting.

apple knows its 1.5, it was done for a reason and will not be changed.

i hope im wrong...but i doubt they will change it.

 

[Azrel]

if the SATA issue was fixed, I'de be right inline for a new 13" MacBook Pro. Until then, I'm sticking to my old MacBook, because it's plenty fast already (though I really do want 8GB RAM, FW800, the better screen, battery, CPU and backlit keyboard).

 

[zsnow]

Except that the problem may only affect the fastest SSDs under rare situations. When the original unibody MacBooks were under development these types of drives were practically non-existent. For example, the OCZ Vertex drives didn't begin shipping until Feb/Mar 2009 so these drives have only been available for a few months (although the more expensive Intel X25-E drives have been available since last fall). By limiting the SATA speed to 1.5Gb Apple may be trying to prevent problems that happen only with these faster drives. In fact, it wouldn't be unfair to say that the entire industry has been caught somewhat off guard with these super-fast SSDs.
.

If you ask any (I mean everyone) who has OCZ vertex or similar product like GSkill Falcon, they all have freeze issue on the new 13'/15' uMBP. This issue doesn't happen on the older uMB or 15'uMBP before apple saturate the SATA.

So conclusion is by downgrade the SATA, it apparently doesn't fix any issue but introduce serious freeze issue on SSDs.

 

[baseline01]

So conclusion is by downgrade the SATA, it apparently doesn't fix any issue but introduce serious freeze issue on SSDs.

So very true and so very sad...

 

[poobah]

Take an electrical engineering course. This isn't magic. The chipset itself is not going to take much power, it's just not doing that much. You're doubling the clock speed of a chip that takes almost no power to begin with. The drive itself, quite honestly, takes up many many times more power, and setting the bus to SATA1 doesn't change the power consumption of the drive.

So am I, but considering I bought it with upgrading to SSD in mind, I would like them to fix it.

Oh lets not play this game. I would not make assumptions about someone else's education. (hint, Ive taken *lots* of ee courses).

The point was (and is), we have NO confirmation from Apple, and people are just guessing (all the envelope math in the world doesn't change that). I don't necessarily agree that power was the reason, but I can't discount it either (considering the battery capacity, and the 7 hour runtime, "almost no power" could factor in).

Unless you are planning to upgrade to a *very* fast and *very* expensive SSD, this is a non-issue. Not worth getting your panties in a knot until we hear from Apple (and yes, I agree, they should say something.) Too much of this thread is chicken-little-the-sky-is-falling hysteria.

 

[Richard1028]

Wie telefonisch besprochen, bestätige ich Ihnen hiermit, dass wir Ihnen als Ausnahme die Möglichkeit geben, dass MacBook Pro 13.3" innerhalb des ersten halben Jahres (bis Mitte Dezember 2009) zurückgeben können, und Ihre Geld zurückerhalten können, falls die Schwierigkeit der Firmware bzw. Software in dem MacBook Pro bezüglich der Übertragungsgeschwindigkeit bei den Serial ATA Festplatten nicht behoben werden kann.


The highlited words translated are:

-Middle of december
-problems concerning firmware
-return or money back
-transfer speed problems concerning sata



You won't even be able to wipe your arse with this thing.

It says, "Possibility".

It's basically saying if they find something wrong with the 100,000 new MBP's they'll refund your money. But all these macs are performing as advertised. How can they fix something that isn't broke?

 

[glitch44]

to be aunest i dont see i being fixed for reasons,

You win the prize for the most unique spelling of "honest" I have ever seen.

 

[goMac]

The point was (and is), we have NO confirmation from Apple, and people are just guessing (all the envelope math in the world doesn't change that). I don't necessarily agree that power was the reason, but I can't discount it either (considering the battery capacity, and the 7 hour runtime, "almost no power" could factor in).

You don't need confirmation from Apple. Apple doesn't make the chipset, or the SATA controller. It's not some magical design they came up with in their labs. People familiar with the controller say it wouldn't make any difference. And honestly, I would be surprised if the SATA controller even supported underclocking.

Unless you are planning to upgrade to a *very* fast and *very* expensive SSD, this is a non-issue. Not worth getting your panties in a knot until we hear from Apple (and yes, I agree, they should say something.) Too much of this thread is chicken-little-the-sky-is-falling hysteria.

Except in a year those expensive fast SSD's will be the norm. That's the problem.

 

[Icaras]

Except in a year those expensive fast SSD's will be the norm. That's the problem.

And its this that people have the most difficulty comprehending. A lot of people here that don't seem to understand the dilemma just don't have a shred of thought about tomorrow, knowing full well that technology evolves.

 

[bjornnicholas]

guarranties

Good news, thanks a lot. I'll call them too, when my MBP 13,3" has arrived here tomorrow!!!

Keep us informed, I will consider buying a uMBP 13" if similar warranties are available. (I am getting one from Sweden, anybody with any experience from Sweden?)

 

[Cuyler]

Except in a year those expensive fast SSD's will be the norm. That's the problem.

Thanks for emphasizing this point. Technology moves fast and it may not be long before everyone upgrades to these new drives.