Apple Releases MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.1

[MacCheetah3]

Hi

Here's a question to ponder...How are people suppose to install this firmware if there macbooks keep shutting down?

Easy...With any firmware / SMC update, the sensors are ignored. This is the same thing with the Hardware Test CD as well. This is easily apparent because when the machine is updating the firmware, fans go to "deafening" mode.

Why is all of this? Ever since the elaborate cooling of the Power Mac G5 to keep things quiet, the cooling system has relied on a number of sensors throughout the casing, monitored by both a hardware thermal chip and the Mac OS X kernel. Take away Mac OS X and you are left with a dysfunctional cooling system...So, the hardware chip sets all fans to the highest speed in order to prevent overheating due to lack of information being supplied to it.

One last thing...

My MacBook is an earlier unit and within the affected [serial number] range. I constantly push my MacBook to maximum temps for a number of hours continuously with DVD ripping / re-encoding and have not had one unexpected shutdown yet. So, please, let's not make this sound like some kind of plague...I now how most enjoy exaggerating these 'things'.

P.S. I read somewhere that it was the insulation of the sensor wire burning / melting off, therefore, causing a short. So, replacing the heatsink would also include a new sensor wire(s) that are constructed / routed better and not degrade with sustained high heat. The expanding heatsink sounds a little sketchy but possible...However, that'd be some impressive expansion as I'd guess Apple gives more more leeway than that between the heatsink and other components.

 

[dlastmango]

show me

Yeap, they drilled a hole in the center of the macbook and added a screw.

OK... who can show us a pic of this extra screw?

 

[aristobrat]

I would suggest that Apple implement some quality control for their MacBook line, but we all know what happens when they do.

Because better quality control would have caught a hardware design error that doesn't happen to every MacBook and took 3 months (and several hundred thousand sold) to become prevalent?

The MacBook Pro and MacBook are Apple's first two attempts at notebooks using an entirely new architecture inside (Intel). Add to that the entirely new everything else that the MacBook got, and frankly I'm impressed that the RSS and case discoloration have been the only two issues.

 

[aristobrat]

OK... who can show us a pic of this extra screw?

I have a screw in the bottom middle of my MacBook, but I honestly don't remember if it was there before I sent it in or not. Either way, it looks (and if I run my finger over it, it feels) like it was originally there, so I'm not sweating it.

 

[hagjohn]

I'm installed the updated but my temps have gone up.. from about 34C degrees to about 54C.

 

[dlastmango]

I have a screw in the bottom middle of my MacBook, but I honestly don't remember if it was there before I sent it in or not. Either way, it looks (and if I run my finger over it, it feels) like it was originally there, so I'm not sweating it.

i have a week 26 white 2.0 MB. it has a screw on the bottom in the dead center. it was never serviced.

 

[muzikool]

I bought my MacBook at an Apple Store on the day it was released, and it has a screw in the very middle as well.

 

[zucka]

I'm not sure if my macbook's shutdown apply to the ones being discussed, but I suppose that's my question. I received my macbook in early september, and within a week it started to freeze the screen intermittently, and after a few days became more and more frequent. BUT THEN it started giving me kernel panics often. Both issues built up until I was having to shut down my computer 7+ times in a day. These were all random occurrences with no links to running certain programs, etc. I sent it in to AppleCare and they replaced the HD (after I had already wiped it, reinstalled, and the problem started again). After a couple weeks of getting my serviced macbook back, the problem has started again from the start, starting slow and then happening 7+ times in a day. AppleCare has told me that there is nothing they can do until the problem becomes increasingly worse, to the point that they can reproduce the problem easily. This is very upsetting, since with the very consistent progression of these kernel panics (and freezes) will land right around my midterms....ANYONE have ANY suggestions here? I don't even know if this is in relation to the random shutdowns you're talking about... But I'm desperate here.

 

[aristobrat]

I'm installed the updated but my temps have gone up.. from about 34C degrees to about 54C.

34C is really, really low. 54C sounds more normal. How does your MacBook feel to the touch? Warmer? Perhaps it was reading the temp incorrectly before and is now reading it correctly?

i have a week 26 white 2.0 MB. it has a screw on the bottom in the dead center. it was never serviced.

Hmm. Maybe WillMak meant some place else then?

 

[hagjohn]

34C is really, really low. 54C sounds more normal. How does your MacBook feel to the touch? Warmer? Perhaps it was reading the temp incorrectly before and is now reading it correctly?

It's warmer near the power cord than it use to be and I'm only browsing the web. Nothing else.

 

[dsnort]

After being very happy, ( and smug ), for a long time that my black MB didn't have the RSS, it got it. Over a period of a couple of weeks it went from never shutting down, to shutting down every now and then, to I couldn't keep it running for 10 minutes in a row.

I took it to the Genius bar at the Apple store in the international plaza in Tampa, where they replaced the heatsink. Took them about an hour to get it back to me. So far, so good.

A note, I don't believe that the RSS is related to actual temps. One time when my MB shutdown I had the dashboard open, and the intel Core Duo temp widget was reporting a temp of 34 C. Then blink, it was off. I did notice that as my MB got worse and worse, I didn't her the fans come on, ever. Before the RSS started, they would come on now and again. Since the repair, they seem to be running more normally. Fixing to do the firmware update, here's hoping!

 

[starlabs]

I was able to install the firmware update without any problems - to an external USB boot drive noless

Testing now... So far, so good.

 

[twoodcc]

well i guess i better download this. i haven't had my macbook shutdown on me, but better to be safe than sorry

 

[myshoeshurt]

I thought this pic Engadget posted is pretty funny:

LOL. I just came to post this picture. Ahhhhh I love engadget.

 

[slb]

There's always been an 11mm Phillips screw in the center of the bottom of the MacBook. You can see it in these disassembly instructions.

 

[Chrispy]

I'm not sure if my macbook's shutdown apply to the ones being discussed, but I suppose that's my question. I received my macbook in early september, and within a week it started to freeze the screen intermittently, and after a few days became more and more frequent. BUT THEN it started giving me kernel panics often. Both issues built up until I was having to shut down my computer 7+ times in a day. These were all random occurrences with no links to running certain programs, etc. I sent it in to AppleCare and they replaced the HD (after I had already wiped it, reinstalled, and the problem started again). After a couple weeks of getting my serviced macbook back, the problem has started again from the start, starting slow and then happening 7+ times in a day. AppleCare has told me that there is nothing they can do until the problem becomes increasingly worse, to the point that they can reproduce the problem easily. This is very upsetting, since with the very consistent progression of these kernel panics (and freezes) will land right around my midterms....ANYONE have ANY suggestions here? I don't even know if this is in relation to the random shutdowns you're talking about... But I'm desperate here.

Call Apple consumer relations. I'm not sure of the exact phone number but I'm sure someone here has it handy That kind of service is simply not acceptible!

 

[NicP]

I have a question; I run istat nano widget, but have never gotten the temperature readout to work (everything else works fine). Is there something I need to do/can do to get it to register, or does this mean something is messed up on my computer?

Install CoreDuoTemp, it will install the necessary bits and pieces to make the temperature readout work

 

[wildmac]

any guesses on whether this might be a sign of less or more time before a MacBook refresh by Apple?....

 

[vccavtech]

heat issue?

After applying the update, it seems like it's running cooler. I'm getting 53-54C now, when normally it's 58-59.

I got my mb the moment the were selling them in cincinnati and i've had one problem. It discolors, but i can almost get over that. I have never had the over heating issue, my computer stays around 35c and 40c. The new update scared the crap out of me when the fans went into full blast. they've never done that ever! now my battery seems to not last long at all. this could be an issue in the future... Wear and tair on the battery from recharging it all the time. I used to be able to use my mb all day, low screen brightness, not blue tooth, no wifi, no problem. Now i cant even go to work without my charger. Really sad. I really want to save up for a mbp and put this energy beast on ebay.

 

[Manzana]

I was able to install the firmware update without any problems - to an external USB boot drive noless

Is that possible? You're booting from an external and applying the firmware update to your mac right?

 

[starlabs]

Is that possible? You're booting from an external and applying the firmware update to your mac right?

Yes... I had bought a 160gb drive to replace the 60gb that my MacBook came with. After installing the new drive, I put the old 60gb into an external USB SATA enclosure. However, since I was about to meet a tech at the local genius bar, I swapped out my upgrades (the 160gb HD and 2gb RAM) to the hardware my MacBook originally came with (60gb and 512mb RAM).

Long story short, I booted up my external HD - now running my 160gb HD - and installed the firmware update to that drive. Note that keeping the option key down upon reboot after installing from the firmware pkg won't work. You install the pkg, have it reboot, and let it run (you'll see a progress bar). Once the progress bar finishes, your MacBook will reboot again. At this point, keep down the option key to boot from the external drive.

BTW I've been running my MacBook at full tilt (using the random shutdown test tool) for > 30-40 minutes and not a shutdown in sight. I've also put my MacBook to sleep and it awakens fine. Looks like this update has fixed the random shutdown issue for me. One word: AWESOME!

 

[EasyB]

better processor performance?

After upgrade things are better and quieter. I always have my activity monitor running and it is always showing allot of CPU activity and my fans are/were always running on full blast. After the update CPU activity seems much lower. The fans, when they do come on, slowly and quietly spool up. And I don't have a temp monitor, but my lap said that it is running cooler. I don't know if I am crazy or not. Is anyone else noticing better processor performance? I say great fix Apple.

And in the update process Apple does say that even those that even those macbooks that were sent in for repairs (heat sink, MB, etc) need to do the update. My guess is that at the time you had your book repaired, Apple didn't know the real problem, so they threw in some logic boards and some heat sinks in the hope that would fix the issues. Just my thought.

-B

 

[jobberwacky]

Anyways, I reccomend people use this firmware instead of geting their heatsink replaced. The later option involves an ugly screw in the middle of your macbook.

Not only that. It will also make your keyboard turn pink and on a moonless night the Combo drive will start to play "La Cucaracha".

 

[Lixivial]

I'm definitely staying away from this update for now. Something about it actually just kind of scares me. It helps that my week 21 MacBook has only had the mooing issue and nothing else (so far). That issue has gone away with SMC Firmware Update 1.0, and I've had a great laptop ever since.

I feel rather lucky.

 

[Shagrat]

I've just installed this update and my Macbook volume seems much louder than before..

Unless I'm imagining it Anyone else noticed ?

Think you're imagining it. Have updated my MB and i still can't hear the fan in normal usage. I expect it will kick in at some time when it decides things are getting a bit hot.

What I don't understand is that i only started getting shutdowns after the upgrade to 10.4.8 and it's associated firmware UG. And it seemed truly random, i.e. shortly after bootup (when the MB was still cool!) or after several hours, which is why I don't understand how a thermally expanding heatsink could be the culprit. If so, then it should always shutdown as the temperature rises to a certain point.

Dunno, just hope this new updater fixes the problem.