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Apple Releases Performance Update 1.0 to Address Hard Drive Stalls

Apple Releases Performance Update 1.0 to Address Hard Drive Stalls



Apple today released Performance Update 1.0, addressing hard drive pauses affecting a "small number of customers" on a number of different Mac models. The update is available in Snow Leopard (300 KB) and Leopard (322 KB) versions.
This update addresses intermittent hard drive-related stalls reported by a small number of customers. For detailed information on this update, please visit this website.
Click to expand...
The support document outlines the procedure for applying the update and notes that it applies to the following machines:

- MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2009)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53GHz, Mid 2009)
- MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009)
- MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009)
- MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008)

- MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2009)
- MacBook (13-inch, Early 2009)
- MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008)

- MacBook Air (Mid 2009)
- MacBook Air (Late 2008)

- iMac (20-inch, Mid 2009)
- iMac (24-inch, Early 2009)
- iMac (20-inch, Early 2009)

- Mac mini (Early 2009)

Article Link: Apple Releases Performance Update 1.0 to Address Hard Drive Stalls
 
Very interesting. Probably the most bizarre update I've ever seen come out of Apple. I had no idea people were having "performance" problems. I'm even more surprised this affects both Snow Leopard and Leopard. Has anyone noticed these problems before?

Anyway, the update isn't supported for my early '08 MBP (which is running S.L.).
 
Stridder44 said:
Very interesting. Probably the most bizarre update I've ever seen come out of Apple. I had no idea people were having "performance" problems. I'm even more surprised this affects both Snow Leopard and Leopard. Has anyone noticed these problems before?

Anyway, the update isn't supported for my early '08 MBP (which is running S.L.).
Click to expand...

It seems like it would be more hardware related than software because not all machines need the update and it is for Leopard and Snow Leopard.
 
There have been a few threads on this, for a while - though it's less in number than other issues (Having seen it on 4-5 MacBook Pros first hand on Leopard and Snow Leopard).

It's not solving some issues (but then if you're running P2P then you're likely going to get some beachballing).

Installing, Spotlight couldn't find Activity Monitor, or some other apps, though once selected from finder, "remembered" them.

Hasn't stopped the weird beachballing with Transmission - got a 2 minute pause (mouse worked, but with expose half working - normal not grey background, and Safari working in that new tabs could be created, rather than giving the blue bar round the window and highlighting/selecting it. Then able to run a normal finder next to and under/over these mini sized Safari windows.

At least in the beachballing there's HD IO showing now - before it was Zero activity on both IO and data for 20-30 seconds or so at a time.

When people are saying no issues - are they saying they had issues before, or that the update hasn't seemed to have any effect, and there wasn't a problem before?
 
Can't wait to put this on my work 15" unibody... it randomly stalls for about 30 sec at a time every few hours then recovers fine.
 
I installed the update on my 17" MacBook Pro and I noticed a big difference. Before the update I noticed some lag time when editing photos using the application aperture. It would take a couple of seconds for the application to respond when adjusting the exposure etc. Now, it updates the photo instantaneously.
 
Ohhhh how I hope this fixes my 30 seconds of beachballing that have started to happen literally every 10-15min since I installed Snow Leopard on launch day. It was starting to make me hate my Mac. Fingers crossed.
 
It isn't beachbaling anymore but my logs still show this in just the time it came for me to come here and post.

Oct 14 20:27:54 skittles Safari[175]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:4.587113, # of Inserts: 23, # of bytes written: 197066, Did shrink: NO
Oct 14 20:28:09 skittles Safari[175]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:9.253108, # of Inserts: 22, # of bytes written: 215104, Did shrink: NO
Oct 14 20:28:50 skittles Safari[175]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:5.378915, # of Inserts: 48, # of bytes written: 193462, Did shrink: NO

a little later

Oct 14 20:31:38 skittles Safari[175]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:3.381408, # of Inserts: 18, # of bytes written: 137382, Did shrink: NO
Oct 14 20:31:49 skittles Safari[175]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:4.798453, # of Inserts: 15, # of bytes written: 166376, Did shrink: NO
Oct 14 20:32:19 skittles Safari[175]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:4.173574, # of Inserts: 17, # of bytes written: 158626, Did shrink: NO
Oct 14 20:32:58 skittles Safari[175]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:3.509421, # of Inserts: 16, # of bytes written: 159067, Did shrink: NO
 
I've been getting random dreezes i notice during video watching... hopefully this is what is being addressed. It does seem like the HD just kind of stops for a few seconds sometimes.
 
Finally!!!

Ever since I got my new Macbook Pro it's been beach balling on me like crazy on Leopard and Snow Leopard!! I finally called Apple and they told me to do a fresh install which I did but didn't help!! So hopefully this is the answer to my prayers! It's been very frustrating! Just installed it now and so far it looks good!
 
hyperpiper45 said:
Anyone think this may be a fix for the 1.7 firmware issues?
Click to expand...

I would like to know this as well because I'm considering upgrading to a new 17" MBP sometime soon.

If it does fix it, this could potentially be an important update for many people who are having beachball problems.
 
I'm really wary of this update because my comp is just dandy and the fact that its a driver update for the Nvidia chipset even makes me more wary because i wasn't one of those people with the SATA 1.5 issue and didn't need the 1.7 firmware update

Will installing this update affect my perfectly fine a perfectly 3.0Gbps capable chipset in anyway?
 
Much Improvement!

Still early to tell for sure but I can say I have seem immediate improvement running Xbench score on my MacBook Pro 5,5 with a 500GB Seagate ST9500420ASG, with a score of 33.25 compared to 28.34 prior to update!
 
This update does not improve anything, it makes my damn 17" MBP do what it was supposed to do since the day I received it. First I had to deal with hard drive beeping and hanging, and then the beeping was fixed. It's about damn time Apple. I've dealt with a 30-60 sec. hang at random times, several times per hour. Apple, get your **** together and do it right the first time.
 
tempusfugit said:
I've been getting random dreezes i notice during video watching... hopefully this is what is being addressed. It does seem like the HD just kind of stops for a few seconds sometimes.
Click to expand...

I've been having problems with Safari freezing the entire system temporarily and iTunes freezing itself. I did an Erase and Install this morning, cause I still have some files on my Mac from when I migrated from my iBook G4 onto my iMac CD (then to my first MBP, and finally to this brand new MacBook Pro).

Still have had problems since I did an erase and install. Whole system feels much smoother, but Safari is occasionally hanging, and iTunes is slow as hell.

Restarting now, I'll respond with how it helped.

Update: iTunes seems to be a lot more responsive, not 100% but still pretty good.
 
Well I've noticed a difference! This solves the issue I've been having where, even when I'm completely idle, the hard drive spins up, then spins down (with a little click; not the same issue as the beep thing) and then up and down again... non-stop. To fix this, I've been having to type into the terminal the following line every time I boot my late 2008 Macbook Pro:
Code: 
/usr/local/bin/hdapm disk0 max

But now, this issue is finally resolved with this update!
 
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