at wits end... macbook pro beach balls with 500 GB+ drive

[catachip]

Alright, I just don't know what to do anymore...

I had upgraded my late 2008 unibody MacBook Pro to a WD 5400 RPM 500 gb drive. Started getting beach balls randomly (try to open a file, beach ball, listening to a song, beach ball, couldn't make it through a movie without it stalling with a beach ball 4-5 times).

Reformatted, clean snow leopard. Same. Reformatted, clean leopard. Same. Cleared the cache, fixed permissions, rebuilt spotlight. Nothing.

Reinstalled an old 160 gb drive with snow leopard. Zero beach balls. Worked perfect for a month.

Thought it must have just been the drive. Just bought a new 640 gb western digital, reinstalled snow leopard. EXACT. SAME. THING. Beachballs doing random things (or nothing).

What is going on here??? Help! Anyone have any solutions? I have all os x SL updates installed.

There was a "performance update" for intermittent hd stalls for 10.6.1 but you cannot install it under 10.6.2 (presumably it is included).

 

[Kalison]

I have the same issues with my MacBook Pro 13" I dropped a Seagate 500GB in, and its been considerably slower with beachballs. Clean installs, nothing works.

Pop in my old 160GB drive... nothing but buttah.

 

[catachip]

I have the same issues with my MacBook Pro 13" I dropped a Seagate 500GB in, and its been considerably slower with beachballs. Clean installs, nothing works.

Pop in my old 160GB drive... nothing but buttah.

I'm wondering if this is going to require a new logic board or something. There are forums full of complaints like this. I just can't figure it out.

 

[vanc]

Probably caused by EFI firmware 1.7 which comes with all recent MBP. I am running the old firmware and never met an issue with my Scorpio Blue 500G.

 

[vant]

Some Apple stores are trained to rollback drivers from 1.7 to 1.6.

The issue to me seems to be a compatibility problem between the HD companies and Apple.

Some have had problems with OCZ SSDs, switched to X25-M's and was fine.

 

[catachip]

Probably caused by EFI firmware 1.7 which comes with all recent MBP. I am running the old firmware and never met an issue with my Scorpio Blue 500G.

I thought this was just the newer computers. I have a late 2008 15" MacBook pro. I have seen posts about how to roll back to 1.6 yourself, but I didn't think it applied to me.

 

[doug.hall]

I thought this was just the newer computers. I have a late 2008 15" MacBook pro. I have seen posts about how to roll back to 1.6 yourself, but I didn't think it applied to me.

I would strongly recommend you do not use the roll back method being posted. There is probably nothing suspect about it however you open yourself up to all sorts of possibilities. The EFI is firmware and personally I would only accept firmware updates directly via an apple update.

I too had similar issues to those experienced here. I can confirm that I no longer have them and this is what I did to sort it:

1. went into the apple store and downgraded from EFI 1.7 to 1.6
2. removed MacFuse
3. Upgraded EFI to 1.8.

Since doing that my machine has been fine.

I hope this helps...

 

[lapino]

I'm glad to see some more posts about this, I have the exact same problem on my late 2008 Macbook Pro. Original 250gb hdd=ok, 500gb 5400rpm drive=beachballs and stutters all over.

So, what do I do now?

 

[ethandt]

This has me a little concerned... I am getting a WD Scorpio Blue 500gb to replace my 250gb in my early 2009 MBP for Christmas. I have not upgraded 10.6 yet, should I wait until after I install the drive, or not at all?

 

[catachip]

I'm glad to see some more posts about this, I have the exact same problem on my late 2008 Macbook Pro. Original 250gb hdd=ok, 500gb 5400rpm drive=beachballs and stutters all over.

So, what do I do now?

I had people balk at my when I posted on this before, saying it must just be the drive. But, given that I have now reproduced the problem with two different drives (both 500 GB+) I don't really see how this is anything but a software/hardware issue with the MacBook Pros. Clearly I am not alone.

I had a thread going on about this back in September (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/783286/) although nothing really came out of it. Someone just recently suggested a SMART report, however, this is two separate drives, and the chances of two separate drives having the same issue is next to nil.

 

[shambo]

Alright, I just don't know what to do anymore...

I had upgraded my late 2008 unibody MacBook Pro to a WD 5400 RPM 500 gb drive. Started getting beach balls randomly (try to open a file, beach ball, listening to a song, beach ball, couldn't make it through a movie without it stalling with a beach ball 4-5 times).

Reformatted, clean snow leopard. Same. Reformatted, clean leopard. Same. Cleared the cache, fixed permissions, rebuilt spotlight. Nothing.

Reinstalled an old 160 gb drive with snow leopard. Zero beach balls. Worked perfect for a month.

Thought it must have just been the drive. Just bought a new 640 gb western digital, reinstalled snow leopard. EXACT. SAME. THING. Beachballs doing random things (or nothing).

What is going on here??? Help! Anyone have any solutions? I have all os x SL updates installed.

There was a "performance update" for intermittent hd stalls for 10.6.1 but you cannot install it under 10.6.2 (presumably it is included).

13" Wee boy?

 

[catachip]

13" Wee boy?

Wee boy? ... it's a 15" MacBook Pro.

 

[neteng101]

I have a late '08 15" 2.53 running the Hitachi 7K500 without issues on SL 10.6.2. Drive was cloned over from the original 320GB with Carbon Copy Cloner.

I didn't think any of the late '08s came with a 160GB drive for the MBP?

 

[catachip]

I have a late '08 15" 2.53 running the Hitachi 7K500 without issues on SL 10.6.2. Drive was cloned over from the original 320GB with Carbon Copy Cloner.

I didn't think any of the late '08s came with a 160GB drive for the MBP?

You're right, this is a 160 gb drive from an old SR MacBook Pro. I had already sold my old 320 before I noticed the beach ball issue.