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MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 Problems
- Thread starter jlamarp
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This is my first post here, so I guess I'm not to be trusted too far either.
However, if I wanted to spread a Virus or some other sort of malware, I would incorporate it in some sort of pirated software, not exactly a firmware downgrade. Seems way too obscure and difficult to me to justify the effort, compared to other methods. Which, applying Occam's Razor, makes that approach highly unlikely.
Having said that, I registered here to say thanks to the guys who have saved me from having to go to the Apple Store, travelling quite far for a lengthy appointment with unknown result.
The file posted here does actually downgrade the EFI firmware to 1.6 (after applying it i am now being prompted by the software update utility to upgrade to 1.7) and my beachball issues seem to be gone as far as I can tell right now.
I was affected by it without even changing the stock hard drive before.
I'll keep testing and will get back to you in a few days on whether it solved the problems we've been experiencing.
Cheers,
Stephan
EDIT: MacBook Pro 13" 2.53GHz Snow Leopard
However, if I wanted to spread a Virus or some other sort of malware, I would incorporate it in some sort of pirated software, not exactly a firmware downgrade. Seems way too obscure and difficult to me to justify the effort, compared to other methods. Which, applying Occam's Razor, makes that approach highly unlikely.
Having said that, I registered here to say thanks to the guys who have saved me from having to go to the Apple Store, travelling quite far for a lengthy appointment with unknown result.
The file posted here does actually downgrade the EFI firmware to 1.6 (after applying it i am now being prompted by the software update utility to upgrade to 1.7) and my beachball issues seem to be gone as far as I can tell right now.
I was affected by it without even changing the stock hard drive before.
I'll keep testing and will get back to you in a few days on whether it solved the problems we've been experiencing.
Cheers,
Stephan
EDIT: MacBook Pro 13" 2.53GHz Snow Leopard
No offense taken. If it is a trojan horse, an Apple Genius gave it to me. I joined to share my experience. I unfortunately cannot get this to work on my Mid 2009 15inch MBP. I followed the steps to put it on the USB drive, I've reburned the cd the Apple Genius gave me. It just reboots immediately with no action taken. I don't know if the firmware on my machine is somehow damaged. I have an appointment Friday afternoon at the Genius bar at a different Apple store because I was getting the runaround at the first one I tried.
Does anyone know of any utilities that can check the firmware that I currently have (1.7) to see if it is damaged? I have a feeling they might suggest a logic board replacement if they can't get it working.
***Nevermind, I got it working. I had to reset my SMC. I tried again and it booted off of the USB stick, downgraded the firmware, and is up and running again. It is running Boot ROM Version: MBP53.00AC.B00 which is the version that supports 1.5 Gigabit only. Now to try my 3rd party drive!
Worked for me!
Well, I decided to risk it. Followed the instructions, but my system instantly rebooted when I tried to book off of USB stick. Re did everything again. This time it worked, got the grey screen with the status bar. Came back up and booted almost twice as fast as before! System profiler is showing I am back at 1.5 Gigabit. Software update wanted to update me back to 1.7 EFI.
So, I am one happy camper. BTW, I would get random beachballs and slow booting, and I am running on the factory 500 GB Hitachi in the latest Gen 2.8 GHz 15" with 8 GB of Ram. Tomorrow I will give it a workout, but I think all is well again!
Well, I decided to risk it. Followed the instructions, but my system instantly rebooted when I tried to book off of USB stick. Re did everything again. This time it worked, got the grey screen with the status bar. Came back up and booted almost twice as fast as before! System profiler is showing I am back at 1.5 Gigabit. Software update wanted to update me back to 1.7 EFI.
So, I am one happy camper. BTW, I would get random beachballs and slow booting, and I am running on the factory 500 GB Hitachi in the latest Gen 2.8 GHz 15" with 8 GB of Ram. Tomorrow I will give it a workout, but I think all is well again!
I haven't heard of trojans that are in the EFI itself, please post some links explaining how they can store themselves in the EFI.
I am still getting lockups with downgrading to 1.6 EFI.
Just playing music in iTunes locks it up. Going to update back to 1.7 EFI and see what happens.
I am also giving Apple a call back today. This sucks being I just bought this MacBook Pro 2 weeks ago.
Just playing music in iTunes locks it up. Going to update back to 1.7 EFI and see what happens.
I am also giving Apple a call back today. This sucks being I just bought this MacBook Pro 2 weeks ago.
I have requested a replacement from Amazon and I will have a new one on Tuesday and just mail the old one back. It seems as if either the controller is bad or the HDD is... I wanna say its the controller.
17" uMBP?
So it seems 13" and 15" uMBP users now have a way to run 3rd party HDD and SSD drives by downgrading to EFI 1.6. SATA will run at 1.5 instead of 3.0, but at least the beachballs are gone.
But what about the 17" uMBP models? I understand from reading all these threads that some people are reporting beachball issues with the 17" model too. I'm trying to figure out if those issues are related to 3rd party HDD and SSD drives or something else.
I want to go get a 17" uMBP soon, but like to be assured that I can put my 160GB Intel Gen2 SSD in it with no beachball issues.
Thanks much!
So it seems 13" and 15" uMBP users now have a way to run 3rd party HDD and SSD drives by downgrading to EFI 1.6. SATA will run at 1.5 instead of 3.0, but at least the beachballs are gone.
But what about the 17" uMBP models? I understand from reading all these threads that some people are reporting beachball issues with the 17" model too. I'm trying to figure out if those issues are related to 3rd party HDD and SSD drives or something else.
I want to go get a 17" uMBP soon, but like to be assured that I can put my 160GB Intel Gen2 SSD in it with no beachball issues.
Thanks much!
My 17" is stock and it's giving me grief. It's going back tomorrow. I'm done with this range, the MBP is fundamentally flawed.
Just can't decide what to get in it's place....MBA, iMac, a PC
I'm really hoping the 17" models are also affected... that would really press the need for a proper fix for all of us.
Ditto, just dont start policing this thread tooo plz,
This thread isn't 74 pages long... yet.
Looks like I need a bit of help here getting the dmg file onto my usb stick. I have formatted the drive as OSX Extended Journaled and have not mounted the image. I drag/dropped the dmg into the source box and the usb into the destination box and clicked on restore but get the following:
Image Error:
Could not find any scan information. The source image needs to be imagescanned before it can be restored.
What am I doing wrong?
Image Error:
Could not find any scan information. The source image needs to be imagescanned before it can be restored.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks for the reply, Panzo although that was not the solution. I did find out that I had to click on the image file in the list on the left and then click on Image in the menu and then on Scan Image for Restore. After that, everything went smoothly.
I'm sure the pic paints a million words.
After that select the .dmg you downloaded.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
p3ncil
Thanks for the restore tool. I have now downgraded my firmware and will report if there is any issues.
Just another thought, i have been burning some dvds and they have been going really slowly and a few have failed. Because the super drive also uses SATA im wondering if that may have also been causing the problems. I'll see how it goes now with the new firmware.
Just another thought, i have been burning some dvds and they have been going really slowly and a few have failed. Because the super drive also uses SATA im wondering if that may have also been causing the problems. I'll see how it goes now with the new firmware.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank You....
Ever since the EFI 1.7 firmware release, I have been unable to use my WD 500GB hard drive. Multiple attempts to get Apple to help resulted in no success.
I tried the firmware downgrade suggested here and EVERYTHING NOW WORKS PERFECTLY.. The downgrade to EFI 1.6 was flawless, my WD 500GB hard drive works again, and all is well.
Thanks again, and umm to Apple, if you ever happen to be reading this thread, THANKS FOR NOTHING...
Ever since the EFI 1.7 firmware release, I have been unable to use my WD 500GB hard drive. Multiple attempts to get Apple to help resulted in no success.
I tried the firmware downgrade suggested here and EVERYTHING NOW WORKS PERFECTLY.. The downgrade to EFI 1.6 was flawless, my WD 500GB hard drive works again, and all is well.
Thanks again, and umm to Apple, if you ever happen to be reading this thread, THANKS FOR NOTHING...