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MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 Problems
- Thread starter jlamarp
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First post here :
Thanks Panzo for translating those Russian instructions.
, booting from a memory stick didn't work for me though - I burned the image to CD and used that to boot and downgrade from there
It looks like the 'beachball' hangs on my 15" MBP are gone now
(I had the problems with the standard 5400 rpm Hitachi HTS545050B9SA02 drive)
Software update reports that EFI 1.7 is available to download for my machine now - Im not installing it again
Thanks Panzo for translating those Russian instructions.
, booting from a memory stick didn't work for me though - I burned the image to CD and used that to boot and downgrade from there It looks like the 'beachball' hangs on my 15" MBP are gone now
(I had the problems with the standard 5400 rpm Hitachi HTS545050B9SA02 drive)
Software update reports that EFI 1.7 is available to download for my machine now - Im not installing it again
I have a Patriot Torqx 128GB SSD and have been having all kinds of issues. First of all, I couldn't even get Snow Leopard to install on the SSD (clean install) -- it would always fail during the installation process. I had to FIRST install Snow Leopard on my original 160GB HDD on my 13" MBP and then SuperDuper the drive over to the SSD via a SATA-to-USB adapter.
That seemed to work for a few days until I start getting random beach balling even with the 1.6 firmware (I have not yet updated to Firmware 1.7).
The system will get the spinning beach ball, the mouse will move, but the entire system is unresponsive. I can't access any applications and hitting command+option+escape doesn't respond either. It requires shutting down the system to fix it.
And sometimes if I leave the machine running on AC power for a while with the screen open, I will come back to a machine that has it fan spinning, but a blank screen with no response to any inputs.
This is really starting to tick me off.
That seemed to work for a few days until I start getting random beach balling even with the 1.6 firmware (I have not yet updated to Firmware 1.7).
The system will get the spinning beach ball, the mouse will move, but the entire system is unresponsive. I can't access any applications and hitting command+option+escape doesn't respond either. It requires shutting down the system to fix it.
And sometimes if I leave the machine running on AC power for a while with the screen open, I will come back to a machine that has it fan spinning, but a blank screen with no response to any inputs.
This is really starting to tick me off.
i have come to the conclusion that this isnt even a firmware problem after all, it is more likely for it to be a hardware problem after all. As mazda has reported, his ssd does not work with either 1.6 or 1.7 firmware..... so that leaves 2 options either his ssd is toast (unlikely) or
The controllers we hav ein our macbook pros are not able to support sata 2 after all, the firmware update was basically a hit or miss, either it would fo worked and everyone would eb a happy camper or it wouldnt and wed be at what point we are today.. i believe we are past the point at which a new firmwar eupdate would fix things, i honestly believe its time to forget about sata 2 in our mbps. unless they have a recall or start replacing logicboards.
Why would apple limit the sata to 1.5 in the first place, think about it..... not pure coincidence i can tell you that much.
The controllers we hav ein our macbook pros are not able to support sata 2 after all, the firmware update was basically a hit or miss, either it would fo worked and everyone would eb a happy camper or it wouldnt and wed be at what point we are today.. i believe we are past the point at which a new firmwar eupdate would fix things, i honestly believe its time to forget about sata 2 in our mbps. unless they have a recall or start replacing logicboards.
Why would apple limit the sata to 1.5 in the first place, think about it..... not pure coincidence i can tell you that much.
I can get transfer rates of >210 MB/sec so they do support SATA 2.
At least my lowly 13MBP is SATA 2.
This is a little histrionic, given that:
1. A ton of people have posted benchmarks on 1.7 that clearly show their SSDs operating at SATA II speeds
2. There are reports of people getting their logic board replaced and finding that 1.7 was preinstalled on the new logic board, yet they have not had any problems since the replacement
3. It would appear that the people who do have problems with 1.7 are a small yet vocal minority
i think 1000 posts on the official apple forums doesn't qualify as a minority, when keeping in mind the average user does not know they exist. So theoretically, there would be many more.
And about the logic board swaps solving the problem, it just proves my point, the original controller that was shipped probably wasnt 100% compatible with higher speeds/drives. maybe the new hardware they are putting in is 100% efficiently working with sata 2 interface. but again all im doing is speculating.
apple does have a history of haywire hardware, exploding batteries, faulty gpus, and im not even mentioning their horrid quality control.
Im just waiting to see when apple will officially comment about this, because right about now its been three months these issues have been out, i have personally called about 10 times about this and spoke to two different tier 2 techs. At this moment they are looking quite unprofessional to say the least.
Those 1000 posts are made by what? 150-200 unique users? You got no statistical evidence to support a claim that it's a wide spread issue. Im not saying you are wrong in your thesis, but to claim it's not just a small group of people with a problem isn't supported by the data.
If it's brand new (like within the past month), don't worry about your firmware.
I went through the whole firmware angst when I bought my 13 MBP a month ago. There were no firmware updates for my system.
I just popped in a new X25 160 G2 and it works great.
Seriously, you're real problem is getting the X25.
if you really think about it those 1000+ posts are not a fair indication of how many people are having this problem, only how many are reporting it, that speak the english language and that posted it on the apple forums.
When searching for "Macbook + efi 1.7 + problems" in google returns 12,400 results, i think its not minority status anymore. but then again thats my opinion.
When searching for "Macbook + efi 1.7 + problems" in google returns 12,400 results, i think its not minority status anymore. but then again thats my opinion.
I bought a 15" MBP last week and hadn't even heard of this issue. Took the 320GB Scorpio drive out of my old MBP and placed it in the new one, wouldn't even boot from it. Tried to install snow leopard on it, it would hang at 29 minutes remaining. Using the stock 250GB drive that came with the new MBP works fine however.If it's brand new (like within the past month), don't worry about your firmware.
I went through the whole firmware angst when I bought my 13 MBP a month ago. There were no firmware updates for my system.
I just popped in a new X25 160 G2 and it works great.
Seriously, you're real problem is getting the X25.
So it seems that even the newer ones can suffer from this issue, and now I'm worried that upgrading to a X25 G2 will not go smoothly for me, which was the next intended step
Tempted to take the MBP back under the 14 day returns policy, but it's a pain as I had to wait ~2 weeks to get it in the first place due to ordering it with a matte screen. I wish it was more clear whether this is a hardware problem or purely a firmware one which can be elegantly fixed with EFI 1.8 in the future...
I bought a 15" MBP last week and hadn't even heard of this issue. Took the 320GB Scorpio drive out of my old MBP and placed it in the new one, wouldn't even boot from it. Tried to install snow leopard on it, it would hang at 29 minutes remaining. Using the stock 250GB drive that came with the new MBP works fine however.
So it seems that even the newer ones can suffer from this issue, and now I'm worried that upgrading to a X25 G2 will not go smoothly for me, which was the next intended step
Tempted to take the MBP back under the 14 day returns policy, but it's a pain as I had to wait ~2 weeks to get it in the first place due to ordering it with a matte screen. I wish it was more clear whether this is a hardware problem or purely a firmware one which can be elegantly fixed with EFI 1.8 in the future...
Did the Scorpio still have the previous MBP system on it?
If so, it may not boot from it depending on the age of the previous system.
It did, however this would boot if used in an external USB enclosure so it was definitely a problem with the internal controller or firmware. Even when trying to erase the drive from disk-utility and do a clean install I was having trouble with it freezing up which didn't occur on the new disk supplied with the MBP.
Studies have shown that people are more likely to write if there is a problem with their product, and since those 150-200 people are a REALLY small percentage of the total of buyers it does not tell us much.
Also googeling isn't even an argument it doesn't show anything, googeling "Obama +eat +babies" gives me 1.94 million hits...
Sure this is most likely a bigger issue then the usual glitches Apple have had (I might even be affected, ill see tonight when my SSD arrives), but saying it is definitely something widespread isn't something the data supports.
I never wrote a single post about the issue, but I had two 13" MBPs that exhibited the issue. That was close to two months ago. Apple isn't getting any more of my money until I'm certain the issue is resolved or I can talk myself into getting a 17" MBP.
IMHO, I think the problem is the hard drive cable. Apple had a design rev in-between the two different models. The previous cable was round and didn't have many bends. The new cable is flat and has several 90 degree bends which is totally idiotic. High speed transmission cables should be as short as possible and have no kinks or bends lest you want issues.
Your google example cannot be applied, we are not testing the validity of a subject (ex obama eats babied) but the coverage of a subject (macbook case warping). Whether or not obama eats kids, there are 1.94 millions people who think or wrote about it, and wether this is a minority issue or or not there are 12,400 mentions of it online. I cant bring up any scholarly journals or phd revised articles so i supposed there isn't any "data" to support it, but there isn't any data to out rule it either, maybe we should focus on the problem itself, and not how-many people are having it, apple should fix this either way, 100, 200, or 10000. I bought this machine because of its supposed ease of use and its design, Apple's reasoning behind its high prices is the distinct compatibility and efficiency they offer between their OS and the hardware they sell in their machines.....
This isnt the case today, one may argue its strictly between os and THEIR hardware and not 3rd party hardware, so problems with wd scorprios and ssd's should not make them liable, but i as many users am experiencing problems with a stock unmodified machine. I believe apple should look into this, even though it looks they most likely wont.
Now what is the reasoning behind my reasoning between this accusation? Wheres the data?
An Apple store genius showed an article stating that now that the rollback utility is widespread, there is no longer a need to replace logicboards, concerning this issue.
Check Mate, whoever is having these problem.
It's exactly the same, there's not really 12,400 people with a problem. It's 12,400 people who wrote something about the problem, either spreading something they read on a forum or such.
Im not saying Apple shouldn't be fixing this, just saying that stating this as a MAJOR problem isn't really accurate with the data we currently have.
I think Apple soon will release some kind of information about this, most likely a firmware update is in the wind. They are known for being slow and secretive and then out of the blue release a fix.
We can just as easy say that the posters in the forum are a fixed sum in a time frame and the posters in the thread are a percent of that giving us a percent of the users having this problem. And we must factor in that not all forum users post in the thread instead just read about of the problem and hoping for a fix or they don't even know of the thread. This giving a bigger percent value. And on and on with factors that come into play.
What does this tell us? Your statement and mine is equal right. Giving that you can not take internet posters or votings on any website as a fokus group for all apple users. The only thing we can take from the multiple threads on multiple websites in multiple languages is that there is a problem with this model compared to the last.
It also shows how the Apple community works. The love for the company overshadows product faults and are often downplayed by users that don't have product faults or even users that have product faults. I have read of many users that have stalling and unusable computers, yet they keep the computer in the hope for a future fix. They don't take the product back so they can get their money back, they wait.
All products have faults, but that is not a reason for going out and claiming something that is not true. We know by now that it IS a problem, we do not know the size of it though. Problem with internet forums and such is that all studies show that people are more likely to find forums and post when something is not working, so collecting statistics from this isn't accurate when applying it to the whole Mid 2009 buyer group.
I have followed the instructions and made sure the USB Drive was a Master Bootable however whenever I select the USB drive from the Boot selection it gives me a circle with a line through it. I also tried via a CD and same issue. Any ideas?
This is concerning, as I imagine it's not a simple task to replace this cable without a return to the apple shop for potentially a new board (assuming it's soldered on?)
It did strike me as strange that the cable was so long and bent as well, I wonder why they didn't mount the HDD with the SATA on the other side and have a far shorter cable...