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MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 Problems

Guys im curious that some have had logic boards(motherboards) replaced and now they have no issues running FW1.7....this can only lead to a hardware change.

A theory...and i have no way of testing but I bet someone in this thread does ;)

The 1st implementation of this new MBP was crippled down to sata 1.0 speeds; we all know this laptop runs HOT, so Apple did this to try and reduce heat...they also (and this is the bit that needs testing) reduced the voltage to the chipset/sata controller its self.

So, any engineers out there willing to pull 2 macbook pro's apart...1st one known to have issues and be running 1.7 and the second a new machine that has no issues with 1.7 or had a logic board change and running sata 2.0 just fine and see what voltage is being fed to the chipset?

I am putting my money on the one with issues have a reduced voltage, hence when running at full speed it crashes.

Interesting for sure..anyone willing to test?
 
dennis123123 said:
Someone on the Apple forums noticed immediately disabling SMS cured it. Maybe worth a try for someone? Of course, they may have a different fault.

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=10202234#10202234
Click to expand...


Yeah, some guy tested it and I suggested it too at the same time it seems :) It helped me get rid of beachballs on my stock drive.

So the procedure is like this:

1) Reboot computer
2) Disable the SMS before the first beachball comes.
3) Pray it works
 
Davidkoh said:
Yeah, some guy tested it and I suggested it too at the same time it seems :) It helped me get rid of beachballs on my stock drive.

So the procedure is like this:

1) Reboot computer
2) Disable the SMS before the first beachball comes.
3) Pray it works
Click to expand...

That "someone" who suggested it on the apple forums was me haha. I disabled it yesterday around 1 p.m. and used it for about 5 hours total throughout the rest of the day, with no beach balls so far. I urge others to disable their SMS to see if it solves the issue, at least until (if at all) apple releases an official solution. I believe the terminal command to disable their SMS is:

sudo pmset -sms 0

I'm going off memory so just google the terminal command if that's not it.
 
the1payday said:
That "someone" who suggested it on the apple forums was me haha. I disabled it yesterday around 1 p.m. and used it for about 5 hours total throughout the rest of the day, with no beach balls so far. I urge others to disable their SMS to see if it solves the issue, at least until (if at all) apple releases an official solution. I believe the terminal command to disable their SMS is:

sudo pmset -sms 0

I'm going off memory so just google the terminal command if that's not it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I suggested you should do it in a post at 3 PM but by then you had already thought of the idea and done it ;) I was hoping to be first! But that was a really nice find and as I said, I disabled my SMS before the weekend and have not had a single beachball on my stock drive, I used to get a few every other day.
 
the1payday said:
That "someone" who suggested it on the apple forums was me haha. I disabled it yesterday around 1 p.m. and used it for about 5 hours total throughout the rest of the day, with no beach balls so far. I urge others to disable their SMS to see if it solves the issue, at least until (if at all) apple releases an official solution. I believe the terminal command to disable their SMS is:

sudo pmset -sms 0

I'm going off memory so just google the terminal command if that's not it.
Click to expand...

This is what I got when I did that:

sudo pmset -a sms 0

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Password:
Warning: Idle sleep timings for "AC Power" may not behave as expected.
- Disk sleep should be non-zero whenever system sleep is non-zero.
Click to expand...

Is that all I have to do?
 
I actually typed the command incorrectly. Going just off memory, that doesn't surprise me haha. Here's Apple's official "how to" for checking the status of and disabling the Sudden Motion Sensor (SMS):

Find the current status of Sudden Motion Sensor:

From the Finder's Go menu, choose Utilities.
In the Utilities folder, open Terminal.
When the command line appears, type sudo pmset -g and press Return.
Type in the administrator password when prompted and hit Return. This command queries the computer for the current setting of the Sudden Motion Sensor, which you can determine by locating the ams entry (in Mac OS X 10.3) or the sms entry (in Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5) and looking to the right to determine its value. The default setting is "1" (turned on).

Disabling the Sudden Motion Sensor in Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5:

In Terminal, which should still be open from the previous step, you can disable the Sudden Motion Sensor by typing sudo pmset -a sms 0 and pressing Return (changing the setting to a zero disables the module).
Type your administrator password when you are prompted and press Return.
Type the sudo pmset -g command again to be sure that the setting has been applied.
Any changes that you make to the Sudden Motion Sensor setting remain in effect even after you restart the computer. If you choose to disable the Sudden Motion Sensor, Apple recommends that you re-enable it as soon as possible in order to take full advantage of the feature.

Re-enabling the Sudden Motion Sensor in Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5:

If the above command returns a zero, you can re-enable the Sudden Motion Sensor by typing sudo pmset -a sms 1 and pressing Return.
Type your administrator password when you are prompted and press Return.
Type the pmset -g command again to be sure that the setting has been applied.
 
I was going to make this same thread, LOL. I'll post my results here...

MacBookPro(5,5) model, EFI 1.7 installed from the factory, OS X 10.6.1, and a 60GB Vertex Turbp. With EFI 1.7 I had horrible stuttering problems. The machine wasn't usable in the least.

Downgraded to EFI 1.6 on my own with the software posted on MacRumors and the machine is usable now and in a week of full use I've only had one beachball lockup where i needed to hard-reboot the computer. I also disabled Mac's Sudden Motion Sensor.

Here are my XBench scores with 25.31GB used and a full night of idling for GC.
Results 187.66
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6.1 (10B504)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro5,5
Drive Type OCZ VERTEX-TURBO
Disk Test 187.66
Sequential 153.50
Uncached Write 173.35 106.43 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 168.76 95.49 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 98.62 28.86 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 236.73 118.98 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 241.37
Uncached Write 89.47 9.47 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 308.30 98.70 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2143.99 15.19 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 593.18 110.07 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Click to expand...
 
ocztony said:
Guys im curious that some have had logic boards(motherboards) replaced and now they have no issues running FW1.7....this can only lead to a hardware change.

A theory...and i have no way of testing but I bet someone in this thread does ;)

The 1st implementation of this new MBP was crippled down to sata 1.0 speeds; we all know this laptop runs HOT, so Apple did this to try and reduce heat...they also (and this is the bit that needs testing) reduced the voltage to the chipset/sata controller its self.

So, any engineers out there willing to pull 2 macbook pro's apart...1st one known to have issues and be running 1.7 and the second a new machine that has no issues with 1.7 or had a logic board change and running sata 2.0 just fine and see what voltage is being fed to the chipset?

I am putting my money on the one with issues have a reduced voltage, hence when running at full speed it crashes.

Interesting for sure..anyone willing to test?
Click to expand...

I'm with you, tony. I suspect a hardware issue that Apple dealt with by downgrading the SATA bus speed in the initial release (until enough people complained about the slower speed). Some people with recently purchased MBPs seem to be having problems with their drives with EFI version 1.7. It may be that any hardware revision (if there is one) hasn't yet completely filled the distribution channel. The results of your experiment would be interesting. All of this is speculation of course since Apple has not responded to the complaints, and it's been about 3 months since the problem was first reported.
 
If it's already been mentioned I apologize, but I just wanted to say that by disabling SMS you are in effect also disabling sudden motion protection for your hard drive. If the drive gets jostled while moving the MBP about, it could (and probably will ) damage the drive via a head crash. SMS is definitely there for a reason. So if you disable it, don't transport the machine with it running.
 
Harryc said:
If it's already been mentioned I apologize, but I just wanted to say that by disabling SMS you are in effect also disabling sudden motion protection for your hard drive. If the drive gets jostled while moving the MBP about, it could (and probably will ) damage the drive via a head crash. SMS is definitely there for a reason. So if you disable it, don't transport the machine with it running.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, it seems to be the ONLY fix at the time though. Not much else can be done until apple fixes their fault.
 
So after reading this thread, I am bit worried and confused :p

I purchased my 13" MBP August 25th. It has the latest EFI 1.7 out the box.

I upgraded Snow Leopard the week it came out and its been running great. Smooth and fast. I've checked the System Information and under Serial ATA, the Nvidia shows 3gb.

So I took the chance and swapped the OEM 160gb HD to a western digital 500gb scorpio blue HD. I reinstalled Snow Leopard, Adobe Master Collection, Quicken, etc etc.

I copied over my music and pictures. It copied quickly like normal. No beach balls anywhere!

Is there something I can do to test and make sure everything is up and running PERFECTLY? Anything I need to do to verified that my SATA is at 3gb? It's been 3 days and my laptop has been running great like normal!
 
Well, so much for disabling SMS. My machine just hard locked again with the spinning beachball :(

I just don't know what to do anymore. This is getting to be unbearable -- I guess I'll have to go back to my 160GB HDD.
 
truciet said:
Is there something I can do to test and make sure everything is up and running PERFECTLY? Anything I need to do to verified that my SATA is at 3gb? It's been 3 days and my laptop has been running great like normal!
Click to expand...

Like in the video someone posted a while back, AJA System Test, coupled with watching a video at the same time should trigger beachballs if you got the fault.

AJA on its own can verify your drive speed.
 
Mazda 3s said:
Well, so much for disabling SMS. My machine just hard locked again with the spinning beachball :(

I just don't know what to do anymore. This is getting to be unbearable -- I guess I'll have to go back to my 160GB HDD.
Click to expand...

im about to get real mad, if the logicboard and hard drive swap doesnt fix this issue, im demanding an exchange and ill make ti a bitter one also. im thinking late 2008 top of the line 15 inch, with two batteries. yes sir.
 
dennis123123 said:
Like in the video someone posted a while back, AJA System Test, coupled with watching a video at the same time should trigger beachballs if you got the fault.

AJA on its own can verify your drive speed.
Click to expand...

1gb Test

Write: 72.9 mb/s
Read: 72.4 mb/s

4gb Test

Write: 72.7 mb/s
Read: 72.6 mb/s

4gb Test with 720p MKV Video Playing at the same time

Write: 71.5 mb/s
Read: 62.2 mb/s

I got 1 beachball after the test finished. I believe it was recording the results for the Graph/Text? Throughout the test, the writing and reading speed was constant and never dipped at all.

Any opinions anyone?

Thanks!
 
I can't take it anymore. Just got another hard freeze. I'm superduper'ing my SSD back over to my 160GB HDD right now.

SCREW YOU APPLE!:mad:
 
Harryc said:
If it's already been mentioned I apologize, but I just wanted to say that by disabling SMS you are in effect also disabling sudden motion protection for your hard drive. If the drive gets jostled while moving the MBP about, it could (and probably will ) damage the drive via a head crash. SMS is definitely there for a reason. So if you disable it, don't transport the machine with it running.
Click to expand...

Actually that is not 100% correct. Normal SMS is not as sensitive as it is on the Mid 2009 MBP. I had the Late 2008 unibody macbook, and I tested Late 2008 unibody MBPs. None of them have as sensitive SMS as my Mid 2009 MBP. Only reasons a normal user needs SMS is if he drops the computer while using it (normal users wouldnt shake their laptops while they are on). And if the user drops his laptop, damaging the drive is the least of his problems...


Mazda 3s said:
Well, so much for disabling SMS. My machine just hard locked again with the spinning beachball :(

I just don't know what to do anymore. This is getting to be unbearable -- I guess I'll have to go back to my 160GB HDD.
Click to expand...

Did you reboot and directly shut of the SMS before any beachballs came? Also check so it is actually disabled if u reboot a second time.
 
as i posted in the apple discussion forums, the more time passes by the more unlikely apple fixing this is. if we get passed mid october, and there isnt yet an official statement concerning the issue, we can all forget a fix for good.

Here is my reasoning, in four consumer months, we use our laptops, wear and tear, bitch and whine.

In four producer months, while we were bitchign and moning abotu this, apple has already developped half of its next gen macbook pro.
 
Nobody has seemed to have noticed yet, but there are reports of it working fine in bootcamp'ed Windows (no lag) but still beachballing in Mac OS.

If this is the case, it might not require a firmware update to 1.8 to fix, it might be as simple as a new revision of snow leopard (which after people moan at them they might ship free updated discs containing the fix). It could be an issue with (like people seem to say) the SMS, or possibly a sata2 driver issue or something with SL.

Of course, as most other suggestions, this is all pure speculation; the reports of it having no problems in bootcamp could be an unrelated beachball issue.
 
dennis123123 said:
Nobody has seemed to have noticed yet, but there are reports of it working fine in bootcamp'ed Windows (no lag) but still beachballing in Mac OS.

If this is the case, it might not require a firmware update to 1.8 to fix, it might be as simple as a new revision of snow leopard (which after people moan at them they might ship free updated discs containing the fix). It could be an issue with (like people seem to say) the SMS, or possibly a sata2 driver issue or something with SL.

Of course, as most other suggestions, this is all pure speculation; the reports of it having no problems in bootcamp could be an unrelated beachball issue.
Click to expand...

I've had the problem in both Leopard and Snow Leopard with 1.6 and 1.7.

I'm currently back on the stock 160GB HDD with no beachballs (knock on wood)
 
Mazda 3s said:
I've had the problem in both Leopard and Snow Leopard with 1.6 and 1.7.

I'm currently back on the stock 160GB HDD with no beachballs (knock on wood)
Click to expand...

Yes, I'm thinking it might come in 10.6.2 or something.

Does anyone have 1.7 related beachball issues that also runs Windows in bootcamp? I would be interested to see how many people report that Windows is fine on the same problematic hardware config.
 
dennis123123 said:
Yes, I'm thinking it might come in 10.6.2 or something.

Does anyone have 1.7 related beachball issues that also runs Windows in bootcamp? I would be interested to see how many people report that Windows is fine on the same problematic hardware config.
Click to expand...

I've got 1.7 related issues running 10.6.1, but Bootcamp is fine. I've got Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit running without any problems. In fact, the only issue with Bootcamp is the Cirrus Audio Driver with my Mid June 2009 MBP: it won't recognize the headphone port but instead uses it as a always-on Digital S/PDIF Port.
 
truciet said:
1gb Test

Write: 72.9 mb/s
Read: 72.4 mb/s

4gb Test

Write: 72.7 mb/s
Read: 72.6 mb/s

4gb Test with 720p MKV Video Playing at the same time

Write: 71.5 mb/s
Read: 62.2 mb/s

I got 1 beachball after the test finished. I believe it was recording the results for the Graph/Text? Throughout the test, the writing and reading speed was constant and never dipped at all.

Any opinions anyone?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Can anyone take a look and see if this is normal? How does the write/read speed look?
 
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