And you continue to ignore the facts. You should move on as it's obvious you refuse to research the issue and ignore everything in front of you. It's on Apples Support forums a huge topic about this. Also here, also on Mac Forums. The problem is a Apple problem as it started to happen after the Firmware release. Get over it.
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MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 Problems
- Thread starter jlamarp
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And you continue to ignore the facts. You should move on as it's obvious you refuse to research the issue and ignore everything in front of you. It's on Apples Support forums a huge topic about this. Also here, also on Mac Forums. The problem is a Apple problem as it started to happen after the Firmware release. Get over it.
I wonder why Apple WARNED of potential problems with third party hardware with the release of this update?
I m even happier that I bought my 15" MBP pre WWDC.
I have warned my daughter to NOT upgrade the firmware on her post WWDC 13" MBP. Seemed unnecessary to do anyway, and now I know not to do it.
Apple should release a list of Manufacturers and Drive Models they use, that should be good with this firmware update.
This brings back memories of the HCL in Windows NT/2000 !!!
I m even happier that I bought my 15" MBP pre WWDC.
I have warned my daughter to NOT upgrade the firmware on her post WWDC 13" MBP. Seemed unnecessary to do anyway, and now I know not to do it.
Apple should release a list of Manufacturers and Drive Models they use, that should be good with this firmware update.
This brings back memories of the HCL in Windows NT/2000 !!!
1.7 update has nothing to do with it... ?
Guys
The good news is that the 1.7 update has nothing to do with the beachballs that all are encountering. I installed WD Scorpio Blue 500GB and wasa working smooth for 2 days, then the beachball of death took over. And I did not install the firmware update (cos I read all your posts!). Now at the 3rd day, my mac is at a halt and really unstable. Even the clock won't show and some letters in my application names would be missing letters. What's up with that.
Since it was severely beachballing, I decided to install the firmware update (in the small window the system was stable - I had to reset Finder and Dock) and after the update the experience was the same. No change. I figured then that the 1.7 update has nothing to do with the issues.
I still can't answer though if having a 3rd party hardware causes the issues, firmware updated or not. Lack of complaints from stock HDD owners might be telling that it was to do with 3rd party HDD - independent of firmware updates.
So for me, it's at square one to investigate what is causing this issue??
Note, I installed a heck of a lot of other standard updates (except the 1.7) BEFORE the issues started. So did the other updates cause it? I can't remember all the updates though, I might try dig up a list.
Bummer huh.
Guys
The good news is that the 1.7 update has nothing to do with the beachballs that all are encountering. I installed WD Scorpio Blue 500GB and wasa working smooth for 2 days, then the beachball of death took over. And I did not install the firmware update (cos I read all your posts!). Now at the 3rd day, my mac is at a halt and really unstable. Even the clock won't show and some letters in my application names would be missing letters. What's up with that.
Since it was severely beachballing, I decided to install the firmware update (in the small window the system was stable - I had to reset Finder and Dock) and after the update the experience was the same. No change. I figured then that the 1.7 update has nothing to do with the issues.
I still can't answer though if having a 3rd party hardware causes the issues, firmware updated or not. Lack of complaints from stock HDD owners might be telling that it was to do with 3rd party HDD - independent of firmware updates.
So for me, it's at square one to investigate what is causing this issue??
Note, I installed a heck of a lot of other standard updates (except the 1.7) BEFORE the issues started. So did the other updates cause it? I can't remember all the updates though, I might try dig up a list.
Bummer huh.
hallelujah!
i FIXED my issue!
i installed the firmware 1.7 update btw, so i can absolutely state the firmware has nothing to do with the beachballs. and that's with a 3rd party WD Scorpio Blue 500GB hard drive newly installed.
For me, it had to do with my font file. In particular, I deleted the font "Onyx". Those with issues, do you have this font?
Otherwise try deleting all your user fonts.
I'm going to reinstall all my fonts minus onyx and see what happens...
but right now, system running VERY smooth!
And that's after 4 hours of hunting and a dozen resets and working through a beachballing system 98% of the time!
I'm in "case 2" with a HITACHI 7k250 ( 3.0GB @7200tr ). It's not recognized no more since the EFI update. Reseting PRAM don't change anything.
Bad work from Apple.
I have this exact same MBP, and I have no problems after updating the firmware. You should definitely try the PRAM reset procedure. I did reset my PRAM just in case, but don't have this issue, with this exact same drive as yours.
Apple has never supported non-OEM hardware. People make way too much of that statement. FWIW I just installed a Corsair P128 SSD after updating the firmware. Fantastic upgrade. The Corsair blows the Apple OEM SSD out of the water, and it's competitive with the OCZ Vertex. It lags behind the Intel, but it's fast enough and I'd rater have the extra storage. I can't wait until 256GB SSDs are affordable.
Yours is software related. Ours is hardware firmware related as it does it with no software even installed. We can't get the darn thing to take the OS install.
hallelujah!
i FIXED my issue!
i installed the firmware 1.7 update btw, so i can absolutely state the firmware has nothing to do with the beachballs. and that's with a 3rd party WD Scorpio Blue 500GB hard drive newly installed.
For me, it had to do with my font file. In particular, I deleted the font "Onyx". Those with issues, do you have this font?
Otherwise try deleting all your user fonts.
I'm going to reinstall all my fonts minus onyx and see what happens...
but right now, system running VERY smooth!
And that's after 4 hours of hunting and a dozen resets and working through a beachballing system 98% of the time!
I spoke with a product specialist today, who sent in a request to the engineering teem to find a way to roll back the firmware. I also mentioned the prevalence of this problem, and he included a note linking to this thread. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2054387&start=120&tstart=0
The more people that call and mention they have a problem, the bigger the chance we have of getting this resolved.
The more people that call and mention they have a problem, the bigger the chance we have of getting this resolved.
I've been having exactly the same issues in a MacBook Aluminium using a Seagate Momentus 5400.6 320 GB drive (beachballing, sometimes doesn't boot). The drive works perfectly in a USB caddy, and the original MacBook drive works perfectly too. More details here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/7830738/
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/7830738/
Attn: All HD owners.....Hitachi and WD mostly. Seagate might work but not sure.
Well for WD owners, it does seem the drives might have a way to force them to 1.5gbps. This COULD be the issue. We might need to force our drives back down to 1.5gbps to make them work again in our laptops. We have a jumper like all the WD drives do, that we need to insert into the correct spot to activate the 1.5 speeds. People with Hitachi's a person was successful doing this with a jumper on the drive and it worked. It allowed his laptop to behave normally again.
See this as a explanation.
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1679&p_created=#jumper
Going to try this tonight if I get time.
Well for WD owners, it does seem the drives might have a way to force them to 1.5gbps. This COULD be the issue. We might need to force our drives back down to 1.5gbps to make them work again in our laptops. We have a jumper like all the WD drives do, that we need to insert into the correct spot to activate the 1.5 speeds. People with Hitachi's a person was successful doing this with a jumper on the drive and it worked. It allowed his laptop to behave normally again.
See this as a explanation.
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1679&p_created=#jumper
Going to try this tonight if I get time.
ANother update. Here is a good PDF from WD explaining the speeds.
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc..._tbl=9&p_id=1337&p_created=1126109811&p_olh=0
I am thinking that we got the update, and the update isn't allowing correct speeds with some drives at 3.0gbps. So we need to tell the drive to stop trying to use auto at 3.0gbps and force it back down to 1.5gbps. This might resolve our problems.
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc..._tbl=9&p_id=1337&p_created=1126109811&p_olh=0
I am thinking that we got the update, and the update isn't allowing correct speeds with some drives at 3.0gbps. So we need to tell the drive to stop trying to use auto at 3.0gbps and force it back down to 1.5gbps. This might resolve our problems.
500gb 7200 rpm drive is having problems
I'm having intermittent freeze up problems after I upgraded my 250gb hard drive to a 500gb 7200 rpm drive with this 1.7 sata firmware update. A clean dvd install of os x was failing due to hard drive problems (I created a GUID extended journal partition). I believe there's definitely a bug in the new firmware. My new hard drive is a seagate momentus sata which does support 3Gbps speed. Currently, Seagate is the only 2.5" 500gb 7200 16mb buffer sata hard drive on the market so unless Apple is offering another OEM brand with these features in there upgrade configuation, this should work. Any one else have same issues? I have the Mid 2009 15 MBP unibody 2.53 without descrete graphics.
I'm having intermittent freeze up problems after I upgraded my 250gb hard drive to a 500gb 7200 rpm drive with this 1.7 sata firmware update. A clean dvd install of os x was failing due to hard drive problems (I created a GUID extended journal partition). I believe there's definitely a bug in the new firmware. My new hard drive is a seagate momentus sata which does support 3Gbps speed. Currently, Seagate is the only 2.5" 500gb 7200 16mb buffer sata hard drive on the market so unless Apple is offering another OEM brand with these features in there upgrade configuation, this should work. Any one else have same issues? I have the Mid 2009 15 MBP unibody 2.53 without descrete graphics.
Holy crap, was this what was causing all of my problems?
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/733378/
The thing was is that as soon as I bought and turned on my Macbook, I immediately updated ALL of the software that was in the SOFTWARE UPDATE. When I finally could not take it any more I put back in the original hard drive and things seemed absolutely fine for the several days that I had it. On Saturday, I swapped out that previous generation Macbook [35 days old] for the new 13.3" 2.53GHz Macbook Pro. As soon as I turned on this laptop I immediately updated all of the software in SOFTWARE UPDATE.
I still have that Seagate 500gb 5400 hard drive that I want to put in this new Macbook Pro but I would HATE to start having those problems again. One question, why would Apple keep people from using/replacing their own hard drives?
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/733378/
The thing was is that as soon as I bought and turned on my Macbook, I immediately updated ALL of the software that was in the SOFTWARE UPDATE. When I finally could not take it any more I put back in the original hard drive and things seemed absolutely fine for the several days that I had it. On Saturday, I swapped out that previous generation Macbook [35 days old] for the new 13.3" 2.53GHz Macbook Pro. As soon as I turned on this laptop I immediately updated all of the software in SOFTWARE UPDATE.
I still have that Seagate 500gb 5400 hard drive that I want to put in this new Macbook Pro but I would HATE to start having those problems again. One question, why would Apple keep people from using/replacing their own hard drives?
A simple "me too" would have sufficed.
Folks, we get it. The EFI update screwed up your computer. Putting the stock drive back in fixes it. It happens to some but not others. We know the issue. No need to keep piling on with the same long stories.
Post if you have a fix!
mcdj, tons of me too posts gets Apple's attention. If they're not reading forums like this, then they're crazy. That's how you measure how well you're doing.
A PRAM reset seems to have stopped the beachballs for me. I'm using a Hitachi 5k500.b 500GB. It's still slower than before the update, but usable now. We'll see, hopefully they're gone for good.
A PRAM reset seems to have stopped the beachballs for me. I'm using a Hitachi 5k500.b 500GB. It's still slower than before the update, but usable now. We'll see, hopefully they're gone for good.
The 2,5 drives have different jumpers Linky Anybody tried to enable/disable SSC on his drive? Maybe the people whose WD Blue is working fine can also state if they have a jumper attached or not and on what position.
So... In effect what this update did was render all the third party HD's unusable.
Thus vindicating Apple because now people will really be pleased with their factory shipped disks
Good grief.. What terrible engineers they're hiring now days.
Well, Apple doesn't make their own hard drives, they buy them. So either some manufacturers work with the update (i.e., the one Apple uses), OR some Apple installed ones will "break" as well. I have to assume that Apple only tested with the ones Apple purchases.
Does anyone know what make/model Apple sells as their 500GB model. Typically Hitachi or Fujitsu from what I recall on previous models?
At least if we discover whatever Apple uses, they can be safely user installed, assuming you can find them. NewEgg has Hitachis and Fujistus as well as the Seagates and WD.
I noticed that after I did it. But there are jumpers on ours. Had no time to try it yet.
Might try again tonight.
So after emailing Phil Schiller, I got a call back today from someone in the Executive Customer Relations Dept. He basically told me to take it back to the store to see what they could do.
It seems they are not fully aware of this issue yet (or can't say that they are). So everyone that has this problem really needs to start sending feedback and emails so we can get a response to this issue.
You can leave feedback at http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html
You can email Phil Schiller at schiller@apple.com
It seems they are not fully aware of this issue yet (or can't say that they are). So everyone that has this problem really needs to start sending feedback and emails so we can get a response to this issue.
You can leave feedback at http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html
You can email Phil Schiller at schiller@apple.com
FWIW,
I just spoke with Apple technical support and was told that they are receiving a lot of calls regarding this issue and that another firmware update will be released to correct it.
I wasn't given a specific timeframe for the firmware release, but let's hope it's sooner rather than later.
MacBook Pro (June 2009) Mac OS X (10.5.7) iPhone 3GS
I just spoke with Apple technical support and was told that they are receiving a lot of calls regarding this issue and that another firmware update will be released to correct it.
I wasn't given a specific timeframe for the firmware release, but let's hope it's sooner rather than later.
MacBook Pro (June 2009) Mac OS X (10.5.7) iPhone 3GS