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SSD for my Late 2008 MacBook Pro?
- Thread starter insimbi
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uhh i have no idea what firmware Lol
the box says it was manufactured i jan of this year.
all i did was reformat the drive ot mac journaled and did a fresh install of OSX Lion. everything runs all good interms of usage.
Did not know SSDs needed firmware updates? lol
do u know hwere i would check?
thanks again for ur help
Go to About This Mac > More Info > System Report > Serial-ATA.. From there you can see the SSD.. As for knowing the firmware, Intel doesn't really specify what firmware it updates it to, but I actually just found an interesting post from anandtech here. It actually shows up to 170MB/s.
Yes SSDs do have firmware updates, as they can provide better garbage collection, and fix bugs.
Heres the link to intel's firmware page.
intel says to download some disk update utlity. but it doesnt work for some reason. says it works OSX but i get a read me file and another one that opens up textedit stuff lol
It's a bootable CD image, and I can't use it since I have my optibay in. I posted that Anandtech link that shows the sustained write speed of 170MB/s, so I wonder where the hell Intel came up with the 500MB/s they posted.
Well, that SSD (Intel 520) was short lived 
I've had nothing but beachballs and problems since I installed it yesterday. I can't even click on anything without beachballs. I've boxed it up and it's going back.
I've just installed my stock 250GB HDD and am installing Lion fresh. At least I'll get some speed from starting fresh.
I'll have to do more research before trying another SSD drive for this model MBP. No idea what the problem was, but this model does not play nice with the 2008 MBP.
I've had nothing but beachballs and problems since I installed it yesterday. I can't even click on anything without beachballs. I've boxed it up and it's going back.
I've just installed my stock 250GB HDD and am installing Lion fresh. At least I'll get some speed from starting fresh.
I'll have to do more research before trying another SSD drive for this model MBP. No idea what the problem was, but this model does not play nice with the 2008 MBP.
Well, that SSD (Intel 520) was short lived
I've had nothing but beachballs and problems since I installed it yesterday. I can't even click on anything without beachballs. I've boxed it up and it's going back.
I've just installed my stock 250GB HDD and am installing Lion fresh. At least I'll get some speed from starting fresh.
I'll have to do more research before trying another SSD drive for this model MBP. No idea what the problem was, but this model does not play nice with the 2008 MBP.
Did you do a fresh copy when you first got it, or Carbon Copy Cloner?
Edit: What was the negotiated speed on the SSD from system profiler? I have heard many instances where someone with a 1.5gb link speed Macbook have terrible issues with a Sata III drive.
That might be your problem - they have recently changed their algorithm and many drives don't now report the correct speeds, try AJA system test instead, it's also free and seems to be more reliable.
Well, that SSD (Intel 520) was short lived
I've had nothing but beachballs and problems since I installed it yesterday. I can't even click on anything without beachballs. I've boxed it up and it's going back.
I've just installed my stock 250GB HDD and am installing Lion fresh. At least I'll get some speed from starting fresh.
I'll have to do more research before trying another SSD drive for this model MBP. No idea what the problem was, but this model does not play nice with the 2008 MBP.
What method did you use for setting it up? Start at the initial format and list from there. Did you install Lion from a USB drive and WIFI? Unfortunately, not many people here have the 520 given it is newer, and so there isn't too much we can tell you specifically about that drive other than Intel SSDs rarely have any issue and the 520 thus far is highly regarded.
can i ask a question? OWC said that if you put a 6Gb into your 2008 MBP 5,1 Late OCTOBER that it will slow your performance down. The only SSD for this model is this one, OWC 240GB Mercury Electra 3G SSD 2.5" Serial-ATA 7mm Solid State Drive
Can someone help me out here with the SATE 1, SATA 2, SATE 3 issue? So with the one that they say is the only one you can use(OWC 240GB Mercury Electra 3G SSD 2.5" Serial-ATA 7mm Solid State Drive) is this SATA 1, 2 or 3?
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This might help you for today I talked with OWC because I am upgrading my 2008 MBP Late October 5,1 to an SSD. They said that you can only use 1 of their SSD. this one, OWC 240GB Mercury Electra 3G SSD 2.5" Serial-ATA 7mm Solid State Drive. If you use the 6G it will slow down performance. Plus i heard others having issues with the early SSD when owc first released this SSD being Firmware problems. Just wandering if you ever got you an SSD for this MBP or did you just leave it.?Well, that SSD (Intel 520) was short lived
I've had nothing but beachballs and problems since I installed it yesterday. I can't even click on anything without beachballs. I've boxed it up and it's going back.
I've just installed my stock 250GB HDD and am installing Lion fresh. At least I'll get some speed from starting fresh.
I'll have to do more research before trying another SSD drive for this model MBP. No idea what the problem was, but this model does not play nice with the 2008 MBP.