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Performance Update fixes hard drive stalls in Snow Leopard

If you are in the "small number" of people who are seeing hard drive stalls since Snow Leopard and that Unibody MacBook Firmware update that allowed 3Gbs SATA, Apple finally has an answer – in the form of a "Performance Update 1.0."  Though, it only affects a small number of users, anyone with a recent MacBook of any kind  running Leopard or Snow Leopard should download this update.

FWIW, I’m in the "small number of customers group" who’ve had the spins.  It is a 108K download.  Get it now – or simply do a Software Update.

Update: I am on the other side of the update.  No spins and long lost…dare I say…Snappiness™

Details below.

 

Summary

This update addresses intermittent hard drive related pauses reported by a small number of customers.

Learn how to apply the Performance Update 1.0 to an Intel-based Macintosh computer.

Products Affected

MacBook Air (Mid 2009), MacBook Pro (17-inch, Mid 2009), MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009), MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009), MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53GHz, Mid 2009), iMac (20-inch, Mid 2009), MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009), MacBook (13-inch, Early 2009), MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2009), MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008), MacBook Air (Late 2008), MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008), iMac (24-inch, Early 2009), iMac (20-inch, Early 2009), Mac mini (Early 2009)

  1. Quit all open applications, then download and install the update for Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard or Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard.
  2. The downloader will place the disk image with an installer in your Downloads folder or in the download location specified in the General tab under Safari > Preferences.
  3. If you downloaded the disk image via Safari, Safari will notify you that an application is in the image.  Click OK to continue.
  4. If "Open safe files after downloading" is enabled in Safari preferences, the disk image file will mount by itself.  If that preference is not enabled in Safari, double-click the disk image to mount it.
  5. In the mounted disk image, double-click the PerformanceUpdate.pkg file to start the firmware update process.
  6. A welcome screen appears.  Click Continue. 
  7. If you receive the message "This computer does not need this update," your computer is not eligible for this update. 
  8. A Software License Agreement window appears.  Click Continue. 
  9. To agree to the terms, click Agree.
  10. A standard install window appears.  Click Install to install the performance update.
  11. Enter the administrative password for your computer at the prompt.  Click OK.
  12. A dialog appears informing you that you will need to restart your computer after the installer finishes.  Click Continue Installation.
  13. An "Installation completed successfully" window appears.  Click Restart.
  14. Your computer should restart.  If your computer does not restart, contact AppleCare for more information.

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