EFI MacBook Pro drive problems prevail

Jonny Evans
|
September 03, 2009
|
Share

If you own a Unibody MacBook Pro and plan to upgrade the internal hard drive of the machine, then Apple’s Discussion Forums are warning of a serious issue which could affect you, a faithful 9to5mac commenter has reported.

The problem first surfaced in June this year, and continues to vex users today, if the 1,067 posts across 72-pages describing the situation are to be believed.

Apple introduced its EFI Firmware 1.7 update in June. The company’s tech note states this: “Addresses an issue reported by a small number of customers using drives based on the SATA 3Gbps specification with the June 2009 MacBook Pro.  While this update allows drives to use transfer rates greater than 1.5Gbps, Apple has not qualified or offered these drives for Mac notebooks and their use is unsupported.”

While most Mac users have reported no problems subsequent to installing the firmward update, others installing SATA II drives have experienced inexplicable crashes, system freezes and a variety of other problems. Some report that the system fails to recognise the newly-installed third-party hard drive when attempting to install Mac OS X.

Apple tech support have clearly been alerted to this issue, with Genius Bar operatives using tools to reinstall a previous firmware version, which has been described as fixing the problem. Another solution which some have claimed success with is to run an archive-and-install of  Mac OS X 10.5.8, but even here some customers report the problem returning later on.

We’re interested in finding out if any more of our readers have been affected by this problem, and if they have found any successful way in which to mend their Mac in such cases.

Comments (35)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 10:44am

People have been reporting problems installing Snow Leopard due to drives not appearing for the installer (not just on unibody MBP)

Speculation remains that SL doesnt see these SSD/hard drives due to SATA II spec...
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=774367

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 10:54am

Shouldn't the question be more like:

Which drive works ?
Which drive does not work ?
Which drive works after doing this and that ?

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 11:40am

All drives should work with it!

fishbert (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 12:37pm

people have tried, but the issue does not appear to be limited to certain drives. it's a craps shoot, even among people who all have the same make/model drive.

Gazoobee (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 11:41am

I don't have much sympathy for hackers complaining that their hacks don't work. Some of the comments on that link are pretty outrageously angry over this stuff too.

On another note, shouldn't you change the graphic on your Snow Leopard ad to reflect the actual appearance of the box now it's out? :)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 11:49am

Are you kidding? Replacing a hard drive is about as much of a hack as installing more RAM. If I want to be able to edit video from the drive that stock 5400 drive ain't gonna cut it. SO I would install a 7200RPM Hard Drive Hack so I can efficiently work with my new computer. Get a clue.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 12:26pm

+1

I replaced the drive on my Macbook with a Western Digital 320Gb WD3200BEVT drive (a very popular choice for upgrade) and Snow Leopard won't see it during the install!

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 1:07pm

I have two of the WD3200BEVT .. none of them worked in my uMBP. Not in the first and not in the replacement MacBook Pro. More than one User reporting problems with that drive. After EFI 1.7 the uMBP could't see the drive anymore, but it worked fine with EFI 1.6.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 1:29pm

Hack? Uh, dude, the directions for upgrading the hard drive are in the user manual. For late 2008 macbook pros, see chapter 3 page 38 in "Boost your macbook pro".

Seeing as it's a user serviceable part, it isnt unreasonable to expect that... i dunno.... it freaking works?

Sorry, the sour grapes approach isn't valid here. Apple will likely correct it with a firmware upgrade moving forward.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 4:27pm

Hard drives are user replaceable in the new machines, you twit.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 10, 2009 - 9:00pm

I'm not a hacker and have only added an SSD drive to the PRO system. Please be a bit more understanding. It's a serious problem that has been ignored for months.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 11:46am

My uMBP (current gen) is working fine with my Seagate 500GB 5400RPM SATA-II that I installed on my own. Model #: ST9500325AS. I am running Snow Leopard as well and have not had any issues at all. So that should get at least one drive out of the way. (I did do the upgrade rather than a clean install however... if that has anything to do with these problems)

fishbert (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 12:33pm

one person with a particular drive may not see the issue, while another with the same drive does. there doesn't appear to be any 'safe list' of drives that the broken firmware plays nice with.

Yozh (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 12:46pm

I have a super talent SSD 64GB and while SL installed fine I get freezing from time to time. Looking at SMART utility I see CRC errors going up in count :( Very upset, such a fast drive !

fishbert (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 1:06pm

These are exactly the symptoms of this issue. If you move your drive to an external enclosure and boot from there, I bet the problems go away.

Contact Apple support, leave feedback (http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html), and make an appointment at a genius bar to get your EFI firmware rolled back to version 1.6 until a proper fix is released.

Yozh (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 1:48pm

Well if I roll back to 1.6 wouldnt that defeat the purpose of having an SSD ? 1.5GBs interface will slow it down significantly. I just wish things would just work for once. I was so happy when I put this thing in here and it took 14 secs to boot ! and 4 secs to open PS CS4!!!! and now I see errors I`m just very upset :(

fishbert (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 2:43pm

Correct... the rollback is not a real fix, it's just a bandaid that makes life easier until a real fix is available.

I should add that Apple has not yet indicated any intent to offer a real fix. So, contact Apple support, leave feedback on their site, and stand up to be counted.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 1:01pm

The funny thing is that this EFI 1.7 was rushed as it spread that the macbook pro only had sata I speed. This was spread over the world in the same week of the release. Clearly Apple couldn't afford the bad press. Now they do anything to not acknowledge this clear hardware issue. We have macbook pro's that stops working for 20 seconds multiple times per hour.

The Nvidia chip is SATA II and the last Macbook 13" unibody had the same hardware but has NOT this issue. This is just bad Apple. Please for once own up to a bad product and fix this. I and many with me have returned our faulty stuttering macbook pro's and after many excuses got our money back. That is after being lied to and having Apple tell us that our new computer is within spec when it stops functioning for 20 secunds multiple times per hour. What a joke Apple!

morphy (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 1:04pm

The funny thing is that this EFI 1.7 was rushed as it spread that the macbook pro only had sata I speed. This was spread over the world in the same week of the release. Clearly Apple couldn't afford the bad press. Now they do anything to not acknowledge this clear hardware issue. We have macbook pro's that stops working for 20 seconds multiple times per hour.

The Nvidia chip is SATA II and the last Macbook 13" unibody had the same hardware but has NOT this issue. This is just bad Apple. Please for once own up to a bad product and fix this. I and many with me have returned our faulty stuttering macbook pro's and after many excuses got our money back. That is after being lied to and having Apple tell us that our new computer is within spec when it stops functioning for 20 secunds multiple times per hour. What a joke Apple!

Gazoobee (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 1:08pm

@ unverified: Get a grip dude, "hacker" doesn't mean what yo think it does.

I know a lot of people replace their hard drives, I might even do it myself, and it's your god given right blah-di-blah-blah ... but ...

If you buy a computer, take out the stock hard drive and then replace it with one not on the supported or approved list, you are indeed "hacking" your computer. Getting all upset and angry about it and blaming it on Apple is stupid is all I'm saying.

It's like blaming Apple cause your Boxee plug-in on Apple TV doesn't work right.

fishbert (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 1:35pm

Apple identifies the hard drive in their laptops as a user-replaceable part, explicitly stating in the MacBook Pro user manual (page 37), "You can upgrade the hard disk drive in your MacBook Pro."
(http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/MacBook_Pro_15inch_Mid2009.pdf)

Apple even published instructions on how to replace the hard drive on their support website.
(http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/MBPRO_13inch_Mid2009_Hard_Drive_DIY.pdf)

Nothing is said in either of these places about a list of supported or approved drives. Indeed, with the wide cross-section of drives that users have experienced this issue while using, and that Apple's supplied drives are only SATA I, the obvious conclusion is that the EFI firmware will potentially act up with *any* SATA II drive that's out there. This goes far beyond any phantom 'supported or approved list'... this is a broken interface.

fishbert (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 1:43pm

Apple identifies the hard drive in their laptops as a user-replaceable part, explicitly stating in the MacBook Pro user manual (page 37), "You can upgrade the hard disk drive in your MacBook Pro."
(http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/MacBook_Pro_15inch_Mid2009.pdf)

Apple even published instructions on how to replace the hard drive on their support website.
(http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/MBPRO_13inch_Mid2009_Hard_Drive_DIY.pdf)

Nothing is said in either of these places about a list of supported or approved drives. Indeed, with the wide cross-section of drives that users have experienced this issue while using, and that Apple's supplied drives are only SATA I, the obvious conclusion is that the EFI firmware will potentially act up with *any* SATA II drive that's out there. This goes far beyond any phantom 'supported or approved list'... this is a broken interface.

fishbert (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 1:49pm

I waited 10 minutes and the first one never showed up... sorry guys.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 3:57pm

You have GOT to be kidding ?!

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 5:26pm

You insist on proving you are clueless? Once is forgivable. A mistake. Something you didn't know. But, to come back again and prove it? Well -- I believe it now. You are clueless.

bilal (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 1:56pm

As far as I'm aware, if you have replaced your hard drive with one that can be forced into 1.5Gb mode by setting the jumpers (my 250gb Seagate 5400.4 drive can do this, as can probably all the sata Seagate drives, whereas my 250gb WD Scorpio Blue cannot) then you should be ok. I'll leave it as it is for now and if they issue a new fix I'll bung the Scorpio back inside.

My drive appears to be fine but I'm going to set the jumper anyway (nothing to lose, everything to gain) just in case. It's not like it'll slow things down!

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 2:34pm

I have the late 2008 unibody mbp. I just installed 250gb OCZ SSD and fresh install of Snow Leopard. Only thing I ran into is that SL didn't see my drive at first. I had to manually open Disk Utility in the installer. DU saw the drive fine. From there I had to manually partition it with GUID etc. After that SL was able to see it and install just fine.

2 weeks running with zero issues. I'm guessing these problems are definitely exclusive to the newer mbps

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 5:12pm

I have the same mac and just installed a Samsung 500GB 5400 RPM drive. Right after installation (same process as you) I updated to Snow Leopard and have had zero problems.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 2:42pm

ok everyone upgrade your hdd if you want to bigg deall

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | September 03, 2009 - 3:21pm

All - Read the thread mentioned in the article. Some of us with Apple-installed hard drives are seeing exactly the same problem. I have the 500 GB Hitachi drive, provided and installed by Apple. My symptoms are just like those reported by others. This is not just about people with user-upgraded drives.