Filed under: Software Update, Apple, Macbook Pro
MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update addresses SATA interface speeds
While most of the focus of WWDC fell on the iPhone 3GS, the MacBook Pro line got some love from Apple last week as well, with several upgraded features on the 15" model and a re-branding of the 13" model from MacBook to MacBook Pro.The Achilles' heel of the new upgrades, as reported last week, was that the MacBook Pro's SATA interface was limited to 1.5 Gbps in the latest models, down from 3.0 Gbps in previous models. Although this wasn't likely to be an issue unless you replaced the hard drive with a high-speed SSD, it still seemed like somewhat of a boneheaded move to downgrade the SATA interface without sufficient cause.
Today Apple has released MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7, which makes the issue moot. The update allows the SATA interface to work at full speed once again.
If you have one of the affected models of MacBook Pro, grab this update either via Software Update, or else go here (requires OS X 10.5.7). More info on the firmware update can be found on its support page.
Thanks to reader Joachim Bean for sending this in.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joanna D said 6:05PM on 6-22-2009
I guess we'll never know the answer to the real question as to why this happened in the first place.
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iransirijillo said 6:26PM on 6-22-2009
to clear inventory of the old UMP
dave said 6:27PM on 6-22-2009
Probably because some out of touch marketing idiot forced a stupid decision down the throats of his engineers despite their objections. Hopefully it's not a sign of what Apple would be without Jobs.
I bet there's a lot of Apple engineers saying "I told you so" right about now.
Tom said 6:42PM on 6-22-2009
I'm puzzled by people thinking this was some conspiracy by marking people or whatever.
Apple has engineers that make their products. Engineers are humans. Humans make mistakes. And some Apple engineer made a mistake in the EFI code for the new system and it resulted in the SATA bus being slowed down to the SATA I specification. Here we are 2 weeks after the products came out, and Apple has fixed it with another firmware update.
No conspiracy needed to explain this one. But clearly it was newsworthy enough to be plastered all over the place and hyped up as some conspiracy. *sigh*
Rob said 12:24PM on 6-23-2009
I suspect that Apple reduced the speed of SATA to make the battery life of their new non-replaceable battery look better.
Now with SATA at full speed, the real question is whether Apple will change the battery life specs on the new MBP's!
Jacques Lema said 6:12PM on 6-22-2009
Huh, your link points to an iMac firmware update. This is the one:
http://support.apple.com/downloads/MacBook_Pro_EFI_Firmware_Update_1_7_
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Chris Rawson said 6:24PM on 6-22-2009
My link:
http://support.apple.com/downloads/MacBook_Pro_EFI_Firmware_Update_1_7_
Your link:
http://support.apple.com/downloads/MacBook_Pro_EFI_Firmware_Update_1_7_
Looks the same to me.
Jacques Lema said 6:30PM on 6-22-2009
Oops, indeed. I was fooled by the "support page" link which happens to end on an iMac firmware.
Sorry :-)
IvanP91 said 6:31PM on 6-22-2009
This is nice to know. Although it doesnt affect me. (using White MB)
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waiownsyou said 10:33PM on 6-22-2009
OH THANK GOD! Now that I know you're okay, all is well.
marnin said 7:19PM on 6-22-2009
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/firmware_hardware/macbookproefifirmwareupdate.html
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mdb said 7:36PM on 6-22-2009
can everyone just knock it off now.. a small driver issue the first week of a new product line is not that big of a deal--- think V*sta
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jb510 said 9:18PM on 6-22-2009
I hope we never start saying "well it's better than Vista". If that really is the bar we need to exceed, I'm going to Linux. That said I agree, this was an overblown when clearly editors we're searching to put SOMETHING out that wasn't iPhone related.
mdb said 8:58AM on 6-23-2009
i agree.. i am just saying that apple never has driver issues and they had one. it's not that big of a deal. try to reinstall any OS in any computer and tell me it's not a driver nightmare.
i was disappointed that apple didn't respond to the problem- until they fixed it in 4 days.
jim said 8:02PM on 6-22-2009
Good on them for updating quickly
If you only have a regular hard drive you won't notice any difference. It only matters for SSD and the likes which can saturate 1.5Gbps.
(http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/15/new-macbook-pros-shipped-with-hdds-only-have-1-5gbps-sata-chips/)
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CTB said 9:57PM on 6-22-2009
THE REAL ISSUE:
What is the SATA interface for pre-installed "Apple" SSD's on 15" UMBP'S?
The firmware only addresses non-Apple installed SSD's.
If NEW UMBP's with SSD's ship with SATA 1.5, then there is something seriously wrong with their understanding...and ours, since this has not been addressed!
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Matt said 3:58AM on 6-23-2009
I'm not sure what you're saying here. Are you asking if the Apple SSDs have a SATA II interface, or whether the MBPs configured to have SSDs in them have a SATA II interface, without need for the firmware update?
bprinehart said 12:14PM on 6-24-2009
Thanks Apple, responding to issues like this, no matter how small, in such short order, leave me feeling even better about my decision to take the plunge!
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tony.walker said 7:30PM on 6-25-2009
I looked up the model (Hitachi) of HDD (147.6Gb) in my UMBP 13" and it would only do 1.5Gbit/sec anyway.
Anyone else bother to check their actual drive specs?
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Erik said 6:03PM on 9-06-2009
Uh, yeah, this problem was "fixed" by the firmware update 1.7, except that the fix appears to be responsible for degrading performance by seemingly causing a case of persistent "spinning pinwheel"-syndrome when the machine is under load. It also prevents upgrading the harddrive to a 3rd party drive (e.g., WD Scorpio Black), which is "unsupported", but they have instructions on how to do it right in the user manual, and it worked fine on all previous Macbook Pros. My main motivation for wanting to upgrade the HD was to hopefully solve the "spinning pinwheel" problem, but that was shot due to the incompatibility with EFI update 1.7.
These problems are well documented in a huge thread on the apple support site:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10137928#10137928
Anyone facing these problems should submit feedback to Apple (http://www.apple.com/feedback/macbookpro.html), since there does not seem to be enough of a ground swell to force Apple to fix the issue.
FYI, the problem definitely appears to be a firmware or hardware issue for me, since I do not get the "spinning pinwheel of death" when I run from the original HD in an external USB enclosure, only when the HD is installed into the Macbook Pro.
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