Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware, Portables, Macbook Pro
Apple will address MacBook Pro hard drive issue
Last week we reported on a thread at Apple's Discussion Boards about an issue affecting some 15" MacBook Pros. Specifically, their hard drives seem to be spinning down and even parking themselves at inappropriate times, like in the middle of a task. It's understandably frustrating, as that would slow things down considerably and offer unwanted "quality time" with the Marble of Doom. According to CNET, Apple is aware of the issue and working on a fix right now. There's no word on when it will become available, so affected owners should just hold tight for a few more days. Note that one user on the discussion boards claimed to have fixed the problem by creating a new admin account on his machine. We haven't experienced the problem or replicated this fix, so take it for what it's worth.
CNET notes that the issue seems to be limited to the 15" model with a 5400 RPM drive, but at least one user in the discussion board claims to have swapped drives to no avail.
[Via MacNN]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jay said 3:11PM on 8-10-2009
Oh Thank you Lord!
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gareth said 3:29PM on 8-10-2009
Your link to Mac NN says the problem is related to the 7200rpm drives and then you say CNET says the problem is related to 5400rpm drives. Someone is wrong...
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Saggis said 4:15PM on 8-10-2009
It's the 7200. Or at least it affects it too. I know this because I have one in my new MBP. Boy is it fun watching a movie or typing an essay and the thing locks down for 30 seconds of my favourite beach ball or nice healthy bleep.
It needs to be fixed, it's pretty unacceptable.
Camperton said 12:18PM on 8-11-2009
It's the 7200 rpm drives too! I have one and it's affected. My first drive was replaced. The new one is MUCH better but still hangs from time to time.
David said 3:38PM on 8-10-2009
I can safely say that my mid-2009 15" MBP with the 5400 rpm 320 gb drive has no such problems, nor any others. This is truly the best, most solid Apple laptop I've ever had (out of many). 6 to 8 hours of battery life doesn't suck.
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David said 3:42PM on 8-10-2009
In the article, "Note that one user on the discussion boards claimed to have fixed the problem by creating a new admin account on his machine."
FWIW, I do indeed already have an additional admin account. Could be some credence in the above statement, or maybe not.
mattalero said 4:26PM on 8-10-2009
what apple having problems ...damn they are right the end of the world is NEAR>>>>>>>say it ain't so all and most powerful OZ......but it shines well ...well that makes everything OK
Sean said 3:45PM on 8-10-2009
This problem is definitely related to the 7200 RPM Hard Disks,not the 5400 RPM. The thread you're looking for is http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2049659&tstart=0&start=0
Also...thank god!
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kashkha said 3:52PM on 8-10-2009
The "fix" is probably an updated firmware. I just got a replacement MBP a few days ago with a new fw revision (007APM2), and it has yet to beep, click, or unexpectedly freeze as opposed to my old unit (HD revision 006APM2) which did so frequently.
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fireworksordie said 7:00PM on 8-10-2009
I have that 007APM2 firmware, 500 GB 7200RPM drive in my 17" MacBook Pro, and it still blips, bloops, and freezes up for about half a minute. Randomly.
tuaw.com said 3:53PM on 8-10-2009
I have a MP17" Unibody with the same issue.
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Joanna D said 3:57PM on 8-10-2009
When was the last time Apple released a hardware product which did not have a widespread technical issue?
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Duke2 said 4:15PM on 8-10-2009
And you see this as a widespread based on what?
Oh, that's cuz it's NOT
Jordan said 8:51PM on 8-10-2009
I dunno...seems to me like I'm hearing about it everywhere...which would indicate widespread. I believe the original iPod did not have many problems...except that only about 15 people bought them
fishbert said 4:21PM on 8-10-2009
Mr. Caolo, you are confused.
There are two issues...
One affects 17" MBPs with 7200RPM, 500GB hard drives, apparently due to shock sensor incompatibilities with a specific hard drive. This issue has received a lot of press and has been addressed by Apple today.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2074275
The other affects new 13" and 15" MBPs (with the SD card slots) with a great variety of hard drives or SSDs, apparently due to the EFI version 1.7 firmware update from late June that was designed to enable SATA II 3.0 Gb/s interface speeds. This issue has received _zero_ press, and has *not* been addressed by Apple -- though this past week, Apple did release a firmware rollback tool to their genius bar technicians. It is unclear whether or not Apple intends to fix this issue.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2054387
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phlyingpenguin said 4:41PM on 8-10-2009
The problem being fixed isn't limited to 17" MBP machines, but any machine with the 500Gb 7200RPM CTO option, which includes 15" unibody MBPs.
fishbert said 4:51PM on 8-10-2009
The fix, then, appears to be directed at the hard drive, as opposed to the one laptop model that symptoms have appeared on.
This does not change the fact that there are two distinctly different problems relating to hard disk access, nor does it do anything to address the second issue I listed regarding problems with the EFI version 1.7 firmware update (which does not apply to 17" MBPs).
phlyingpenguin said 9:14PM on 8-10-2009
True that it doesn't help the second issue (assuming it really is different), but I'm happy if they approach the first one given that it's the problem I've got on my MBP.
dpc said 4:27PM on 8-10-2009
I have a 13" with a 5400rpm 500GB drive that's affected. The only thing different is I don't get a beep or click.
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Mark said 4:33PM on 8-10-2009
Crap. I just bought one of these during the NC Tax-free Holiday :(
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