We've seriously no idea why
Apple didn't just ship all of the June 2009 MacBook Pro units with the SATA 3Gbps specification enabled, but at least it caved to the
chorus of complaints and enabled it today via a firmware update. MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7, as it's called in Software Update, weighs in at just 3.35MB and requires OS X 10.5.7 to be installed. According to Apple, the update "addresses an issue reported by a small number of customers using drives based on the SATA 3Gbps specification with the June 2009 MacBook Pro." Of course, it goes on to say that it still doesn't support the use of drives that can take advantage of such speeds, but at least you have the option now of taking matters into your own hands and upgrading to a non-hamstrung SSD should you choose.
[Via
MacRumors]
posted Jun 22nd 2009 5:53PM
I knew this was coming... glad to see they fixed this quickly!
Yeah, this is actually a big deal and makes me dislike Apple a little less. As a Lenovo Thinkpad T61 owner, I too am limited to 1.5 Gbps throughput even though the system was advertised as supporting 3 Gbps. Even though the system supports 3 Gbps speed, Lenovo has crippled it in favor of allowing Ultrabay expansion that most users do not adopt. Many Thinkpad owners wanting to upgrade to SSDs have asked time and time again for Lenovo to release a BIOS that would enable the faster throughput while disabling the ability to add additional storage through the Ultrabay and they have been refused time and time again. So, Bravo Apple. Not only did they listen to their customers and deliver increased performance while spending next to nothing, but they did so quickly and without fuss and that is why Apple customers largely remain Apple customers. I can't tell you how many Lenovo customers feel so betrayed by the company that they will no longer buy their products even though they have been satisfied customers for many years.
AWESOME! This was a big blow as I was ready to buy a new 13" MB Pro and Corsair P256!
Nikesh, I highly doubt it was advertised as supporting 3Gbps. If that was the case then you have the law on your side. Contact the AG and BBB.
I'm surprised they didn't charge you to enable something you've already purchased.
Hello, Wireless-N in iMacs and Bluetooth in the iPod touch...
you have to wonder how long they would have taken to patch this problem if it had never sprung up on the interweb
They didn't "fix" it... it was deliberate all along , Apple been doing that for ages , make some change (hardware of firmware) and see if people swallow it, if they get flak they "fix" it, in the process they gain the following: better battery life on launch and compliments for quick fixing.
@beastage
I'd like to have the know you got that from. Obviously it's not based on fact, more on your dislike of Apple. There is no hard evidence that they delibarately do such things. I'm really getting tired of people like you, always trying to bash Apple at anything at all. Even when they actually FIX an issue they probably hadn't foreseen.
@JMR no-one "purchased" those items. The iPod Touch was not advertised as having Bluetooth support, and those iMacs were not advertised as having N-spec. It did turn out that the hardware was inside, but it was not listed in the specs and it was not advertised, therefore you never "purchased" them because they were not part of the contract of sale.
A customer cannot complain if asked to pay for improvement, because they were happy to pay the initial price, for the initial feature spec (which did not include non-advertised, non-specified hardware). No-one had any right to expect that they'd suddenly gain additional features - for free! - so there is no grounds for a complaint.
Windows is superior they never have such amateur problem , but its expected apple is new to operating systems business and stole linux for there mac os
Shut up!....man with the colt 45 says shut up!
Troll.
Uh...what?! New to the OS game, huh? Right. Microsoft came up with proportionally spaced fonts, etc.
You're right, Microsoft never had this small problem. They have massive problems, like an editable list of global variables that hold the OS together (registry). Unfortunately, this can't be solved with a firmware update.
You take that back!
House would never say that :O
I thought you were a troll, based upon your replies to other posts. But I felt bad accusing you with little evidence. Suffice to say, I now take back that thought.
what does the OS, in this case Windows have to do with how fast a Hardware chip operates. Oh and Windows Vista SP1+ and Win 7 natively run on Macs since they support EFI.
So irregardless of what Operating system u used u would still be stuck with 1.5 but not anymore.
It was a hardware issue, not a software one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdiz0k0Rudw
My favorite thing is "Dr house" has a picture of a model as his icon because the tool cant even find a real girlfriend LOL
See how unsecured mac fans is? ever heard of sarcasm boys
They had a bug so what , windows fans is used to them anyway
@house
you've been a troll against apple and the iPhone since you've been on engadget if you don't like it leave the site or keep your 2 cents to yourself!!
Irregardless is not a word.
Dr. Troll, House is a Mac user.
@House
You have a sense of humor, ill give ya that "They had a bug so what , windows fans is used to them anyway"
thats true lol =D
dude Apple's OS had a GUI before Microsoft's did. stfu and stop starting these arguments.
Notice:
Please don't feed the trolls.
How very un-informed you are.
Don't worry. Somebody will soon enough find some other niggly detail wrong that will enable them to scream "The sky is falling! Apple is screwing you!" again.
Actually, moron, this was a big issue. It essentially cut in half the performance of any decent non-Jmicron SSD. I saw one test with the Popular 128GB OCZ Vertex going from 220MB/sec and 160MB/sec read and write performance to 120MB/sec and 80MB/sec in the MB Pro. Although most Macbook "Pro" users won't be using a decent SSD yet, they surely will upgrade over the next 2-3 years..
Actually, no, it's not a big issue, because it was just a firmware issue that's now fixed.
A big issue is something that stops a lot of people dead in the water.
I'm surprised Apple didn't hold off and promote this as an "upgrade" in the next MacBook revision.
Who knows, maybe they were
I´m surprised Apple didnt charge any money for it. I´m more used to read that performance/firmware upgrades cost you 5 USD. Or I´m used to hear its a bag of hurt.. or its a feature. Damn so many options to call this and Apple just fixed it without any further marketing abuse... that´s so un-Apple, bring us back Jobs he atleast knows how to handle these features.
Okay! What's next to bitch about??
Cool! Go Apple! Go APPL!
AAPL
They limited this to begin with to make it look like they screwed up. I mean it's not like they can really screw up. They're Apple. They're stuff is too good. So they have to actually engineer stuff to go wrong that they can then quickly fix and make everyone happy again.It makes them look like they have really good support that way.
..and I'm lying.
Seriously? Clueless costumers, you guys wanna know how many of the previous UMP were sold after people found out they had faster SATA speeds than the new models?
About the same as the 13-inch MacBook Pro because it is a "Pro" machine and much more "powerful" than the MacBook.
This is the reason why you don't jump into the mix with Apple when it comes to familiar hardware on a new platform. In this case after changing from the Intel platform to the new Nvidia.
they limited it for a reason. that reason we don't know, we can only speculate. they patched it. this is not a bad reason to be an early adopter, quite the contrary. If i knew they would patch all my worries, then i would have no issues. this is a lame reason not to be an early adopter, unless you are spending $1000 on a SSD, it doesn't matter.
Ummmm, no. Apple made the switch to the Nvidia chipset with the first Unibody MacBooks (which was back in October '08) and all of those MacBooks & MB Pros had 3.0 Gbps SATA. No one know why Apple intentionally crippled the new models other than someone really screwed up.
Eh, mistakes happen. At least the turnaround time for the fix was short.
Can't we all just say "Thanks Apple. You were wrong and your fixed it!" *CLAP* *CLAP*
Gosh, Engadget should really allow to edit posts to fix tyopographical errors.
** you fixed it.
Before you thank Apple, thank the people on the Macrumors forum who whined about it enough (50+ pages) to get Apple to see it is an issue.
maybe they do that so you read your post before you press send.
Looks like Mac's BACK ON THE MENU, BOYS!
..Now I'm waiting for a matte screen option on the 13" MBP..
me too. as soon as matte becomes an option, i'm buying a 13. why can't they cave to that "issue reported by a small number of customers"?
get the 3m film and DIY. it's glass.
A lot of what makes Macs cool is when you get it, it's good to go. You don't have to install a decent web browser or CD burner (although it doesn't come with a torrent client..), or, of course, some antivirus, you don't have to wipe a bunch of crapware off of it, you don't have to remove stickers, install drivers, it's just... ready. It's an great feeling to unbox a machine like that. I don't know, maybe I could make due with another glossy screen assuming it had bright LED backlighting.. Given enough time, I'll probably give in.
At least it was not a hardware issues, but software. How did lowering it via software help their costs?
Apple only did this because it got around the internet. They wouldn't have been perfectly content screwing their customers over as long as nobody knew about it.
Why is everyone celebrating? Apple just said that while they will remove the software limiter on the chip, they won't support the system if you do choose to use it at the regular speed..
Seems to me like Mac owners that choose to buy those SSD disks are still screwed if their system were to fail with this installed.
Actually, I'm really confused by what Apple is saying. I purchased the Aluminum MacBook when it first came out and it came with a 250GB Toshiba HD direct from Apple - with the 3Gb/s enabled. I'm pretty sure that means Apple supports that drive running at 3Gb/s... I just got a new 15" MacBook Pro delivered today with an Hitachi 320GB 7200RPM HD, again direct from Apple. After running the firmware update it's now running at 3Gb/s (was 1.5 out of the box).
So I really don't get what Apple is saying... Am I now using unsupported configs in my MacBooks?
They are saying it is no longer limited to 1.5 gbps. They are saying they cannot promise it will work up to the theoretical 3.0 Gbps. This is similar to how no company guarentees WiFi netoworks to actually run at the theoretical maximum even though they state the number on the front of the box. I'm not sure apple is special in that way regarding the SATA speed.
Well that was quick, and at least we now know it was not a hardware issue. But why did it happen in the first place?
Something probably got overlooked in the EFI firmware. Simply mistake...
Anyone tested High-end SSDs and check if there are speed differences? I don't want to think bad about Apple but as a hackintosher, some developers can easily edit the system profiler and make it look like 3GBPs.
If anyone can make sure that it is the real SATA II, off to the Mac Store ASAP!
Actually, I'm really confused by what Apple is saying. I purchased the Aluminum MacBook when it first came out and it came with a 250GB Toshiba HD direct from Apple - with the 3Gb/s enabled. I'm pretty sure that means Apple supports that drive running at 3Gb/s... I just got a new 15" MacBook Pro delivered today with an Hitachi 320GB 7200RPM HD, again direct from Apple. After running the firmware update it's now running at 3Gb/s (was 1.5 out of the box).
So I really don't get what Apple is saying... Am I now using unsupported configs in my MacBooks?
you realize that HDD will not reach 3GB/s - so you need not worry. According to google conversion 3Gbit/s is 384MB/s.
I'm not sure where you saw 3GB/s in my comment, Joseph. I was speaking about two different HDs from two different makers with two different capacities. Both drives running at 3Gb/s, as reported by System Profiler.
Nobody seems to care about SATA II burst transfers, which - on 7200rpm drives with >10MB cache - do exceed the 170GBps maximum transfer rate that a 1.5Gbps controller is capable of providing.
This was a pointless PITA even for HDD owners doing HD video capture, and a significant performance detriment for people working with high-res RAW images in Photoshop, and should've been caught in pre-release QA if the problem was entirely software/driver related.
All in all, it's just another reminder - don't ever an Apple on Day 1. I don't care if all your friends are in line. Wait for at least the 1st revision, if not the 2nd generation. This is fortunately a patchable bug, but who knows what this MBP's thermal paste issue is going to be?
elle, you do realize that the maximum burst transfer speed only applies to the contents of the cache, right? Let's say the drive has a 16MB cache, and that by some stroke of luck, there's 8MB of data that needs to be transferred (very unlikely, btw). That will take place in 8/150 of a second in 1.5 Gbps mode, or 8/300 of a second in 3.0 Gbps mode. In other words, you lost a whole 0.027 seconds due to the wrong setting. The remainder of the data is limited by the maximum sustained transfer rate of the drive, which is limited by the rotational speed and the data density of the platter. This won't be limited by the SATA mode setting.
Like the original article said, only people with fast SSDs would possibly have noticed.
Hell yeah! The first 256GB SSD I find for under $400 that still maintains a modicum of performance is going in my new 13" Pro.
Watch for the new Intel SSDs in Q4. They're going from 50nm to 34nm node lithography with them, and things are going to get intense.
When NAND goes to a smaller lithography it generally gets slower, not faster.
Now i they would enable it on Early 2008 MBPs with ICH8-M Chips
Well, I had already exchanged my MacBook Pro for a MacPro. I like it better although this is a good example how Apple shoots themselves in the foot.
Regards,
howd they shoot themselves in the foot? you bought a mac pro??? was it cheaper?
I know this says 2009, but does anyone know if this firmware will work for older MBP models with compatible SATA drives?
nope.
Thanks Joseph
now engadget needs to go public with the story of hp/compaq wireless stopping working on many series' of their laptop, google hp presario 6000 series, theres tons of laptops that have the wireless suddenly die, replacing the mini pci-e card doesnt work, its the board thats at fault and yet this systematic fault in their laptops has never gone public like the seagate 7200.11 and macbook 1.5gbps issues.
So engadget if you're ready this reply investigate what i've just highlighted and make a news story about it because tons of ppl have dead wireless on their laptops
have a look at this link for examples: http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?admit=109447627+1245712766280+28353475&threadId=1136440
everyone in the CE industry, take note. This is the way to operate.
1. Company screws up.
2. Someone finds out, blogs it.
3. People read blog and comment.
4. Company catches wind of said blog.
>>>>This is the point where company usually stops and begins ignoring the problem, possibly to fix it in the next major release.
5. Company admits wrong and fixes problem with a small update.
6. Customers rejoice
(Optional) 7. engadget haters begin conspiracy theories and "shoulda been there since the beginning" talk.
Thanks, Apple. Now, if you could fix that pesky "can't turn the dock off even if you hate it" bug, that'd be awesome.
"mat shit a dvd-r"
Wow! Apple fix 1 of the hundreds of problems they have with their software/hardware capability and all the fanboys go crazy like they fix everything they make a fuck-up on lol. The funny thing is they so very rarely do this and thats the true reason the fanboys monkeys are so excited. Im supprised they didnt charge you for the update.
stfu. all OS's have lots of problems. people like you are why we can't have civilized discussions on this site.
word
Duh
now they need to fix the bag of hurt...
gimme F'en Blu-ray already Windows Been had it
Didnt Hurt them
i got a 4Grand mac pro. with a 5 dollar burner from the 90's
I'm not even going to bother pointing out everything that's wrong with your statement. But I will ask.. compared to who?
Oops, that reply is for Kailie just blow this post
Just another example of how apple doesn't know what to do with hardware.
Crying babies now calmed down. I knew it was just a firmware fix away from the very beginning ;-)
Look, if Apple had sold black iPods originally, they wouldn't be able to tempt existing consumers to 'upgrade'. This is what they always do and this is why I no longer buy their products. They deliberately cripple stuff and it stays crippled until they get caught, or people miss it and buy the later version with less cripple. It's the consumers who suffer... but you try reasoning with fanboys.
Now I want this for my Late 2009 Santa Rosa MBP also!!!
When will Apple listen to me??? Never, I guess...
Late 2007*
I would not recommend applying this update if you have upgraded (or plan to upgrade) your hard drive!
I have the 15", and upgraded the hard drive to a Seagate 500GB 5400 rpm drive. It doesn't work! The machine can barely boot under OS X or Bootcamp after installing the update. Note: I ran the 500GB drive for 3 weeks without problem. The minute I installed the update it stopped working.
Re-installing the original hard drive resolves the problems.