Apple 'fesses up to 7200 RPM HDD issues, aims to dispatch a fix forthwith
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted August 11th 2009 4:32PM
posted August 11th 2009 4:32PM
MacBook Pro owners suffering from 7200 RPM noise pollution and performance issues, Apple has acknowledged your pain and wants you to know that it's working hard to remedy the situation. According to CNET, the problem seems to be restricted to 500GB / 7200 RPM hard drives, with the likely culprit being code that's somehow "causing the drive to sleep during use." No word yet on a release date for the patch, but you'll know as soon as we do. As you know, we'll pretty much take any opportunity we can find to run a Lloyd Dobler Photoshop.
[Via Register Hardware]
[Via Register Hardware]
I assume the drives in question are the Seagate 500GB 7200RPM drives, since those are the only 500GB/7200rpm notebook drives that exists. The first revision of those drives had performance issues, the heads would randomly park causing drive access errors (most likely what they mean by the drive sleeping). Seagate pushed out a new revision saying it was just a firmware bug, but they won't allow people to update their old drives, possibly to cover up a hardware change, who knows.
I have the first revision in my SXPS 13, no performance issues, but the drive makes some god awful noises if you pick up the laptop.
yay
ABOUT FREAKING TIME APPLE!!!!! I think any human being could recognize that random beeping noises coming from a HDD is clearly an issue.
Anyone have any 'good' luck on a 500gb notebook drive? I'm thinking of upgrading.
I won't be hitting Ebay - I believe there is going to be a flood of used fruit drives out there!
(db)
Nope, just glad I got the SSD!
The might apple...having just as many problems as their microsoft counterparts...Imagine that! I'm all broken up about this. Apple is really slipping! I am not impressed with my MacBook Pro 13...the mac side has locked up numerous times I have spoke to SmugCare and they have me do a few thing only to be a temporary fix. As for Bootcamp...dont get me started...they have enormous problems. If you are considering a mac for the bootcamp reasons just as I did...to do the Best of Both worlds...think again. Quality control has gone way down!!! SmugCare once again, isnt 24x7x365, no next day on-site, no accidental damage and yet it cost more then the PC counterparts. I dont get it. Disappointed to say the least! Dont buy into the market. the stuff looks great but from the bootcamp side it is junk...dont believe me, feel free to visit discussions.apple.com and see all the hardware driver issue that are unresolved before you consider a mac for bootcamp as I did...I got burned among many other who chose the same path. These driver issue are mac fault and not microsofts...apple makes the hardware, bootcamp and writes the drivers...Microsoft writes windows...apple as a hardware manufacture needs to provide its own drivers and support them. This is just bad...buyer beware!!!
What are you talking about? Microsoft doesn't make laptops.
I use BootCamp every day. I'm using it right now, about to install Windows 7 on the machine (currently running XP).
I don't buy AppleCare, extended warranties are for suckers.
Macs. Because we fuck up too. And we don't even give you a stop code that you can look up.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/125/377792291_54c0ba81bf_b.jpg
Seriously Zak, piss off. You talk like Windows bluescreens all the time. Windows only bluescreens these days when there's something wrong with your hardware, which, if it happened to your mac, would cause a kernel panic. Just because your BSOD looks prettier doesn't make your Mac superior.
And for all you fanboys' talk about Apple using superior hardware, I have a big HAHAHA. It's the same old crap that's in our PCs. It fails just like anything else. Their sources can screw their hardware up just like Dell's or HP's can. But it's a big deal when it happens to Apple because people like you make a big deal about how much better Apples are.
I really, really couldn't care less that you like Mac. I own a Mac, use it for a media center. But your blind, blatant fanboyism just gets under my skin and irritates the crap out of me. You only crawl out of your hole to heap praise on Apple and scorn on those of us who don't bow before the iGod. So STFU until you have something intelligent to say.
Ugh. Supposed to be a reply to Zak, the amazing apple fanboy.
Hey curtisrutland, how often do my Macs have kernel panics? I'm asking since you're talking like a man who knows something I don't. I'll give you a hint: it starts with "never". So which leg were you trying to stand on again?
You can call me a fanboy till your face turns blue, but facts are facts. You must get irritated by facts. I'm sorry to hear that. Why don't you take your little crybaby session outside and come back when you have a point to make. Your strawman arguments are worth nothing.
@Zak. I have had kernel panics wth about the same frequency as the XP box I had fell over. Interestingly it seems Ubuntu falls over to that extent less often, usually the app or process doesn't take the system down. Unscientific, yes, but that doesn't seem to matter here :P
So, your anecdotal evidence is better than Mark's was?
Mark Anderson: "My Vista machine hasn't had a BSOD since pre SP1."
Zak: "Oh right, so because yours hasn't bluescreened, that means nobody's has and nobody's ever has. That's some flawless logic you're using there"
And now:
Zak: "how often do my Macs have kernel panics?...I'll give you a hint: it starts with "never"."
Wow. Jump on someone for their invalid logic, then use EXACTLY the same faulty logic to attempt to refute my point. That's the leg I'm standing on.
"You can call me a fanboy till your face turns blue, but facts are facts. You must get irritated by facts. I'm sorry to hear that. Why don't you take your little crybaby session outside and come back when you have a point to make. Your strawman arguments are worth nothing."
Excuse me, but what facts? Your anecdotes? Here, I've got some "facts" for you then. I've had four kernel panics on my Mac (caused by overheating). And zero on my windows PC, excluding the ones I got when I overclocked too much when I was building it. If we weigh my evidence against yours, it stacks up to exactly the same weight. NEITHER ARE WORTH A DAMN.
Strawman? I didn't raise a false argument to knock down to appear to win the point. I legitimately pointed out that Macs crash, just like windows, under the same circumstance. If anyone is guilty of any logical fallacy here, it's you. But we've already been over that.
And I will call you a fanboy, repeatedly and often, you fanboy. I'm no apple hater, by far. I actually like my mac mini. But I hate you. You define fanboy, you've never had a single negative thing to say about apple, a positive thing to say about windows, or a comment on any other topic than apple, except to explain how good apple is and how wrong other people are.
@Zak:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1110&start=0
http://discussions.apple.com/search.jspa?objID=f1110&search=Go&q=kernel+panic
If it was never, I would see an empty forum, now wouldn't I?
Just shut up. You are embarrassing yourself in front of everyone.
@ curtisrutland
You might be my new hero
Can you imagine if this was Microsoft instead of Apple? People would be talking law suits and burning copies of Windows in the streets. Loving the double standard. Our society always loves the "little guy" or "underdog" so of course Apple doesnt get scorned for this, like they should.
Microsoft doesn't make laptops.
You're not very good at reading, are you? You're using my response to somebody else who was making a different point as an answer to your response? How does that work again? Oh right, it doesn't. Mark's original post implies that all Macs have problems all the time, that's why I responded that way to him. You were implying that Macs have problems sometimes, even though nobody actually said they don't.
That's right, you were answering an argument that nobody made. Good job on that one. LIke I said, my Macs haven't had any kernel panics. That is a fact, whether you want to try to devalue it by calling it an "anecdote" or not. You can suck it up and deal with it. And you say yours has had 4 caused by overheating. What were the circumstances in which it overheated? I'm assuming you already know that Macs don't just overheat all the time and that it's very out of the ordinary to get multiple panics like that, but I'm saying it anyway in case you weren't clear on that part.
And believe me, you don't want to weigh your evidence against mine. I guarantee you I manage a lot more Macs than you. I have bigger sample sizes and decades worth of proof, but if you really want to make yourself look like an idiot, go for it. Again, I am not saying Macs are perfect. I am saying all Macs don't have problems all the time, like Mark was suggesting. Maybe you should go back and re-read that whole conversation so you can get a better understanding of what I was responding to and why. You know, instead of just calling me a fanboy because you don't read so good.
Your strawman was your comment about "all you fanboys' talk about superior hardware". Nobody had said anything about superior hardware, and if that's not a strawman, then can you tell me who all these "fanboys" are? Can you name them?
Again, you can call me a fanboy as much as you want, it doesn't make me wrong and it doesn't make you right. You know jack shit about Macs, so it's not surprising that when somebody knows more about them than you do, you react badly. But here's the thing - it's your fault for being ignorant, not mine. A fanboy is somebody who is irrational, like you or Mark, or Look_Around_You, or any number of other trolls on this board. A fanboy is not somebody who uses facts, like me. Think about it.
Nothing brings an engadget editor more joy than the opportunity to bash an Apple product.
Except perhaps Palm Pre stories, unloved MP3 players nobody buys and Swarovski crystals.
I've had one of those Seagates in my plastic MacBook for a couple of months and it seems fine so far.
I wonder if it is the drives, something to do with the new laptops or a combination of the two?
Wtf? This happens on my 2008 model Macbook Pro with a 250GB drive. I don't think it's seagate's fault at all. It's some bad firmware issue they just refuse to fix. My drive is constantly doing the "thunk". (and no, it's not going out, that sounds completely different). There are hacks you can put in place to stop it from sleeping all the time, but I wish they would just fix the damn thing.
I just like the Say Anything reference. I'm a sucker for '80s movies.