Skip to main content

13″, 15″ MacBook Pro Owners Still Plagued with SATA II Issues

Apple MacBook ProIt’s been nearly three months since Apple released its 1.7 firmware update to address performance limiting issues with the initial 1.6 firmware that shipped with the latest 13″ and 15″ MacBook Pro notebooks. The 1.6 firmware limited interface speeds of SATA II drive to just 1.5 Gbps instead of the full spec speed of 3.0 Gbps.

The documentation provided with the 1.7 firmware update notes that:

Recommended Videos

MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 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.

The key phrasing here is “Apple has not qualified or offered these drives for Mac notebooks and their use is unsupported.” Given that the latest 13″ and 15″ MacBook Pros have a SATA II interface and that most HDDs and SSDs use a SATA II interface, this wording by Apple is quite peculiar. The SATA II interface is after all a storage standard that is used by nearly every new notebook and desktop computer sold today.

Considering that a 128GB SSD option on a 13″ MacBook Pro is going for $400, many owners have purchased cheaper alternatives from the likes of OCZ and Patriot which offer Indilinix-based SSDs that offer performance that rival Intel’s X-25M lineup. These Indilinx drives are also much faster than the Samsung-supplied SSDs offered by Apple. However, owners are finding out that Apple’s implementation of the SATA II specification on 13″ and 15″ MacBook Pro models coupled with the “fixed” 1.7 firmware are causing a lot of headaches.

An 89-page thread on the Apple Discussion forums tells the tale of numerous users battling with SATA II SSDs not originally supplied by Apple and also with traditional SATA II HDDs from the likes of Western Digital, Seagate, and Toshiba. User IanBurrell, the 13″ MacBook Pro user that started the original thread on June 23, detailed his problems with a 320GB HDD that he took from an older MacBook to put in his new machine, “After the firmware update yesterday, the machine has started freezing randomly; the spinner comes up sometimes when reading or writing to the drive. The hard drive, a WD Scorpio Blue, supports SATA II. My suspicion is that there are intermittent data errors when using the SATA 3 Gbps interface. It could be an incompatibility between the controller and drive or the ribbon cable isn’t good enough for newer SATA.”

Vitaeergo confirmed these issues with a post stating, “I had an Intel X25 installed in my new (2 days old) MBP 15 which worked splendidly before the update. Afterwards, the MBP won’t even recognize the drive, although I can use the drive in other machines.”

User mvillarreal posted this morning, “A couple of days ago i upgraded the HD of my Macbook Pro unibody with a Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 500GB 5400 RPM 2.5″ SATA 3.0Gb/s. And i stared to have the same problem as everybody. The MBP works fine most of the time but something triggers a pause in the hard drive, monitoring with the Active Monitor when copying a 34 Gb file, the hard drive does to 0 for about 15 to 20 sec. every 1.8 to 2 Gb copied.”

Some users, however, are even having problems with their SATA II drives that were originally supplied with their MacBooks after performing the 1.7 firmware update. “I’m experiencing the freezing (spinwheel etc) very often as well, but I just have the standard 250gb hard drive that comes in the high end 13 inch macbook pro. It only started after the firmware upgrade, too. Does that make sense,” noted 13″ MacBook Pro user Kevin222.

Apple has still not responded to user complaints over the SATA II issues — in fact, some users have even gone so far as to use an unsupported 1.7 firmware-to-1.6 firmware downgrade tool to bring their machines back to “safer” 1.5 Gbps SATA I transfer speeds.

Some users have speculated that the problem is simply a poorly designed SATA cable between the HDD/SSD and the motherboard or a faulty SATA II implementation that Apple fails to acknowledge. Previous MacBooks and MacBook Pros using the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M platform don’t have these SATA II issues, so the latter could be possible.

Despite the problems, Apple remains mum about the issues and doesn’t appear to be willing to talk about them or a possible fix.

Ian Bell
I work with the best people in the world and get paid to play with gadgets. What's not to like?
MacBook Pro M4 teardown shows a repairability rut for Apple laptops
The MacBook Pro 16-inch on a table.

The updated slate of MacBook Pros, powered by the M4 series silicon, has once again established Apple’s performance dominance in the segment. However, a teardown courtesy of the folks over at iFixit has confirmed that not much has changed internally, which means the usual repairability snags are still here.

Starting with the new elements this time around, Apple engineers seem to have redesigned the logic board, increasing the heatsink size and shifting a few component locations. The ports are easy to replace on the new laptop, and the battery is repair-friendly as well.

Read more
Hurry! The M4 MacBook Pro just got an unheard of discount
Someone using a MacBook Pro at a desk.

The 2024 MacBook Pro with M4 chip hasn't even been out for a month, but it already has its first major discount. Amazon just knocked $200 off the 14-inch configuration, dropping the price to $1,399 from $1,599. While a $200 discount on a MacBook isn't world-shattering, the fact that this laptop is so new makes this an unheard of deal. Let's dive into some other noteworthy aspects of this sale.

Why you should buy the MacBook Pro M4
This specific configuration of the M4 Pro has a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage. The 16GB of RAM is particularly noteworthy, as it's the new standard for Apple. That makes this a better deal than some of the M3 models with 8GB of RAM. This model of course comes with Apple's signature Liquid Retina XDR display on its 14.2-inch screen, and it's ready for Apple Intelligence.

Read more
Apple’s next Pro Display XDR may use this high-end TV tech
Apple Pro Display XDR WWDC 2019 Hands On

CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants Ross Young recently revealed that Apple's M4 MacBook Pros are using quantum dot technology for the first time -- and now he's predicting that the Pro Display XDR 2 will use it too.

Apple didn't announce the switch from KSF to quantum dot itself, but the expert consultant firm confirmed the change by using a spectrometer on the new M4 MacBook Pro.

Read more