Apple releases MacBook Pro EFI Firmware update v1.7

People who purchased the latest MacBook Pro computers have found that the hard drive controller was listing the transfer rate of drives as 1.5Gbps. This surprised users because it was a seemingly unnecessary downgrade of performance and features from other MacBook models.

This firmware update addresses this issue, and allows for faster transfer rates than 1.5Gbps.

The update is only required for the latest June 2009 MacBook Pros, and can be found either through Software Update, or from Apple's downloads page: http://support.apple.com/downloads/MacBook_Pro_EFI_Firmware_Update_1_7_

More information about applying this update can be found in this Apple knowledgebase document. The document makes a claim that previous and current models of MacBook include a hard drive only capable of 1.5Gbps, and while transfer speeds of most hard drives have not been able to saturate the 1.5Gbps bandwidth, all recent MacBook models have had hard drives with 3Gbps capability in the controllers.

This installation may take a few minutes, and it is vital that you keep your computer plugged in and do not interrupt the installation process. Doing so may severely harm your system.

Be sure to back up your data before applying the update, and please let us know if you have problems with this firmware update: http://www.macfixit.com/contact

UPDATE: Clarified information about bus speed capability.

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