Apple releases firmware to fix crashing with unibody MacBooks
On Wednesday night, Apple released equal pairs of EFI and SMC firmware fixes for all of the new, late 2008 MacBook models to tackle problems with their reliability and power indicators.
The updates for the regular 13-inch MacBook (EFI, SMC), MacBook Air (EFI, SMC) and 15-inch MacBook Pro (EFI, SMC) all share virtually identical release notes, indicating solutions common to their platform rather than model-specific glitches.
The EFI updates all address "several issues" with the stability of the systems, though what these are isn't made clear: a large number of users in Apple's support discussions have been noting random freezing when systems have more than the base amount of memory, however.
In turn, the SMC fixes improve the accuracy and detection response of the MagSafe power connector's indicator light, which lets users know whether the system has reached a full charge. Unibody MacBook and MacBook Pro systems have also had the reliability improved for their button-activated battery indicator lights.
Each of the updates requires Mac OS X 10.5.5 or later.
The updates for the regular 13-inch MacBook (EFI, SMC), MacBook Air (EFI, SMC) and 15-inch MacBook Pro (EFI, SMC) all share virtually identical release notes, indicating solutions common to their platform rather than model-specific glitches.
The EFI updates all address "several issues" with the stability of the systems, though what these are isn't made clear: a large number of users in Apple's support discussions have been noting random freezing when systems have more than the base amount of memory, however.
In turn, the SMC fixes improve the accuracy and detection response of the MagSafe power connector's indicator light, which lets users know whether the system has reached a full charge. Unibody MacBook and MacBook Pro systems have also had the reliability improved for their button-activated battery indicator lights.
Each of the updates requires Mac OS X 10.5.5 or later.
Comments
Each of the updates requires Mac OS X 10.5.5 or later.
Uh. Don't all of these systems come with Mac OS X 10.5.5?
I thought Macs just work..?
they do.
they do.
agreed, in-spite of some reported issues my MB Pro has been doing great.
I'd like to give everyone a warning about these updates. After I did the first update my light on the power adaptor (orange and green dot) is now always staying green even as the battery loses charge and when connected the batter status says its connected to the power source but says the "battery is not charging". I then did the second update and that did not fix the problem (funny as my light system and % was all working fine before these updates that were designed to fix a problem that I didn't have and now have a really big problem. I'm still trying to see if it is actually charging and will update this post soon with my findings. But if I were you, I'd stay clear of this shitty update! I have a new Macbook 2.4ghz, 4GB ram, 250GB hard drive. Worked great up until this update.
I'd try these 2 tricks & see if it fixes your issue.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379
I personally can't really tell that there is any change in power management & behavior, but am hopeful it will fix a weird issue I had where my screen would randomly go black & not come back on until I put the it to sleep & brought it back up. Strangely, it only appeared to occur when plugged to an external monitor & when left sitting for some time.
I personally can't really tell that there is any change in power management & behavior, but am hopeful it will fix a weird issue I had where my screen would randomly go black & not come back on until I put the it to sleep & brought it back up. Strangely, it only appeared to occur when plugged to an external monitor & when left sitting for some time.
I've been having this same problem. It's not a huge one, but annoying enough that I hope they get around to it soon. =-)
Just installed both updates. I hope this fixes an issue I've been having where putting my MacBook to sleep for an extended period (say, overnight) will result in the battery meter reporting a "full" charge of 99%.
After I did the first update my light on the power adaptor (orange and green dot) is now always staying green even as the battery loses charge and when connected the batter status says its connected to the power source but says the "battery is not charging".
Once your battery is fully charged the computer will report a "full" charge (green MagSafe) until the battery drops to 96% at which point it will start charging it again to 100% and repeat the process.
Once your battery is fully charged the computer will report a "full" charge (green MagSafe) until the battery drops to 96% at which point it will start charging it again to 100% and repeat the process.
Indeed, all Macbooks have been doing this. It's what's best for the battery.
I hope it fixes the problems!
as do I
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then again it literally got here yesterday and was shipped from china on friday
I'm not sure what was going on last night with my mac but now it is working flawlessly again! Hope this may reassure people if I scared anyone away from the updates last night.
Cheers!
Edit: So I ran a test and yes, I was a fool, or at least just a noob. As the macbook loses charge from 100 down to 96% if you plug it back in it reads a green light and says "fully charged". Then at 95% it reads green and says "battery is not charging". Then at 94% it goes to orange and starts to calculate the time to reach full charge. I guess just doing the update made me pick up on this peculiar behavior and I freaked out! Oh well....lesson learned!
I am sure Apple will make other adjustments. There were quite a few firmware updates for the previous MacBook Pro line. It is also possible that fan speeds are governed by the OS (which would be odd) and may be included in the 10.5.6 update.
-Rolf