Apple looks to fix bothersome beeps in MacBook Pros
In a thread hundreds of posts long over at the Apple Support forums, countless users have complained that their 7,200RPM hard drives will randomly click and beep, and some have experienced slower access times. The issue appears to have grown since it was first reported in January.
In recent days, numerous users have posted in the thread on the Apple Support forums, stating they were told on the phone by AppleCare representatives that the company is working on a fix. On Friday, user jgcamil wrote that he was told by Level 2 support that Apple is "highly" aware of the issue and it is one of the company's "highest priorities." But, he was also told he would have to "live with" the issue until an update is made available.
Last month, MacNN reported the issue may have arisen from the Seagate Momentus 7200.4 G-Force hard drives, specifically that the drive's protection system may be incompatible with Mac hardware. In addition, the G-Force technology is not needed on the MacBook Pro, which has pre-existing anti-shock protection.
One AppleInsider reader whose MacBook Pro beeps occasionally said he's frustrated that Apple has remained quiet on his costly investment. He said after researching the problem, he believes it's caused by the original firmware for the hard drive.
"The crazy thing is that you can read comments about AppleCare Engineers stance on this issue: 'Its normal behavior,' (and) 'Apple´s Working on a fix,'" he told AppleInsider. "Also, some of them are recommending doing a complete reinstall, when this issue is factory related."
Users have also uploaded numerous videos demonstrating the problem to YouTube. Below are a few examples:
63 Comments
Exact same hard drive (Seagate 7200.4 G-Force 320GB). I upgraded it from the earlier Hitachi 120GB hard drive. And the same problem. Beeps and clicks (but doesn't freeze yet). Let's see.
Why are so many owners with this issue so upset? Apple has stated this is normal behavior designed to protect your investment. You should be happy they have your investment covered. Would you rather have your laptop go belly up? If it is irritating and limits its usefulness, at least you know its going to survive and last a long time.
When annoying issues such as this and the SATA 3.0 issue crop up, I don't doubt that Apple does care since they eventually fix it. I just wish they'd do a better job of communicating about it rather than remaining silent or saying it's normal behavior before suddenly dropping a patch. A lot of the time it just seems like they are just doing damage control by fixing issues once they get too much media attention.
Well this is a pretty ridiculous issue to have. I'd be justifiably upset.
Seems there's nothing that's actually faulty, but rather the decision to include this model of Seagate hard drive wasn't the best one in terms of compatibility.
Anyway, don't Hitachi and Samsung make better drives?
Well this is a pretty ridiculous issue to have. I'd be justifiably upset.
Seems there's nothing that's actually faulty, but rather the decision to include this model of Seagate hard drive wasn't the best one in terms of compatibility.
Anyway, don't Hitachi and Samsung make better drives?
What is it with Apple and Harddrives - in the last 2 years we have had 5 laptop drives go out with 3 on laptops less than a year old. The others we 2 years old. The last one this past week was on a machine less than 7 months old. But my 13" MacBook that I think is 5 years old and abused by my kids playing pbskids is still working great.