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What the new firmware has done to my Macbook

L

LSK6453

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 16, 2006
64
0
Well, I was not having the issues that this update repaired, but I always keep my computer up to date.

Here is how my machine in focked up now:

1. Runs 20 degrees hotter where I can not even use it on my lap any longer.

2. The percentage charged was reading 100%, now it was reading 99%. I tried to reboot it and now it just sits at 96%. Under power in the system profiler, the remaining charge number has dropped significantly in 2 days.

3. Ability to control the fans either with smcfan or the fan pref pane is limited. When I make a change, it either does not respond or takes upwards of 1 hr to make the change.

I am very upset and I am in the process of contacting my mac genius friends!
 
Pressure

Pressure

macrumors 603
May 30, 2006
5,182
1,545
Denmark
asherman13 said:
Nor have I...what will resetting these do? Will I lose any preferences, metadata, etc? What exactly gets reset?
Click to expand...

It has nothing to do with your software. It will reset the parameters that monitors and controls the hardware.

The PRAM (parameter random access memory) controls the following:
* Status of AppleTalk
* Serial Port Configuration and Port definition
* Alarm clock setting
* Application font
* Serial printer location
* Autokey rate
* Autokey delay
* Speaker volume
* Attention (beep) sound
* Double-click time
* Caret blink time (insertion point rate)
* Mouse scaling (mouse speed)
* Startup disk
* Menu blink count
* Monitor depth
* 32-bit addressing
* Virtual memory
* RAM disk
* Disk cache

PMU (Power Management Unit) are quite self explanatory of what it covers (power, backlighting, battery etc).

If you call AppleCare, this is usually the first two steps they ask you to do, followed by a complete reinstall of Mac OS X.
 
L

LSK6453

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 16, 2006
64
0
Pressure said:
It has nothing to do with your software. It will reset the parameters that monitors and controls the hardware.

The PRAM (parameter random access memory) controls the following:
* Status of AppleTalk
* Serial Port Configuration and Port definition
* Alarm clock setting
* Application font
* Serial printer location
* Autokey rate
* Autokey delay
* Speaker volume
* Attention (beep) sound
* Double-click time
* Caret blink time (insertion point rate)
* Mouse scaling (mouse speed)
* Startup disk
* Menu blink count
* Monitor depth
* 32-bit addressing
* Virtual memory
* RAM disk
* Disk cache

PMU (Power Management Unit) are quite self explanatory of what it covers (power, backlighting, battery etc).

If you call AppleCare, this is usually the first two steps they ask you to do, followed by a complete reinstall of Mac OS X.
Click to expand...

What are the key strokes to do this again, I forget

Thanks
 
T

the rock

macrumors newbie
Jun 25, 2006
20
0
PRAM: P+R+command+alt straight after the chime
PMU/SMC: Remove AC adapter and battery, hold down power key for 5 seconds.

Btw, it is called SMC and not PMU on the Intel machines. SMC stands for System Management Controller, and does everything the PMU did as well as controls the fans. *smc*FanControl, get it? ;)
 
L

LSK6453

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 16, 2006
64
0
the rock said:
PRAM: P+R+command+alt straight after the chime
PMU/SMC: Remove AC adapter and battery, hold down power key for 5 seconds.

Btw, it is called SMC and not PMU on the Intel machines. SMC stands for System Management Controller, and does everything the PMU did as well as controls the fans. *smc*FanControl, get it? ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks..Is there any special order that these should be done in?

SMC first then PRAM or the reverse?
 
H

hood

macrumors member
Jun 12, 2006
38
0
Since the firmware update the auto hide function of the dock has also become screwy. I now need to click where my dock is hidden. In addition, the ability to access menus while right clicking such as open with no longer work. I have talked with applecare and done a pram resets, pmu and reinstall of OSX with and without perserving data and the problem still persists. Anyone have any thoughts?
 
L

LSK6453

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 16, 2006
64
0
it appears that resetting PRAM and SMC fixed my issues...

Is this something that needs to be done often?
 
Grakkle

Grakkle

macrumors 6502a
Oct 6, 2006
624
2
Earth
Mine seems to be fine. The only change I notice is that CoreDuoTemp now displays the temperature correctly- before it displayed the temp as much lower than it actually was.
 
L

LawGirl

macrumors newbie
Sep 15, 2006
2
0
I experienced the same problems as OP: after installing EFI Firmware Update 1.0 for MacBook (I should have done my research first before clicking Install!), Temperature Monitor soared from being in 35 Celsius range to 65-70 Celsius range on the two CPU cores! (Strangely, the Toshiba "S.M.A.R.T." Hard Drive is still reading at around 32 Celsius.)

I also had the same issue with my battery icon stalling at 95%. After doing an SMC and a PRAM reset, the battery seems to be operating normally again.

But I'm still really worried. This is a relatively new computer (two months old) and I don't want to think that a firmware update that might be a panacea from Apple for serious hardware issues is going to screw up my perfectly good computer. Here's my concern: I experienced NONE of the mooing, whining, fan problems, or Random Shutdowns that other Mac users did (my laptop was made in September, with a "safe" production week later than the problematic Macbooks). Now I'm hearing that this firmware update is just Apple's cheap way of masking the problem of those overheating cables/heatsinks--apparently the firmware prevents the random shutdowns by de-sensitizing the computer to high temperatures?

So is the high CPU reading on Temperature Monitor indication that my Macbook is actually RUNNING HOTTER than before? Or does the CPU reading now reflect accurately the operating temperature whereas before the update, somehow the readouts were wrong?

I'd REALLY hate to think that updating a firmware patch that was sent out to everyone single Mac user regardless of their existing problems of lack therefore might now make my computer run 20 degrees hotter. Anyone know the answer?
 
W

wildmac

macrumors 65816
Jun 13, 2003
1,167
1
LawGirl said:
I experienced the same problems as OP: after installing EFI Firmware Update 1.0 for MacBook (I should have done my research first before clicking Install!), Temperature Monitor soared from being in 35 Celsius range to 65-70 Celsius range on the two CPU cores! (Strangely, the Toshiba "S.M.A.R.T." Hard Drive is still reading at around 32 Celsius.)

I also had the same issue with my battery icon stalling at 95%. After doing an SMC and a PRAM reset, the battery seems to be operating normally again.

But I'm still really worried. This is a relatively new computer (two months old) and I don't want to think that a firmware update that might be a panacea from Apple for serious hardware issues is going to screw up my perfectly good computer. Here's my concern: I experienced NONE of the mooing, whining, fan problems, or Random Shutdowns that other Mac users did (my laptop was made in September, with a "safe" production week later than the problematic Macbooks). Now I'm hearing that this firmware update is just Apple's cheap way of masking the problem of those overheating cables/heatsinks--apparently the firmware prevents the random shutdowns by de-sensitizing the computer to high temperatures?

So is the high CPU reading on Temperature Monitor indication that my Macbook is actually RUNNING HOTTER than before? Or does the CPU reading now reflect accurately the operating temperature whereas before the update, somehow the readouts were wrong?

I'd REALLY hate to think that updating a firmware patch that was sent out to everyone single Mac user regardless of their existing problems of lack therefore might now make my computer run 20 degrees hotter. Anyone know the answer?
Click to expand...

From what I have read, the earlier readouts were wrong. But remember that there are many production runs of the logic board, etc. and so we son't all see the same responses from our MBs. But, you don't have to apply the firmware patch....

It does seem that the firmware is solving issues for others.. so....
 
T

tuftywhite

macrumors member
Jul 17, 2003
52
0
Nottingham/UK
hard drive filling up

My MacBook's HD has started filling up on its own.

If I look at the folder sizes at the root level it all adds up to about 40GB but its saying that I only have 1.22 GB left on my 60GB drive.

Any ideas?
 
T

tuftywhite

macrumors member
Jul 17, 2003
52
0
Nottingham/UK
Romulus,

Thanks for your post. I got someone to look at it. They used Disk Inventory which looks really groovy and shows you exactly what's on your disk.

I had a log file (windowserver_last.log) which kept filling up until I rebooted my machine. The file size had got to 11GB. Any road up, the guy went into a terminal session and deleted the offending file and now it's all better.

Hooray!

:)
 
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