[Solved] Beachballs on late 2008 15" MacBook Pro MacBookPro5,1 with SATA II HD

Question

Each time I upgraded hard disks in my late 2008 15" MacBook Pro ( MacBookPro5,1 ) I experienced increasing beachballs. The worst was my recent upgrade to a Seagate 1TB SSD hybrid drive.
I had lived with this pain for years and it appears a simple jumper change could have solved it. In my opinion all or at least some models of the late 2008 MacBook 15" Pros do not reliably support SATA II 3 Gbit/second.
See jumper diagram for Seagate drives. Note the diagram is showing drive laying hard disk circuit board side up. Other manufacturers may differ.
http://knowledge.seagate.com/article...language=en_US
From what I uderstand my late 2008 MacBook Pro was designed to support SATA II 3 Gbit/second with it's Nvidia chip set. In fact every model from late 2008 appears to have support for SATA II.
Then in early 2011 they added support for SATA III 6 Gbit/sec which the 1TB ST1000LM014 hybrid drive also supports. ( Hopefully they got SATA III right in their first 2011 model year. ) Unfortunately for me I do not think they got SATA II right in their first late 2008 model year.
I hope this may help someone avoid the pain I experienced,
-EdOfTheMountain
Hardware Overview:
  Model Name:          MacBook Pro
  Model Identifier:          MacBookPro5,1
  Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:          2.4 GHz
  Number of Processors:          1
  Total Number of Cores:          2
  L2 Cache:          3 MB
  Memory:          8 GB
  Bus Speed:          1.07 GHz
  Boot ROM Version:          MBP51.007E.B06
  SMC Version (system):          1.33f8
  Serial Number (system):          73******1G0
  Hardware UUID:          ****
  Sudden Motion Sensor:
  State:          Enabled
Serial-ATA
NVidia MCP79 AHCI:
  Vendor:          NVidia
  Product:          MCP79 AHCI
  Link Speed:          3 Gigabit
  Negotiated Link Speed:          3 Gigabit
  Description:          AHCI Version 1.20 Supported
ST1000LM014-1EJ164:
  Capacity:          1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)
  Model:          ST1000LM014-1EJ164                     
  Revision:          SM11   
  Serial Number:                      W3804LD1
  Native Command Queuing:          Yes
  Queue Depth:          32
  Removable Media:          No
  Detachable Drive:          No
  BSD Name:          disk0
  Rotational Rate:          5400
  Medium Type:          Rotational
  Partition Map Type:          GPT (GUID Partition Table)
  S.M.A.R.T. status:          Verified
  Volumes:
disk0s1:
  Capacity:          209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
  BSD Name:          disk0s1
  Content:          EFI
ST-1TB:
  Capacity:          999.86 GB (999,860,912,128 bytes)
  Available:          130.51 GB (130,505,502,720 bytes)
  Writable:          Yes
  File System:          Journaled HFS+
  BSD Name:          disk0s2
  Mount Point:          /
  Content:          Apple_HFS
<Edited By Host>

Answer 1

Hi Mike,
I am not sure it is same issue if drive is not even recognized.  But I would not give up hope.  I know my late 2008 MacBookPro5,1 has this problem even though it was designed to work at SATA II 3 Gbit/second.  It may be possible that your 2009 model has a similar issue.
If the jumper works for you, then please cut and paste your MacBook's Hardware Overview.  It would be nice to see the Serial-ATA hardware too. Go to:
Apple icon
About This Mac
More Info
System Report
My late 2008 is:
Hardware Overview:
  Model Name:          MacBook Pro
  Model Identifier:          MacBookPro5,1
  Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:          2.4 GHz
  Number of Processors:          1
  Total Number of Cores:          2
  L2 Cache:          3 MB
  Memory:          8 GB
  Bus Speed:          1.07 GHz
  Boot ROM Version:          MBP51.007E.B06
  SMC Version (system):          1.33f8
  Serial Number (system):          73******1G0
  Hardware UUID:          ****
  Sudden Motion Sensor:
  State:          Enabled
Serial-ATA
NVidia MCP79 AHCI:
  Vendor:          NVidia
  Product:          MCP79 AHCI
  Link Speed:          3 Gigabit
  Negotiated Link Speed:          3 Gigabit
  Description:          AHCI Version 1.20 Supported
-Ed
<Edited By Host>