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rMBP thunderbolt woes
Since purchasing my rMBP I’ve had continuing issues keeping a live connection to my Promise Pegasus thunderbolt RAID. Promise, being the good company they are, shipped me a brand new chassis (ahead of me returning the old one) in hopes to correct the issue. Unfortunately the issue persisted. My 2011 MBP works perfectly with it, for the sake of comparison.
I took my laptop back to the Apple store and explained the issue. The employees agreed that it sounds like an issue with thunderbolt power. They also told me that the new thunderbolt-to-firewire adapter, when paired with a macbook air, had the issue of occasionally dropping the connection due to insufficient power. They agreed that this sounds like a similar issue, but shouldn’t be the case on the rMBP model.
Now my laptop is in for repairs and it will take “10 to 14 days.” Being the “least reparable laptop in history” means a simple problem such as this requires the entire logic board be replaced – aka a new computer inside that thin shell. And they don’t even know if it will solve the issue. “Might be an unknown firmware issue with Promise thunderbolt RAIDs if this doesn’t work,” was the last line of the conversation.
So, why am I posting this in a forum about editing? Because we’ve been discussing lots of “ditch the desktop” ideas and I’m one of those people that actually did it. And now here we are.
I’m wondering if anyone else has had similar issues with the rMBP and thunderbolt. I hope not, but as for the rest of you eyeing the purchase of one — perhaps it’s a good idea to wait until more results come in. The comment about the macbook air + firewire adapter is just one telling story that we may not be aware of.
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24 Replies
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Sorry to hear that. 14 days sounds bad, but this is precisely the reason why I stay as far away as possible from all these locked down solutions. It all sounds great on paper; once things go down south you are done with no escape route.
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It sounds like an issue with the MBP in general. I have a friend running an iMac with the Pegasus and no such problem. I’m not sure I understand the power issue mentioned, since both the laptop and the Pegasus should each be running connected to their own power supply. Thunderbolt power should really only be an issue with bus-powered devices. Right? Are there any other Thunderbolt devices daisy-chained in this system?
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Hi Oliver, from what I understand — even with self-powered devices such as the Pegasus, the thunderbolt socket still requires some of its own power on the receiving end. Also, remember that the 2011 MBP does not exhibit this issue — so I don’t think it can assumed that all laptops have this problem.
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I had a small issue when moving my iMac across the room. When I hooked everything back up, it took just the right combinations of cables and ports until all seemed to be happy. I have a bmd device on one TB port, and my second monitor is looped through the Pegasus.
It truly is kinda reminiscent of scsi. Get it all plugged up and working, and leave it.
I assume Apple cloned your hard drive to a backup computer while yours was in the shop, yes?
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No, no clone. They didn’t even offer it. I’m out of a laptop until then.
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The only issue i’ve had with my rMBP is that the firewire adaptor does not supply enough power to the firewire bus powered G-raid mini. It works fine if it is on power, but just clicks and makes noise. It was good of you to point out your problems though, becasue it make you think.
Brooks Tomlinson
“I dream in 32bit float” -
[Brooks Tomlinson] “rMBP is that the firewire adaptor does not supply enough power to the firewire bus powered G-raid mini”
I’ve actually seen that on quite a few Macs, old and new. Plug in both a FW and a USB connection and you’ll be fine. The USB adds the power.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Daniel Frome] “So, why am I posting this in a forum about editing? Because we’ve been discussing lots of “ditch the desktop” ideas and I’m one of those people that actually did it. And now here we are.”
I have a desktop Windows 7 PC that I built myself (and have continually updated over the years) and a 2011 MacBook Pro 17″. I love both and I don’t think I could ever go with just one setup because of this very issue. Anyone (not referring to you directly, Daniel, just FYI) who thinks that they can easily get by on one machine, especially because of the whole “Apple hardware is more reliable” myth is running a risk of being out a machine.
Even outside of failure, sometimes having a dekstop/laptop combination is nice simply because you don’t have to fret if one’s going to be down for a while doing a heavy render or something.
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I just tried Thunderbolt to FireWire and USB at the same time with my g raid mini. No luck. The only thing that works is external power.
Brooks Tomlinson
“I dream in 32bit float” -
So there was no offer to replace the the laptop?
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