Side Effects of the MacBook EFI 1.7 Update

The EFI Firmware 1.7 update has been a relieve for many new MacBook owners. However, it seems to created new issues for some users. Hereafter is a report from Thomas:

Some owners of the new MacBook Pro are experiencing problems following the firmware 1.7 update. My computer now randomly freezes, and HD access can be on hold for 20-30 seconds. Then the computer becomes almost not usable. However, everything is working fine when running BootCamp...

I installed an application on my XP partition, and it allows me to read/write on my HFS+ volume, I also repaired my Macintosh HD partition. After rebooting in safe mode on my Mac partition, I can get till the welcoming step where account and password have to be entered; then it freezes so one needs a hard reboot.

According to my tests and investigation, it is still possible to boot from an external partition, however booting from the optical drive with a DVD does not seem to be working anymore... I am not the only one having problems as reported on Apple discussion forum: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2054387&tstart=0

It seems that there is a common factor for most users reporting this issue is the upgrade of the original HD by a faster model (either Seagate or Western Digital). It is too early to conclude, and we invite you to report you findings on our forum.