Comment 11 for bug 774089

It might also be worth working out a fix for anyone with their computer out-of-warranty. To this end the following debug information might also be useful

 * I could not run the latest firmware update utility because it told me 'my computer does not need the update'
 * This message persisted even after a complete re-install of OS X/redownload of the firmware utility
 * I could not find a firmware recovery CD for the macbook pro 5,5 (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2213) (could we modify one of these to use the latest firmware for 5,5?)

* More annoyingly, I couldn't get the computer in to the right mode to reflash anyway. The Apple manual says
"
# Turn on the computer and continue holding the Power button. The sleep LED will blink rapidly, then slowly, then rapidly (3 quick blinks, 3 slow blinks, 3 quick blinks).

On Macs that don't have a sleep LED, tones are used instead. Hold down the power button until you hear 3 long tones, then 3 short tones, then 3 long tones.

On Macs that use a tray-load optical drive, the tray will open to allow the Restoration CD to be inserted.
# Insert the Firmware Restoration CD while the lights are blinking or tones sounding, then release the Power button. A long tone is played once the recovery process has started."

However I could not get the '3-quick, 3-long, 3-quick' pattern to occur. I did not try this as many times as I should have done to be certain. I was using the firmware restore cd 1.9, which doesn't list 5,5, but its list is wrong anyway: it incorrectly lists 5,1 as a 2010 model when it is really the mid 2009 17" (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4132 vs http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1320)

Here are some useful debug docs that don't jump out of Google as easily as I'd have liked:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2674 - bootup sequence and status lights. I can't correlate anything on their to our problem
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1533 - key combos at startup