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MP 7,1 Accelsior 4M2 troubles w/7.1
- Thread starter cobra521
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Here's the latest response I got from Ray at OWC:
"something may of happened with the previous set of the SSD's"
This in response to my request for some information about whether the double-sided (therefore thicker) SSDs may have been harmed by the card, and/or whether they had any diagnostic information about the card they replaced when they tested it.
They don't seem to have any clue why the SSDs failed, or why the card may have failed.
I think it's time to bail and try some other way to get my four 2TB SSDs into the 2019 Mac Pro.
Sigh. Education is never free...
Tom
"something may of happened with the previous set of the SSD's"
This in response to my request for some information about whether the double-sided (therefore thicker) SSDs may have been harmed by the card, and/or whether they had any diagnostic information about the card they replaced when they tested it.
They don't seem to have any clue why the SSDs failed, or why the card may have failed.
I think it's time to bail and try some other way to get my four 2TB SSDs into the 2019 Mac Pro.
Sigh. Education is never free...
Tom
Well, the saga of OWC/Accelsior continues. They finally agreed to take the replacement card back - since I did not open the package, it has to meet their return requirements. Maybe.
OWC still requires a "restocking fee" which took three emails to determine it would be 15%. I sent that card back September 25. They received it and stated they were processing a refund.
Today I get an email saying "taking a little longer than normal having to deal with this via reaching out to Amazon and such has slowed this down a bit".
That might make sense if Amazon had been involved. They were not involved; I bought the card directly from OWC!
I conclude I am dealing with personnel from India who have no clue about anything, technically or financially... Their sole function seems to be ghosting.
If I get anything back I will consider it a miracle and post that fact here.
In the meantime I bought and installed a Sonnet 4xM.2 Silent card with 4 x 2TB Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus sticks. It has been going for about a week and seems OK.
More if/as it happens. 2020 has seen more hardware failures than the prior ten years thanks to OWC. I'll post about the other problems after this one is concluded.
OWC still requires a "restocking fee" which took three emails to determine it would be 15%. I sent that card back September 25. They received it and stated they were processing a refund.
Today I get an email saying "taking a little longer than normal having to deal with this via reaching out to Amazon and such has slowed this down a bit".
That might make sense if Amazon had been involved. They were not involved; I bought the card directly from OWC!
I conclude I am dealing with personnel from India who have no clue about anything, technically or financially... Their sole function seems to be ghosting.
If I get anything back I will consider it a miracle and post that fact here.
In the meantime I bought and installed a Sonnet 4xM.2 Silent card with 4 x 2TB Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus sticks. It has been going for about a week and seems OK.
More if/as it happens. 2020 has seen more hardware failures than the prior ten years thanks to OWC. I'll post about the other problems after this one is concluded.
FYI - Only been installed just over 2 months, but so far still no issues with the Sonnet M.2 4x4 Silent PCIe Card and Samsung drives here.
That's encouraging to hear!
I'm now trying to work with Topaz Video Enhancement AI on one of the SSDs. Alas, Topaz seems to be rather more than crashworthy. I'm just using their 30-day trial, so maybe I can wait a few months or so and try it again.
I know, one definition of the word pioneer is "the guy with all the arrows in his back."
Also the definition of "Experience"... "Something that happened to you that you wish had happened to someone else"!
I picked up an Accelsior 8TB card a while ago for my 5,1 and had issues with drives disappearing from it almost immediately, so just returned the card.
I think there are safer options out there.
I think there are safer options out there.
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Nope, mine was quick and painless (thankfully). Got an RMA and sent it straight back to them. Refund came quickly (and that's from the other side of the planet).
Guys, stop buying OWC products. They are cheaply built crap; I've learned my lesson at least twice now sadly. Though never again; I wouldn't touch anything they produce with a 10 foot pole.
Here's my final report on OWC/Macsales fiasco with their Accelsior 4M2. I paid $245US, they refunded $220US, so on the face of it there isn't too great a loss on this OWC hardware, maybe $25US.
This overlooks the $750US they cost me by killing three HP EX950 2TB SSDs. So it may have been much more expensive.
I have submitted the SSDs to HP for their decision as to whether to warranty them or not. Still in the drum roll on that.
Lesson: At least $25 penalty, maybe $775, we'll find out sometime. Some education can be relatively expensive
Conclusion: No more OWC/Macsales purchases for me.
This is the second major hardware failure from OWC, loss totaling at least $154 (and maybe a lot more) plus much wasted time and stress, as their "support" appears to be some really expert "ghosters" from probably India. It took over 50 emails to get this one up to the partial refund stage.
Double sigh...
Tom
This overlooks the $750US they cost me by killing three HP EX950 2TB SSDs. So it may have been much more expensive.
I have submitted the SSDs to HP for their decision as to whether to warranty them or not. Still in the drum roll on that.
Lesson: At least $25 penalty, maybe $775, we'll find out sometime. Some education can be relatively expensive
Conclusion: No more OWC/Macsales purchases for me.
This is the second major hardware failure from OWC, loss totaling at least $154 (and maybe a lot more) plus much wasted time and stress, as their "support" appears to be some really expert "ghosters" from probably India. It took over 50 emails to get this one up to the partial refund stage.
Double sigh...
Tom
December update on the SSD/PCIe cards for my 7,1:
First, HP replaced all my dead SSDs so I now have 8TB of them again!
Second, I replaced the OWC 4M2 PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD adapters with Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe adapters. I now have 16TB of storage again, jiffy quick storage thankfully. I've put 4 HP EX950 2TB SSDs on one Sonnet card, and 4 Samsung 2TB 970 PROs on the other. They've been running fine for over a month.
The OWC cards and HP SSDs started failing much faster than that, so I'm cautiously optimistic about the current setup.
I still think the double sided aspect of the HP SSDs contributed to the OWC card and SSD failures in spite of OWC's statements to me to the contrary. I have a feeling that single sided SSDs may work OK with the OWC card. Either type seems to work fine with the Sonnet card which has different thicknesses of heat transfer material that are installed depending on which thickness of SSD you put in.
The 7,1 is now working the way I hoped. I can use it without the ominous feeling of impending disaster. Maybe it will continue?
Hopefully,
Tom
First, HP replaced all my dead SSDs so I now have 8TB of them again!
Second, I replaced the OWC 4M2 PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD adapters with Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe adapters. I now have 16TB of storage again, jiffy quick storage thankfully. I've put 4 HP EX950 2TB SSDs on one Sonnet card, and 4 Samsung 2TB 970 PROs on the other. They've been running fine for over a month.
The OWC cards and HP SSDs started failing much faster than that, so I'm cautiously optimistic about the current setup.
I still think the double sided aspect of the HP SSDs contributed to the OWC card and SSD failures in spite of OWC's statements to me to the contrary. I have a feeling that single sided SSDs may work OK with the OWC card. Either type seems to work fine with the Sonnet card which has different thicknesses of heat transfer material that are installed depending on which thickness of SSD you put in.
The 7,1 is now working the way I hoped. I can use it without the ominous feeling of impending disaster. Maybe it will continue?
Hopefully,
Tom
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Great to hear. I've been using the Sonnet for months now with Samsung 970 Evo Plus sticks for video editing and have had zero issues thus far.
Also I'm sure you meant you have a 7,1.