MP 1,1-5,1 Evo 970 Plus not detected in my Mac Pro 5.1 Mojave [SOLVED]

[MIKX]

scorefrog

In post #13. your 970 EVO Plus is NOT secured to te NVMe adapter ! It is at a 40° angle

This is 100% WRONG.

it MUST b LOCKED DOWN o the adapter

In the box that your M.2 NVMe PCIe adapter came in. . there should be a TWO PART locking insert and a screw.

=============================================================

Shut down your Mac Pro

Remove the Mac pro's power cord.

Wait 5 mins

Secure the 970 EVO Plus to the adapter

Now . ..

start up your Mac Pro using the "Three Consecutive HAPPY MAC Chimes" = hold down these keys P + R + Option + Apple keys until you hear the "Happy Mac Chime" THREE times.

Now. . check "About This Mac / HArdware/NVMexpress to see if the FIRMWARE Version is shown.

 

[scorefrog]

@ MIKX

Thanks for the detailed review and effort you did here. I just deleted the missleading picture on post 13 in hope to not get more comments on this very exceptional "variation" I tired after not having any success with "normal" methods.

Regarding the screw drivers. They weren't attachable in a stable way, i tried many times. After it didn't work as expected, I just relied on the conductive paste where the blade (as shown on the photo) is attached as it should or at least as aproximateley as it should for testing purposes, because I ordered it via ebay and the seller is waiting for me to aprove it's working, while I have no life sign of the blade so far. It is just a single life sign I am craving for by now (after that I'd have my head free to thing about buying another adapter card anyway)

The P-R Reset I did yesterday as suggested by @ Macschrauber with 5 chimes even, I'll try it with three chimes this time to leave nothing untested.

 

[KeesMacPro]

They weren't attachable in a stable way, i tried many times. After it didn't work as expected, I just relied on the conductive paste where the blade (as shown on the photo) is attached as it should or at least as aproximateley as it should for testing purposes

I'd recommend to go step by step eliminating possible errors.
Like has been stated before : make sure all connections are 100% okay, before you start troubleshooting.

I never tested this specific NVMe adapter, but generally:
- if it came with 1 heatpad, its supposed to be on top of the blade .
-if it came with 2 pads, check the thickness of the heat pads, probably they differ in thickness.
The thinner one should go underneath the blade , the thicker one on top.
-Make sure the blade is inserted completely and fix it with the screw that it came with.
If with the heatpad under the blade there seems to be too much tension to put the screw in, just remove the heatpad and insert the screw.
Put one heatpad on top of the blade and attach the heatsink.

 

[scorefrog]

I'd recommend to go step by step eliminating possible errors.
Like has been stated before : make sure all connections are 100% okay, before you start troubleshooting.

I never tested this specific NVMe adapter, but generally:
- if it came with 1 heatpad, its supposed to be on top of the blade .
-if it came with 2 pads, check the thickness of the heat pads, probably they differ in thickness.
The thinner one should go underneath the blade , the thicker one on top.
-Make sure the blade is inserted completely and fix it with the screw that it came with.
If with the heatpad under the blade there seems to be too much tension to put the screw in, just remove the heatpad and insert the screw.
Put one heatpad on top of the blade and attach the heatsink.

This is helpfull indeed and are new, not so far mentioned aspects. It came with three heatpads and I used the most thick UNDER the blade not being able to add a screw anymore. Also I didn't locate a heatpad over the disk as the disk allready has a sticker on it which i thought to serve for cooling. I'll leave this away for now for testing purposes as my main concerne is obviously just to get a life sign from the blade.
Of course I don't have to much expectations about this but it could lead us to the solution (or does so by even eleminating more errors)!

Coming back soon...
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This is from the instruction manual. I'll try out the most THIN of the 3 Pads (for the screw to work)

 

[MIKX]

scotfrog

You seem to have done everything the wrong way.

I found this by Googling in about 10 seconds. Your should have Googled too.

Start watching from 7:58

===================================================

1. Shut down, remove the Mac Pro's power cord.

2. Remove the HEAT PAD completely from the adapter - you can put it back later.
It is not required at this stage.

3. Now attach the two-part adapter security screw along with it's bottom half as indicated in the 2nd. photo
in Post #26. One part is installed from the BOTTOM of the adapter. The screw in inserted from the top of
the adapter to lock down the 970 EVO Plus to the adapter.

4. Restart doing the THREE consecutive CHIMES NVRAM "re-set" (Not 5 chimes ! ) ( who said five chimes ? )

5. Now re-boot the " Unetbootin " USB stick.

Your 970 EVO Plus should now be seen and be able to be flashed to the current 2B2QEXE7 970 EVO Plus firmware.

I assume that you HAVE NOT already formatted your 970 EVO Plus in Mac OS because if you have .. . then you will have to use Samsung Magician in Win7 or Win 10. but before you can do that you will have to format the blade to WIn standard format specs.

 

[Macschrauber]

I attach one pad under the blade and one or two at the top of the blade. So both sides make thermal contact without tension. I did about a dozen of different blades, adapters and heatsinks.

The screw and nut is a bit fiddling, instructions are not super clear.

Of course without tension. If a screw wont fit than at least a 2 cable tie solution. One as "screw" and one as "nut". But they should fit.

Right after boot chime the blade or cards LED has to flicker a bit, indicating live of the blade. This is firmware state, just efi firmware anf card firmware envolved.

But anyway, the pads and heat sink of the adapter here should hold it in place, but not super secure.
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Boot chimes could be 4,5 or 10. this dont matters, memory configs in nvram streams are rebuilt (among other things) with the 3rd chime.

I counted that with rom dumps, coming from 20 memory configs down to 6.

 

[MIKX]

I would never depend on ANY heatpad securely holding down ANY M.2 blade to an adapter.

Asking for trouble.

M.2 blades can get quite hot.

The two-part secure retainer is included with all M.2 PCIe adapters for a good reason.

 

[Macschrauber]

And: if the 970 has current firmware (guess so if purchased recently) it has just to be formatted in macos disk utility (guid, apfs). No additional tools needed.

 

[MIKX]

And: if the 970 has current firmware (guess so if purchased recently) it has just to be formatted in macos disk utility (guid, apfs). No additional tools needed.

Agreed, new owners don't realise that merely installing the blade to a good M.2 PCIe adapter and THEN looking in "About This Mac/hardware/NVMexpress/ will show the current firmware version which for the 970 EVO Plus should be . . . .

2B2QEXE7

if the above firmware version is displayed .. THEN it can be formatted in Mac OS.​

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My Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500gb has the most recent firmware revision and is formatted to HFS+.

My ( Backup for weekly CCC cloning ) 970 EVO 250gb is formatted to APFS.

Everything works without issue.

 

[scorefrog]

@ MIKX

I took this "not erassing the disk before checking firmware under "About this Mac" to heart, 2 weeks before even ordering all the stuff. Of course beter mentioning it one more time than one time to less. At the moment though the troubleshooting is much more on a basic level.

I would be pretty amezed if my suage of the Head Pad as described in the instrucitons is the really ONLY thing I did wrong so far (even i just made a P-R-Ram Reset with 3 chimes now, without the PCIe Adapter and afterwards with it attached)

@ Macschrauber

your argumentation i can follow much better so far, that using the Heat Pad should be (at least theoretically) far from being "wrong way to go" though of course I'd hope that MIKX is right because that leaves more hope.

SO just to keep on reporting you guys how i proceed:
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(the one part for the back)

and although it might look as if it could work:

there is really NO WAY to get this screw in there WITH the Heat Pad (and even the most thin of the pads) mounted.

SO to exclude every single possible error, I'll no go on and test it without the Pad though i remember heaving hat difficulties with using the srew even without the Pad. But I'll keep on trying my very best... (again with all the P-R-RAM Reset procedure of course)

till later ...

 

[MIKX]

scorefrog

ONE part of the TWO PART locking items = the receptor for the ( top ) screw is mounted from UNDER the blade adapter PCB.

( Google for videos . . it's dead simple ! )

Example : Google for " How to attach a M.2 NVME SSD to PCIe adapter? "

The LOCKING SCREW goes into the "screw receptor" = mounted UNDER the adapter PCB board.

NOTE : You DEFINITELY DO NOT NEED to attach HEATPADS to test your 970 EVO Plus connection.
The heatpads can be added LATER ~!

 

[scorefrog]

MIKX,

thx! So let's have a look on it:
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It's nothing really new but this time I went with most precision in documenting how I am approaching it:

WITHOUT the blade i CAN attach the screw without much problem:

-> as can be seen from both sides. The Screw sits perfectly attached.

WITH the blade mounted though i can't get the screw fixed anymore as one would expect:

Although it looks like it should be possible, its not and i tried very hard:

Propably becausee its sitting crooked, see? So the screw is to short to even reach the "screw receptor"

Therfore I just used the most thin of the Heat Pads as WORKAROUND as described by

@KeesMacPro

-> Thank you again for the great hint.

And I had the impression with this method (just for testing purposes) the blade sit very tight and by far stable enough that it should show up somewhere.

Btw. @ Macschrauber

The lights of the Adapter DON'T light up on startup. This is also a very usefull information. So there was no connection established so far.

 

[Macschrauber]

no, thats too tight

red thing needs to be mounted between pcb and blade. As likely, its a spacer.

 

[scorefrog]

no, thats too tight

red thing needs to be mounted between pcb and blade. As likely, its a spacer.
View attachment 933478

Well this Spacer kind of piece was not part of the Set (also the piece to the left wasn't part of the set i recieved) I only had the golden one and the flat screws to the left. They work without the ssd but not with it. I would guess that the propability of the problem occuring because not having used srews in my attempts can be almost neglected no?! Of course it's a little weired that seemingly one piece is missing, but the blade really seems prety tight and well placed while the Card is being recognized without any Problems.

I just phoned with the very FREINDLY(!) RaidSonic support though about having ordered a card which is explicetely Mac compatible (and older!) while getting this newer model after having chosen the option "with cooling piece" in Amazon. He wants to look into that. At 1st he was sceptical about that being a problem because, as YOU mentioned it should just connect the SSD to any Hardware with the right Bios (supporting NVME) but he after mentioning PCIe 4.0 I got him to think. He guesses this is not compatible with older mainboards, only with very new ones and asked me to tell him what the information is shown on my Mac. As I tolled him, that it is recognized as AUDIO Device he said that this SHOULDN'T be the case and advised me to exchange this for the modell of the Icy Box which is known to work properly on my Mac.

My concrete Question is if especially you or anybody else here is able to reconstruct what can be seen on "about my mac" if no blade is being attached to the Icy Box? Isn't it weired still after all, that it thinks it is an Audio Device?
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As (besides ordering the other adapter recomended here) I can't do too much, I'll now keep it a go and try this in a Windows 10 PC and report back...

 

[MIKX]

scorefrog

You still used the heatpad.

Your object is to confirm that the 970 EVO Plus is connected and working.

The heatpad can be connected AFTER the 970 EVO Plus has been confirmed to be connected and recognised in your.
Mac Pro.

The M.2 PCIe adapters are ' industry standard ' = designed to work in standard PCs including Mac Pros.

However each M.2 adapter maker occasionally supply lock-down screw sets that fit ONLY their particular PCI2 cards.

Apparently you have the WRONG lock-down screw set. So go hunt forth correct set. Take both the 970 evo Plus AMD your adapter to a PC shop =- ask the staff to help you correctly connect the 970 EVO Plus to the adapter.

I give up

 

[KeesMacPro]

He guesses this is not compatible with older mainboards, only with very new ones and asked me to tell him what the information is shown on my Mac. As I tolled him, that it is recognized as AUDIO Device he said that this SHOULDN'T be the case and advised me to exchange this for the modell of the Icy Box which is known to work properly on my Mac.

-Since the BootRom of your Mac is 144.0.0.0.0 this card should work fine (at PCIe 2.0 speed)
-Because of the blade not recognized/not connected it didn't show up at all.
"audio device " was shown in slot 1, as an audio output of the vid card in slot 1.

 

[scorefrog]

ok guys Thx so much for your patience!

After quickly having installed it in a windows 7 PC:

I still couldn't get any life sign of the blade. Unfortunateley it's Windows 7 (I have a Windows 10 PC were i could test it as well). In any case, as I wanted to install the Samsung NVME Driver, it tolled me "there is no NVME Drive"

Therefore I start to think that we have a real basic installation problem as anticipated buy you guys. Maybe its because of the wrong screw set @ MIKX!

So now I just ordered this adapter

kryoM.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter für M.2 NGFF PCIe SSD, M-Key mit Passivkühler

kryoM.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter für M.2 NGFF PCIe SSD, M-Key mit Passivkühler

www.amazon.de

and even if it's just for the sake of getting a good screw set. I'm under time pressure somehow as the seller at ebay is waiting for me to confirm the SSD working. (I showed him this Threat as well). So I orderd it via express and it should arrive here tomorrow.

Another thing I'll try no is indeed (a good idea) as @MIKX recommended, to go to a PC store with more kind of "geek guys" who propably could help me with at least TESTING the blade to be ok, which is my priority at the moment.

So thanks for your patience again. I'll report any relevant new stuff!

 

[mikas]

I remember scratching my head with some of those cheaper adapters sometime. If you want to give it that one last try, I'll post a picture how you might try this. I am not sure if you already did this, but it doesn't hurt to post this anyway.

I believe tha spacer has been on the wrong side. You've got two screws, right, and one spacer. So maybe try like in my picture. If it does not help, you need better/correct screw set and spacers, or a working adapter card, because that one might just be DOA.

 

[scorefrog]

@ mikas:

Man am I deeply touched by your effort to try and help me in such a detailed way here!

And this counts not only for you @ mikas but of course as well for everybody suffering here with me, especially

@ Macschrauber
@ MIKX & of course
@ KeesMacPro

not leaving me aside any moment. I can't tell how much as a noob I like and appreciate the Mac Rumours Forum!

So the original result: I went to a special PC Store to really just test the Evo Plus and ... it has been identified as totally CORRUPTED!
No wonder therfore that we all kinda "scratched our heads" in a different way from different perspectives, @ Macschrauber having been the closest to the truth with his evaluations.

But I wouldn't think of all this effort we made together as just wasted time becuase we get a quiet precius Conclusion, at least in my eyes, which can serve future people wanting to install a NVMe in their machines:

IF the blade isn't even recognized by the Mac (not offering to earase disk) one can assume with a pretty high probability, that it's broken! No need ??‍♂️ for fiddling arround for two days like I (we) did ?

Thanks guys!

 

[KeesMacPro]

Thank you for the kind words!
Glad to have been of some help

 

[Macschrauber]

Always want to learn me old dog new tricks.

Every time when scratching head for and with someone I will learn a bit more.

For Example, never had to do with PCIe4. Am a Mac Pro only person and my horizon ends 2012 with the latest cheesegrater

 

[scorefrog]

For Example, never had to do with PCIe4. Am a Mac Pro only person and my horizon ends 2012 with the latest cheesegrater

We are in the same Boat Mate! ?