NVMe with ST-NGFF2013-C; Vega Internal GPU; Mac Pro 2013 (6,1)

[CodeJingle]

@CodeJingle thanks a lot, the PC PARTS 239 adapters you sent me have arrived!

I am impressed with the fast international shipping for regular airmail. Glad you got them.

 

[Kris Kelvin]

Tried to upgrade my MacPro6,1 with a Samsung 960 PRO 2TB and a CableCC/Chenyang SA-213 adapter. Applied Kapton tape. The SSD was detected, but wasn't reliable for longer use and sometimes vanished after restarts. Some people trying the adapters in MacBooks have had similarily bad experiences (see here).

I've ordered a few ST-NGFF2013 directly from Sintech and will report findings.

 

[CodeJingle]

I've ordered a few ST-NGFF2013 directly from Sintech and will report findings.

Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps someone is keeping track of all these adapters and which ones work. The one you just purchased from Sintech is of the two on this thread that have worked successfully.

 

[CodeJingle]

first layer of top of logic board minus the damage

 

[IBICO]

Finally one of the adapter arrived. heatsink also arrived

 

[CodeJingle]

The Mac Pro 2013 Logic Board has 10 layers. Took two days to depopulate and sand down by hand. Not perfect. Next to sand down a Mac Pro 2013 CPU Riser Card, though I don't have a spare $800 lying around. If anyone wants to ship me a card or help sponsor my research send me a direct message thanks.

I accidentally sanded through a small portion of the trace in multiple layers. In the top layer, I lost some trace when I ripped components off the board because I was tired of manually desoldering each individual component.

I have never worked through the layers of a board before, this was my first time. So relatively speaking a great first try but I can do much better for the next board I perform this process on. I spend two days with a metal file and 100 grit sandpaper. If instead, I spend 5 days with 60, 80, 100 grit sandpaper and no metal file, and also depopulate the top layers with the aid of an open oven or 'hot plate' instead of crushing and ripping components off the board then it should come out with all the trace of every layer.

 

[CodeJingle]

I updated the previous post with all 10 layers. here is facing the top of the logic board with no layers left.

 

[saulinpa]

I had a surprise. Pulled an NVME 950 Pro from a SFF PC. Powered up my Mac and it booted Windows 10. Locked up but it did boot with no modifications.

 

[noodle654]

So I just did this with my nMP as well. PC Parts adapter and Samsung EVO 960 500GB. It works great. However, every few days or so I will get a severe lockup where I can move my mouse but nothing else works. Get beachball as well. Is there anything I should check for? I saw no messages in console when the lockup happens. Fresh install of high Sierra too.

 

[Kris Kelvin]

However, every few days or so I will get a severe lockup where I can move my mouse but nothing else works. Get beachball as well.

That sounds like the dreaded GPU problem, extensively documented here: Mac Pro (Late 2013) GPU (Driver) Issues

Didn't this problem occur before the SSD swap?

 

[noodle654]

That sounds like the dreaded GPU problem, extensively documented here: Mac Pro (Late 2013) GPU (Driver) Issues

Didn't this problem occur before the SSD swap?

No it has happened recently. Could be a coincidence I guess. Thanks for the heads up with GPU.

 

[Kris Kelvin]

No it has happened recently. Could be a coincidence I guess.

Maybe. AFAIK, it's not really clear if Apple has found the reason for the problem. Is it possible that insufficient shielding of the SSD affects the underlying GPU? I'll do some testing when my adapters arrive, too.

 

[CodeJingle]

every few days or so I will get a severe lockup where I can move my mouse but nothing else works. Get beachball as well. Is there anything I should check for? I saw no messages in console when the lockup happens. Fresh install of high Sierra too.

Have you added the tape to the adapter? The connection may be partially shorting. Also, make sure your power connection does not have a ground fault. You might have coincidentally moved your setup around the same time you upgraded the hard drive. I always connect my Mac Pro through a UPS which has signal conditioning. I have previously damaged a Mac Pro due to faulty building wiring.

 

[noodle654]

Have you added the tape to the adapter? The connection may be partially shorting. Also, make sure your power connection does not have a ground fault. You might have coincidentally moved your setup around the same time you upgraded the hard drive. I always connect my Mac Pro through a UPS which has signal conditioning. I have previously damaged a Mac Pro due to faulty building wiring.

Yup I have tape on the adapter. I don't see anything in console so I am a bit confused. I just stressed my CPU/GPU and it happened again after about 10 minutes, so maybe it is the GPU? Kinda unfortunate.

 

[AidenShaw]

Kinda unfortunate.

That pretty much sums up the situation with GPUs in the MP6,1.

 

[noodle654]

That pretty much sums up the situation with GPUs in the MP6,1.

I haven't been on these forums in awhile...but to save myself from reading that 55 page thread, is there a way to check and verify the issue is the GPU? Will anything appear in ASD? I notice the issue when temps increase and especially when playing any sort of video (Final Cut)

 

[noodle654]

I haven't been on these forums in awhile...but to save myself from reading that 55 page thread, is there a way to check and verify the issue is the GPU? Will anything appear in ASD? I notice the issue when temps increase and especially when playing any sort of video (Final Cut)

Update: I let it go to flurry screen saver and made dinner, came back and was frozen. Consolde has: com.apple.preference.displays.MirrorDisplays: service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

 

[jclmavg]

I haven't been on these forums in awhile...but to save myself from reading that 55 page thread, is there a way to check and verify the issue is the GPU? Will anything appear in ASD? I notice the issue when temps increase and especially when playing any sort of video (Final Cut)

I believe the GPU issue is limited to models produced in a specific period. https://www.macrumors.com/2016/02/06/late-2013-mac-pro-video-issues-repair-program/

 

[itdk92]

You are missing my point. Is someone with GSX access free to discuss the content of a service manual with someone who does not have GSX access? If Apple allows someone with GSX access to freely quote and directly reference the entire contents of the service manual to people without GSX access, then what is the purpose of GSX access in the first place? It makes no sense then; the documents should be freely available.

Or maybe Apple does not allow someone with GSX access to freely discuss the content of service manuals with those who do not have access. In which case, they should be more subtle. Apple Authorized Service Provider is still controlled by Apple. Apple still has provisions and restrictions on content retrieved in a manner that required GSX access and what portion of that material is allowed to be disclosed to those without GSX access. At best someone who wanted to break protocol would do so in a private message rather than disclosure to an entire thread.

Funny enough, I know for a fact that now Apple has become more strict with who has access to GSX, at least in my country, especially with Premium Resellers and Service Providers.

Beforehand, every high-level, senior employee, and even regular front-desk shops of the firm I used to work on, including myself, had access.

At some point we got all kicked out, and only hands-on technicians were allowed to access it.

 

[CodeJingle]

Per-contact Xeon E5 v2 Socket documentation (tweaks and color coding is TODO). Though I made this document myself some of the inspiration for making a spreadsheet version of the documentation for socket contacts comes from dwdrummer959 (DM so no links).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q8irssey5e55q6u/XeonE5v2.numbers?dl=0

 

[MarkJames68]

Update: I let it go to flurry screen saver and made dinner, came back and was frozen. Consolde has: com.apple.preference.displays.MirrorDisplays: service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

Try increasing fan speed and see if that helps at all.

 

[CodeJingle]

Funny enough, I know for a fact that now Apple has become more strict with who has access to GSX, at least in my country, especially with Premium Resellers and Service Providers.

Apple’s bread and butter is minimizing public disclosure. Disclosure in a group setting should only be under NDA. Occasionally there may be private disclosure on an individual basis. As a general rule try not to make a public statement that must have come from NDA documentation.

What I am doing is a bit grey but I have no NDA, and I have no official copy of schematics. If I end up working for Apple and sign NDA and they give me schematics then I cannot upload the trace off the board anymore. I am an embedded engineer, so I live in the woods of NDA.

Those who are leaking official NDA documentation should continue to be as stealthy as possible to maintain the flow of information. Get sloppy, and the information is no longer accessible and can no longer be shared.

I'm still hoping to get schematics in a DM from a random MacRumors user. Even knowing in advance the name and purpose of every contact of every connection, the thing I am trying to do here is still tedious and tricky. If I do most of the work to re-create the schematics myself, it is around the time when the schematics are no longer useful to me that I am given them, or I happen to stumble upon them. That is the process of convergence for me, historically at least. Still, they would be useful to check my work.

 

[itdk92]

Apple’s bread and butter is minimizing public disclosure. Disclosure in a group setting should only be under NDA. Occasionally there may be private disclosure on an individual basis. As a general rule try not to make a public statement that must have come from NDA documentation.

What I am doing is a bit grey but I have no NDA, and I have no official copy of schematics. If I end up working for Apple and sign NDA and they give me schematics then I cannot upload the trace off the board anymore. I am an embedded engineer, so I live in the woods of NDA.

Those who are leaking official NDA documentation should continue to be as stealthy as possible to maintain the flow of information. Get sloppy, and the information is no longer accessible and can no longer be shared.

I'm still hoping to get schematics in a DM from a random MacRumors user. Even knowing in advance the name and purpose of every contact of every connection, the thing I am trying to do here is still tedious and tricky. If I do most of the work to re-create the schematics myself, it is around the time when the schematics are no longer useful to me that I am given them, or I happen to stumble upon them. That is the process of convergence for me, historically at least. Still, they would be useful to check my work.

Agreed. Just FYI, no NDA here

 

[CodeJingle]

These are all of my pics of the logic board layers at full resolution

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qby1xjlox63k5hr/blah.zip?dl=0

 

[IBICO]

Finally
[doublepost=1513448411][/doublepost]Installing and cross my fingers
[doublepost=1513450341][/doublepost]I tried the adapter I bought from the webshop first, and got many strange error messages and hangup. Then i tried the adapter shipped by CodeJingle and that worked perfectly