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Upgrading 2013-2015 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
korypostma said:
It depends upon your model but you may have not received the bootrom update if you updated from Mojave to Catalina with a non-Apple drive installed. I would love to get a list of drives that people were able to update the bootrom with that are NVME. I suspect those drives have two temperature sensors SSD A Sensor and SSD B Sensor. If someone could get me a list of drives they suspect upgrade the bootrom then I could buy a few and check it using Apple Service Diagnostics to see if they trigger any issues. I can then test to see that the bootrom gets updated properly as well. Then we can complete the list of drives here with those that allow bootrom updating.
Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...

She had Mojave on the original Apple SSD (well, Samsung drive) that came with the laptop, so the bootrom got updated properly. I then installed Catalina on the new NVMe Sabrent drive. All working fine.
 
Sounds like exactly the same symptoms I’m dealing with. Computer just freezes randomly from time to time, then comes back a few seconds later. Are you running FileVault? I am, but I don’t really have a choice.

urubumarinka said:
Hello dears,
first of all I want to thank this amazing source of information that has been an amazing guide!!! You are awesome!

Ive changed my MBA 13' (mid 2013) ssd to a new m.2 NVMe and everything works fine spart from high temperatures and very complicated situation with my external soundcards.
Im a DJ and music producer who relies strongly on my macbook air for my live gigs. And since Ive changed the ssd, my soundcards (yes more than one model) are not working properly and music is stopping in the middle of my concert, which is totally embarrasing and terrible.

Did anyone experienced the same thing?
Does anyone have a clue if this could be a effect from the SSD change?

i would be very grateful with any piece of information, a hint or any thoughts about it.

Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...
 
Thanks vpujols!
that helps me feel a little more confident. Just ordered an Adata sx8200 pro. Hope this works!
 
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vpujols said:
She had Mojave on the original Apple SSD (well, Samsung drive) that came with the laptop, so the bootrom got updated properly. I then installed Catalina on the new NVMe Sabrent drive. All working fine.
Click to expand...
Like I said, it depends upon your model. Some models had bootrom updates with Catalina, others did not.
 
vpujols said:
She had Mojave and bootrom was in the 19x.xx, cannot remember now but can check later.
On the new drive I went with new install of Catalina.
Click to expand...
Depending on the Mojave bootrom, installing Catalina may have updated the bootrom to the latest version.

I had an HP ex900 in an early 2015 Air and it started taking bootrom updates with after the second last Mojave release.
 
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korypostma said:
Have you tried with a clone on a different NVME? It could be related to power draw or one of your power rails.
Click to expand...
I don’t have any other NVMe drives. It worked fine with the original ssd. Also don’t have this problem in macOS.
 
hi i have a macbook air early 2014, short adapter, the recommended one and a 1tb sabernt

Sometimes, when you go to turn on the screen, it is black and does not respond, the computer restarts and gives an error message before turning on.

Normally when I'm working with it it doesn't happen.

Any idea how can i fix it?

I have already reset all the memories and deactivated hibernation through terminal

Any more ideas?
 
franchu29 said:
hi i have a macbook air early 2014, short adapter, the recommended one and a 1tb sabernt

Sometimes, when you go to turn on the screen, it is black and does not respond, the computer restarts and gives an error message before turning on.

Normally when I'm working with it it doesn't happen.

Any idea how can i fix it?

I have already reset all the memories and deactivated hibernation through terminal

Any more ideas?
Click to expand...
Black screen and not responding means there is an issue with the SSD, generally speaking. Can you verify the backlight is on by seeing the screen is lit up but it is black? You can look at the back to see the apple is glowing. What you may need to do is make sure that the adapter and NVME drive are attached securely. If you have another NVME drive test with that one. Maybe load into windows and make sure you have latest firmware for the drive. Make sure you have latest firmware / EFI / BootROM for the mac. Try to do a PRAM reset.
 
korypostma said:
Black screen and not responding means there is an issue with the SSD, generally speaking. Can you verify the backlight is on by seeing the screen is lit up but it is black? You can look at the back to see the apple is glowing. What you may need to do is make sure that the adapter and NVME drive are attached securely. If you have another NVME drive test with that one. Maybe load into windows and make sure you have latest firmware for the drive. Make sure you have latest firmware / EFI / BootROM for the mac. Try to do a PRAM reset.
Click to expand...

thanks for your help

How can i do this: "Maybe load into windows and make sure you have latest firmware for the drive. Make sure you have latest firmware / EFI / BootROM for the mac"
 
franchu29 said:
thanks for your help

How can i do this: "Maybe load into windows and make sure you have latest firmware for the drive. Make sure you have latest firmware / EFI / BootROM for the mac"
Click to expand...
Here is how I would do it. I would remove the NVME from the mac and put it in a computer that has windows. Go to the manufacturer and make sure it has the latest firmware.

For the mac go to Apple -> About this Mac -> System Information... -> BootROM version and compare that value to the ones I posted a few posts up in those links. If it is not the latest make sure to put in an original Apple SSD and then upgrade it to Catalina, remove that and put your NVME back in and now you should be at the latest version.
 
My daughter's laptop running Catalina with the new NVMe Sabrent is at bootrom 192.0.0.0.0
 

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Audit13 said:
That list needs to be updated because the latest for my mid-2014 13" Pro 11,1 is 159 rather than 158.
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11,3 is correct for me at 158.0.0.0. Which Catalina version do you have? Perhaps something came out within the past few months that moved all of these to 159. I'm leaving mine at Mojave because of some tools I need to work.
 
I just updated a 15-inch 2014 rMBP to Security Update 2020-002 for Mojave and I can confirm that my BootROM was updated from 158.0.0.0 to 159.0.0.0.

What's also surprising is that normally I have to switch out the Inland Premium 1 TB NVMe SSD used on that laptop for a Samsung 951 or Apple OEM SSD I keep around just for this purpose to update the BootROM, I accidentally left the Inland in and the BootROM updated anyway.

Maybe someone at Apple decided to cut us 2013-2015 rMBP users a break and disable the vendor SSD ID check?!

I'll try with another machine as soon as I pick up another Inland..
 
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Hey guys, I'm new new here. I'm about to upgrade my MacBook Pro 13" Early 2015, to a 1TB drive. I already bought a Crucial P1, but I'm a little concerned over if I got the right product for the price and performance. My three biggest factors are:

1. Capacity. 1TB so lets disregard this.
2. Reliability. I want to end up using this MBP for at least another 5-6 years.
3. Performance. Not the biggest deal but I prefer the most out of the same price.

I've seen a bunch of suggestions on here but I wanted to see if someone can come up with some comparisons. I was considering the SX8200 Pro over this if its any better. Don't want Samsung as that's too expensive and want to give the smaller guys a chance too! haha

I have a Rivo adapter to go with the drive as well (would switch out to Sintech if I went for the ADATA).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! and major thanks to everyone for their contribution, this was a long awaited upgrade and I'm finally ready to dive in.
 
korypostma said:
11,3 is correct for me at 158.0.0.0. Which Catalina version do you have? Perhaps something came out within the past few months that moved all of these to 159. I'm leaving mine at Mojave because of some tools I need to work.
Click to expand...
Cataline 10.15.4 was installed on my mid-2014 13" Pro today and bootrom updated to 159.0.0.0.
 
Earl Urley said:
I just updated a 15-inch 2014 rMBP to Security Update 2020-002 for Mojave and I can confirm that my BootROM was updated from 158.0.0.0 to 159.0.0.0.

What's also surprising is that normally I have to switch out the Inland Premium 1 TB NVMe SSD used on that laptop for a Samsung 951 or Apple OEM SSD I keep around just for this purpose to update the BootROM, I accidentally left the Inland in and the BootROM updated anyway.

Maybe someone at Apple decided to cut us 2013-2015 rMBP users a break and disable the vendor SSD ID check?!

I'll try with another machine as soon as I pick up another Inland..
Click to expand...
Yep, it must be a dot release that updates it released just a month or so ago. Regarding the NVME drive perhaps your drive supports the SSD A/B Sensors? Could you run ASD 162 and confirm if it complains about your SSD A/B Sensors not working?
 
Following self-quarantine of local jurisdiction and don't have access to any ASDs at the moment.

Looks like

eclecticlight.co

Which EFI firmware should your Mac be using? (version 4)

macOS 10.15 Catalina brings EFI firmware updates for all supported models, and subsequent updates have changed those for most models too. This article lists the firmware versions of Macs which have…
eclecticlight.co eclecticlight.co

has been updated to reflect the new BootROM revisions for 10.15.4 and Security Update 2020-002.
 
korypostma said:
Here is how I would do it. I would remove the NVME from the mac and put it in a computer that has windows. Go to the manufacturer and make sure it has the latest firmware.

For the mac go to Apple -> About this Mac -> System Information... -> BootROM version and compare that value to the ones I posted a few posts up in those links. If it is not the latest make sure to put in an original Apple SSD and then upgrade it to Catalina, remove that and put your NVME back in and now you should be at the latest version.
Click to expand...
hello, thank you very much for your help, I have updated with the old disk and now I have version 120.0.0.0.0, in air 6.2

It seems that everything works correctly

I have another problem I am writing to you in case you can help me

I want to try to install windows in bootcamp, but when downloading windows compatibility software it always freezes at this point and does not move forward. (attached image)

Does somebody knows why it could be?
 

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