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

[monofase]

Since I am doing some business with Macbook. I have used adapter N-941 that you guys called old version with samsung SSD to test all version macbook. Only 2013 has no reboot problem. 2014 can hear the boot sound but sometime appears the question mark. And 2015 becomes a dark screen with overwhelming probability when reboot. And it seems that the tape is not necessary on adapter N-941. Now I have ordered some large adapter that you guy called new version. When I get them I will report the result here.

Where did you order the new adapters? I think that Sintech now ships only the newest version (let's call it 3.0) the one with black PCB

 

[majonex]

Hi guys!

I am interested in upgrading the storage on my Early 2015 MacBook Air (High Sierra) and have spent the last hour or so reading through this thread. The current SSD is 128gb which is too little for me and I am thinking of upgrading to 512gb.

Based on what I have read it seems that some of the NVMe drives are having some sleep/hibernate problems on the MacBook and that the only drive that seems to not have the problem is the:

- Samsung SM951?

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I am considering the following 3 choices of SSD to do the upgrade on in descending order of preference:

1. Samsung SM951 512gb
2. Samsung 960 EVO 500gb
3. WD Black NVMe 512gb

Which of the following would be actually the most recommended drive?

I am also located in the UK and was wondering if anyone in the UK has any alternative methods in obtaining the Sintech adapter within in the UK instead of directly from them in China, as I am just a little worried about shipping times etc.

Thanks guys and looking forward to your help!

My experience is that the WD BLack performs terrrible in a MacBook. Sorry, it is maybe a fast drive but does not play well in my experience.

The problem is like stated in earlier replies that although the drives you list here are 4-Lane, the MacBook will not register it as more than 2-Lane. I even put in a Intel 600P 512GB in a 2013 MacBook Air, registers as 5 GT/s and 1-Lane (!!)

So from my testing I would suggest
- Samsung SM951 (faster than your stock Apple SSD)
- Samsung 960 EVO is overkill and your MBA can not take advantage of it.
- Intel 600P 512GB, nice drive faster than your Apple SSD.
Just check deals and buy the cheapest of these. I think the 600P would be that.

Still we all are struggling with sleep issues and slow boots :-( Hoping Apple will improve NVME drivers in the future.
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Hi,
I have been reading this thread for almost the whole day today with the hope I can find a solution to the problem I am experiencing, Samsung EVO 960 250GB SSD showing PCIe x2 (Link Width) instead of x4 in my mostly successful upgrade of Early 2015 13" MacBook Air. Apparently I found no one having the same problem. I know for fact that the Apple SSD I replaced had 4 lane storage interface. So it cannot be right this EVO 960 becomes 2 lane... View attachment 744520 View attachment 744521

BTW I have the sintech adapter that most people on this thread use.

@gilles_polysoft, I appreciate all the helpful info you posted. But I seem to be an odd man with the low disk read/write speed. Any idea of what I did wrong or didn't do? I am still waiting for the Kapton tape for one.

I appreciate others' tip / suggestion as well. Happy New Year!

Then why do I only get on an Intel 600P 512 GB (600 MB/s - 1400 MB/s). Of course with 1-Lane it is sooo slow! Reports 2-lanes on MBP Late-2013

• MacBook Air 11" & 13" mid 2013 : works from 10.13 (PCIe 2.0 speed 1x lanes)

[doublepost=1514835268][/doublepost]

Where did you order the new adapters? I think that Sintech now ships only the newest version (let's call it 3.0) the one with black PCB

I talked to Sintech and asking about what is this with the "OLD" and the "NEW" type people here are talking about.

Reply from Sintech:

This is our old version, but my old customer prefer to buy this old green version because this old one can work more stable.

I have tested with different Capton taping. Doesn't seem to make any difference on boot or sleep.
[doublepost=1514835388][/doublepost]

hi guys,
my experience:
macbook pro 13" early 2015
kingstone hyper 960gb
format apfs

with old version of adapter I was a lot of problems with cold boot/hybernate/suspend.

with new version of adapter, the bigger none problems for me.

so.... for now the difference of ssd apple is the battery life is loss and the cold boot is very slowly.

ciao

I have the "best" adapter according to Sintech. Does not help on the cold boot/hibernate issues.

 

[Audit13]

My early 2015 MBA registers the Intel 600p as having a link width of x4. It only registered as x2 before I reapplied the tape.

 

[majonex]

Hi majonex, I just found out that disabling the option "power off hard drives" actually works without issues. I left the MBA with the lid closed the whole night (with AC Adapter, but does also work on battery) and when I opened the lid the machine does not reboot.
So I can confirm, for the moment, that my sintech adapter (black PCB, not yours) works with the Samsung 960 Evo 500GB NVMe SSD. No idea about firmware version.

High Sierra OS was installed from a 2013 MBP (13") with some reboot issues. So I think is better cloning the drive with CCC instead of installing it clean.

I am so confused. My main problem is still wake from deep sleep. The only I solved this was to lock the sleepimage file so that is is not writeable. No matter what I do this file gets created to when I lock it it works. Got the help from here:

How to disable OS X from creating "sleep image?"

@monofase can you confirm that the ONLY SETTING you have is disable "Power off hard drives" ?? You did not do anything with pmset? Can you post your output from pmset -g ?

 

[gymboy]

My experience is that the WD BLack performs terrrible in a MacBook. Sorry, it is maybe a fast drive but does not play well in my experience.

The problem is like stated in earlier replies that although the drives you list here are 4-Lane, the MacBook will not register it as more than 2-Lane. I even put in a Intel 600P 512GB in a 2013 MacBook Air, registers as 5 GT/s and 1-Lane (!!)

So from my testing I would suggest
- Samsung SM951 (faster than your stock Apple SSD)
- Samsung 960 EVO is overkill and your MBA can not take advantage of it.
- Intel 600P 512GB, nice drive faster than your Apple SSD.
Just check deals and buy the cheapest of these. I think the 600P would be that.

Still we all are struggling with sleep issues and slow boots :-( Hoping Apple will improve NVME drivers in the future.

Thanks for the reply! Would also just like to ask if there are any guides to how to do the entire process? Am relatively new to this and am not sure if I had actually missed it when skimming through the thread.

 

[majonex]

Just to wrap up the issues we are discussing here:

• NVMe PCI drives work (almost any NVMe PCI 2 and 3) on MacBooks from 2013, Air, Pro from OS X High Sierra update
• The Sintech adapter (new or green version) works fine (better than what?)
• NVMe drives do not register speed and lanes as they are advertised. E.g. a NVMe drive that is PCI 3.0 is registered as PCI 2.0 on MacBook Pro 2015. If the drive is 4-Lane it is registered as 2-Lane on a MacBook (anything that supports 4-Lane)
• There are problems with long cold boot taking much longer time to register the drive and startup, compared to Apples PCI SSDs
• Deep sleep is a problem when the MacBook is out of power and tries to start up from sleepimage , usually a double boot
• Non-Apple NVMe drives use more power and drain battery faster than Apple own drives.

I am very enlightened by all the posts but mostly confused :-(
If anyone is able to wrap this up in some way it would be very clarifying

 

[gymboy]

My early 2015 MBA registers the Intel 600p as having a link width of x4. It only registered as x2 before I reapplied the tape.

Hey there! I am on an early 2015 MBA as well. Do you know of any guides or which guides did you follow to do the M.2 ssd installation on your device?

 

[majonex]

My early 2015 MBA registers the Intel 600p as having a link width of x4. It only registered as x2 before I reapplied the tape.

Very interesting! I now taped the Sintech adapter and I think the tape on top is important. I now have Capton tape between the top of the Sintech adapter (metal) and the drive slot on the logic board. I now got pretty much better performance on a MacBook Air 2013. Take a look. The read speed blows away any of the Apple disks I tested on the same MBA.

Now does anyone think this will solve the sleep issues also??

 

[Audit13]

Hey there! I am on an early 2015 MBA as well. Do you know of any guides or which guides did you follow to do the M.2 ssd installation on your device?

All I did was update to high Sierra using the original apple ssd, apply the capton tape to the top and bottom of the adapter, inserted nvme drive, clean installed high Sierra, and that's it.

 

[monofase]

I am so confused. My main problem is still wake from deep sleep. The only I solved this was to lock the sleepimage file so that is is not writeable. No matter what I do this file gets created to when I lock it it works. Got the help from here:

How to disable OS X from creating "sleep image?"

@monofase can you confirm that the ONLY SETTING you have is disable "Power off hard drives" ?? You did not do anything with pmset? Can you post your output from pmset -g ?

Yes, it was! I don't have anymore the machine here. It was a machine of my client.

At the moment the only machine available for testing is a rMBP 13" 2015:
Here's the output:

System-wide power settings:

Currently in use:

standbydelay 10800

standby 0

halfdim 1

hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage

powernap 0

gpuswitch 2

disksleep 10

sleep 0 (sleep prevented by sharingd)

autopoweroffdelay 28800

hibernatemode 3

autopoweroff 1

ttyskeepawake 1

displaysleep 2

tcpkeepalive 1

acwake 0

lidwake 1

 

[gymboy]

All I did was update to high Sierra using the original apple add, apply the capton tape to the top and bottom of the adapter, inserted nvme drive, clean installed high Sierra, and that's it.

Is your BootRom version MBA71.0171.B00?

 

[Audit13]

Is your BootRom version MBA71.0171.B00?

I think so but I'm not 100% sure as I don't have it with me.

The important thing is updating to high Sierra using the original apple ssd before proceeding with the ssd change.

 

[gymboy]

I think so but I'm not 100% sure as I don't have it with me.

The important thing is updating to high Sierra using the original apple ssd before proceeding with the ssd change.

Yeah I’ve updated to high Sierra. Would just want to confirm the Boot rom version. Would you be kind enough to help when you’ve your MBA with you handy?

 

[Audit13]

@gymboy , my MBA 7,2 has boot rom MBA71.0171.B00.

After reapplying the capton tape, everything is perfect except I am getting battery drain of 1% per hour while the MBA is in sleep mode.

Results from running the commond pmset -g are:

Currently in use:

standbydelay 10800

standby 1

halfdim 1

hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage

powernap 0

gpuswitch 2

disksleep 10

sleep 1

autopoweroffdelay 28800

hibernatemode 3

autopoweroff 1

ttyskeepawake 1

displaysleep 2

acwake 0

lidwake 1

 

[majonex]

Yes, it was! I don't have anymore the machine here. It was a machine of my client.

At the moment the only machine available for testing is a rMBP 13" 2015:
Here's the output:

System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
standbydelay 10800
standby 0
halfdim 1
hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage
powernap 0
gpuswitch 2
disksleep 10
sleep 0 (sleep prevented by sharingd)
autopoweroffdelay 28800
hibernatemode 3
autopoweroff 1
ttyskeepawake 1
displaysleep 2
tcpkeepalive 1
acwake 0
lidwake 1

Sorry, unchecking "let disks sleep" does not make any difference. I still get 2 x reboot when I wake up from deep sleep.
Here is my pmset:

System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
 standbydelay         10800
 standby              1
 halfdim              1
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 powernap             0
 gpuswitch            2
 disksleep            0
 sleep                1 (sleep prevented by AddressBookSourceSync)
 autopoweroffdelay    28800
 hibernatemode        3
 autopoweroff         1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 displaysleep         2
 acwake               0
 lidwake              1

The only way i avoid crashes after deep sleep is to lock the /var/vm/sleepimage file.
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Hi majonex, I just found out that disabling the option "power off hard drives" actually works without issues. I left the MBA with the lid closed the whole night (with AC Adapter, but does also work on battery) and when I opened the lid the machine does not reboot.
So I can confirm, for the moment, that my sintech adapter (black PCB, not yours) works with the Samsung 960 Evo 500GB NVMe SSD. No idea about firmware version.

High Sierra OS was installed from a 2013 MBP (13") with some reboot issues. So I think is better cloning the drive with CCC instead of installing it clean.

Sorry @monofase. This does no make any difference for my MB Air 2013. Still 2 x reboot when I open the lid from deep sleep. Am running firmware MBA61.0103B00,

 

[gymboy]

Does anyone from the UK know where can I get the Sintech adapter from? Or do I have to order it directly from them from China?

I have seen this on Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/M-2-NGFF-SSD-adapter-original/dp/B01GJVFKP8 but unsure if it is the right one to get

 

[monofase]

I think so but I'm not 100% sure as I don't have it with me.

The important thing is updating to high Sierra using the original apple ssd before proceeding with the ssd change.

My machine was already updated to high sierra from the previous owner before I removed the original SSD.

Now I have problems on my MBP 2015 after setting sudo pmset -g standby 0 . The only way to avoid the sleep crash is to set
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25 but with this setting the Mac takes a lot of time to wake up from the sleep status.

Anyway this is strange and I think is related to my new black sintech adapters, since I read all the topic and no one but me seems to have sleep issues with the 2015 machines. Any idea?

 

[djneils98]

I am also located in the UK and was wondering if anyone in the UK has any alternative methods in obtaining the Sintech adapter within in the UK instead of directly from them in China, as I am just a little worried about shipping times etc.

Thanks guys and looking forward to your help!

I'm also in the UK and ordered the adaptor a few days ago. Had an email today to say its in the post (Royal Mail) so China wait times don't seem to be an issue.

Now I need to pick the correct and best ssd for my MacBook Pro early 2015 13inch.

Does anyone have a view on the drives most likely to work??

thanks in advance

 

[gymboy]

I'm also in the UK and ordered the adaptor a few days ago. Had an email today to say its in the post (Royal Mail) so China wait times don't seem to be an issue.

Now I need to pick the correct and best ssd for my MacBook early 2015 13inch.

Does anyone have a view on the drives most likely to work??

thanks in advance

Ok great, will go ahead and make my order tonight then and hopefully it comes in the mail next week.

I think most people are playing with the idea of a Samsung Evo 960. I am thinking of getting the 500gb option, what about you? Are you on a MBA or MBP?

 

[djneils98]

Ok great, will go ahead and make my order tonight then and hopefully it comes in the mail next week.

I think most people are playing with the idea of a Samsung Evo 960. I am thinking of getting the 500gb option, what about you? Are you on a MBA or MBP?

it's a pro - I thought the Samsung 960s were ones that people were having issues with.
I can get the intel one and this seems to have less issues - or am I missing something?

 

[gymboy]

it's a pro - I thought the Samsung 960s were ones that people were having issues with.
I can get the intel one and this seems to have less issues - or am I missing something?

Yeah some are getting problems with the 960, but based on what I've read, if using the new and larger adapter form Sintech and 960 on 2015 MacBooks had no problems.

But I think intel p600 is a good bet as well, one option that I am considering as well, could get a 512GB for around £170-180 or a 1TB £300 which is quite a good deal.

 

[Audit13]

My mid 2013 Air is also running high Sierra with boot rom MBA61.0103.B00.

I'll try the large, green Sintech adapter in the 2013 Air when I get my hands on another nvme drive.

 

[monofase]

Updates from my 2015 MBP 13"
I reset the energy savings preferences, including the "turn off hard drives" option and then launched:
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25

Leaved the machine overnight with the lid closed and guess? No panic! It wakes up correclty. So I tried to reboot the machine and I got the "?" sign. Damned Adapters.
I want to try the bigger sintech adapter but I'm still waiting them from China.

I have to do a similar machine for a client. This time I ordered the Intel 600p so I can test it.

Anyway, this bug is very frustrating because the machine itself works smooth without any problem. I m using it as my main machine now and the only problems are with reboot and sleep.

 

[ykchau]

it's a pro - I thought the Samsung 960s were ones that people were having issues with.
I can get the intel one and this seems to have less issues - or am I missing something?

My MBPr 2015 early using SM951 256GB without any issue, and I'm using the ChenYang Adapter without Tape, the sector size is 512 byte.

 

[majonex]

@gymboy - You have to consider what your MBP is capable of. Samsung EVO is overkill for your machine. If you tape correctly the top of the Sintech adapter you will get 4-Lane and almost 700 MB/s write, 1200 MB/s read. You will not get more from an expensive Samsung EVO. For a 2015 MBP I would invest in the EVO.

My machine was already updated to high sierra from the previous owner before I removed the original SSD.

Now I have problems on my MBP 2015 after setting sudo pmset -g standby 0 . The only way to avoid the sleep crash is to set
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25 but with this setting the Mac takes a lot of time to wake up from the sleep status.

Anyway this is strange and I think is related to my new black sintech adapters, since I read all the topic and no one but me seems to have sleep issues with the 2015 machines. Any idea?

I think the deep sleep crash comes from either not being able to read from the deepsleep image or OS X not being able to write correctly to it. So for now the only option that works is to write-lock the deepsleep file. I have no better luck with hibernatemode 25 so I set it back to 0. Maybe this has to do with Intel 600p. Don't have a Samsung EVO at the moment but I had to solve it the same way with a Samsung SM961. I am waiting for an adapter so I can upgrade the 600p to see if it makes any difference.
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My MBPr 2015 early using SM951 256GB without any issue, and I'm using the ChenYang Adapter without Tape, the sector size is 512 byte.

Where did you buy this adapter? You have no sleep issues at all? Not even wake from deep sleep? No pmset extras?

I use this adapter now and I was told directly from Sintech that this should be the best one:
http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2015-macbook-ssd-p-1139.html
My experience with the tape is that the top of the adapter is metal and connects with the connector on the logic board. So isolation between the adapter and the connector helps. Solved so I got 4-Lane instead of 2-Lane.