Is it possible that Apple had a additional chip added to support PCIe 3.0? I know some PC makers had to use add-in USB 3.0 chips until Intel integrated USB 3.0 support into their chipsets.
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Upgrading 2013-2015 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe
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I'd think not. As PCIe Switch chip is insanely expensive part (Also, I had looked at the board, and I don't see addition of PCIe related chip, also lspci results pointing to the controller being Intel's). It is more likely either Apple had their hands on newer revision of the PCH. (That or they found a way to make it "magically" go faster) That's why I'm looking for volunteers to run lspci on those models to get the PCI controller revision
Maybe Apple did have a special revision? I really don't know. I would help out except my newest MacBook is a mid-2014 13".
Ah, I see what you mean. Sorry, I cannot be of much help to run an lspci. I only have 13" models at my disposal.
It's very possible that Apple had a special run of the Intel Chipsets, or added a custom component... It might be possible to determine that from a schematic view of the 2013-2014 boards, compared to the 2015 boards.
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So for my 2014 MBP SSD upgrade, I have a Sabrent Rocket 2TB drive in hand. However, since I ordered it, I've become aware of the reconfiguration with a lower DRAM quantity and also higher power usage. I'm wondering if I should send it back and replace it with the XPG SX82100 Pro 2TB. Is there another drive I should consider?
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
Ok. I downloaded pcitools from Kernel.org and compiled the package following the instructions in the README file.
The problem is that when I run it, I got an error (even with sudo lspci). What are the next steps after the error occurred?
I googled it and the threads I was able to find out suggest that ioreg be used instead.
Thanks
Thanks for trying.
What error was that. Is it command not found?
I'm also including the steps I took to install it:
(I just did to today on a MBA running Catalina.)
1. cd into folder you expanded after download.
2. sudo make
3. sudo make install
4. ln -s /usr/local/sbin/lspci /usr/local/bin/lspci
Weird thing is. somehow the terminal is not looking in /usr/local/sbin for executables by default. Weird.
So what I did (step 4) is add a symlink from there to to /usr/local/bin. (Note that if you want to use setpci, and update-pciids, you will have to repeat the process for those executables as well.
After that you should be able to call it no problem.
Note that I use -vvv argument for lspci (as in $ sudo lspci -vvv)
Technically you can edit your .bashrc (or .zshrc) add where shell look for executables. But I'm too lazy to look up how to do it atm. (Or just plain stupid moving them to /usr/local/bin, which is arguably a better solution in retrospect)
Please let me know if it works.
Fun fact: I can never make sense of ioreg output. Even when using ioregexplorer. It's sooo confusing to read.
Samsung 970 EVO Plus? (I just swapped to 2tb version from sabrent 1tb)
Its quite expensive, but worth it imo.
No luck yet, I think they are still working on Lilu and NVMeFix updates with a few check ins as of last week but no new release builds.
This is the output I get:
$ lspci
pcilib: Cannot open AppleACPIPlatformExpert (add boot arg debug=0x144 & run as root)
lspci: Cannot find any working access method.
$
With or without sudo, the output is the same.
My apologies, I forgot that you will have to add the boot argument ‘debug=0x144’
to do this, you need to run:
sudo nvram boot-args=‘debug=0x144’ (I already have that)
note that before you run this, it is prudent for you to check if you have an existing boot arguments using nvram -p.
and if you have any you would have to add it as well, with each separated by space
for example, if you have ‘-v’ for boot argument already it will have to be
sudo nvram=‘debug=0x144 -v’
again, apologies for forgetting and thanks for all your help so far.
Thank you! I’ve decided to try and change to NVMe on my own. I looked through the steps advised throughout this thread, but have a couple of questions...
1. I see that High Sierra or above is needed to format the new NVMe SSD, but my laptop was on Mojave when the original SSD completely died and failed to boot.
2. I can’t find a way to create a bootable high Sierra os usb without another Mac.
Basically, I have a completely dead MacBook, a new NVMe SSD, a Sintech adapter, an empty USB, necessary screwdrivers and a functional chromebook... am I all set?
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Yeah, I was hoping to not spend the extra $120 that the Samsung 970 EVO Plus costs. What are the benefits of the Samsung 970 EVO Plus versus the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB?
For my view of Samsung vs any other.
1.Better utilities (Magician + bootable ISO for firmware updates). For reference, Sabrent utilities don't know info their 2TB version, their UI Sucked, and firmware update on website is .exe only and is hard to find. YMMV on other Phison-based SSD Vendors.
2.Better Performance; Their flagship is almost always the fastest in the market. Though Evo is not the flagship sub-brand, it's darn close as they use same controller and design, just differ on TLC NAND vs MLC for PRO, until 980 Series that is (It's All TLC now). And they don't have 970 Pro 2TB either.
3. Personal experience.
Been using Samsung since 840 Pro. Never failed me. (unless you count 970 Pro being a power hog w/ ASPM off on macOS, but it's not its fault lolz, and is Now fixed w/ NVMeFix.)
for ADATA vs Samsung see:
However, note that 970 EVO Plus 2TB version benchmarks put it at the same performance mark as 970 Pro 512, just a tad bit lower IOPs (2000 lower I think)
If we are to go by Wendell's video, the performance should be roughly on par.
Also, check this.
ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB M.2 SSD Review
ADATA's hugely popular XPG SX8200 Pro series gets a capacity increase, now up to 2TB. Here is our full review.
www.tweaktown.com
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If it was on mojave when its dead, then it can run the NVME already. You just need to find a ways to create an installer. But if you are already on mojave before, i think internet recovery might be able to detect the ssd and install the OS, just make sure you hold CMD + Option + R when booting,
Alternatively, you can use transmac to create bootable usb installer from windows computer
SX8200 Pro should be fine. Although its slightly hotter but that still a best bang for bucks drive. It even beat Samsung 970 EVO in various scenario. Just make sure you use short adapter. SX8200 is using double side design for the component.
Howdy all. A hearty thanks to everyone who has posted in this thread! I recently replaced the 500Gb Apple SSD on my late 2013 15" MBP. Thanks to the bounteous information and comparison charts of maxthackray and others, I chose the Sabrent SB-Rocket-1TB SSD in conjunction with Sintech NGFF adapter.
Installation was easy and I was able to restore from backup without needing to update firmware. I've been running for a little over a month with success.
The Problem: There's one issue I'm experiencing - when the battery drains down and the MB goes dark, I connect the power cord, press the Power button, and get the black screen of death. To fix it, I hold down the Power button until the MB shuts off, press Power to turn it on, then hear two boot up chimes and the login screen presents.
I've reset PRAM/NVRAM and the SMC numerous times, yet the issue persists. Is this part of the hibernation issue? The MB sleeps all the time and wakes without issue. This never happened with the factory SSD - I'd connect the cord, press Power, and the machine simply woke right where it left off.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it, in fact, part of the hibernation issue? If not, is there a fix?
I eagerly await input!
Late 2013 15" MBP running High Sierra
Installation was easy and I was able to restore from backup without needing to update firmware. I've been running for a little over a month with success.
The Problem: There's one issue I'm experiencing - when the battery drains down and the MB goes dark, I connect the power cord, press the Power button, and get the black screen of death. To fix it, I hold down the Power button until the MB shuts off, press Power to turn it on, then hear two boot up chimes and the login screen presents.
I've reset PRAM/NVRAM and the SMC numerous times, yet the issue persists. Is this part of the hibernation issue? The MB sleeps all the time and wakes without issue. This never happened with the factory SSD - I'd connect the cord, press Power, and the machine simply woke right where it left off.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is it, in fact, part of the hibernation issue? If not, is there a fix?
I eagerly await input!
Late 2013 15" MBP running High Sierra
Yes, it's likely related to the hibernation issue. When the battery goes very low and the screen shuts off, the machine is actually going into Hibernate mode (as opposed to powering down). The first post on Page 1 shows a few approaches on dealing with it for the 2013/2014 models.
This is the hibernation issue. Under a certain threshold of battery, your Mac is not going to sleep but straight to hibernation.
I thought I would be able to restore using that Wasmicro case, but I was wrong. Although my 15" 2012 MacBook Pro recognizes the OEM 512GB Apple (Samsung) SDD when installed in the Wasmicro case, the 13" 2017 MacBook Air did not recognize it when running Migration Assistant. Consequently, I just restored using the Time Machine backup stored on a 3TB Western Digital USB 3.0 portable HDD that was used to back up the 13" MBA. The restore seemed to go fine, and the first boot up was great. However, the next boot hung forever. In fact, I could not boot up using safe mode either. I suspected the problem was me activating either Sophos or, possibly, some old extension after the first boot following the restore. Consequently, I wiped the new Adata SSD, reinstalled Catalina, and one more time reinstalled from the Time Machine backup. This time, I immediately deleted Sophos rather than activating. From there on out, things went well. Yesterday, I migrated data from my 16" 2012 MacBook Pro, this time using Migration Assistant's feature that allows transfer of data from one machine to another (I connected both the MBA and the MBP to ethernet to ensure a solid connection). That migration went without a hitch. I again removed Sophos immediately following the migration. (To be clear, the the Time Machine backup had my mom's files from the MBA, which was her computer; the MBP is my computer.)
The only concerning thing I've noticed so far is that it seems like the MBA air boots a lot slower using the Adata SSD than it did with the OEM Apple/Samsung SSD. Any idea why this might be the case? In fact, it sees like the MBA actually boots slower than my 2012 MBP, which has an internal SATA SSD. I haven't done any timed comparisons, but I'll try to do so in the next few days to verify.
You can try to reset the Startup Disk from Preferences, it may get rid of the 30-60s delay before the apple logo appears.