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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.
nicolodo said:
Can you tell me the difference in read / write speed ( not the speed reported in the technical sheet but the true speed ;))and how much battery differ 5%? 10%?
So ... in BigSur maybe they have introduces in the BootRom the ATPS...🤔...mha!
Or maybe BigSur natively introduces some kind of power management for nvme drivers, natively 🤔 🤔
Click to expand...
Unless you are using Mid 2015 15inch model, you can neglect the speed difference, since most of the drive will perform on capped limit of the board itself, which is maxed at around 1500++Mb/s
 
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Successfully updated the firmware on two Macs, one running Sierra and another running High Sierra.

1. Updated firmware on mid-2014 15" MBP running latest Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra with internal SSD OWC Aura Pro X2 2TB SSD by installing Big Sur to a USB drive.
2. Updated firmware on late 2013 15" MBP running latest Mac OS 10.12 Sierra with internal SSD Apple OEM 512GB SSD taken from mid-2014 15" MBP by installing Big Sur to a USB drive.

As I didn't change the boot preferences after the firmware update was installed it rebooted back into the OS on the internal SSD.

The reason I'm still on old Operating Systems is that I would need to purchase some new versions of software and some old versions I like would no longer run. Plus Big Sur is still a bit new for my liking.
 
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otosan said:
Unless you are using Mid 2015 15inch model, you can neglect the speed difference, since most of the drive will perform on capped limit of the board itself, which is maxed at around 1500++Mb/s
Click to expand...
In the table at 1 page many ssd are slower than stock ssd.

Therefore
I 'm buying a barracuda 510
I'll use it with NvmeFix to maximize battery (although I've heard BigSur has better idle control, I'll have to use catalina).

Question: can I reactivate the SIP, once nvmefix is installed or do I have to keep it always disabled for kext to work?
 
Cmd+Q said:
Your system firmware was not updated unfortunately. This is another data point that appears to confirms our suspicion that you have to be on some yet to be determined system firmware version (160.0.0.0 and higher on MacBookPro11,1?) that came with macOS Catalina 10.15.x. To update the system firmware to the minimum version, you will have to use an Apple SSD.
Click to expand...
Absolutely correct! Swapped with Apple SSD, Updated SSD on MBP11,1 to 10.15.7, that got me to 162.0.0.0 (or whatever was current for 10.15.7), then applied 427.0.0.0.0 from Big Sur. Now just waiting to see if Apple will open Big Sur back up for MBP11,1. Thanks for your help to the community!
 
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herb2k said:
Sharing my results on Big Sur vs Catalina

2015 MBP 13" 2.7ghz i5 with 8GB RAM
SSD: Seagate Barracuda 510 500GB (Similar to Sabrent, E12 based), short sintech black adapter.

Big Sur:
- Cannot install Lilu and NVMeFix (Kernel Panics loading Lilu)
- Runtime (reported through activity monitor, full charge): ~9-9.5hrs
- Power Draw (iStats Menus): Min 0.00A SSD / Lowest 0.14A
- System Lowest: ~8W

- Notes: SSD seems to hit the 0.00A point more frequently on Big Sur, with or without the fan running.
- Overnight power loss (Default settings): ~9%

- Actual usage About 8hrs while watching youtube videos and browsing. Lid closed and in standby numerous times


Catalina:
- With Lilu and NVMeFix applied and running
- Runtime (reported through activity monitor, full charge): ~10-10.5hrs
- Power Draw (iStats Menus): Min: 0.00A, Lowest 0.09A
- System Lowest - 6.5W-8W

- Notes: SSD usually only ever reaches 0.00A after a resume, when the fans are not spinning, as soon as the fans spin up, SSD typically between 0.09A - 0.14A and never returns to 0.00A state (this is with NVMeFix installed)
- Overnight power loss (Default settings): 15-30%

- Actual usage About 6 to 8hrs while watching youtube videos and browsing. Lid closed and in standby numerous times.
Click to expand...

if i install Bigsur and after i downgrade to Catalina, Nvmefix will continue to fail because the EFI firmware is now up to date.
am i missing something?

And last question: Apple not use yet APTS or active power state management,
what are they using in BigSur another custom protocol?
 
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Abbbby333 said:
Thanks for the recommendation! Why did you end up going with that one specifically?
Click to expand...
Mostly for price and capacity. I didn't see another one at 2tb. I don't believe the power usage difference between this one and others was enough to get me to change my choice. I needed the capacity, and the warranty supplied. 5 years. I also got a new battery, so that's not an issue any longer either.
 
chrickers said:
Interesting! Because to me it sound far more critical/dangerous to flash a new bootrom than to install a new OS…
Click to expand...
Well, I meant that blocking the macOS Big Sur upgrade in the respin blocks the entire macOS installation (see screenshot below) and wouldn't install anything. And as you know, the system firmware upgrade is typically initiated as part of the macOS installation.
Screen Shot 2020-11-28 at 12.33.49.png

Here is the link to the support documented that I referred to: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211242. This sounded like something during the installation other than a firmware upgrade 'bricked' the MacBooks. Perhaps the adjustment of the disk layout? https://eclecticlight.co/2020/09/16/boot-volume-layout/. Anyway, just speculation on my part.

chrickers said:
My Macbook is on 162.0.0.0.0, which should be the latest version that came with Catalina (so far), right? Since you seem to have a very good overview: What happened to those who weren't successful? 🙈 Does the machine just boot with the old one like nothing happened?
Click to expand...
That's the system firmware version that was installed on my MacBook Pro before I manually upgrading to 427.0.0.0.0. Like me, you should be able to upgrade the system firmware with the third-party SSD installed. In case you had a third-party SSD installed and were running a pre-Catalina system firmware on your MacBook, the system would just restart normally without the system firmware upgrade completing (as shared by others in this thread).

Hope this helps!
 
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Cmd+Q said:
In case you had a third-party SSD installed and were running a pre-Catalina system firmware on your MacBook, the system would just restart normally without the system firmware upgrade completing (as shared by others in this thread).
Click to expand...
I don't think I've run anything newer than High Sierra (nothing newer than Sierra on one) and the firmware update worked on a MBP 11,2 and 11,3 with a 3rd party SSD in the Mac running High Sierra. I started the install to an external SSD and due to the boot preferences not being changed it rebooted back to the internal SSD after doing the firmware update.
 
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mdgm said:
You want to have a new bootrom ideally before putting in a 3rd party SSD. I think for NVMe SSDs as well as having the latest bootrom you also should run at least Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra.
Click to expand...
Got it thank you! Can you tell me specifically the steps to update my Boot Rom Version to 427.0.0.0.0 without having to update the OS.
Currently running Mojave and my BootRom is 117.0.0.0.0.
 
I downloaded Big Sur and when I ran the installer I selected an external SSD to install it to instead of the internal SSD. It rebooted multiple times including doing the firmware update however because the boot preferences were still set to the internal SSD it then rebooted back into my Sierra/High Sierra install. I then deleted the Big Sur installer from the Applications folder.

Worked for me. YMMV. There is another method in the thread involving extracting the firmware from the installer and running Terminal commands but I preferred to keep things as simple as possible.

Edit: Didn't see post 7760. That's an interesting way to do it.
 
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nicolodo said:
In the table at 1 page many ssd are slower than stock ssd.

Therefore
I 'm buying a barracuda 510
I'll use it with NvmeFix to maximize battery (although I've heard BigSur has better idle control, I'll have to use catalina).

Question: can I reactivate the SIP, once nvmefix is installed or do I have to keep it always disabled for kext to work?
Click to expand...
Stock ssd of 2013-2014 model performance is at most 1000/800 Mb/s

almost any good to decent nvme drive in market today will outperform that.

even DRAMless drive will perform better than your stock ssd in most of daily usage scenario
 
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Can someone please confirm that the md5-hash of the new bootrom for the rMBP 13" late 2013 (MBP111.scap) is as follows: 68626f82043bd0f539f293797b4f1058

I had to restart the download of the big sur pkg several times…
 
After repair, with a new motherboard, my mid-2014 15” retina came back with a bootrom revision of 112.xxxx.xxx. I wonder how old that is.

I’ve tried installing Big Sur to an external HD, but no luck getting the Bootrom to budge.

I’ve got an OEM SSD coming from eBay. I hope that works.

Can anyone give me some suggestions in the meantime?
 
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mdgm said:
The OEM Drive should work. I think you would need either an OEM SSD or a bootrom from at least the latest High Sierra one for what worked for me to work.

I think your bootrom could be from 2015: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201518
Click to expand...
Looks like you're correct. My situation is that the display was flaking its anti-glare, it went in for replacement and the repair station determined I needed a new motherboard and the included it under warranty. But ... I've ended up with the very old bootrom, which btw continues to run my Samsung 970 Pro SSD.
 
otosan said:
Stock ssd of 2013-2014 model performance is at most 1000/800 Mb/s

almost any good to decent nvme drive in market today will outperform that.

even DRAMless drive will perform better than your stock ssd in most of daily usage scenario
Click to expand...

can I reactivate the SIP, once nvmefix is installed or do I have to keep it always disabled for kext to work?
 
chrickers said:
Can someone please confirm that the md5-hash of the new bootrom for the rMBP 13" late 2013 (MBP111.scap) is as follows: 68626f82043bd0f539f293797b4f1058
Click to expand...
Despite the different date/time stamps, 68626f82043bd0f539f293797b4f1058 is the MD5 hash of MBP111.scap in the two macOS 11.0.1 Big Sur builds that Apple has released (20B29, 20B50).
 
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nicolodo said:
can I reactivate the SIP, once nvmefix is installed or do I have to keep it always disabled for kext to work?
Click to expand...

You can enable SIP after installing the kext, but if you’re on Mojave or Catalina, the kext will stop working after a couple of days. At least mine does. I have no idea why
 
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Hi everyone ! :) I live in france and I ordered an adaptator on syntec. But it is blocked in Belgium. For how long did you have to wait for yours ?
 
Cambe said:
Hi everyone ! :) I live in france and I ordered an adaptator on syntec. But it is blocked in Belgium. For how long did you have to wait for yours ?
Click to expand...
I bought mine from amazon and it arrived within two days. I remember that it wasn't the cheapest choice (around 25 Euros) but I wanted it fast and there was no other shop that shipped from Europe at that time.
 
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