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

[polanskiman]

Yes the link width is not normal, you should have x4 instead of x2. With x2 your speed obviously will halving.

to diagnose, you gonna need either another adapter or another ssd. If any ssd and adapter still throwing x2 link speed, then it's your board.

It's not the board. Yesterday when I popped in my Apple SSD and did a speed test, write speeds were around 1400MB/s. I didn't check the link width but at those speeds I suppose it's x4.

I'll test with the new adapter I ordered from Sintech once it reaches me. Hopefully that solves the speed issue as well as the panic issue.

 

[macpro_mid2014]

So A lot has changed on this, I really enjoy this group. I have a 2010 Mac Pro build that solved this issue for me. I need help with the Wireless and BT set up BTW, but fist, on the OCT '22 update in Monterey Apple installed a KEXT that does NOT play well with our adapter. In sleep as I am guessing the RAM is reorganizing, there is a kernel panic and shuts down the Mac mini. APPLE needs to fix this. Why would they? It's a kernel issue and it's clear the adapter, not the M2 NVMe age, size etc. that throws the code.

Anyone point me to Mac Pro 2010 BT airdrop and wireless support?

You could ask here: OpenCore Patcher Paradise Discord!

 

[KoG506]

Did you check the documentation about having OCLP + Windows 10 EFI simultaneously?

Installing Windows in UEFI Mode | OpenCore Legacy Patcher

and

I tried this and still have the same exact problem :/

 

[Pyro-Bass]

Are there updates on newer SSD?

Black Friday offers good prices for 2TB versions of
- 970 Evo Plus
- WD Black SN770
- WD Blue SN570
- SanDisk Pro
- Crucial P3/P5
- Kingston NV2

I have a A1502 with Monterey and want to try the SN570.

Some pages ago I read that Someone got it to work without issues.

Will keep you updated.

 

[KoG506]

Also, I have the mid-2014 rmbp 13" w/ intel 660p 512gb. The ssd speed I'm getting is around 800MBs write and 1000MBs read according to Blackmagic disk speed test. Am I missing something? I thought the mid-2014 speed caps around 1500MBs for write?

 

[macpro_mid2014]

Also, I have the mid-2014 rmbp 13" w/ intel 660p 512gb. The ssd speed I'm getting is around 800MBs write and 1000MBs read according to Blackmagic disk speed test. Am I missing something? I thought the mid-2014 speed caps around 1500MBs for write?

The maximum read/write speeds are around 1500 MBps for your model.

The Intel 660p is based on QLC, which can bring the read/write benchmarking speeds down and for the 512 GB these speeds are even worse than the speeds for the 1 and 2 TB versions.

In the Link below, there is a review of the 2TB version, but a comparative table with speeds:

Intel SSD 660p 1TB Review: QLC Goes Mainstream

Intel's SSD 660p marks the debut of QLC flash for the consumer market. We review the new flash brings SATA-like pricing to the NVMe segment.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[otosan]

Also, I have the mid-2014 rmbp 13" w/ intel 660p 512gb. The ssd speed I'm getting is around 800MBs write and 1000MBs read according to Blackmagic disk speed test. Am I missing something? I thought the mid-2014 speed caps around 1500MBs for write?

1500 cap is with an assumption of all your bandwith went to the ssd and the ssd itself has plenty of remaining space.

Both of those conditions rarely happen. In most cases, write will be around 1100-1200

800 is low, but then we need to know, how many space left in your ssd, also 660p is QLC (early gen at that) like mentioned in comment above, so, not really a stellar performer.

But again, 1500 is a number that most likely won't be achieved in any daily usage condition.

 

[otosan]

I tried this and still have the same exact problem :/

One of the way to do it is by installing Bootcamp before you install OCLP, so you can boot Windows from stock bootloader, and boot your newer unofficial macOS from OCLP

 

[KoG506]

The maximum read/write speeds are around 1500 MBps for your model.

The Intel 660p is based on QLC, which can bring the read/write benchmarking speeds down and for the 512 GB these speeds are even worse than the speeds for the 1 and 2 TB versions.

In the Link below, there is a review of the 2TB version, but a comparative table with speeds:

Intel SSD 660p 1TB Review: QLC Goes Mainstream

Intel's SSD 660p marks the debut of QLC flash for the consumer market. We review the new flash brings SATA-like pricing to the NVMe segment.

www.tomshardware.com

1500 cap is with an assumption of all your bandwith went to the ssd and the ssd itself has plenty of remaining space.

Both of those conditions rarely happen. In most cases, write will be around 1100-1200

800 is low, but then we need to know, how many space left in your ssd, also 660p is QLC (early gen at that) like mentioned in comment above, so, not really a stellar performer.

But again, 1500 is a number that most likely won't be achieved in any daily usage condition.

I currently have 468GB free space out of 512GB. Also was a fresh install of maverick OS then upgraded to Ventura via OPLP.

One of the way to do it is by installing Bootcamp before you install OCLP, so you can boot Windows from stock bootloader, and boot your newer unofficial macOS from OCLP

I will try this today!

EDIT: I did an internet Recovery fresh install of Big Sur. Used boot camp assistant, dedicated 100GB for windows, it auto rebooted and loaded into the windows install menu, no drives were available to select when it asked me where I want to install. I think I’ll just give up lol hate being defeated but I spend way too much time trying to get bootcamp/windows to install. I’m thinking it has something to do with the Intel 660p SSD

 

[otosan]

I currently have 468GB free space out of 512GB. Also was a fresh install of maverick OS then upgraded to Ventura via OPLP.


I will try this today!

EDIT: I did an internet Recovery fresh install of Big Sur. Used boot camp assistant, dedicated 100GB for windows, it auto rebooted and loaded into the windows install menu, no drives were available to select when it asked me where I want to install. I think I’ll just give up lol hate being defeated but I spend way too much time trying to get bootcamp/windows to install. I’m thinking it has something to do with the Intel 660p SSD

Which Win 10 ISO version did you use btw ? I found Win10_21H1 to be the safest-zero installation issue.

 

[iMacUser2007]

Hey guys,

so I wasn't able to read all the pages, but from what I read I didn't find any solution. This is the situation:

1. About a year ago I installed the Crucial P2 with the short Sintech adapter in a friend's MacBook Air 2014 running Catalina (Boot Rom: 474.0.0.0.0)
2. Now, after upgrading to Big Sur (I'm not sure if this is a coincidence), the Mac randomly freezes, reboots and shows the circle with a line or the question mark. After a few more reboots it starts up fine and everything's up and running again.

Now the Mac is barely usable for any productive workflows as my friend's scared of losing the data. What can I do? Is there anything else I can do apart from

1. Checking if the adapter and the SSD is still in place and there's no physical problem regarding the connection?
2. Upgrading the P2 Firmware from P2CR031 to P2CR033
3. Checking the SSD with Drive Dx for any failures
4. Should I disable hibernation?

Any other ideas? Is this a known issue? Thanks in advance!

 

[khgkjahsf234985]

Anyone else having problems since updating to 12.6.1? I'm on a 2015 15" MBP with a Sabrent Rocket. Had Ssdpmenabler and Lilu/NVMefix running fine up until the update, now I can only get Ssdpmenabler re-installed and running, attempting to install Lilu causes immediate kernel panic upon and (more worringly) a bizarre refusal to boot into Recovery with the blocked symbol (filesystem error?). If I go to option-boot first, I'm able to get into recovery and rm -rf Lilu from /Library/Extensions, and reboot successfully.

Any advice would be great. I'm able to bottom out at 0.1A with just Ssdpmenabler but NVMefix drops it even further, to the point where iStat just says 0.0A.

 

[otosan]

Anyone else having problems since updating to 12.6.1? I'm on a 2015 15" MBP with a Sabrent Rocket. Had Ssdpmenabler and Lilu/NVMefix running fine up until the update, now I can only get Ssdpmenabler re-installed and running, attempting to install Lilu causes immediate kernel panic upon and (more worringly) a bizarre refusal to boot into Recovery with the blocked symbol (filesystem error?). If I go to option-boot first, I'm able to get into recovery and rm -rf Lilu from /Library/Extensions, and reboot successfully.

Any advice would be great. I'm able to bottom out at 0.1A with just Ssdpmenabler but NVMefix drops it even further, to the point where iStat just says 0.0A.

You need "keepsyms=1" set in nvram boot-args to use Lilu, and those value sometimes reset upon update.

 

[polanskiman]

Try to resettle the drive: remove the adapter+ssd and put it back. I used to have this type of error on my wife's MBA Early 2015 and resettling the SSD solved the problem.



Your Mid 2015 MBP 15' should have:
Link Width: x4
Link Speed: 8.0 GT/s
(About this Mac -> Hardware -> NVMExpress).
Which should provide around 2.3 MB/s read and write.
Maybe, after resettling the SSD, the speeds will go to normal.

I haven't received the new adapter yet but something odd is happening. For the past 2-3 days I have been monitoring the Link Width and it sometimes swtiches to x4. I refreshed the System Report page several times to make sure it was stable then did some read/write test speed. Strangely the speed was the same as before. No improvement on the write side despite the Link Width being x4. However read speed seems to have increased.

 

[KoG506]

Which Win 10 ISO version did you use btw ? I found Win10_21H1 to be the safest-zero installation issue.

The newest available directly from Microsoft, I think it was Win10_22H2. I just tried 21H1 and still have the same problem. I found a way to run windows via parallels desktop but it's a bit laggy having macOS and windows running at the same time. I mainly want windows on bootcamp is to play Left 4 Dead 2.

 

[Pyro-Bass]

Are there updates on newer SSD?

Black Friday offers good prices for 2TB versions of
- 970 Evo Plus
- WD Black SN770
- WD Blue SN570
- SanDisk Pro
- Crucial P3/P5
- Kingston NV2

I have a A1502 with Monterey and want to try the SN570.

Some pages ago I read that Someone got it to work without issues.

Will keep you updated.

OK. I've purchased a WD Blue SN570 2TB and was able to bring it in with the short Sintech adapter.

Old Apple 250GB SSD:

New SN570 2TB SSD:

It's not much faster but I guess this is the limit of the interface on the 2015 13" MBP.
I guess the results are quite OK?

 

[trifero]

Are you sure the first results are from the original Apple drive?

 

[Pyro-Bass]

Are you sure the first results are from the original Apple drive?

Of course. I made the tests and changed the SSD myself.

Are the results bad or why you think it’s not the original Apple SSD?

 

[trifero]

Of course. I made the tests and changed the SSD myself.

Are the results bad or why you think it’s not the original Apple SSD?

My original Apple drive in my Macbook Pro 2015 was much slower.

 

[xboxbml]

OK. I've purchased a WD Blue SN570 2TB and was able to bring it in with the short Sintech adapter.

Old Apple 250GB SSD:
View attachment 2117776

New SN570 2TB SSD:
View attachment 2117779 View attachment 2117780
View attachment 2117797
It's not much faster but I guess this is the limit of the interface on the 2015 13" MBP.
I guess the results are quite OK?

Not much better...but look at the space you have now.. for me that's the most important thing..

 

[Pyro-Bass]

Not much better...but look at the space you have now.. for me that's the most important thing..

Absolutely. I bought the MBP used for 380€ to process RAW pictures in LR/PS on tour and on vacation. Something light that doesn’t fill much space in a camera backpack. And I don’t want to carry around external HDDs either.
So it’s a good fit for my purpose.

 

[weckart]

Hey guys,
About a year ago I installed the Crucial P2 with the short Sintech adapter in a friend's MacBook Air 2014 running Catalina (Boot Rom: 474.0.0.0...
...Now the Mac is barely usable for any productive workflows as my friend's scared of losing the data. What can I do?
Any other ideas? Is this a known issue? Thanks in advance!

Your friend is scared of losing his data but hasn't got a full backup? That would be the first step.

I haven't got any experience of the P2 but have read a couple of anecdotes recently about it. In short, it's a QLC drive and doesn't have great endurance. Someone complained that his died well before the TBW had been reached. YMMV as ever.

You might have got some OS corruption on updates. I would first get that backup sorted. Two if possible, if you think that drive is going to get ditched.

DriveDx has a trial period. You should check the drive to see if it does have hardware issues. Firmware updates aren't a panacea. If the drive doesn't have a known showstopper bug on a particular firmware revision, then updating it is unlikely to make a huge amount of difference. Those are usually for small tweaks to garbage collection etc. You did say the drive had been working fine up until Big Sur, so it seems more likely to be a software issue.

You can try installing a combo update on your drive then and see if that fixes the problem. It isn't unknown for something to go wrong on delta updates and this could be the easiest fix. Otherwise, get those backups done, preferably cloning your drive to an external drive and checking that you can boot from that drive. Once done, wipe your internal drive, install Big Sur cleanly and migrate your apps and data back. It's a pain and a chore to do but better than fretting over an unreliable MacBook Air.

 

[xboxbml]

Absolutely. I bought the MBP used for 380€ to process RAW pictures in LR/PS on tour and on vacation. Something light that doesn’t fill much space in a camera backpack. And I don’t want to carry around external HDDs either.
So it’s a good fit for my purpose.

Right. I don't edit pics or vids, so this MBA with ADATA 2TB/sm Sintech adapter is great. I consulted this forum when making my decision to upgrade storage a few years ago. Web browsing/email/entertainment/photolibrary is about all I do on it. I bought this 2015 MBA 8gb for 400$US about 4-5 years ago. I wanted all my personal pics and vids onboard and all my purchased movies and music. It's great for traveling and still having something to watch/listen, even just around the house or at work. It runs Office well enough for my use, which isn't much on this. I've still got 1.2tb free space. Just wish Ventura was officially supported on this MBA. I'm sure it would work fine on it. I'm sure this has a few more years of life in it.

 

[MowgliWolf]

Thought I’d toss my two cents in here. I’ve got a MacBook Pro, late 2015 DG, 2.5Ghz with a Gigabyte 1TB (GSM2ME3100TNTD) and Monterey 12.6. Worked like a dream on Big Sur 20 odd seconds to boot but Monterey is around 3 minutes.

Can any of you lovely people help me shed some light on this? I’m sure I can provide required info etc

After a lot of frustration I got a Samsung 970 Evo Plus, latest firmware etc and it solved the issue but also have a performance boost

 

[trifero]

After a lot of frustration I got a Samsung 970 Evo Plus, latest firmware etc and it solved the issue but also have a performance boost

Never had a single problem with my Evo Plus in the Mac pro 5,1. They work like a charm. Good choice.