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Upgrading 2013-2015 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe
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Check to see if the fan is turning, or not...
I have the same 2017 MBAir, with W-D NVME drive and Sintech adapter, although my drive is a 750 black.
It does get pretty warm at times, but I will sometimes crank up the fan to higher speed, just to cool it down when I want to do that. I use smcFanControl, or Macs Fan Control for that purpose.
I will sometimes leave all the screws out on the bottom cover, to make it easy to look at fan, etc.
If your fan is not ever turning, that would be something that you need to fix, ASAP. Reseating the fan power cable might be the fix. The connector for the fan is fun to find, you have to remove the I/O ribbon cable, which is hiding that fan connnector. Here's link to an iFixit.com repair guide for that. There's also a link to purchase a new fan, in case you discover that the fan is dead.
www.ifixit.com
I have the same 2017 MBAir, with W-D NVME drive and Sintech adapter, although my drive is a 750 black.
It does get pretty warm at times, but I will sometimes crank up the fan to higher speed, just to cool it down when I want to do that. I use smcFanControl, or Macs Fan Control for that purpose.
I will sometimes leave all the screws out on the bottom cover, to make it easy to look at fan, etc.
If your fan is not ever turning, that would be something that you need to fix, ASAP. Reseating the fan power cable might be the fix. The connector for the fan is fun to find, you have to remove the I/O ribbon cable, which is hiding that fan connnector. Here's link to an iFixit.com repair guide for that. There's also a link to purchase a new fan, in case you discover that the fan is dead.
MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 Fan Replacement
Use this guide to replace a noisy MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 fan, or simply remove it for cleaning.
www.ifixit.com
Hello,
New to the forums and wanting to check if there's anything more I can do in order to lower power consumption on my MacBook.
So I have a MacBook Pro 15" Mid 2014, 11,2. Installed a new 3rd party battery (my old original battery was in "normal" health, but I found it to discharge faster than usual. Also installed new cooling paste on CPU, and finally got a new 1TB SSD storage. First I got a Samsung 970 Evo +, together with a NVME adapter (https://www.amazon.se/dp/B07PJTFBKL?ref_=pe_24982401_513610551_E_301_dt_1&language=en_GB).
I later found out that the EVO + isn't very power efficient so I bought a WD Blue SN570 after reading some good reviews from users refitting MacBooks with it.
Finally I installed Ventura with OpenCore Legacy Patcher, and SSDpmenabler kext.
Now my question is: I'm getting around 0.1A at idle on my SSD. Should I be contempt with this or is there anything else I should consider? I've read about the Sintech adapter being superior - worth swapping to that? NVMEfix - would it help me at all? Anything else to do in order to spare juice while not using the laptop?
Regards
//
New to the forums and wanting to check if there's anything more I can do in order to lower power consumption on my MacBook.
So I have a MacBook Pro 15" Mid 2014, 11,2. Installed a new 3rd party battery (my old original battery was in "normal" health, but I found it to discharge faster than usual. Also installed new cooling paste on CPU, and finally got a new 1TB SSD storage. First I got a Samsung 970 Evo +, together with a NVME adapter (https://www.amazon.se/dp/B07PJTFBKL?ref_=pe_24982401_513610551_E_301_dt_1&language=en_GB).
I later found out that the EVO + isn't very power efficient so I bought a WD Blue SN570 after reading some good reviews from users refitting MacBooks with it.
Finally I installed Ventura with OpenCore Legacy Patcher, and SSDpmenabler kext.
Now my question is: I'm getting around 0.1A at idle on my SSD. Should I be contempt with this or is there anything else I should consider? I've read about the Sintech adapter being superior - worth swapping to that? NVMEfix - would it help me at all? Anything else to do in order to spare juice while not using the laptop?
Regards
//
I think 0.1A is what you should expect. I also use Ventura 13.2.1+OCLP 0.6.1 with NVMe Power Management set, which never gave me less than 0.17A for the SN550 2TB.
NVMe Power Management does not use SSDpmenabler, but LILO+NVMeFix I presume.
In your case, enable NVMe Power Management in Settings->Misc Settings on OCLP, if still not enabled.
Alright, thanks I’ll check that setting out - I have not seen it before. Very much appreciated!
Dear guys, I am currently using MBA 2015 with an original Apple 128 GB SSD. The drive is running at ~500/800 write/read speed. Will upgrade to 500gb nvme in normal use like office/safari/pdfs be noticable for me? I'm not talking about capacity, because 128 GB is enough.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Mine works well..there are others that are cheaper and probably more power efficient.
I mean rather are there real differences in running/starting applications, loading PDF or text files ?
It's been quite a while, but yeah to me it was noticeable. When I got my first 2015 MBA, it also came with 128gb. I ran that for a very short time. I needed more storage and there was a store somewhat nearby that worked on Macs. I bought a used 512gb Apple drive from them and used that for a year or so and then needed more storage. I discovered this thread back then and went with the ADATA 2TB. I think that was about 5-6 years ago. Still going strong. I did spill wine in that first one and fried it but the SSD survived. I bought another 2015 MBA off FBMP with a 256gb drive and put my 2TB in it.. I mean it's a 2015 MBA 8gb.. It is what it is. An old and slow machine compared to what's out now, but it still works.
Hi! I've a MacBook Pro 15 Late 2013 2,6Ghz 16GB RAM with discrete GPU (11,3 model) and upgraded NVME SSD: Kingston A2000 1Tb (SA2000M81000G) + Sintech adapter. The system (Monterey 12.6.3 installed with OCLP) gets stuck frequently and randomly: mouse wheel starts to spin, system gets not responsive, everything freezes and I've to force turn off the machine. At the reboot this is always the kind of error:
MY NVME ODYSSEY
Just to put more context I explain how I came to this final situation.
In 2020 I decided to upgrade my MBP Late 15 2013 2,0Ghz 8GB RAM with Intel GPU (11,2 which was the base model):
- bought MBP with broken screen and top specs (2,6Ghz 16GB RAM DG) Late 15 2013 motherboard (11,3)
- bought new battery from iFixit (tried 3 batteries and got full refund at the end, I kept the better working one, even if was suddenly dying at low percentages: stay away from iFixit batteries!)
- bought the Kingston A2000 1Tb
- bought this adapter from Amazon
At the time I was using Big Sur and everything seemed to work fine, or at least "fine enough" to work for days without any problems. When Apple released the bootrom with fixed NVMe driver I immediately upgraded to it. In general I felt the SSD fast and reliable, the system super responsive, just throttling a bit too much sometimes, compared with the old one. Sometimes the system was stuck, but was so random that I couldn't say if was related or not with the new SSD: Mac OS in general is stable but not perfect.
In 2022 I decided to upgrade to Monterey using OCLP...and that was a disaster: the MBP was failing to wake up from sleep, random BSOD, kernel panics, frequent cpu throttling... I immediately connected it to upgrading from Big Sur instead of installing Mac OS from scratch. I tried of course SMC/PPRAM reset, and also switching on/off some options in OCLP (Disable Fw throttling, Disable XCPM, disable NVME PM...), and some of them improved a bit the situation. I worked like that for months because I was traveling and I had no time to backup and reinstall the system.
Finally in the end of 2022 I finally formatted the SSD and installed again Monterey with OCLP from scratch, restoring from Time Machine my data: now the system seemed to works a lot better (no more problems waking up from sleep but still slower than with the normal SSD). Sadly still CPU throttling and system randomly stuck with kernel panics (NVMe controller) at the reboot. I was working like that for a while, the MBP was a tickling bomb that very randomly (even days without any problems) could suddenly get start throttling (often watching YT videos) with apps getting stuck one after then other, and finally with the entire Mac OS freezing. I began to think about reluctantly downgrading to Big Sur, but I didn't do it...
...because in the beginning of 2013 one day the Mac was very very slow and I noticed that the battery was completely dead (exactly at 499 cycles...mmm...like it was planned) so I searched for the best 3d party battery option (Apple original battery is too much expensive) and I found this one: Duracell/Nu Power battery. At the moment this is the first decent 3rd party battery I ever found in many years for a MBP: when it reaches 0% it goes to hibernation like it should be. The iFixit batteries were always dying suddenly at around 3% losing all RAM data, I had the same problem in a 2008 MBP with another 3rd party battery, solved only buying the original one. After changing the battery I stopped having throttling problems so I thought "hey maybe it was just the battery!"...I was wrong. Very randomly the mouse wheel starts to spin and the system gets stuck. So the situation improved a bit but was not solved.
At this point, reading in forums/github I started to think thatI've been cursed the NVMe adapter could be the one to cause random issues, or even the SSD itself. I tried several times to clean both (SSD and adapter) and position them very carefully, but nothing changed. So I bought the Sintech adapter directly from their website and when it arrived I clean all contacts and immediately mounted it...wanna laugh? Situation got worst! 🤣 I still cannot explain why. I tried many times but in a matter of minutes the system was getting stuck, so I've got many freezes in a row. It was impossible to work, even just surfing the web. So I went back to the old adapter and situation restored to "more random freezes but still able to work". What to do now? Both adapters are faulty? The SSD is faulty too? How to figure it out?
I decided to make a test: since my partner is still using my old motherboard (11,2) in a MBP that I assembled for her, I switched SSDs (using the Sintech adapter, to get the worst case scenario). This ended up to be very funny (and also very sad): everything works perfectly. Monterey wakes up even faster from sleep on 11,2 than on 11,3! Absurd.
Analysing the possible differences I noticed that, since her MBP was still running with native Big Sur, it had a newer version of the bootrom, so I though "I got you!!!", like in a game when you defeated all enemies and this seems the final boss. So I used her SSD and her Big Sur to upgrade my motherboard as well (11,3 is now on Boot ROM 478.0.0.0.0 / SMC 2.19f12) and...nothing changed. 🤬 So now I'm really running out of ideas: why the hell the Kingston + Sintech works on the 11,2 motherboard and not in the 11,3?!?
I would exclude at this point a Monterey/OCLP problem, an adapter problem and even a SSD problem: they all work fine in the 11,2 MBP (at least until now)! It looks like a 11,3 motherboard problem, which makes me pretty nervous. I've also tried disabling the discrete GPU on the 11,3 to "simulate" the 11,2 hardware situation, switching off "automatic GPU switching", but didn't change anything.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The only "relevant difference" between the 11,2 and 11,3 motherboards is that the 11,2 had power up problems in 2018 (could not charge anymore and the AC adapter was also broken) and I found a technician that had some chips replaced (probably also the SMC). After that it worked well but with some GPU glitches (nothing problematic) and I can hear a soft electric noise when I move things on the screen..."funny" right? It's very funny to me because I'm talking about the 11,2 motherboard, which is the one where the NVMe/Sintech works 100% fine! It was more likely the opposite.
This weird situation made me think that maybe the 11,3 motherboard is starting to feel its age as well and some components are starting to fail. Of course this is just a guess because the motherboard seems working perfectly, better than the 11,2 (no glitches, no weird sounds). I could think that the SSD slot on the 11,3 motherboard has problems but now is running the Apple SSD and everything seems fine. Maybe the Apple SSD requires less power and does not creates problem on the 11,3? No idea.
I feel lost... Why only the 11,3 creates problems with the NVMe? Why freezes get worse with the Sintech adapter? Why the NVME wakes up faster on 11,2 (less CPU and less RAM) than on 11,3?
Now I'm working on the 11,2 with the NVMe/Sintech to see how stable it is. Hoping that somebody can come up with some idea or some test to do...I would like to go back to the 11,3/NVME asap.
MY NVME ODYSSEY
Just to put more context I explain how I came to this final situation.
In 2020 I decided to upgrade my MBP Late 15 2013 2,0Ghz 8GB RAM with Intel GPU (11,2 which was the base model):
- bought MBP with broken screen and top specs (2,6Ghz 16GB RAM DG) Late 15 2013 motherboard (11,3)
- bought new battery from iFixit (tried 3 batteries and got full refund at the end, I kept the better working one, even if was suddenly dying at low percentages: stay away from iFixit batteries!)
- bought the Kingston A2000 1Tb
- bought this adapter from Amazon
At the time I was using Big Sur and everything seemed to work fine, or at least "fine enough" to work for days without any problems. When Apple released the bootrom with fixed NVMe driver I immediately upgraded to it. In general I felt the SSD fast and reliable, the system super responsive, just throttling a bit too much sometimes, compared with the old one. Sometimes the system was stuck, but was so random that I couldn't say if was related or not with the new SSD: Mac OS in general is stable but not perfect.
In 2022 I decided to upgrade to Monterey using OCLP...and that was a disaster: the MBP was failing to wake up from sleep, random BSOD, kernel panics, frequent cpu throttling... I immediately connected it to upgrading from Big Sur instead of installing Mac OS from scratch. I tried of course SMC/PPRAM reset, and also switching on/off some options in OCLP (Disable Fw throttling, Disable XCPM, disable NVME PM...), and some of them improved a bit the situation. I worked like that for months because I was traveling and I had no time to backup and reinstall the system.
Finally in the end of 2022 I finally formatted the SSD and installed again Monterey with OCLP from scratch, restoring from Time Machine my data: now the system seemed to works a lot better (no more problems waking up from sleep but still slower than with the normal SSD). Sadly still CPU throttling and system randomly stuck with kernel panics (NVMe controller) at the reboot. I was working like that for a while, the MBP was a tickling bomb that very randomly (even days without any problems) could suddenly get start throttling (often watching YT videos) with apps getting stuck one after then other, and finally with the entire Mac OS freezing. I began to think about reluctantly downgrading to Big Sur, but I didn't do it...
...because in the beginning of 2013 one day the Mac was very very slow and I noticed that the battery was completely dead (exactly at 499 cycles...mmm...like it was planned) so I searched for the best 3d party battery option (Apple original battery is too much expensive) and I found this one: Duracell/Nu Power battery. At the moment this is the first decent 3rd party battery I ever found in many years for a MBP: when it reaches 0% it goes to hibernation like it should be. The iFixit batteries were always dying suddenly at around 3% losing all RAM data, I had the same problem in a 2008 MBP with another 3rd party battery, solved only buying the original one. After changing the battery I stopped having throttling problems so I thought "hey maybe it was just the battery!"...I was wrong. Very randomly the mouse wheel starts to spin and the system gets stuck. So the situation improved a bit but was not solved.
At this point, reading in forums/github I started to think that
I decided to make a test: since my partner is still using my old motherboard (11,2) in a MBP that I assembled for her, I switched SSDs (using the Sintech adapter, to get the worst case scenario). This ended up to be very funny (and also very sad): everything works perfectly. Monterey wakes up even faster from sleep on 11,2 than on 11,3! Absurd.
Analysing the possible differences I noticed that, since her MBP was still running with native Big Sur, it had a newer version of the bootrom, so I though "I got you!!!", like in a game when you defeated all enemies and this seems the final boss. So I used her SSD and her Big Sur to upgrade my motherboard as well (11,3 is now on Boot ROM 478.0.0.0.0 / SMC 2.19f12) and...nothing changed. 🤬 So now I'm really running out of ideas: why the hell the Kingston + Sintech works on the 11,2 motherboard and not in the 11,3?!?
I would exclude at this point a Monterey/OCLP problem, an adapter problem and even a SSD problem: they all work fine in the 11,2 MBP (at least until now)! It looks like a 11,3 motherboard problem, which makes me pretty nervous. I've also tried disabling the discrete GPU on the 11,3 to "simulate" the 11,2 hardware situation, switching off "automatic GPU switching", but didn't change anything.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The only "relevant difference" between the 11,2 and 11,3 motherboards is that the 11,2 had power up problems in 2018 (could not charge anymore and the AC adapter was also broken) and I found a technician that had some chips replaced (probably also the SMC). After that it worked well but with some GPU glitches (nothing problematic) and I can hear a soft electric noise when I move things on the screen..."funny" right? It's very funny to me because I'm talking about the 11,2 motherboard, which is the one where the NVMe/Sintech works 100% fine! It was more likely the opposite.
This weird situation made me think that maybe the 11,3 motherboard is starting to feel its age as well and some components are starting to fail. Of course this is just a guess because the motherboard seems working perfectly, better than the 11,2 (no glitches, no weird sounds). I could think that the SSD slot on the 11,3 motherboard has problems but now is running the Apple SSD and everything seems fine. Maybe the Apple SSD requires less power and does not creates problem on the 11,3? No idea.
I feel lost... Why only the 11,3 creates problems with the NVMe? Why freezes get worse with the Sintech adapter? Why the NVME wakes up faster on 11,2 (less CPU and less RAM) than on 11,3?
Now I'm working on the 11,2 with the NVMe/Sintech to see how stable it is. Hoping that somebody can come up with some idea or some test to do...I would like to go back to the 11,3/NVME asap.
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Have you considered trying a different SSD?
SSD prices continue to go down. I have seen 1TB PCIe drives for less than $50 US.
I know it is challenging to sort out what is considered good, and what can be a mistake.
I will sometimes buy two different brands, test, return the one that I did not like. I do that so I can decide on a personal level which storage choice might be best for me. I also know that is not a tactic that everyone would be comfortable using. But, works for me.
Hello everyone!
Been running a mid 2014 15" mbp with the original apple SSD since 2017.
I'm using still high sierra since I use CUDA. Boot ROM 162.0.0.0.0
However, since installing istat I noticed that the ssd never sleeps. It always consumes 0.25A or more.
How could I test / make it sleep again?
Been running a mid 2014 15" mbp with the original apple SSD since 2017.
I'm using still high sierra since I use CUDA. Boot ROM 162.0.0.0.0
However, since installing istat I noticed that the ssd never sleeps. It always consumes 0.25A or more.
How could I test / make it sleep again?
That's the only thing remained to do...sadly I cannot give back mine anymore since I bought it 2 years ago.
I was checking these options:
WD_BLUE SN570 1TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 NVMe up to 3500 MB/s read speed (in recent posts many people mention this one)
Crucial P2 1TB, SSD Interno, fino a 2400MB/s 3D NAND NVMe PCIe, M.2 CT1000P2SSD8
The Crucial P3 is very attractive but I read people saying it doesn't work because is a gen4...but on my store I found also a gen3 version, is that bad as well?
Crucial P3 1TB PCIe 3.0 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD, Fino a 3500MB/s - CT1000P3SSD8
Do you have any advice?
Crucial has a P3, and a P3 Plus.
Crucial P3 is a PCIe Gen 3. The Crucial P3 Plus is a newer version, and is a Gen 4.
Crucial P3 is a PCIe Gen 3. The Crucial P3 Plus is a newer version, and is a Gen 4.
Curious..
Lots of folks using the SK hynix Gold P31 line?
Seems to be great pricing on them
My Hackintosh runs great on an SN750, but those are hard to come by "new" anymore, and overpriced for what they are at this point in time.
I got a hold of a 2015 15" MBP for free (family member) and I think I'm going to replace the included 512SSD, as these speeds aren't very exciting to me
Lots of folks using the SK hynix Gold P31 line?
Seems to be great pricing on them
My Hackintosh runs great on an SN750, but those are hard to come by "new" anymore, and overpriced for what they are at this point in time.
I got a hold of a 2015 15" MBP for free (family member) and I think I'm going to replace the included 512SSD, as these speeds aren't very exciting to me
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Confused with some comments, more success stories with Gen3. any success with Gen4 for anyone?
Thanks for the clarification!
Yep, I'm confused as well. Anyway it seems that the WD BLUE SN570 is a better choice (TLC vs QLC in the P3): just ordered one. Let's see... 🤞
The 2TB SK Hynix P31 Gold is only $108 on Amazon right now.
Limited-time deal: SK hynix Gold P31 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen3 M.2 2280 Internal SSD, Up to 3500MB/S, Compact M.2 SSD Form Factor SSD - Internal Solid State Drive with 128-Layer NAND Flash https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099RHVB42?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_dp_85FHE8BHPC7HYASHA0WV
Incredible pricing.
These are the absolute best drives in terms of value and power consumption
Limited-time deal: SK hynix Gold P31 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen3 M.2 2280 Internal SSD, Up to 3500MB/S, Compact M.2 SSD Form Factor SSD - Internal Solid State Drive with 128-Layer NAND Flash https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099RHVB42?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_dp_85FHE8BHPC7HYASHA0WV
Incredible pricing.
These are the absolute best drives in terms of value and power consumption
Has anyone tried the Innovation IT Performance+ 2TB yet? It has a Silicon Motion SM2262EN controller and very high IOPS (which is what I am looking for).
I can't really tell about the black one on the left - i used to get hand on some of similar one (NVME mark on black board) but never found issues. But you might want to avoid any green color adapters (doesn't matter whether it's NFHK, BZHS, etc), those normally manufactured years ago. Plenty of panic and sudden ssd death report happened with those old adapters.
SM2262EN normally works great (with slightly higher power consumption tho), if i recall correctly it was used on the old legendary ADATA SX8200 Pro - before ADATA start swapping controller without giving any notification to potential customers. Well, most of SM controller work great with macbook to be honest.