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

[edevmon]

Anyone used Patriot or Silicon Power or Timetec SSD?

Silicon Power A80: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/post-29185213
Almost 3 years now, running great.

 

[RustyVenture]

Just to follow up on my earlier post, I went ahead and replaced my old (1st generation) OWC Aura SSD in my late 2013 MBP 15" (macbookpro11,3) with a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB (MZVLB2T0HALB) using a Sintech adapter. The Samsung was manufactured in June 2023 and apparently has the original Phoenix controller (maybe they went back to it after supply issues eased). Its firmware is 2B2QEXM7. So far, no problems running Big Sur as a boot drive.

As you can see if you compare to my previous post, the read/write speeds increased dramatically.

PS: Anyone know if I'll run into problems with this SSD going OpenCore Legacy Patcher to Monterrey or Ventura? Any issues with Bootcamp?

 

[MacintoshPC]

Can someone please help me troubleshoot these kernel panics? They have been happening for the past 6 months. Would be forever grateful!


MacOS version: Montery 12.6.7 (Via Open Core Legacy Patch)

Mac: MacBookPro11,2 (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

Processor: Intel Core i7 2 GHz

Boot ROM Version: 433.140.2.0.0

SSD: Aura Pro X2: 500GB (firmware version: latest comes standard installed) + (no adapter needed)

link to pmset -g output on pastebin.com: https://pastebin.com/x0QuJb9a

link to .panic file(s) on pastebin.com: https://pastebin.com/8Y70zc6C

SSD speeds in BlackMagic benchmark screenshot:

SSD temperatures from istat menu screenshot:

Any steps you have tried already:

#1: Reseat SSD.
#2: Wipe disk and clean install different MacOS.

 

[imacdowell]

Hi. I have a 2013 mbp that's been running great for a few years with a 1TB Sabrent Rocket. I now have a 2015 mbp that I want to upgrade the ssd in. I've seen a few people recommend Samsung 970 Evo as well as Sintech lists this as compatible. But the hack community flags these drives as broken TRIM and not to be used. Is that not the case if you are using the Sintech NGFF connector? Reason I ask is I have a spare 970 EVO but am hesitant to use it as it will be running under Monterey.

SSD hall of fame needs new entries · Issue #192 · dortania/bugtracker

Guide Anti-Hackintosh Buyers Guide (link) After our discovery of a severe bug in the TRIM implementation of practically all Samsung SSDs we spent time investigating which SSDs are affected by all k...

github.com

Also, anyones thoughts on a 1TB Samsung 970 EVO vs 1TB OWC Aura N2? Will the N2 be lower power and less headache than the Samsung, but just slower?

Thanks!

 

[tripmusic]

Silicon Power A80: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/post-29185213
Almost 3 years now, running great.

I think the A80 is using a different controller now.

 

[Act1v1si0n]

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 that I'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.

I have the exact same model (11,3) with the exact same battery (Duracell) with the Sintech Adapter, a WD SN570 SSD and OCLP Monterey. It exhibits the same issues. It often happens when the battery is right around 50%. Applications will start to freeze up and after a while MacOS will freeze up too. I discovered that you can recover from this state by connecting the power adapter. The MacBook will behave fine when remaining connected to power. My theory is that somehow the board and or battery struggles to keep up with the additional ssd power draw...

 

[lowendlinux]

Attached is the AmorphousDiskMark readout which looks better than Blackmagic, but clearly not as good as what you showed me. DriveDX wouldn't run on it and had a note saying S.M.A.R.T on Aura wasn't supported. No idea how to (or if I can) enable trim.

Thanks again for your time and expertise!

Edit: OWC Aura SSD : 2x lanes only, RAID0 of 2x slow controllers, no TRIM, no SMART

I you want to stick to OWC here’s my Aura Pro X2 2tb in a '14 MBA

 

[samiraa78]

i have a macbook air early 2014 i5 with 4gb ram i want to upgrade my hdd i had kingston Pcie4 nvme which did not work from what i have read only PCIE3 nvme are compatible hence i am looking to buy one I am from India and the ones which are available are Crucial P3, WD SN570 both are almost same cost and EVO 870 Plus which cost almost 50 percent more then the above two.

Just checked the firmware version it is 478.0.0.0 so there would be no hibernation issues right ??

I need advice whether it is worth while to upgrade and which HDD is suggested

 

[ItsHal]

i have a macbook air early 2014 i5 with 4gb ram i want to upgrade my hdd i had kingston Pcie4 nvme which did not work from what i have read only PCIE3 nvme are compatible hence i am looking to buy one I am from India and the ones which are available are Crucial P3, WD SN570 both are almost same cost and EVO 870 Plus which cost almost 50 percent more then the above two.

Just checked the firmware version it is 478.0.0.0 so there would be no hibernation issues right ??

I need advice whether it is worth while to upgrade and which HDD is suggested

I use A Macbook Air early 2015 and use A Samsung 980 in works fine no problems.
The WD SN570 has A good working rate so would go with that over the P3

 

[Stefnor]

Hi!
I Recently upgraded an Macbook Pro early 2015 with the long adapter and an WD SN570 NVMe SSD 250 GB.
The computer works, but the Write speed is pretty bad:
I only get around 355 MB/s Write speed, and 1072 MB/s Read speed! A bit low?
Also, the boot is fast to the login screen, but after I enter the password, it shows an progress bar and take some time for the actually desktop to show, like 30-40 sec. Strange?

 

[ItsHal]

Hi!
I Recently upgraded an Macbook Pro early 2015 with the long adapter and an WD SN570 NVMe SSD 250 GB.
The computer works, but the Write speed is pretty bad:
I only get around 355 MB/s Write speed, and 1072 MB/s Read speed! A bit low?
Also, the boot is fast to the login screen, but after I enter the password, it shows an progress bar and take some time for the actually desktop to show, like 30-40 sec. Strange?

My Mid 2014 does the same thing. Long as it gets working I just leave it lol.
But think its down to the 2.0 PCie lans.

 

[mwidjaya]

I use A Macbook Air early 2015 and use A Samsung 980 in works fine no problems.

Supposedly some samsung nvme models have compatibility issues (trim related ??). I have had no issues with 980 on a 2015 retina 13".

I only get around 355 MB/s Write speed, and 1072 MB/s Read speed! A bit low?

Hmnn, that seems wrong.

 

[ItsHal]

Supposedly some samsung nvme models have compatibility issues (trim related ??). I have had no issues with 980 on a 2015 retina 13".

View attachment 2247012

Hmnn, that seems wrong.

My 980 works fine in my 2014 Pro and early 2015 Air.

 

[mwidjaya]

I was getting same sort of speeds with my Adata drive to. I belive it's down to the 2.0 Pcie lans

Yes, the 2015 13" is limited to pcie 2.0 x 4 lanes.

Each lane is 500 MB/s, so upper limit is 2000 MB/s.

If you are only getting 355 MB/s on a 2015 13", something is wrong.

 

[ItsHal]

Yes, the 2015 13" is limited to pcie 2.0 x 4 lanes.

Each lane is 500 MB/s, so upper limit is 2000 MB/s.

If you are only getting 355 MB/s on a 2015 13", something is wrong

Oh sorry I shod of said it better. lol. When I said I had the same sort of thing it was about when they said.
Also, the boot is fast to the login screen, but after I enter the password, it shows an progress bar and take some time for the actually desktop to show, like 30-40 sec. Strange?
Can't remember what the speeds were but was defo more then 355mb think it was around 900.

 

[froublasko]

Yes, Mojave is the last OS to support 32bit apps. I need it for Avid Pro Tools mainly though. I'm stuck on the perpetual version I have and Mojave seems to be the sweet spot for it. But it's also handy to be able to run .exe's in Wine.


What drive are you using?

No complaints so far. Triple booting Monterey, Mojave and Windows 10 with no real issues. Though I think I had Win10 sleeping and the next day it didn't wake, but booted up. Must've shutdown, or I did and forgot. I'll have to pay attention to that. I installed a trackpad driver for Win10 and I've got 3 finger drag now, along with swiping gestures. Not perfect, but better than the Bootcamp driver.

Edit: Yeah, there's definitely something going on with Windows 10. I put it to sleep last night and today I noticed again that it had shut down. Any ideas what might be causing that?

Hi tripmusic,
Thank you for sharing. I have same condition with you, I'm stuck in Mojave that needs some 32bit app to work. After read your posts here, I plan to use WD SN570 2tb (good idea to create multiple boot os ex. including Mojave, Bigsur). I've tried Adata SX8200 Pro but in three months the ssd was died (I have many times kernel panic in Mojave, I do no why).

Any suggest for me before I prepare using the SN570 based on your experience?

Thank you!

 

[tripmusic]

I only get around 355 MB/s Write speed, and 1072 MB/s Read speed! A bit low?

The slow disk speeds might be due to the lower capacity drive? Anything lower than 512GB is going to usually perform worse than a 1GB+ drive.

 

[tripmusic]

Any suggest for me before I prepare using the SN570 based on your experience?

If you're planning to dual boot Mojave and Big Sur, I would just make sure that you create separate Containers to install each OS and not to have both Volumes in one container.

 

[mwidjaya]

The slow disk speeds might be due to the lower capacity drive? Anything lower than 512GB is going to usually perform worse than a 1GB+ drive.

That is a good explanation in some cases but a stock apple ssd of 256GB blows that theory out.

 

[DeltaMac]

If you're planning to dual boot Mojave and Big Sur, I would just make sure that you create separate Containers to install each OS and not to have both Volumes in one container.

What do you believe will happen if a dual boot system shares space in a single container?
I have a drive that I use for system troubleshooting, which has bootable full system installs from Leopard to (currently) Ventura, for a current total of 14 different, full systems on that single drive. The APFS systems from High Sierra to Ventura (6 volumes) are all volumes sharing space in one container. No problems with booting into any system, none of which are patched installs, just native system boots.
I have set up all systems with the same (or equivalent) software setup on each system - same user setup, same background image, etc.
But then, I say that I don't have problems -- but, all are set up for a fairly simple purpose: my own idea about system troubleshooting, to give me an expected consistent result, regardless of the Mac I might be booting.
It's all just an experiment for me, and I really don't know what "danger" lurks in a multiple volume boot that shares space.

 

[samiraa78]

I have been running Istats for the last couple of days and still on the stock SSD which came with my macbook but what i have noticed is that SSD is the hottest component in the system it runs hotter then even the CPU most of the times, I do not know if this is normal or some issue with my system

 

[samiraa78]

So i upgraded to SN570 SSD 512GB i was thinking of 1TB but i would have never used that much space as only us is for office work, i got a cheap connector which works fine only issue i face is when i start the laptop it shows a blank screen for almost 15 seconds before it shows the booting progress bar no clue why also i have found for some reason cpu core temp is shooting to around 90 in light work also

Can anyone help me with a clean iso of bigsur the bootable i have is of opencore install and i dont want to use it as it created lots of issue with pc freezing and then on restart hdd not being detected

 

[ItsHal]

So i upgraded to SN570 SSD 512GB i was thinking of 1TB but i would have never used that much space as only us is for office work, i got a cheap connector which works fine only issue i face is when i start the laptop it shows a blank screen for almost 15 seconds before it shows the booting progress bar no clue why also i have found for some reason cpu core temp is shooting to around 90 in light work also

Can anyone help me with a clean iso of bigsur the bootable i have is of opencore install and i dont want to use it as it created lots of issue with pc freezing and then on restart hdd not being detected

Click here to download Big Sur
Use terminal to create the bootable USB
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

After --volume / you can drag the USB you want to use in to terminal then hit Y when it ask.

Or if you have the new Opencore you can use that to make A USB.

 

[samiraa78]

Click here to download Big Sur
Use terminal to create the bootable USB
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume

After --volume / you can drag the USB you want to use in to terminal then hit Y when it ask.

Or if you have the new Opencore you can use that to make A USB.

Thanks will do as per the instructions. I no longer have opencore i dont know if it was opencore but few days after i installed it i had screen freeze issue and then mac stopped detecting my HDD for few time when i went into recovery and disk util it did not show the hdd but would restart and boot normally and after some time or day again do the same and then after few days no matter what i did it did not detect my HDD only after booting through a usb and then removing opencore patches my hdd was visible

 

[samiraa78]

I have been running Istats for the last couple of days and still on the stock SSD which came with my macbook but what i have noticed is that SSD is the hottest component in the system it runs hotter then even the CPU most of the times, I do not know if this is normal or some issue with my system

So my observation after installing SN570 it runs much cooler compared to the stock hdd temp is around 42 while the stock would go above 50 but strangely cpu temps are shooting up