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

[sfphoto]

Thinking of getting a 2014 or 2015 MBP and installing a 1tb PCie SSD blade which would be non Apple.

Have read the 2013-14 models can/will have sleep issues with a non Apple SSD blade. Should this make me only look for a 2015?

Would like to use in 'clam shell' mode so 13 inch MBP is fine.

 

[Bigwaff]

Have read the 2013-14 models can/will have sleep issues with a non Apple SSD blade. Should this make me only look for a 2015?

I think you are referring to "stand-by mode" kernel panics. Sleep mode is fine. You can disable "stand-by mode" w/out impacting sleep mode.

OWC Knowledge base

Upgrade the RAM and storage of nearly any Apple computer at MacSales.com. We also provide refurbished Macs, external storage, docks, accessories, and more!

eshop.macsales.com

 

[sfphoto]

You can disable "stand-by mode"

Thanks: I read about a command line solution also this: Macs will never go into standby mode if external media like a USB drive or SD card is mounted on the Mac.

 

[sfphoto]

Thinking of getting a 2014 or 2015 MBP

Main difference being different trackpad and longer battery life ??

 

[Bigwaff]

Main difference being different trackpad and longer battery life ??

Longer battery life? These are nearly 10+ year old laptops. I think you would be lucky to get 2 hours out of them... unless you replace the battery.

 

[natus.w]

A question about the purchase in the Sintech shop for the adapter. I have purchased the adapter from this Sintech e-shop but have not received a confirmation email and I don't see an email there that I can contact. Is this normal?

Contact Us

www.eshop.sintech.cn

There’s a form you can fill in here.

 

[Burnincoco]

Longer battery life? These are nearly 10+ year old laptops. I think you would be lucky to get 2 hours out of them... unless you replace the battery.

Then you replace the battery with a 7years-in-storage battery and get 2 hours of battery again

 

[sfphoto]

Thought to install this if needed:

Battery Replacement for MacBook Pro 15-Inch 2013 - 2015

Restore the battery of your late 2013 - mid 2015 MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Upgrade kit includes all tools needed for a safe installation.

eshop.macsales.com

 

[le9508]

1 - I was on Big Sur for a few months after the new SSD went in (official MacOS). No issues. Then I went to Ventura OCLP. No issues for a few months until performing an OCLP Ventura update. Kernel panics started after that and continued with each Ventura OCLP Update. Then I went ahead and downgraded (clean install by wiping SSD) to Montery OCLP. Less kernel panics now, but still plenty.

2.1 - This is what the command line returns after entering that line into the terminal:
"ReadBinaryFromKernel: No matching services found. Either this system is not supported by eficheck, or you need to re-load the kext
IntegrityCheck: couldn't get EFI contents from kext"

2.2 - A screenshot from SilentKnight:

View attachment 2261600

3 - Copied the DriveDX report to pastebin: https://pastebin.com/zRYDmF1M

Looks ok to me.

Much appreciate your help in trying to solve this!

I'm running into similar issues with the kernel panic with a Patriot P300. Did updating the firmware end up fixing things for you?

 

[sfphoto]

I'm running into similar issues with the kernel panic with a Patriot P300. Did updating the firmware end up fixing things for you?

Perhaps try this I found on the web: Macs will never go into standby mode if external media like a USB drive or SD card is mounted on the Mac.

 

[nigelbb]

I am running Sonoma on my 2015 15" MacBook Pro using OCLP. I just had the Apple 2TB Polaris SSD fail so I replaced it with a 2TB WD Blue SN570 plus Sintech adaptor. I am running SsdPmEnabler & it doesn't seem to be running hot or using too much battery. Performance seems very decent. I tried a 4TB Crucial P3 Plus which worked OK but performance was slower on Black Magic Disk Speed Test & I decided to send it back as I didn't really need 4TB. At £93 the WD Blue SN570 is probably the cheapest 2TB SSD around.

 

[nigelbb]

2015 15" MacBook Pro using OCLP with a 2TB WD Blue SN570 plus Sintech adaptor.

 

[Cyberdoc71]

Can not notice a speed boost upgrading to a 1 tb SK Hynix P31 on a 2013 MBP. Benchmarks say its at least twice as fast as far as disk access goes. Probably fact I am running Sonoma 14.2.1. Takes a solid three minutes to load the desktop. Though I wonder do we need to load the nvmefix kext if at all?

Thanks

 

[dogen]

Can not notice a speed boost upgrading to a 1 tb SK Hynix P31 on a 2013 MBP. Benchmarks say its at least twice as fast as far as disk access goes. Probably fact I am running Sonoma 14.2.1. Takes a solid three minutes to load the desktop. Though I wonder do we need to load the nvmefix kext if at all?

Thanks

P31 Gold 1TB in a 2013 MBA running Big Sur here. Benchmarks are far better and file writing seems snappier, but above all I rarely hear the fan spin up, which was a regular occurrence with the original 512GB AHCI SSD.

 

[Minipudding]

Can any user of the WD SN570 confirm if there is today a stable working method to properly enable power-saving to prevent this NVMe model from reducing battery life too much?

Specifically I wonder for 2017 MBA and Monterey.

 

[Minipudding]

7. PNY CS1030 1TB. I didn't find any comments about it here. Pls, comment if you had experience with this one.

I tested PNY CS1030 250GB on my 2017 MBA and it didn't work. YMMV.

If the info is of any value I also tested Kingston NV1 and NV2 on 2017 MBA, and they didn't work either.

 

[nigelbb]

I've just been looking at the temperatures in my 2015 15" MacBook Pro 11,4 in Macs Fan Control. Even when I thrash the SSD with Amorphous Disk Mark or Black Magic Disk Speed Test the temperature of the 2TB WD Blue SN570 never rises above 38C.

 

[le9508]

Perhaps try this I found on the web: Macs will never go into standby mode if external media like a USB drive or SD card is mounted on the Mac.

Update on this: I updated the firmware on my MacBookPro11,3 by installing the latest version of Big Sur on a new partition. Since then, the computer seems to be working properly with the Patriot P300 in Hibernate Mode 3 and I am no longer getting kernel panics!

 

[natus.w]

Can any user of the WD SN570 confirm if there is today a stable working method to properly enable power-saving to prevent this NVMe model from reducing battery life too much?

Specifically I wonder for 2017 MBA and Monterey.

You can try the NVMEFix (controller) and SSDPMEnabler (board socket) kexts, but I cannot say which of the 2 will work with your setup (you can try one or the other and see what your results are..)

 

[Play4clay]

After scrolling through here for couple of weeks, watching youtube videos and very long thinking, I have decided to upgrade the SSD and change Battery on my late 2013 15inch rMBP which is running on High Sierra and also windows via Bootcamp.

I have ordered this items and package arrives in two days.

-SK hynix Gold P31 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen3
-Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD (Long)Adapter
-UGREEN SSD Enclosure
-SNSYIY A1398rMBP battery

So before start I have few questions and appreciate if you shed some light.

First question is which part do you recommend to replace first? Battery or SSD and why?

Regarding SSD upgrade I have read various pages of the thread, mostly start and also finishing part as they seems to be more up to date, hence decided to go with SK Hynix gold.

I've seen in recent upgrade people mostly use disk utility image to clone from hard drive to new ssd but on older videos I saw people use SuperDuper and do back up/restore to clone using that, I know SD is a back up software like TM but don't understand the difference between using DU or SD and which one is preferred.

I also have an external hard drive that I back up my mbp using time machine, which brings up my next question. my last back up using time machine was few month ago and after that I was not been able to back up and back up stops randomly in the middle. I checked my ssd status and it shows failing so not sure it is the reason that TM not backing up or what, but with the failing SSD am I even able to clone at all?

As for bootcamp partition, probably the only/easiest way to clone bootcamp partition is using Winclone, /not cheap and it is very expensive $50 for one time use, so if it makes the process also very complicated, I rather just clone Mac part and then install a fresh windows via bootcamp and install my apps and files manually. my bootcamp partition is only 80gb., however most challenging part of it probably will be the drivers, because I remember it was very time consuming and not straight forward at all, specially the bluetooth.

After I ordered my Sintech adaptor long version, I read people have more luck with short version, shall I go a head and order the short version to be on the safe side or long adaptor just works as good? Thank in advance

 

[nigelbb]

You can try the NVMEFix (controller) and SSDPMEnabler (board socket) kexts, but I cannot say which of the 2 will work with your setup (you can try one or the other and see what your results are..)

I just replaced the failed 2TB Apple Polaris SSD in my 2015 15" MBP with a 2TB WD Blue SN570. I was already using Open Core Legacy Patcher (which contains NVMEFix) to run Sonoma & I added SSDPMEnabler. It's completely stable & the SSD never gets hot. Battery life seems just as good as it was with the Apple Polaris SSD.

 

[macpro_mid2014]

After scrolling through here for couple of weeks, watching youtube videos and very long thinking, I have decided to upgrade the SSD and change Battery on my late 2013 15inch rMBP which is running on High Sierra and also windows via Bootcamp.

First, I would upgrade it to Big Sur and ensure that it is running the latest firmware version.
You can verify that by running SilentKnight SilentKnight 2.7 (Universal App for Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura and Sonoma)

First question is which part do you recommend to replace first? Battery or SSD and why?

In my opinion, it doesn't matter. I would replace battery and SSD altogether, clean the vents, and replace thermal paste. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a clone of your actual disk onto the new SSD using the UGREEN enclosure.
CCC works well on cloning the System Volume on Big Sur and previous macOS...

As for bootcamp partition, probably the only/easiest way to clone bootcamp partition is using Winclone, /not cheap and it is very expensive $50 for one time use, so if it makes the process also very complicated, I rather just clone Mac part and then install a fresh windows via bootcamp and install my apps and files manually. my bootcamp partition is only 80gb., however most challenging part of it probably will be the drivers, because I remember it was very time consuming and not straight forward at all, specially the bluetooth.

When I used bootcamp on my MBP11,2, all drives were automatically installed.

 

[Play4clay]

I would upgrade it to Big Sur and ensure that it is running the latest firmware version

Thanks for your suggestion. I don't have enough (45GB) space to upgrade to Big Sur, I have like 30GB out of 160GB on Macintash HD, and 80GB is bootcamp. I have a 400GB MicroSD, using adaptor which shows as internal in disk Utility. is there anyway to work around it like save Big Sur on MicroSD and install from there on original HD?

When I used bootcamp on my MBP11,2, all drives were automatically installed

When I installed (W7) it was all good, but when I upgrade to W10 bluetooth and WiFi started to act out and it took me a while to sort it out.

replace thermal paste

I was actually advised to leave the original thermal paste, because then I have to replace 3rd party every other year but I am going to replace it anyway, probably it should be very used by now.



What about the sintech adaptor, Do you think long version works as good or better to order the short version to be on the safe side? Thank for all the help.

 

[macpro_mid2014]

What about the sintech adaptor, Do you think long version works as good or better to order the short version to be on the safe side? Thank for all the help.

They are identical in terms of circuitry. The only issue with the long one is whether it fits well in your laptop without forcing the SSD when you close the bottom pane.

Regarding Big Sur installation, download the latest Big Sur (InstallAssistant.pkg), run the pkg to extract the app. then create an install media (createinstallmedia) in your microSD card using the instruction here: https://support.apple.com/en-ae/101578

 

[Play4clay]

Regarding Big Sur installation

Thanks, I finally fixed the issue with TM and backed up, I freed up about 40GB on my HD but when I try to install Big Sur I get this message:

This disk has S.M.A.R.T errors​

I ran First Aid in DU, showed no issue although did not fix the issue. a few search and seems it's a very common problem, does it mean I probably cannot upgrade to Big Sur on my current apple HD? Am I going to run into a lot of driver issue if I upgrade from High sierra to Big Sur after I replaced the NVMe?