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

[nicolodo]

You asked ‘what is OpenCore legacy NVME’



There are likely other parameters within EFI that control this. I do not have any info on these as I am not a firmware engineer..


The official Apple drives made when these machines were new (SSPOLARIS) were likely made before any of this APST or anything else came into mainstream..

Given manufacturers often change drive specs without warnings I suspect a custom model reliant one a consistent component source is likely to be best in terms of consistent performance..

Yeah you are right but you miss one point.
Natively this Mac mount an ahci driver not nvme, so I think that nvme driver were developed indipendent from the pcie blade install on MacBook ‘15.
At this point I don’t understand why if you have devoloped a nvme driver and you lost time and energy to do it, it not work correctly. For me this is a bug in the nvme driver project by apple. Not a intentional thing, and this is so weird because the implementation of nvme is open source. They could make a simil copy paste of the drivers that Linux use.
This is a simplification, sure, but maybe there is something that I miss

 

[0134168]

Deleted

 

[natus.w]

Yeah you are right but you miss one point.
Natively this Mac mount an ahci driver not nvme, so I think that nvme driver were developed indipendent from the pcie blade install on MacBook ‘15.
At this point I don’t understand why if you have devoloped a nvme driver and you lost time and energy to do it, it not work correctly. For me this is a bug in the nvme driver project by apple. Not a intentional thing, and this is so weird because the implementation of nvme is open source. They could make a simil copy paste of the drivers that Linux use.
This is a simplification, sure, but maybe there is something that I miss

There is no ‘bug’; the support is present on all 2015 MBP models; both 13” and 15”; same goes with desktop models (however it is not in use as it will depend on what type of drive is in the machine..)

Apple Proprietary SSDs: Ultimate Guide to Specs & Upgrades | BeetsBlog

Apple’s SSDs are confusing. Are they M.2 drives? What connector do they use? AHCI or NVMe? What drive can I use to upgrade? We have answers. We’ll tell which SSDs work in which MacBook Pros, iMacs, Mac minis and more.

beetstech.com

 

[Andy1248]

I thought that I would try a cheaper option, the Fanxiang S500, 256gb. It was only £24 on Amazon so not a big risk. It did not work, visible when in a USB adapter but not internal in a Macbook Air 2013.

 

[nicolodo]

There is no ‘bug’; the support is present on all 2015 MBP models; both 13” and 15”; same goes with desktop models (however it is not in use as it will depend on what type of drive is in the machine..)

Apple Proprietary SSDs: Ultimate Guide to Specs & Upgrades | BeetsBlog

Apple’s SSDs are confusing. Are they M.2 drives? What connector do they use? AHCI or NVMe? What drive can I use to upgrade? We have answers. We’ll tell which SSDs work in which MacBook Pros, iMacs, Mac minis and more.

beetstech.com

If it's not a bug what do you call the power management management that drain battery in hybernate.

 

[natus.w]

If it's not a bug what do you call the power management management that drain battery in hybernate.

Controller on NVME or socket does not support lower power mode state (I do not know how exactly the EFI functions or the third party drives differ their power management from the stock Polaris units; feel free to dump and compare them if you care..)

 

[nicolodo]

Controller on NVME or socket does not support lower power mode state (I do not know how exactly the EFI functions or the third party drives differ their power management from the stock Polaris units; feel free to dump and compare them if you care..)

So, as I'm trying to explain (sorry for my not perfect English) the problem is that Apple has never implemented the standard nvme drivers which allow perfect battery management with APTS.
Even with Big Sur we don't have energy management as good as the old pre-installed SSDs blades or the NVMEs current in laptops.
This is a very wierd choice, in my opinion, that I don't understand.
The nvme interfaces are open to developers, it is not a proprietary technology, why not use it? Why develop a proprietary standard that not work great like the official standard. If they don't want us to swap with nvme ssd they don't give us nvme support on bootroom.
I keep thinking maybe I'm missing the point...

 

[natus.w]

So, as I'm trying to explain (sorry for my not perfect English) the problem is that Apple has never implemented the standard nvme drivers which allow perfect battery management with APTS.
Even with Big Sur we don't have energy management as good as the old pre-installed SSDs blades or the NVMEs current in laptops.
This is a very wierd choice, in my opinion, that I don't understand.
The nvme interfaces are open to developers, it is not a proprietary technology, why not use it? Why develop a proprietary standard that not work great like the official standard.

Even then with the official standard it appears some NVME protocols do not work perfectly for some cases.

So despite being an open standard with a given set of technologies there is still input needed from OEM/SI to get it to work seamlessly with their own proprietary components (Apple is not alone in this..)

If they don't want us to swap with nvme ssd they don't give us nvme support on bootroom.

Which isn’t true as the option is there (if it was it wouldn’t be there otherwise..)

I keep thinking maybe I'm missing the point...

Maybe you are, given a good deal of this is likely still under NDA you may never get your answers in full..

 

[nicolodo]

Even then with the official standard it appears some NVME protocols do not work perfectly for some cases.

So despite being an open standard with a given set of technologies there is still input needed from OEM/SI to get it to work seamlessly with their own proprietary components (Apple is not alone in this..)

Which isn’t true as the option is there (if it was it wouldn’t be there otherwise..)

Maybe you are, given a good deal of this is likely still under NDA you may never get your answers in full..

Therefore the apple's ssd original is a ahci not a nvme. So I've always been curious to know if the standard AHCI SSDs also had battery management problems. But it is now a dead standard and will remain a mystery.

Anyway, back to the main point : With Montery i read different opinion, do you have problem in hybern state with nvme blades of third party or it works great like other in this forum say ?

( Sorry for the long question about nvme driver but i must understand the question before operate )

 

[natus.w]

Therefore the apple's ssd original is a ahci not a nvme. So I've always been curious to know if the standard AHCI SSDs also had battery management problems. But it is now a dead standard and will remain a mystery.

Anyway, back to the main point : With Montery i read different opinion, do you have problem in hybern state with nvme blades of third party or it works great like other in this forum say ?

( Sorry for the long question about nvme driver but i must understand the question before operate )

Unfortunately I do not have an A1502 of that MY to test on available to me so I cannot say whether it works well or not (I believe that is the machine you’re looking for?…)

I have tested it on an A1466, I believe it worked fine (but I mainly use this machine with OCLP Sonoma so cannot fully test at the moment..)

With all of that and the variability between NVME SKU hardware there is no other route other than to test it yourself (I cannot determine what is now available in your local area, nor the hardware condition of your machine..)

 

[will_oz]

Hi guys,

New situation I haven’t found previously in the thread…

I have a mid 2014 13 inch MacBook Pro Retina. The hard drive died so I put in a Crucial P3 using the Sintech adapter. Used USB installer, now have Mojave running fine except for one thing:

When I try to download a file bigger than 2GB it stops downloading and eventually fails right around the 2GB size.

This happens in Firefox and Safari. It also happens in Windows (boot camp).

In Disk Utilities it says it’s APFS. Is this right, or was I meant to format the disk to a different format?

Any other things I could try? Thanks!

 

[xboxbml]

Hey all! Last Sunday I bought a mid 2015 15" MBP 16gb i7 512gb and it's PRISTINE! First thing I did was another wipe/reload on the original SSD. 2nd thing I installed the 2TB SK Hynix P31 Gold. Didn't even need a firmware update! Mac saw it when booting from Monterey installer, erased and formatted the drive. It's currently running Monterey 12.7.6 and NO issues so far. I was going to go with the 2TB ADATASX8200Pro like I've had in my 2015 MBA for 4 years but they don't seem to be available anymore. I could only find the 1TB or under. I have to have 2TB, so I went on this one as everyone seemed to be raving on the power performance it offers. I think the speed numbers are good. I didn't think to check them on the original first cuz I was too excited about installing this drive..

 

[natus.w]

Hi guys,

New situation I haven’t found previously in the thread…

I have a mid 2014 13 inch MacBook Pro Retina. The hard drive died so I put in a Crucial P3 using the Sintech adapter. Used USB installer, now have Mojave running fine except for one thing:

When I try to download a file bigger than 2GB it stops downloading and eventually fails right around the 2GB size.

This happens in Firefox and Safari. It also happens in Windows (boot camp).

In Disk Utilities it says it’s APFS. Is this right, or was I meant to format the disk to a different format?

Any other things I could try? Thanks!

APFS should be correct for that install and that drive (no other setup you can do otherwise for an SSD..)

What exactly happens when the downloads drop out? (if it is replicable across all browsers and multiple OS versions I would also start probing internet connection in addition to monitoring system stats, there could be another issue at play here..)

 

[will_oz]

Hi natus, thanks for your reply.

The downloads just hang. Still says it's downloading, but nothing happens, it just gets stuck soon after 2GB. This current test happened at 2.22GB of a 2.5GB file. Eventually, after about five minutes of no new data, the browser updates the file download to 'failed'.

Happens on both firefox and safari (only browsers on mac I've checked), and was happening on firefox and chrome in windows. Tried downloading different files from different servers - same result. Internet connection is fine for streaming etc. Plenty of room on the hard disk.

If anyone has any ideas at all I'd love to hear them.

Edit: what do you mean by monitoring system stats?

 

[natus.w]

Edit: what do you mean by monitoring system stats?

What does disk activity/internet activity/other resource usage look like when the download fails? (this is to solely eliminate other factors before buying a new disk..)

 

[will_oz]

CPU and memory are fine. Data received/sec and data written/sec go along with the download speed (about 11MB) until all of a sudden at about 2-2.1GB into the download they drop to zero, then hover around there (up to about 270KB).

I've been able to sync files bigger than 2GB using sync.com (like dropbox) and also transferring from USB. Just can't download from the web.

 

[natus.w]

CPU and memory are fine. Data received/sec and data written/sec go along with the download speed (about 11MB) until all of a sudden at about 2-2.1GB into the download they drop to zero, then hover around there (up to about 270KB).

I've been able to sync files bigger than 2GB using sync.com (like dropbox) and also transferring from USB. Just can't download from the web.

Very unusual, so the download speed drops alongside the write to disk speed?

Smaller downloads work as well? (under 2GB works OK?)

Since you do not have another NVME to test I’d be looking at updating to Big Sur (can install on external partition or another USB; if your firmware is not updated I’d do that sooner given there were some known issues with that era of machine and NVME support..)

Updating the firmware from Micron/Crucial may also be worth looking into (the box should have info into what came into the drive, you can check this against Storage Executive’s stats and update if needed..

 

[will_oz]

Very unusual, so the download speed drops alongside the write to disk speed?

Yep.

Smaller downloads work as well? (under 2GB works OK?)

Yep.

Since you do not have another NVME to test I’d be looking at updating to Big Sur (can install on external partition or another USB; if your firmware is not updated I’d do that sooner given there were some known issues with that era of machine and NVME support..)

Updating the firmware from Micron/Crucial may also be worth looking into (the box should have info into what came into the drive, you can check this against Storage Executive’s stats and update if needed..

OK, cool, I'll do these. It's good to have a plan!

 

[xboxbml]

Yep.

Yep.

OK, cool, I'll do these. It's good to have a plan!

Just make sure all your apps you use are compatible.. I believe Mojave was the last macOS to support 32bit apps.. If you use a critical 32bit app that has no 64bit replacement, you might have an issue there.

 

[zano2k5]

@natus.w

I was looking at SN770 due to the price but problem, but I wonder if opencore fix the issues such as speed read and write and compatibility with all M.2 NVME


I notice every say SN hynix p31 gold
Most Samsung, isn't good

Just ordered the Sintech adapter "short"

as u mention SsdPmEnabler which, fix the issue for old macbook pro "2014 mid"

wanna upgrade to 2tb
I'm a tech but u have more experience on what is going now, started researching since nite before I made the purchase luckily I did lol

excuse my grammar just got in from work and I'm tired.

What would u recommend?, for price, speed, and compatibility.

 

[natus.w]

@natus.w

I was looking at SN770 due to the price but problem, but I wonder if opencore fix the issues such as speed read and write and compatibility with all M.2 NVME

It may partially help but it is not a full 100% fix (it depends on the config of SSD and your machine)

I notice every say SN hynix p31 gold
Most Samsung, isn't good

The issue reported was prevalent among Hackintosh machines, but I cannot confirm that this is the case on natively supported machines (even then power consumption stays fairly high so not worth considering if you’re prioritising efficiency)

as u mention SsdPmEnabler which, fix the issue for old macbook pro "2014 mid"

It may or may not help (some drives may run fine without it, some may need it; it controls a separate parameter)

What would u recommend?, for price, speed, and compatibility.

I can’t tell without determining what other options are available (the SN770 is a good proven option but you may be able to find something equally as good for less..)

 

[zano2k5]

It may partially help but it is not a full 100% fix (it depends on the config of SSD and your machine)

The issue reported was prevalent among Hackintosh machines, but I cannot confirm that this is the case on natively supported machines (even then power consumption stays fairly high so not worth considering if you’re prioritising efficiency)

It may or may not help (some drives may run fine without it, some may need it; it controls a separate parameter)

I can’t tell without determining what other options are available (the SN770 is a good proven option but you may be able to find something equally as good for less..)

i'm using a macbook pro A1398 MID 2014, what NVME SSD should i buy? in your views

 

[natus.w]

i'm using a macbook pro A1398 MID 2014, what NVME SSD should i buy? in your views

So far I’ve tested the WD SN580 (price at the moment is fair, performance is decent even on a small 2.0x4 interface; it can easily max itself out)

You may find other options around the same money or less (I have not tested some of these options but they theoretically should work)

Given your machine is within the scope of the batch that was affected by the faulty NVME driver I would look at updating to 11.x before conducting any of this process (that supposedly fixed a lot of issues with NVME compatibility on that model year)

 

[zano2k5]

Simple outcome, I think I am gonna end up with the Hynix


Simple outcome, I think I am gonna end up with the Hynix

Crucial P3+
View attachment 2369365
View attachment 2369366

And the surprise winner (for me at this point) is the Hynix
View attachment 2369367
View attachment 2369368
2600 mb read and write at 2300? I was expecting Hynix to be more or less the same thing as the others but on top of that, with the lowest power draw of all, makes it a no brainer for me.

With the P3+ or P31 did u have any kernel panic or reboot problem, just want an update on whats happening for u?

 

[will_oz]

Quick update on my problem (downloads failing after 2GB): It was the router.

Found the same problem downloading a large file on a different computer on the same wifi network. ISP tech help had never heard of this precise problem, but have a new router now and problem solved. Thanks to natus and xbox for your help.