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Upgrading 2013-2015 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe
- Thread starter maxthackray
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I just updated mine to 10.13.5 and the boot rom has probably changed (I didn't have time to check it, was busy doing the other Apple devices and guiding the flatmate through the update on the Apple TV on the phone). The late 2015 models aready have the patch in place, unlike the 2013/2014 models.
MBP late 2013 here, boot rom is now version MBP111.0145.B00
Functionality has not changed - there is still a 10S delay at boot. Disks also still show up as external in the boot chooser after I type my EFI password. Control choosing the correct boot volume eliminates the delay. I cannot find my usb stick I have been using to move dumped roms between the macbook pro and the hackintosh, when I do I'll examine the new roms contents for the updated NVME DXE driver.
For now if I cannot find the usb stick, I'll just leave the lid closed as have reverted the pmset commands to default, and will wait out the 3 or so hours to see if the machine panics on opening the lid.
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Interesting - perhaps mine didn't do the firmware update as it was doing the update to 10.13.5 from battery power.
The firmware only gets updated with the original drive in the MacBook. This is what I found with two different early 2015 13" Air and my late 2013 13" Pro.
Aha!! that little gotcha - yep thats a pain - having to pull the upgrade and put in the original just to get a firmware update to work!
Not true, at least with my late 2013 15” rMBP, Bootrom did update to 146.
EDIT: My mbp didn't update, I was incorrect.
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OK now that comes as a surprise!! Well this arvo my flatemate and I are doing work on the macbook (upgrading the wifi card). During which I will reinstall the original SSD, then let it update to 10.13.5, then reinstall the adapter and NVME drive. Then we should know if the driver has updated in the NVME section. Would be nice to just say "upgrade your machine with the original disk to 10.13.5 and the issues go away!" Will keep you all posted.
I'm betting though that apple wont be giving me the nice birthday present of having a machine that I can at least upgrade the SSD blade to a bigger, faster one without giving them open access to my bank balance
At least by this arvo I'll have apple watch unlock which will be a nice feature to have, along with working continuity/handoff without running CAT tool!
I'm betting though that apple wont be giving me the nice birthday present of having a machine that I can at least upgrade the SSD blade to a bigger, faster one without giving them open access to my bank balance
At least by this arvo I'll have apple watch unlock which will be a nice feature to have, along with working continuity/handoff without running CAT tool!
Maybe it depends on the nvme drive in the machine? Firmware wouldn't update for me with an Intel 600p in place.
Well couldn't be bothered waiting for my flatmate to get home so I've upgraded the wifi and put the original SSD blade back in. This time the software update is approximatly 200mB bigger than the one it did last night, which I am guessing contains the OS upgrade and the firmware bundle.
In the boot disk menu, I don't see my EVO has an external disk, but I still have the 10 seconds delay.
Perhaps I'm using a Samsung Evo 970 1tb, released a few weeks ago.
Go to the startup disk prefpane, unlock it, select your SSD then click restart. When it chimes, hold option to bring up the boot selector and control click the correct volume (after typing your EFI password if you have one). That seeems to get rid of the 10 second boot delay.
Having changed the wifi card, I now have full functionality, and no longer need to sneakernet files from the macbook to the hackintosh so I will be able to do a dump of the rom once my bigger SSD (toshiba XG5) is back in the machine following the installer doing the firmware update.
Having changed the wifi card, I now have full functionality, and no longer need to sneakernet files from the macbook to the hackintosh so I will be able to do a dump of the rom once my bigger SSD (toshiba XG5) is back in the machine following the installer doing the firmware update.
I take it back, I thought I saw 146 in the bootrom yesterday, but its at 145 as I just looked.
The reason for the bigger file on download at this end is because theres an itunes update included, I'm sure the 2.12 gB file I got yesterday as an update already contained the firmware updates, and simply did not install it. Present bootrom is MBP111.0145.B00 - we'll know in about 20 minutes whether 10.13.5 does upgrade the bootrom after installing.
Phase 1 = about 2 minutes to i assume copy stuff around.
Phase 2 and 3 = reboot and more copying, then reboot again, and a progress bar that goes to the end in a short period of time, suspiciously looks like its doing a firmware update
phase 4 = conversion to APFS and finilisation of install...
Boot rom is now MBP111.0146.B00. Time to shut down, toss in the Toshiba with adapter and cross my fingers
No such luck with the NVME reinstalled - still get the 10 second delay with the new boot rom and volume chooser shows external disks. Fortunatly control clicking the correct volume gets rid of the delay.
Phase 1 = about 2 minutes to i assume copy stuff around.
Phase 2 and 3 = reboot and more copying, then reboot again, and a progress bar that goes to the end in a short period of time, suspiciously looks like its doing a firmware update
phase 4 = conversion to APFS and finilisation of install...
Boot rom is now MBP111.0146.B00. Time to shut down, toss in the Toshiba with adapter and cross my fingers
No such luck with the NVME reinstalled - still get the 10 second delay with the new boot rom and volume chooser shows external disks. Fortunatly control clicking the correct volume gets rid of the delay.
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I'm probably not savvy enough to test it adequately. Main reason for upgrading was because my original drive failed, didn't want to spend $$$$ on OWC/transcend and heard they were crappy too.
Looks like the 960 evo is being detected as an internal drive. Haven't had many issues. Failed to wake after I had the lid closed overnight. Disabled the hibernate settings as described in some previous posts. Not sure about battery life yet. Laptop is running a bit hotter I think as well.
I don't think 10.13.5 made a difference to the problems that existed in the pre-2015 MBPs.
I'm debating about keeping the 960 evo. Are there better drives for power management/heat production? Having the best speed is less important for me than the quality of life stuff.
Wondering, would the new 10.14 update have any implications on us adapter users? Would the Boot ROM they include not allow us to boot or do anything once we update? I also noticed while watching WWDC one of the things I found behind Craig was "Faster wake up from sleep".
What impact do you think this would have on people who have to use the "pmset hibernate mode"? If someone eventually tries this, please let us know as it would be very helpful to me as I would love to use Mac OS Mojave ASAP. I'm a participant in the beta program.
Yeah, the check is either at the EFI level itself or possibly even lower down if the spi flash is managed by some additional microcontroller. Maybe something can be set through the EFI shell to temporarily unlock the the EFI, but I kinda doubt it.
I have successfully installed Samsung 970 EVO 1TB on my MacBook Pro Mid 2014, A1398.
Just use a cheap adapter from China Taobao with mark 941A at the back. About this adapter, I have some problem with it’s alignment. The width of the “key notch” sound a bit thinner to insert to Macbook PCI slot. I have to use a cutter to trim a bit and widen it. After trimming, it work good and MacBook can see the new NVMe SSD.
I am able to boot from Internet recovery (OPT-CMD-R). Start the disk utility to format the SSD, and install a new 10.13.5 OS, then recover from time machine backup.
I am not able to recover entire OS from time machine directly but install a brand new OS is still a good option to me.
The bootrom is still the stock version as MBP112.146.B00
Just use a cheap adapter from China Taobao with mark 941A at the back. About this adapter, I have some problem with it’s alignment. The width of the “key notch” sound a bit thinner to insert to Macbook PCI slot. I have to use a cutter to trim a bit and widen it. After trimming, it work good and MacBook can see the new NVMe SSD.
I am able to boot from Internet recovery (OPT-CMD-R). Start the disk utility to format the SSD, and install a new 10.13.5 OS, then recover from time machine backup.
I am not able to recover entire OS from time machine directly but install a brand new OS is still a good option to me.
The bootrom is still the stock version as MBP112.146.B00
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If anyone wanted some extra confirmation that the 51116915 GUID is for the NVMe driver, here's this output from the EFI shell
I've installed the old version 512GB WD Black into a 2015 11" Air.
So far the battery life seems terrible though. The WD Black was better for battery life, or so I thought. The big problem is the sleep life. It losses 5% of battery per hour, when I close the system and carry it around between places. I tend to use it plugged in when doing work on it.
Any things I can do to improve this? Or is it just what I have to deal with having a 3rd party drive.
I didn't do any system changes or anything. It found the drive and installed no problem.
Does anyone else have information on their battery life experience?
So far the battery life seems terrible though. The WD Black was better for battery life, or so I thought. The big problem is the sleep life. It losses 5% of battery per hour, when I close the system and carry it around between places. I tend to use it plugged in when doing work on it.
Any things I can do to improve this? Or is it just what I have to deal with having a 3rd party drive.
I didn't do any system changes or anything. It found the drive and installed no problem.
Does anyone else have information on their battery life experience?
So it seems I ordered the wrong adapter from sintech, but I can't seem to find a valid reason. The adapter I ordered is apparently the original? (http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2015-macbook-ssd-p-1139.html)
Can someone please help me in telling me why this might be the wrong adapter can it be fixed(saw a post about a guy soldering his) and then which adapter should I buy and why. I have a macbook pro mid 2014 256gb at the moment and would like to upgrade my internal storage.
I'm just worried now after reading the thread and all the issues people seem to be having that:
1. Battery life is going to go bad
2. The extra heat might damage components around the ssd bay
3. Might not be able to update macos cause of a nvme modified rom that might need to be installed to get hibernation back.(Can someone with more knowledge help with this please)
4. If it is only the nvme rom which is modified to the 2015s rom will I be able to do normal software updates on MacOS and just have to put back the orginal ssd when I need to upgrade the bootrom?
Thanks guys
Can someone please help me in telling me why this might be the wrong adapter can it be fixed(saw a post about a guy soldering his) and then which adapter should I buy and why. I have a macbook pro mid 2014 256gb at the moment and would like to upgrade my internal storage.
I'm just worried now after reading the thread and all the issues people seem to be having that:
1. Battery life is going to go bad
2. The extra heat might damage components around the ssd bay
3. Might not be able to update macos cause of a nvme modified rom that might need to be installed to get hibernation back.(Can someone with more knowledge help with this please)
4. If it is only the nvme rom which is modified to the 2015s rom will I be able to do normal software updates on MacOS and just have to put back the orginal ssd when I need to upgrade the bootrom?
Thanks guys
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if you buy new nvme's ssd just look at power consumption specs
For example:
INTEL 760p Series SSDPEKKW010T8X1
Power usage: 0.01 watt
Standby usage 0.005 watt
SAMSUNG 960 EVO MZ-V6E1T0BW
Power usage: 5.7 watt
Standby usage: 1.2 watt
and who would have thought why samsung i so drainin' battery...
For example:
INTEL 760p Series SSDPEKKW010T8X1
Power usage: 0.01 watt
Standby usage 0.005 watt
SAMSUNG 960 EVO MZ-V6E1T0BW
Power usage: 5.7 watt
Standby usage: 1.2 watt
and who would have thought why samsung i so drainin' battery...
I'll try to answer some of your questions.
Why do you think you ordered the wrong adapter? It looks like that adapter is for the 2014 MBP.
1) Yes, battery life will be worse but it varies from drive to drive. Samsung drives are popular and do have a lot of drain. Not sure if it is much worse than other drives.
2) All SSDs get warm, especially with sustained read and write operations. I have never see a post from anyone that had their Macbook damaged from a hot SSD.
3) Not sure whether MacOS updates can be installed with a modified bootrom.
4) The bootrom is sometimes updated with a MacOS update and, based on my experience, the bootrom can only be updated by the OS if the original SSD is in the Macbook.