My other Air has an Intel 600p and it can only update the firmware by putting in an Apple SSD.
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Upgrading 2013-2015 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe
- Thread starter maxthackray
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Yeah nah I used the kapton tape to stop the pins from touching together.
My Boot Rom and SMC Version is MBP114.0184.B00 and 2.30f2
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What do you mean? How did I get from X2 to X4 or what was the speed comparisons bewtween X2 to X4?
For the first question I just used the kapton tape to isolate the pins from touching the shield and for the second question, my X2 speed is the same speed as X4, 1500/1500 r/w
A macbook pro of 2014 plus an adapter
KALEA-INFORMATIQUE - M.2 (NGFF) SSD adapter - To replace the original 12 + 16 pin PCIe SSD of a 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Macbook Pro or Retina with a M2 SSD - SUPPORT NVME SSD
-with a Samsung EVO 970 NVMe works perfectly, with support x4
The installation is not difficult (without NVMe external box and helped with another SSD Standard making copies with Carbon Copy Cloner
For the issue of the EFI, and the Bootloader when the MacOS is updated from one system to another, there is the option to update again with the original Apple SSD and then clone back to the Samsung EVO 970 NVMe
The reading and writing speed triples
For the Windows versions, Samsung has support, with driver and with software that updates the NVMe (that's why the external box that exists in Aliesspress limits the speed to the USB-C with the bottleneck of 400 megabytes, but it works)
Checked is that the AHCI and NVMe are present in the Macbook pro 204 and Air (11 "2013, and MBA 13 of 2015, are those that I have been able to check)
The ideal is to update (if you can the firmware of the Samsung EVO via Windows (there is no Mac alternative) and then Clone the disk with an image of the Mac, to me the utility of Mac disks gave me failure, while Carbon Copy Cloner I worked without problems
KALEA-INFORMATIQUE - M.2 (NGFF) SSD adapter - To replace the original 12 + 16 pin PCIe SSD of a 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Macbook Pro or Retina with a M2 SSD - SUPPORT NVME SSD
-with a Samsung EVO 970 NVMe works perfectly, with support x4
The installation is not difficult (without NVMe external box and helped with another SSD Standard making copies with Carbon Copy Cloner
For the issue of the EFI, and the Bootloader when the MacOS is updated from one system to another, there is the option to update again with the original Apple SSD and then clone back to the Samsung EVO 970 NVMe
The reading and writing speed triples
For the Windows versions, Samsung has support, with driver and with software that updates the NVMe (that's why the external box that exists in Aliesspress limits the speed to the USB-C with the bottleneck of 400 megabytes, but it works)
Checked is that the AHCI and NVMe are present in the Macbook pro 204 and Air (11 "2013, and MBA 13 of 2015, are those that I have been able to check)
The ideal is to update (if you can the firmware of the Samsung EVO via Windows (there is no Mac alternative) and then Clone the disk with an image of the Mac, to me the utility of Mac disks gave me failure, while Carbon Copy Cloner I worked without problems
Sorry, there was a typo error there. I was wondering how to check whether my SSD is using 2 or 4 lanes. Now I just checked and without the tape it's using 4 lanes. I'll get the tape today and try after too, but current speeds still remain 1406-W and 1490-R.
Would a 960 Pro make a difference instead of 960 EVO?
Also, is the green adapter better when it comes to performance?
Thank you!!
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Not sure why I'm not getting speeds similar to you even though mine is a mid-2015 model?
I read somewhere that the 2015 models very by screen size. The 13” had pci 2.0 and the 15” has pci 3.0. Could this be the difference in your speed comparison assuming yours is a 13” and his maybe a 15”. Just a thought.
Guess, I found couple of differences. The link speed is different - I got 5.0 GT/s whereas the other person has 8.0 GT/s. The only other difference is the adapter - black for me vs green for the other person
Attachments
Only 15" MacBook Pro mid-2015 has PCIe 3.0x4 speed (8.0GT/s), other MacBooks only have PCIe 2.0x4 speed, hence the 5.0GT/s
Thank you so much for confirming.
Good thing I figured that the new disk is still 2.5 times faster than the old one, so I should be happy!!!!
Hi Andrea,
Thank you so much for the response and taking the time to share details. I've now managed to upgrade properly, biggest individual contribution is yours providing so many details. I guess I wouldn't have been able to do it without your messages,
Cheers,
Vaibhav
Thank you so much for the response and taking the time to share details. I've now managed to upgrade properly, biggest individual contribution is yours providing so many details. I guess I wouldn't have been able to do it without your messages,
Cheers,
Vaibhav
[doublepost=1533400864][/doublepost]bro can you please tell wheather samsung pm981 pro will work with macbook air 2017 or not..i am having this macbook air 2017 and i have bought a adapter for pcie nvme .I am looking to buy either samsung pm 981 or samsung evo 960...
but pm981 is quite cheaper ...so please help me to choose.
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bro please tell samsung pm 981 will work or not with macbook air 2017...i want to upgrade to 512gb samsung pm981 and i have already bought the nvme pcie adapter for it...just want to confirm is it compatible or not with macbook air...otherwise i will go for samsung evo 960....please i need your suggestion bro
Congratulations, with your posts, you have demonstrated you are capable of searching this thread. Your question has been discussed and answered time and time again: the PM981 with its current firmware has not worked in any MacBook.
I have been scouring this thread and for a potential fix for my issue. Currently upgrading my wife's MBA early 2014 SSD. I tried the Samsung 960 Evo with the correct adapter and it caused kernel panics and would not sleep properly. Returned it and got the Western Digital Black 500gb. It still has the sleep issue when shutting the lid. I adjusted the hibernation to '0', and it has been fine since. Has there been a work around so it can sleep and save battery or is there something I have done wrong? Cheers
I speak and talk about the Samsung Evo 970
The EVO 970 is faster than the previous version, also, curiously in shops it is at a better price the new version on the previous one, already two years old ... From 2018, take advantage of the improvements of the EVO 970 and forget the new purchase of the EVO 960 (More expensive)
Adaptador NVMe compatible
sudo pmset -g
System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
standbydelay 10800
standby 0
womp 1
halfdim 1
hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage
powernap 1
gpuswitch 2
networkoversleep 0
disksleep 0
sleep 0
autopoweroffdelay 28800
hibernatemode 0
autopoweroff 1
ttyskeepawake 1
displaysleep 3
acwake 0
lidwake 1
CMD;
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
Macbook Pro 2014 & 2015
The EVO 970 is faster than the previous version, also, curiously in shops it is at a better price the new version on the previous one, already two years old ... From 2018, take advantage of the improvements of the EVO 970 and forget the new purchase of the EVO 960 (More expensive)
Adaptador NVMe compatible
sudo pmset -g
System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
standbydelay 10800
standby 0
womp 1
halfdim 1
hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage
powernap 1
gpuswitch 2
networkoversleep 0
disksleep 0
sleep 0
autopoweroffdelay 28800
hibernatemode 0
autopoweroff 1
ttyskeepawake 1
displaysleep 3
acwake 0
lidwake 1
CMD;
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0
Macbook Pro 2014 & 2015
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On 2015 models (and later models, like 2017 MacBook Air), no change to the power management setting should be necessary. On 2013-2014 models, disabling standby (transitioning from sleep to hibernation) is sufficient at the expense of battery drain; the only other known workaround is modifying the system ROM.
(Edit said, I should clarify the situation for MacBook Air models as well; I agree.)
Just upgraded my MBP 13" 2015 from its stock 128GB drive to a 480GB Adata XPG SX8200. Nice and cheap. R/W speeds are around 1500/1350, which is pretty much saturating the PCIe 2.0 bus that the 13" is limited to and providing twice the write speed of the stock drive I replaced.
Only hassle was the the drive was about 1mm too long for the Sintech NGFF-C adapter so that I couldn't screw it in too tightly otherwise it bowed upwards. I suppose I could have dremeled the notch in the end a tad further in if I were sure there were no traces below to cut into but I let it go.
Sintech was thoughful enough to include a longer screw than the one already in the MacBook, which was too short to secure the combined height of the Sintech adapter and the Adata drive. Idling temps for the drive are 26ºC, so it runs nice and cool, too.
Only hassle was the the drive was about 1mm too long for the Sintech NGFF-C adapter so that I couldn't screw it in too tightly otherwise it bowed upwards. I suppose I could have dremeled the notch in the end a tad further in if I were sure there were no traces below to cut into but I let it go.
Sintech was thoughful enough to include a longer screw than the one already in the MacBook, which was too short to secure the combined height of the Sintech adapter and the Adata drive. Idling temps for the drive are 26ºC, so it runs nice and cool, too.
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I have a 2014 MacBook Air that needs NVMe code added to efi for it to recognize it as a internal drive and for sleep to work correctly. From browsing through this forum am I correct this cannot be done through software on my machine due to its newer rom chip and only way is by using a programmer hooked directly to the ROM chip itself.
Hi everyone,
really sorry for not having time to participate late weeks to this thread.
I bought 3 new NVMe SSD to tests and here is the result for the first one : Samsung 970 Evo.
This new model works perfectly as many have reported here.
It is very fast, at least while using the SLC cache (3000MB/sec read 2350MB/sec write), once the SLC cache has been filled it falls down to ~700 MB/s write.
It doesn't handle 4K blocs (so it is only compatible with 10.13 and higher, not 10.12)
It has a max design power state of 6.20Watts reported by smartctl (10W by Samsung specifications), uses 3D V-NAND TLC and costs $209 for the 512 GB model.
As every other NVMe SSDs, it works without any issue in any 2015 13" and 15" rMBP and 2015 or 2017 13" MacBook Air.
As any other NVMe SSD and with any 2013-2014 Mac, hibernation doesn't work out of the box and needs a BootRom patch (to add the proper DXE driver) as of today.
really sorry for not having time to participate late weeks to this thread.
I bought 3 new NVMe SSD to tests and here is the result for the first one : Samsung 970 Evo.
This new model works perfectly as many have reported here.
It is very fast, at least while using the SLC cache (3000MB/sec read 2350MB/sec write), once the SLC cache has been filled it falls down to ~700 MB/s write.
It doesn't handle 4K blocs (so it is only compatible with 10.13 and higher, not 10.12)
It has a max design power state of 6.20Watts reported by smartctl (10W by Samsung specifications), uses 3D V-NAND TLC and costs $209 for the 512 GB model.
As every other NVMe SSDs, it works without any issue in any 2015 13" and 15" rMBP and 2015 or 2017 13" MacBook Air.
As any other NVMe SSD and with any 2013-2014 Mac, hibernation doesn't work out of the box and needs a BootRom patch (to add the proper DXE driver) as of today.
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Next new SSD tested : the Western Digital WD Black "G2".
As other NVMe SSDs, it works out of the box with the proper Sintech rev. B or C adapter, without any issue on 2015 13" and 15" rMBP, and 2015 and 2017 MacBook Air.
Again and as it is the case with every NVMe SSD, hibernation doesn't work out of the box on 2013-2014 mac.
The WD Black "G2" is waaaaaay faster than its predecessor the WD Black "G1".
While using the SLC cache it shows speeds of 2800MB/sec read 2350MB/sec write
Once the SLC cache has been filled it slows to ~1100 MB/sec write which is a good value, better than the 970 Evo.
It does handle 4K blocs, so it can work with 10.12 once setted to use 4k blocs (with the nvme-cli utility under Linux).
It has a max design power state of 5,50Watts reported by smartctl (peak of 9W not excedding 10µs), uses 3D TLC NAND and costs $177 for the 512 GB model.
I like this model a lot, because it is cheap, fast, and has 10.12 compatibility with 4LK blocs.
As other NVMe SSDs, it works out of the box with the proper Sintech rev. B or C adapter, without any issue on 2015 13" and 15" rMBP, and 2015 and 2017 MacBook Air.
Again and as it is the case with every NVMe SSD, hibernation doesn't work out of the box on 2013-2014 mac.
The WD Black "G2" is waaaaaay faster than its predecessor the WD Black "G1".
While using the SLC cache it shows speeds of 2800MB/sec read 2350MB/sec write
Once the SLC cache has been filled it slows to ~1100 MB/sec write which is a good value, better than the 970 Evo.
It does handle 4K blocs, so it can work with 10.12 once setted to use 4k blocs (with the nvme-cli utility under Linux).
It has a max design power state of 5,50Watts reported by smartctl (peak of 9W not excedding 10µs), uses 3D TLC NAND and costs $177 for the 512 GB model.
I like this model a lot, because it is cheap, fast, and has 10.12 compatibility with 4LK blocs.
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For a 2014 early MacBook Air, is this the proper Dow load to update the EFI and fix the sleep issue?
https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1749?locale=en_US
https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1749?locale=en_US
Last, here is a test of a brand new Trasncend 850.
It is not a M.2 SSD, so why did I tested this model ?
Because it's a NVMe SSD specially conceived for upgrading our 2013-2015 Macs, and advertised as such.
As it is NVMe I suspect it not to handle hibernation properly on a 2013-2014 Mac with the unpatched, factory Apple BootRom.
How will this SSD handle hibernation ?
And futures BootRom upgrades ?
This NVMe SSD has 4x PCIe 3.0 lanes.
It has the Apple 12+16 connector, so it doesn't need of course the Sintech adapter.
It has a read speed of ~1600 MB/sec and a write speed of next 1200 MB/sec.
To test speed and hibernation, I tested it on both a 2015 15" rMBP and on a 2014 13" rMBP that has its original, unpatched, Apple BootRom (up to date).
I set pmset to default values, and put the rMBP to sleep.
Did it wake up from hibernation after 3 hours ? On the 2015 rMBP : yes
On the 2014 rMBP : no...
Those are the same results as with any 2013-2014 mac and M.2 NVMe drive and Sintech adapter tested here : after 3 hours hibernaiton, it did hang at wake up, with a black screen and never resumed.
I tested it many times.
So, this upgrade specially built and sold for 2013-2015 macs does not hibernate properly out of the box.
Transcend themselves have a not on their support page : "Why my Mac can't wake up from sleep mode after installing JetDrive 850?"
https://us.transcend-info.com/Support/FAQ-1171
And their answer is to install their "Transcend JetDrive ToolBox", which I presume set "standby" mode to "0".
Unfortunately, I couldn't verify that because on my test machine, on 10.13.6, the Transcend Jetdrive Toolbox doesn't launch and exits with an error.
So, after all this thread, here is where we are : results are coherent.
Hibernation on 2013-2014 Macs doesn't work out of the box with any NVMe SSD, being it a Transcend 850 made for mac or any M.2 NVMe with Sintech adapter.
This is because Apple doesn't include the proper NVMe DXE driver in their BootRom
So I'm not really surprised : the Transcend 850 runs fine, but it has absolutely no advantage against any M.2 NVMe drive with the sintech adapter.
M.2 NVMe SSD with Sintech adapter offers the exact same behaviour as Transcend or OWC upgrade (there are lots of comment on amazon that the latest OWC Aura pro NVMe have the same hibernation problem : https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RD2Y5F92SQPCY/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_btm).
The only difference is that M.2 upgrades tested here are more than 2x times cheaper than OWC or Trasncend upgrades.
What I need to test now is future BootRom upgrades : current BootRom update provided by Apple with latest macOS updates don't work with NVMe drives.
This is a good thing for us if we use a 2013-2014 rMBP patched to have hibernation (the fact that BootRom updates fail prevents from the patch being crushed by a BootRom update)
It is not a M.2 SSD, so why did I tested this model ?
Because it's a NVMe SSD specially conceived for upgrading our 2013-2015 Macs, and advertised as such.
As it is NVMe I suspect it not to handle hibernation properly on a 2013-2014 Mac with the unpatched, factory Apple BootRom.
How will this SSD handle hibernation ?
And futures BootRom upgrades ?
This NVMe SSD has 4x PCIe 3.0 lanes.
It has the Apple 12+16 connector, so it doesn't need of course the Sintech adapter.
It has a read speed of ~1600 MB/sec and a write speed of next 1200 MB/sec.
To test speed and hibernation, I tested it on both a 2015 15" rMBP and on a 2014 13" rMBP that has its original, unpatched, Apple BootRom (up to date).
I set pmset to default values, and put the rMBP to sleep.
Did it wake up from hibernation after 3 hours ? On the 2015 rMBP : yes
On the 2014 rMBP : no...
Those are the same results as with any 2013-2014 mac and M.2 NVMe drive and Sintech adapter tested here : after 3 hours hibernaiton, it did hang at wake up, with a black screen and never resumed.
I tested it many times.
So, this upgrade specially built and sold for 2013-2015 macs does not hibernate properly out of the box.
Transcend themselves have a not on their support page : "Why my Mac can't wake up from sleep mode after installing JetDrive 850?"
https://us.transcend-info.com/Support/FAQ-1171
And their answer is to install their "Transcend JetDrive ToolBox", which I presume set "standby" mode to "0".
Unfortunately, I couldn't verify that because on my test machine, on 10.13.6, the Transcend Jetdrive Toolbox doesn't launch and exits with an error.
So, after all this thread, here is where we are : results are coherent.
Hibernation on 2013-2014 Macs doesn't work out of the box with any NVMe SSD, being it a Transcend 850 made for mac or any M.2 NVMe with Sintech adapter.
This is because Apple doesn't include the proper NVMe DXE driver in their BootRom
So I'm not really surprised : the Transcend 850 runs fine, but it has absolutely no advantage against any M.2 NVMe drive with the sintech adapter.
M.2 NVMe SSD with Sintech adapter offers the exact same behaviour as Transcend or OWC upgrade (there are lots of comment on amazon that the latest OWC Aura pro NVMe have the same hibernation problem : https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RD2Y5F92SQPCY/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_btm).
The only difference is that M.2 upgrades tested here are more than 2x times cheaper than OWC or Trasncend upgrades.
What I need to test now is future BootRom upgrades : current BootRom update provided by Apple with latest macOS updates don't work with NVMe drives.
This is a good thing for us if we use a 2013-2014 rMBP patched to have hibernation (the fact that BootRom updates fail prevents from the patch being crushed by a BootRom update)
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Is there any reason why write speed is getting slower as testing continuously than the 1st run? I always wonder why.
Thanks for testing and posting this. I was somehow hoping they would pull off the impossible and support true hibernation in the 2013-2014 models, but of course, they run up against the same bootrom limitations as all the others. Oh well.
Also, the new Intel 660p utilizing QLC NAND is out; for those who need cheap capacity and are willing to take performance compromises, looks like they are pricing 512G at $100 and 1TB at $200. Would be interested if you get a chance to test this (the Kingston A1000 960G has also dropped to $220.)