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

[jtl_]

This is regarding a late-2013 15" MacBook Pro with OWC Aura SSD; this might work with an M.2 adapter, or it might not. I don't have an adapter to test it with yet.

I was able to update bootrom on this Mac manually using the following process (make sure the computer is connected to the charger):
Download or extract FirmwareUpdate.pkg from the macOS installer or updater
Then in Terminal:
/usr/sbin/pkgutil --expand /path/to/FirmwareUpdate.pkg /tmp/FirmwareUpdate # Extract the package
cd /tmp/FirmwareUpdate/Scripts # Change directory
sudo /usr/libexec/FirmwareUpdateLauncher -p "$PWD/Tools" # Stage SMC and other updates
sudo /usr/libexec/efiupdater -p "$PWD/Tools/EFIPayloads" # Stage EFI update
sudo reboot # reboot, keep computer powered and be patient!

If successful, the computer will reboot, sit at a black screen for a bit, show a progress bar that slowly fills up, then reboot again and boot into OS.

If the update is then attempted a second time, it will indicate that the update is not necessary on the Terminal if it was successful.

Nice work. I suspected as much when I was looking into the macOS installer files for another project, but I was too afraid of bricking my Macbook to test.

 

[Trunkz]

Hi, I tried installing the Mojave Beta with a Samsung 960 EVO 500GB SSD (used my old Apple SSD to upgrade the BootROM) on a MBPr 13" Mid 2014 and still experience freezes on waking after standby. The login prompt when waking is working but as soon as I enter a password and try to unlock it the laptop completely freezes and needs to be killed by longpressing the power button. This is 100% reproducable. SMC has also been reset after the install.

I'm currently using the "bigger" green pcb adapter with taped off pins. The full length black sintech is on its way but it'll probably take a while until it arrives. Don't really think it's the adapters fault since I have no random kernel panics etc. and it recognizes all lanes.

Anyone know if this could be related to having the disk encrypted?

Have you done the pmset changes? if not:

sudo pmset -a standby 0 hibernatemode 0 autopoweroff 0

Turn off Power Nap as well

 

[manjushri]

Hey guys. What a wild ride this was. I have been reading this thread for months now and finally bit the bullet and ordered everything needed a month ago.

I used the black long Sintech-C adapter, a Samsung Evo 960, this J6100 board and a CH341A programmer for my late 2013 rMBP 15". I've got everything working now, but I wanted to note a few important caveats in case anyone else stumbles upon similar problems later:

• My J6100 board came without a status LED. That threw me off for a bit, because all the photos of it here had one attached. It's not really much of a deal, you don't need it, but I still found it worth mentioning
• Definitely backup your bootrom using ROMTool by dosdude before you do anything! Don't assume that the backup you do before flashing will be a good one! It literally saved my machine! I tried to roughly follow these instructions by ohnggni, but the CH341A software always recognised my machine's chip as something unknown. I stupidly assumed there would not be much of a difference in terms of chips between those macbooks and manually set the manufacturer and chip to those shown in the post. The worst part was that when I test read the bootrom it looked very much like the backup I did using ROMTool so I assumed it was working, when in reality the dump was totally corrupted. The writes were corrupted, too (obviously, in hindsight, as it's a completely different chip). While trying to write my patched bootrom it totally messed the data up and my machine did not boot anymore.
• I was clueless on what to do for a few hours. I knew I probably had a good backup using ROMTool, but I had no idea how to write it using the CH341A programmer software. Turns out, you just can't. It doesn't know the chip, so it can't communicate with it (was using version 1.29, so pretty recent if not the newest one).
• What finally saved me was flashrom on macOS (Linux systems would have probably worked, too). When trying to read the chip using flashrom it instantly recognised it and when writing my backup (and later on the patched bootrom) it did so and verified it without any errors.
• TL;DR: Use flashrom on macOS/Linux instead of the CH341A programmer software. You might be lucky and have your chip recognised by the latter or you might mess up badly with the data on your chip. flashrom has much better compatibility.

View attachment 776116
To get your system to be recognised at all what worked for me was:

1. Disconnect battery and power
2. Connect CH341A to second system
3. Connect J6100 port
4. Connect battery
5. Connect power (fans will start spinning)
6. Disconnect power
7. Disconnect battery (fans will stop spinning)
8. Try to dump/write using flashrom/whatever

This method consistently worked for me without any additional power source.

I have got everything working perfectly now. Major thanks to @gilles_polysoft for basically kickstarting this whole project, to @dosdude1 for saving my day, to @ohnggni for his instructions and every other helpful poster around here. We've got a good thing going here and who knows, maybe Apple will even listen to us someday and update the bootroms themselves.

Hi guys,

I need your help here: I have a Macbook pro late 2013 with a 970 EVO.
I had a CH341a SPI and bought the connector cable from the Korean supplier on ebay.
I set up everything fine: reading the ROM using flashrom from another Mac, modifying it with NVMe driver.

But I cannot write back that file on the ROM. flashrom says "ERASE FAILED".
I even tried with Win 10 on Bootcamp: the CH341A 1.29 program seems to work and write the file. But when I launch the verify step, it fails and says contents are not matching.
I tried all specific steps you showed up-here but still impossible to write.

I feel like not many people here tried this ROM modification.
Can anyone help?
Thanks

 

[MacKube]

Have you done the pmset changes? if not:

sudo pmset -a standby 0 hibernatemode 0 autopoweroff 0

Turn off Power Nap as well

The whole point of the attempted Mojave upgrade was to not have to use these anymore (i.e. to regain a working standby).

 

[Trunkz]

The whole point of the attempted Mojave upgrade was to not have to use these anymore (i.e. to regain a working standby).

Why do you think the Mojave upgrade would solve these? These issues are caused by the NVMe driver in the bootrom. It can only be rectified by the aforementioned bootrom patch procedure within this thread.

 

[MacKube]

Why do you think the Mojave upgrade would solve these? These issues are caused by the NVMe driver in the bootrom. It can only be rectified by the aforementioned bootrom patch procedure within this thread.

Mostly because ilovejamon was reporting standby to be working on his pre 2015 model with the Mojave Beta. Could've been the case that Apple applied the patch in the Mojave bootrom update. See #1909

 

[m23l]

[doublepost=1536816717][/doublepost]

Mostly because ilovejamon was reporting standby to be working on his pre 2015 model with the Mojave Beta. Could've been the case that Apple applied the patch in the Mojave bootrom update. See #1909

Maybe there is something to it - this week I received Sintech ST-NGFF2013-C (long black version also kapton tape was already applied, the board however bend a little so I loosen a bit the screw that came with it - board, as mention few times here, is a bit longer then it supposed to be, but that seems not to be a big issue, just saying)

I have rMBP 15 late 2013 and used Mojave since first dev beta. Currently beta 10.

SSD that I choose was Adata SX8200 480GB after positive feedback here about energy consumption and overall price vs speed ratio. Formated APFS + encryption and system showing x4 lanes and I get slightly below 1200w and 1500r.

In disk utility it showing as internal disk but I checked and if started with option key it's orange, but I didn't see some 10 seconds hold up as some people says when cold boot starting.

And for the main point - I didn't not have a problem for three four days that I am using it with suspend/sleep. After 11 hours w/o charger I had like -4% (this scenario occurred to this day like 3 - 4 times after 8+ hours sleep so no problem so far with not waking up or question mark folder).

Also tried bootcamp created 50GB partition and all went well just boot camp config tool in windows is showing error that can not find startup OS X disk, but I guess that is APFS problem. Is there solution to this day how to get boot camp application work in windows 10?

Later will post pmset -g output and will check bootrom version.

Also did someone tried bootrom update that @d235j mentioned few post up?

 

[Trunkz]

Mostly because ilovejamon was reporting standby to be working on his pre 2015 model with the Mojave Beta. Could've been the case that Apple applied the patch in the Mojave bootrom update. See #1909

No bootrom update for pre-2015 MBP on Mojave. This is correct as off the latest beta 11 released yesterday. I've confirmed this by pulling the latest FirmwareUpdate.pkg and run the aforementioned steps quoted earlier.

[doublepost=1536816717][/doublepost]

Maybe there is something to it - this week I received Sintech ST-NGFF2013-C (long black version also kapton tape was already applied, the board however bend a little so I loosen a bit the screw that came with it - board, as mention few times here, is a bit longer then it supposed to be, but that seems not to be a big issue, just saying)

I have rMBP 15 late 2013 and used Mojave since first dev beta. Currently beta 10.

SSD that I choose was Adata SX8200 480GB after positive feedback here about energy consumption and overall price vs speed ratio. Formated APFS + encryption and system showing x4 lanes and I get slightly below 1200w and 1500r.

In disk utility it showing as internal disk but I checked and if started with option key it's orange, but I didn't see some 10 seconds hold up as some people says when cold boot starting.

And for the main point - I didn't not have a problem for three four days that I am using it with suspend/sleep. After 11 hours w/o charger I had like -4% (this scenario occurred to this day like 3 - 4 times after 8+ hours sleep so no problem so far with not waking up or question mark folder).

Also tried bootcamp created 50GB partition and all went well just boot camp config tool in windows is showing error that can not find startup OS X disk, but I guess that is APFS problem. Is there solution to this day how to get boot camp application work in windows 10?

Later will post pmset -g output and will check bootrom version.

Also did someone tried bootrom update that @d235j mentioned few post up?

Hmm.. perhaps this has something to do with Samsung drives? Again; I don't have any standby issues once I've applied the pmset changes; I remember it would have issues coming out of standby (black screen) before said pmset changes.

I've got a 512GB Intel 760p waiting to go in; just waiting for the Mojave GM to be released. Was meant to come out yesterday but I guess now Monday / Tuesday next week. OK so I was impatient and swapped it out to the Intel 760p. iStatMenu reveals a lower idle power figure, so only time will tell. Do take note that this drive is not capable of 4096 sector; only 512 - I wasn't aware of this!

 

[d235j]

[doublepost=1536816717][/doublepost]
Also did someone tried bootrom update that @d235j mentioned few post up?

I just wanted to demonstrate that it is possible to update bootrom on a non-Apple drive with their tools.
I'm planning to do more experimentation with these tools in the future, though I'm not sure how soon.

 

[Trunkz]

I just wanted to demonstrate that it is possible to update bootrom on a non-Apple drive with their tools.
I'm planning to do more experimentation with these tools in the future, though I'm not sure how soon.

This method works; I’ve tried this on both stock apple SSD and Samsung & Intel SSD

 

[Audit13]

This method works; I’ve tried this on both stock apple SSD and Samsung & Intel SSD

I just wanted to demonstrate that it is possible to update bootrom on a non-Apple drive with their tools.
I'm planning to do more experimentation with these tools in the future, though I'm not sure how soon.

Thanks to both of you for confirming that the upgrade is possible with a third-party drive

 

[Haven2258_123]

Macbook Pro 2014 retina 13'
MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6
Boot ROM: MBP111.0145.B00

Samsung SSD 960 EVO 500GB + Sintech large green adaptor

Applying:
"sudo pmset -a standby 0 hibernatemode 0 autopoweroff 0" ---Trunkz

Before my MBP had problem waking up after long sleep, after applying the command as above, it works perfect!

No battery drain after 8 hours hibernate, still 100% battery.

 

[markintosh13]

Hi,

Have a late 2013 MBP Retina, 512GB SSD and always short on space.
I've been reading a ton of this thread, but have a question.

I see the XPG SX8200 960GB 3D NAND NVMe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 is currently on sale at a very attractive price, and appears to be

My concern is the thickness of this particular SSD, it's quite a bit thicker than similar capacity Samsungs, but it appears to be enormous value (considering that my MBP will limit throughput to PCI-E 2 lane speeds) and seems to have quite low power consumption.

My question is:

will it work with the Sintech NGFF2013-C long black adapter?

Looking at this thread it seems that everyone using the SX8200 960GB is using a short adapter?

Thoughts?

 

[Khaleal]

It won't be as optimised because the drive won't have Apple firmware on it. There is also this nugget from the forum.

#5

The last one to sell on MR went for $340 for 512GB. Not really worth it since similar results are possible from NVMe drives costing up to a third as much. Once Mojave is out, you can flash your firmware with the NVMe driver pretty safe in the knowledge that there is unlikely to be any further firmware updates from Apple.

I still have not got an answer to my question. If I install an AHCI drive, will I have sleep/hibernation issues similar to NVMe drives (given I don't apply the bootrom patch)?
Actually there are a lot of AHCI M.2 drives available for an affordable price, here are two good examples:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077SQ8J1V/ref=sspa_dk_hqp_detail_aax_0?th=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=psdc_1292116011_t1_B077SQ8J1V

 

[weckart]

I still have not got an answer to my question. If I install an AHCI drive, will I have sleep/hibernation issues similar to NVMe drives (given I don't apply the bootrom patch)?
Actually there are a lot of AHCI M.2 drives available for an affordable price, here are two good examples:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077SQ8J1V/ref=sspa_dk_hqp_detail_aax_0?th=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073SBX6TY/ref=psdc_1292116011_t1_B077SQ8J1V

Both are clearly stated as SATA drives and not compatible with your MBP. You are realistically looking at rapidly dwindling supplies of Samsung's SM951 and XP941 drives or Kingston's HyperX Predator.

I found one:



£200 for 240GB vs £57 for the newer NVMe version.

Good luck.

 

[mikzn]

Hi guys,

I need your help here: I have a Macbook pro late 2013 with a 970 EVO.
I had a CH341a SPI and bought the connector cable from the Korean supplier on ebay.
I set up everything fine: reading the ROM using flashrom from another Mac, modifying it with NVMe driver.

But I cannot write back that file on the ROM. flashrom says "ERASE FAILED".
I even tried with Win 10 on Bootcamp: the CH341A 1.29 program seems to work and write the file. But when I launch the verify step, it fails and says contents are not matching.
I tried all specific steps you showed up-here but still impossible to write.

I feel like not many people here tried this ROM modification.
Can anyone help?
Thanks

I installed Mojave on a new EVO970 (550G) / rMBP 2015 a few weeks ago - works perfectly, and very fast.

if your MBP cannot see the new drive (EVO970) in the NVMEExpress area (About this Mac - System Report) - then you will not be able to format the drive or install a new OS on it.

2 easiest ways to update the target mac is to upgrade to High Sierrra before you begin - or what I did was install High Sierra on a spare external SSD I had and booted from that drive several times to update the target mac. Then I was able to see the drive (EVO970) in the system report, format to APFS and install Mojave from the HS external drive onto the newly installed internal evo970 on my rMBP 2015.

Hope that helps - here is a link to my post about it

YMMV - I did not do any firmware updates other than what ever the High Sierra upgrade did - and am not sure how it will work with a 2013 vs 2015 rMBP

 

[markintosh13]

What's the current recommended short adapter?

 

[Trunkz]

Hi,

Have a late 2013 MBP Retina, 512GB SSD and always short on space.
I've been reading a ton of this thread, but have a question.

I see the XPG SX8200 960GB 3D NAND NVMe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 is currently on sale at a very attractive price, and appears to be

My concern is the thickness of this particular SSD, it's quite a bit thicker than similar capacity Samsungs, but it appears to be enormous value (considering that my MBP will limit throughput to PCI-E 2 lane speeds) and seems to have quite low power consumption.

My question is:

will it work with the Sintech NGFF2013-C long black adapter?

Looking at this thread it seems that everyone using the SX8200 960GB is using a short adapter?

Thoughts?

Works and its pretty good on the power usage side of things so go ahead!

What's the current recommended short adapter?

Sintech large green adapter; not the small black one. Large green or Long black But as mentioned earlier; the long black one works with the aforementioned SX8200 just fine.
[doublepost=1537166706][/doublepost]

Macbook Pro 2014 retina 13'
MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6
Boot ROM: MBP111.0145.B00

Samsung SSD 960 EVO 500GB + Sintech short black adaptor

Applying:
"sudo pmset -a standby 0 hibernatemode 0 autopoweroff 0" ---Trunkz

Before my MBP had problem waking up after long sleep, after applying the command as above, it works perfect!

No battery drain after 8 hours hibernate, still 100% battery.

Go and update your BootRom. You are running an old(er) version! But yes those instructions are intended as a workaround for pre-2015 MBP

 

[Haven2258_123]

Go and update your BootRom. You are running an old(er) version! But yes those instructions are intended as a workaround for pre-2015 MBP

my MBP is currently running the latest High Sierra.
What is the newest BootRom for 13’ MBP 2014 by the way?

 

[ilovejamon]

my MBP is currently running the latest High Sierra.
What is the newest BootRom for 13’ MBP 2014 by the way?

https://eclecticlight.co/2018/06/27/which-efi-firmware-should-your-mac-be-using-version-2/

 

[manjushri]

Hi guys,

I need your help here: I have a Macbook pro late 2013 with a 970 EVO.
I had a CH341a SPI and bought the connector cable from the Korean supplier on ebay.
I set up everything fine: reading the ROM using flashrom from another Mac, modifying it with NVMe driver.

But I cannot write back that file on the ROM. flashrom says "ERASE FAILED".
I even tried with Win 10 on Bootcamp: the CH341A 1.29 program seems to work and write the file. But when I launch the verify step, it fails and says contents are not matching.
I tried all specific steps you showed up-here but still impossible to write.

I feel like not many people here tried this ROM modification.
Can anyone help?
Thanks

Replying to myself:

I found some info on ghostlyhaks forum saying the power button should be pressed all along the read/flash process. It seemed to work for me: Plugging SPI programmer, connecting battery, then power. Pushing power button and keep it pressed all along the read or flash process.

I have not made any retry to see what exactly needs to be done to be able to write. I hope this may help someone who also wants to get proper sleep function with their non-apple SSD.
Thanks to all the guys that started all that and made it possible!

 

[markintosh13]

Works and its pretty good on the power usage side of things so go ahead!

Sintech large green adapter; not the small black one. Large green or Long black But as mentioned earlier; the long black one works with the aforementioned SX8200 just fine.

Just to be sure before i order, do you know this from first hand experience?

 

[NorthCarolina]

Hello all, I am pleased to announce that my installation was successful on an Early 2015 13" Retina MacBook Pro.

The list of items used:

1. Intel 760p 512 GB
2. The ST-NGFF2013-C adapter (long black)
3. This set of tools from Amazon; it has all the bits needed for this model of MacBook, and maybe any or even every.
4. An 8GB (minimum storage recommended, the more, the better) USB to create a bootable USB of High Sierra (10.13.6 is the version I used, which is the latest at the time of this writing). Created by following this video. (edited here, forgot this).
5. External Drives for data backup (HDDs worked fine).

I will list some steps for those who don't have an idea yet of where to start.


Step 1: The Most Important Step!

BACK UP YOUR DATA!
It cannot be over expressed how important this step is.
What I did was create two backups; a Carbon Copy Cloner backup (I used version 5.1.4 as it is updated for High Sierra compatibility) in addition to a normal Time Machine backup.

Step 2: iFixit
After letting the MacBook cool down for about 5-8 minutes I followed iFixit's guide to get the mission started.
I recommend having a can of compressed air as I noticed the inside and bottom plate containing lots of dust and other particles. Furthermore, I recommend air dusting the fan in order to maintain it clean.

Be sure to disconnect the battery!

** I noticed that when installing the SSD into the adapter and screwing it in, it appears to bend slightly (as others have mentioned). I didn't tighten the screw too tight as to potentially bend it too much **
Remember to use the screw included with the adapter, it's longer than the default one.


Step 3: Install and Recover
After closing the lid and all, insert the USB and hold the option/alt key.
Format the SSD to APFS (recommended over HFS as it's faster for SSDs).
After formatting, you should see the SSD on the main menu that you first see when the MacBook boots up.
Install, wait a while, and you're done!


I chose a clean install and did not use the Migration Assistant, so I am slowly adding back all my needed data.


Results: I used the MacBook with the new drive and it definitely has a performance boost, yet marginal battery loss. This is first day reporting, I hear that battery loss is due to caching so I am not super worried as of yet.

• BlackMagic reports 1400/1500 top speeds, compared to 400/~1000.
• I am using iStatMenu to monitor battery consumption. I've noticed that it takes, on average, 0.18A constantly, about three times as before. Again, this may be due to caching. I will report back after some time has passed if any improvements are made.

Update (9/18, 1 day later): I forgot to mention that on the first night I left it to sleep, the battery fell 10% from 100% over a 12-hour sleep period. The second night it remained at 100% for another ~12 hours. Results are looking good still!


Photos:

 

[Trunkz]

Just to be sure before i order, do you know this from first hand experience?

Plenty of folks have that SSD & adapter combo on here; a search will confirm this for you

 

[markintosh13]

Plenty of folks have that SSD & adapter combo on here; a search will confirm this for you

Well that's why I'm asking, I see the SX8200 being used with short non-Sintech adapters, and haven't found such a confirmation from searching.