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

[anDDi]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-EFI-RO...le-MacBook-J6100-SPI-ROM-EFI-ROM/323438231470

My Late 2013 RMBP SSD just died. I'm going to order NVMe M.2 SSD for it, and I really need a reliable laptop so flashing the ROM is in order. The price for this J6100 adapter seems to have gone up (quite a bit from $20!), are there any other options?

 

[Trunkz]

@Trunkz I have bootrom MBP111.0146.B00 which seems to be the latest version for MacBook Pro 13" 2014. I bought the adapter directly from Sintech.cn as I always do. Still the write speed is terrible. The long black Sintech adapter gives even worse speed than the short green. See attached images. What more can I do to get better write speeds?

View attachment 795256 View attachment 795257

Whats your link speed in system report. Also can you check to see if the pins on the adapter are covered; the new(er) version c boards are; the older ones weren't. If its not; put some kapton tape. Several pictures in this thread to show you what I mean.

 

[mbosse]

The Intel 660p is not as hot as the Samsung EVO 960/970. I never had problems without a heatsink. Anyway I don't think you have room for a heatsink. I tried this one and there was not enough room since it builds height. It says 3mm but I feel it is more:
http://eshop.sintech.cn/cooling-heatsink-for-m2-ngff-2280-sm951-sm961-960pro-nvme-ssd-p-1195.html

I just installed Intel 760p that is much cooler than anything I tested before.

How much hotter would a Samsung 960 Pro run compared to an Intel 660p? Thanks, Magnus

 

[amenjas]

Hi i have few questions about upgrading ssd to macbook air 13” early 2015

1. Can we upgrade future mac OS softwares directly to newly replaced ssd without the need of original apple ssd?

2. Will bootcamp for installing windows 10 work fluently as on original apple ssd?

3. Is there any way to install heat sink on third party ssd, Bcoz heat sink itself requires at least 5mm space in macbook air.

4. Is kapton tape really necessary on latest sintech adapter for sheilding from metal connector?

Thnks in advance

 

[majonex]

How much hotter would a Samsung 960 Pro run compared to an Intel 660p? Thanks, Magnus

It is so much hotter that you can hardly touch the running Samsung ssd while you can hold your hand on the Intel 760p. Also the 760p uses half the power as the the 660p. To be honest I would go for the Intel 760p in a MacBook since it draws at least half the power of the 960 Pro and anything over 1000 MB/s is does not have any practical use except copying from/to another just as fast drive. I only use the Samsung EVO 970 in Hacintosh. Even if the EVO 670 500 GB costs now $290 compared to Intel 760p $340 (here in Norway) I would definitely buy the Intel 760p. Speed is not everything

Btw. they say the the EVO 970 is hotter than the EVO 960 because of the increased internal clock. 970 is cheaper here than 960 (and faster).

## sorry I realized now that I maybe did not answer your question I never tested 660p but the 600p was not as hot as the EVO 960 but I thought both were too hot. If you can get hold of a 760p I would recommend it over any other. Or the ADATA like many suggest. The Adata was just more expensive here.

 

[mbosse]

It is so much hotter that you can hardly touch the running Samsung ssd while you can hold your hand on the Intel 760p. Also the 760p uses half the power as the the 660p. To be honest I would go for the Intel 760p in a MacBook since it draws at least half the power of the 960 Pro and anything over 1000 MB/s is does not have any practical use except copying from/to another just as fast drive. I only use the Samsung EVO 970 in Hacintosh. Even if the EVO 670 500 GB costs now $290 compared to Intel 760p $340 (here in Norway) I would definitely buy the Intel 760p. Speed is not everything

Btw. they say the the EVO 970 is hotter than the EVO 960 because of the increased internal clock. 970 is cheaper here than 960 (and faster).

According to Intel specs the 760p uses barely less power than the 660p, correct? Active power both 0.1W, idle power 0.04W vs 0.05W.

 

[majonex]

According to Intel specs the 760p uses barely less power than the 660p, correct? Active power both 0.1W, idle power 0.04W vs 0.05W.

The 760p is advertised as twice the performance and half the power consumption as 600p. So I guess the 660p was an improvement over the 600p. Found some interesting power consumption charts comparing these here:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12349/the-intel-ssd-760p-512gb-review/8
[doublepost=1539690349][/doublepost]

Whats your link speed in system report. Also can you check to see if the pins on the adapter are covered; the new(er) version c boards are; the older ones weren't. If its not; put some kapton tape. Several pictures in this thread to show you what I mean.

Thanks @Trunkz, I posted the pictures on #2163 where you see the insulation on the long black Sintech adapter. Is this enough insulation? Also see the attached link speed. What do you think?
Now this is a MacBook Pro 2014 and according to everymac.com it should be Proprietary* (PCIe 2.0 x2) but indeed it is PCIe 2.0 X4 as you see in the system report. This is the same issue on another MBP exact same model I tested on. On the original Apple SSD (128 GB) I get much better WRITE speeds than on the Intel 760p (which is why I am bugging about this).

 

[mbosse]

The 760p is advertised as twice the performance and half the power consumption as 600p. So I guess the 660p was an improvement over the 600p. Found some interesting power consumption charts comparing these here:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12349/the-intel-ssd-760p-512gb-review/8

In the Anandtech Intel 660p review it shows that the 660p and the 760p have identical thermal characteristics: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13078/the-intel-ssd-660p-ssd-review-qlc-nand-arrives/8

Encouraging!

Cheers,
Magnus

 

[mryesman686]

The Intel 660p is not as hot as the Samsung EVO 960/970. I never had problems without a heatsink. Anyway I don't think you have room for a heatsink. I tried this one and there was not enough room since it builds height. It says 3mm but I feel it is more:
http://eshop.sintech.cn/cooling-heatsink-for-m2-ngff-2280-sm951-sm961-960pro-nvme-ssd-p-1195.html

I just installed Intel 760p that is much cooler than anything I tested before.

Thankyou, since you have experience on the 660p, do you remember the speed of read & write on the mac? i'm seriously to think to buy it, since 660p have good price on 2TB , and i do heavy photo editing for wedding photography. speed is not very top issue but i hope it won't slower then the apple original ssd m2

Thanks

 

[wolva]

Thats not what I said Please re-read. I'll condense my points for you again:

1. If you have a 2015+ model; pop in any Apple SSD to have it run out of the box. SSPOLARIS drives will require that your bootrom is sufficiently up-to-date to support NVMe drives.

2. If you have a 2015+ model; pop in any NVMe SSD drive with the correct Sintech adapter and it will run out of the box. The same bootrom requirement is applicable as (1)

3. If you have a pre-2015 model; pop in an Apple SSD with the SSUA or SSUBX serial-prefix to have it run out of the box. No hibernation issues occur as these are not NVMe drives. No bootrom requirements are applicable here.

4. If you have a pre-2015 model; pop in an Apple SSPOLARIS NVMe drive. These require your bootrom to be sufficiently up-to-date to boot. Now hibernation will not work correctly unless the following is done:

a. You must patch your bootrom with an updated NVMe driver taken out of a 2015 MBP. Search the thread for instructions. This requires a hardware programmer to flash the bootrom. Once you have the bootrom patched; you will be able to native hibernation (i.e. as if you've got a 2015 MBP)

b. You can workaround the hibernation issue by simply turning it off via pmset. The downside is increased battery usage when 'sleeping'.​

5. If you have a pre-2015 model; pop in any NVMe drive with the correct Sintech adapter. These require your bootrom to be sufficiently up-to-date to boot. Now hibernation will not work correctly unless the following is done:

a. You must patch your bootrom with an updated NVMe driver taken out of a 2015 MBP. Search the thread for instructions. This requires a hardware programmer to flash the bootrom. Once you have the bootrom patched; you will be able to native hibernation (i.e. as if you've got a 2015 MBP)

b. You can workaround the hibernation issue by simply turning it off via pmset. The downside is increased battery usage when 'sleeping'.​

Hi Trunkz,

I have Mid 2014 15" with ssd samsung 970 512gb running bootrom MBP112.0146.B00, do you know if is required to patch the bootrom to fix the hibernation issues?

if yes (i think so, because I still have this issue) can you share the post? because I have searched in this topic but I didn't find it, many pages and many post using bootrom keyword.

Thank you

 

[AJBadenhorst]

H

 

[filand]

Sharing my set up:

• MacBook Air 11 Mid-2013
• Adapter: CY M.2 NGFF M-Key AHCI SSD to 12+16pin 2014 2015 Macbook Convert Card for A1493 A1502 A1465 A1466
• NVMe SSD: WD Black NVMe SSD (500GB)

Performance increase shown in attached images.

 

[mattlabbe]

Hi mattlabbe,

I'm sorry but you should send back your adapter and SSD and ask for a refund...
The adapter you have is clearly a "cableCC - chengyang" one, which is well known to not have the proper wiring and being incompatible with NVMe drives, deep sleep, etc.
Cable CC adapters have been found having kernel panics / reboot issues a year ago, oldest post is #396

Some contributors did found that cableCC /sintech rev.A adapters have incorrect wirings : #534
Only sintech ST-NGFF2013-B and ST-NGFF2013-C adapters have the good wirings. #767
Sintech ST-NGFF2013-A and CableCC adapters should be retired from sale.

I think that, as of today in 2018, selling kits with NVMe SSD and cableCC adapters on eBay is at least a big mistake.
This shows clearly a lack of knowledge at least.
You should simply ask the seller for a refund and you can send him directly a link to this thread..

Also, it is recommanded to have insulating tape on the connectors to prevent them from being in touch with the metal shield of the motherbord connector :#659 #671

Hey again Gilles,

thanks for the definitive answer!

I have messaged the seller and they are telling me that the drive I was mis-shipped was not only the wrong SSD, but had an older adapter than they usually ship. I messaged them back asking to confirm the adapter brand and model as well as what Samsung drive I would actually receive. Apologies, but do you have an updated compatibility chart of various SSD brands and models?

I think I will brave an exchange with them since their combo with a Samsung drive is cheaper than I could get on my own where I am.

One more thing, is it normal for the drive to overhang the standoff like I had pictured? How tight should one apply the bolt to the drive since it exceeds the standoff?

Thanks again!

 

[solemgar]

Hi everyone. Having terrible sleep drain on the sx8200 (default pmset settings, running on Mojave) like 50% drain over 12 hours. Anyone else with the same? (Power nap is disabled). MacBook is 13 early 2015 model.

I will go back to regular hibernation mode in the meantime.

These are my current settings:

root# pmset -g

System-wide power settings:

Currently in use:

lidwake 1

autopoweroff 1

standbydelayhigh 86400

autopoweroffdelay 28800

proximitywake 0

standby 1

standbydelaylow 10800

ttyskeepawake 1

hibernatemode 3

powernap 0

gpuswitch 2

hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage

Standby Battery Threshold 50

displaysleep 15

sleep 15 (sleep prevented by backupd)

acwake 0

halfdim 1

tcpkeepalive 1

disksleep 10

 

[majonex]

Hi everyone. Having terrible sleep drain on the sx8200 (default pmset settings, running on Mojave) like 50% drain over 12 hours. Anyone else with the same? (Power nap is disabled). MacBook is 13 early 2015 model.

I will go back to regular hibernation mode in the meantime.

These are my current settings:

root# pmset -g

System-wide power settings:

Currently in use:

lidwake 1

autopoweroff 1

standbydelayhigh 86400

autopoweroffdelay 28800

proximitywake 0

standby 1

standbydelaylow 10800

ttyskeepawake 1

hibernatemode 3

powernap 0

gpuswitch 2

hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage

Standby Battery Threshold 50

displaysleep 15

sleep 15 (sleep prevented by backupd)

acwake 0

halfdim 1

tcpkeepalive 1

disksleep 10

Have you tried to turn off TimeMachine and/or log off your iCloud account? I have been testing with the Intel 760p which apart from terrible write speed, that I am trying to solve. I have tested on a fresh Mojave install, no iCloud connection. Just closed the lid with several open programs and overnight lost 2% power. Would be interested to hear if this helps as I read that the Adata SX8200 and Intel 760p probably are the best alternatives concerning power usage.

 

[solemgar]

Have you tried to turn off TimeMachine and/or log off your iCloud account? I have been testing with the Intel 760p which apart from terrible write speed, that I am trying to solve. I have tested on a fresh Mojave install, no iCloud connection. Just closed the lid with several open programs and overnight lost 2% power. Would be interested to hear if this helps as I read that the Adata SX8200 and Intel 760p probably are the best alternatives concerning power usage.

Haven't tried to disable the iCloud connection, will check on that. Time machine I would rather not since is the only means of backup I have. I read that some people are having sleep drains with Mojave just after upgrading so not sure if this is due the disk or any app installed.

 

[gilles_polysoft]

Hi everyone. Having terrible sleep drain on the sx8200 (default pmset settings, running on Mojave) like 50% drain over 12 hours. Anyone else with the same? (Power nap is disabled). MacBook is 13 early 2015 model.
[...]
sleep 15 (sleep prevented by backupd)

Hello,
Your problem should be simply that your MacBook Pro 13 has not yet finished it's first time machine ?
In general, just after a SSD change battery drain is high because of Spotlight (process=mdworker) having to reindex everything, and Time Machine to restart the backup from 0
[doublepost=1539781391][/doublepost]

Hey again Gilles,

thanks for the definitive answer!

I have messaged the seller and they are telling me that the drive I was mis-shipped was not only the wrong SSD, but had an older adapter than they usually ship. I messaged them back asking to confirm the adapter brand and model as well as what Samsung drive I would actually receive. Apologies, but do you have an updated compatibility chart of various SSD brands and models?!

Yes, here it is, note that this is a draft... I have some measures to verify, and I've in the process of testing every SSD power consumption. At the present I only measured full idle power consumption of a 2013 retina 13", with the BootRom patch applied... I've a lot of work to do further tests :
- measure the NVMe SSD consumptions without BootRom patch
- measure precisely the consumptions of the SSD in idle, full write, full read (iStat menus doesn't provide accurate data, I think I need to make hardware measures)
- because a lot of SSDs have TLC with SLC cache, I will re-test write speeds in shot tests (1 GB) where we measure SLC cache speed, and long >100GB test where some SSDs are terribly slow (eg. the 660p which downs to 50 MB/sec !) and other ones behave well (of course, all MLC SSDs).

 

[erudyne]

I have a MBP mid-2014 with a EVO 960 that I have installed Mojave on, and so far everything is working fine (except hibernation). I set hibernatemode to 0 for that.

I'm not seeming to have power consumption and heat issues that other people are reporting. SSD temperature seems to cap out at about 100 deg F under moderate use. I didn't test it when I was benchmarking or anything. Otherwise I get about 4-5 hours battery under constant network/hard drive load and lose about 5% overnight on sleep. That's about in line with my expectations. I haven't checked how many hours I get if I disable sleep and just let the thing idle until death.

I was thinking about non-hacky ways to fix hibernation. Could we store the hibernation file on an SD card or USB module? Do the storage drivers for either of those load at wakeup before the file is read?

EDIT: Now that I think about it for a while, that probably wouldn't work. I can't think of a way you would express the path that doesn't reference the ssd filesystem for one.

 

[mryesman686]

Except intel 660p (CAD$450) , is that any option for 2TB ? around $500? what you think to get the SAMSUNG 970 EVO M.2 2280 1TB (CAD$3xx) , does it has huge different between 660p and 970 evo on the speed? i currently using 256GB and it always show the low storage memory warning.

 

[solemgar]

Hello,
Your problem should be simply that your MacBook Pro 13 has not yet finished it's first time machine ?
In general, just after a SSD change battery drain is high because of Spotlight (process=mdworker) having to reindex everything, and Time Machine to restart the backup from 0
[doublepost=1539781391][/doublepost]

Yes, here it is, note that this is a draft... I have some measures to verify, and I've in the process of testing every SSD power consumption. At the present I only measured full idle power consumption of a 2013 retina 13", with the BootRom patch applied... I've a lot of work to do further tests :
- measure the NVMe SSD consumptions without BootRom patch
- measure precisely the consumptions of the SSD in idle, full write, full read (iStat menus doesn't provide accurate data, I think I need to make hardware measures)
- because a lot of SSDs have TLC with SLC cache, I will re-test write speeds in shot tests (1 GB) where we measure SLC cache speed, and long >100GB test where some SSDs are terribly slow (eg. the 660p which downs to 50 MB/sec !) and other ones behave well (of course, all MLC SSDs).

View attachment 795796

Will wait a couple of days more and see if the issue goes away.
[doublepost=1539803799][/doublepost]BTW, this is the only I see in the pmset logs:

18-10-17 18:05:07 +0200 Assertions PID 67(powerd) TimedOut InternalPreventSleep "com.apple.powermanagement.darkwakelinger" 00:00:15 id:0x0xd000093b7 [System: DeclUser SRPrevSleep kCPU kDisp]

2018-10-17 18:05:07 +0200 Sleep Entering Sleep state due to 'Clamshell Sleep':TCPKeepAlive=inactive Using Batt (Charge:100%) 10755 secs

2018-10-17 18:05:10 +0200 Wake Requests [*proc=powerd request=TCPKATurnOff inDelta=43257]

2018-10-17 18:05:10 +0200 PM Client Acks Delays to Sleep notifications: [com.apple.apsd is slow(3004 ms)]

2018-10-17 21:04:17 +0200 Kernel Client Acks Delays to Sleep notifications: [AppleIntelFramebuffer driver is slow(msg: SetState to 1)(442 ms)] [powerd is slow(3007 ms)] [AppleThunderboltNHIType2 driver is slow(msg: WillChangeState to 2)(363 ms)] [RP03 driver is slow(msg: SetState to 0)(1105 ms)]

2018-10-17 21:04:17 +0200 Assertions Kernel Idle sleep preventers: IODisplayWrangler

2018-10-17 21:04:17 +0200 Notification Display is turned on

2018-10-17 21:04:17 +0200 Assertions PID 169(mDNSResponder) Created MaintenanceWake "mDNSResponder:maintenance" 00:00:00 id:0x0xd000093da [System: PrevIdle DeclUser kDisp]

2018-10-17 21:04:17 +0200 Assertions PID 169(mDNSResponder) Released MaintenanceWake "mDNSResponder:maintenance" 00:00:00 id:0x0xd000093da [System: PrevIdle DeclUser kDisp]

2018-10-17 21:04:22 +0200 Wake Wake from Deep Idle [CDNVA] due to EC.LidOpen/UserActivity Assertion: Using BATT (Charge:93%)

2018-10-17 21:04:22 +0200 HibernateStats hibmode=3 standbydelay=10800 rd=297 ms

2018-10-17 21:04:22 +0200 Kernel Client Acks Delays to Wake notifications: [AppleIntelFramebuffer driver is slow(msg: SetState to 2)(415 ms)] [AirPort_BrcmNIC driver is slow(msg: SetState to 2)(302 ms)] [com_apple_driver_AppleUSBCardReaderDriverNub driver is slow(msg: SetState to 2)(2152 ms)] [com_apple_driver_AppleUSBCardReaderSBC driver is slow(msg: SetState to 2)(3219 ms)]

=================

2018-10-17 21:13:05 +0200 : Showing all currently held IOKit power assertions

Assertion status system-wide:

BackgroundTask 0

ApplePushServiceTask 0

UserIsActive 1

PreventUserIdleDisplaySleep 0

PreventSystemSleep 0

ExternalMedia 1

PreventUserIdleSystemSleep 1

NetworkClientActive 0

Listed by owning process:

pid 67(powerd): [0x0000000500088002] 47:40:31 ExternalMedia named: "com.apple.powermanagement.externalmediamounted"

pid 255(mds_stores): [0x00012946000b94c6] 00:01:39 BackgroundTask named: "com.apple.metadata.mds_stores.power"

pid 349(sharingd): [0x0001284f0001949c] 00:05:46 PreventUserIdleSystemSleep named: "Handoff"

pid 7849(backupd): [0x000127b900019377] 00:08:16 PreventUserIdleSystemSleep named: "Time Machine backup"

pid 7849(backupd): [0x000127b9000b9376] 00:08:16 BackgroundTask named: "Time Machine backup"

pid 109(hidd): [0x0000ad2f0009a7c6] 00:00:00 UserIsActive named: "com.apple.iohideventsystem.queue.tickle.4294969606.3"

Timeout will fire in 3599 secs Action=TimeoutActionRelease

Kernel Assertions: 0x108=BT-HID,MAGICWAKE

id=502 level=255 0x100=MAGICWAKE mod=17/10/2018, 21:06 description=en0 owner=en0

id=513 level=255 0x8=BT-HID mod=01/01/1970, 01:00 description=com.apple.driver.IOBluetoothHIDDriver owner=AppleHSBluetoothDevice

Idle sleep preventers: IODisplayWrangler


Nothing really happened in the meantime, but the battery drain was 7% in just 4 hours

 

[solemgar]

Tonight same thing 30% drain. Going back to regular hibernate as I can't reinstall the whole OS now.

 

[majonex]

Hello,
Your problem should be simply that your MacBook Pro 13 has not yet finished it's first time machine ?
In general, just after a SSD change battery drain is high because of Spotlight (process=mdworker) having to reindex everything, and Time Machine to restart the backup from 0
[doublepost=1539781391][/doublepost]

Yes, here it is, note that this is a draft... I have some measures to verify, and I've in the process of testing every SSD power consumption. At the present I only measured full idle power consumption of a 2013 retina 13", with the BootRom patch applied... I've a lot of work to do further tests :
- measure the NVMe SSD consumptions without BootRom patch
- measure precisely the consumptions of the SSD in idle, full write, full read (iStat menus doesn't provide accurate data, I think I need to make hardware measures)
- because a lot of SSDs have TLC with SLC cache, I will re-test write speeds in shot tests (1 GB) where we measure SLC cache speed, and long >100GB test where some SSDs are terribly slow (eg. the 660p which downs to 50 MB/sec !) and other ones behave well (of course, all MLC SSDs).

View attachment 795796

Great work as always @gilles_polysoft! Very interesting as I have tested most of these drives but not the ADATA. I wonder why on Intel 760p I only get write speed og max 500 MB/s while I get 1300 MB/s when I install it in a PC. In BlackMagic the write speed jumps initially up to 1300 but then drops down to 240 at the worst. I was hoping to replace the EVO 970 with something less power hungry and still good speeds. As I wrote earlier I get better speed with the short green Sintech than the long black version C.

 

[daniele_zing]

As of today ... what's the situation about the nvme ROM patch for a MacBook Pro 13 retina late 2013?
Is still using an external hardware programmer the only option ... or is it possible to use some software to reprogram the boot rom??

 

[chnapo]

Hi guys, I just bought Kingston A1000 480gb and adapter and wanted to upgrade my Air, but it is not shown in recovery, disk utility and it does not show in Mojave install as well. Any ideas what could be wrong?

 

[heartmycorolla]

Hi guys,

Been following this thread for some time and decided to get myself an adapter since i've got given a macbook air 2013 and i have an intel nvme drive laying around.

I've formatted the NVME to APFS, and while selecting the installation destination, it won't allow me to select the NVME drive, saying it needs a firmware update in order to use APFS and ask me to format it as HFS+.
I've been trying to install Mojave/High sierra but it restarts itself 4 minutes after it began to install...
After a bit of digging the mac was running Mavericks.

So my question is, how can I update the SMC firmware and bootrom while not having a working operating system/official mac ssd?

Is it possible to perform a fresh install, through the macbook air, with an external hdd, hence update the firmware and bootrom?

Cheers

Update.
Yeh Nah.... even with an external HDD, the installation could not complete. It'll just restart back to the installation page.