SATA Cable Problem in MacBook Pro's

maflynn said:

Tbh, I never heard of a cable going bad as much as I'm starting to see here. Odd. I worked in a computer store back in the day and we repaired computers and built PCs for sale as well. I think in all my years working their we had maybe two computers with a bad drive cable

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I used to think it was nonsense too. I used to visit the Apple Support Communities web site and when some people started posting about it I demanded proof because I just figured these were one-off or obscure problems that rarely happened. Finally some guy came in and verbally beat me up for doubting it because he had his replaced three times in less than two years. As time progressed I saw more and more.

Cable failures can happen but they're typically not common. Years ago I worked on Unix servers with SCSC interfaces and for some reason some of them just loved to develop cable problems too. The symptoms were always similar if not identical to a bad hard drive. The nice thing about them, though, was that they were flat ribbon cables and a lot of times the crimp connector that held the cable in would just lose contact with one of the wires and you could just replace the cable or easily recrimp it in a few minutes.

FYI, Apple, on some of their systems, requires replacing the SATA cable if the drive is changed. I think it's MacBook Air's that use the ZIF type connectors. I think it's posted on iFixit.com but I'm not sure. In that case, if I recall correctly, the cable isn't even really a cable, but more like the types of cables, if you can call them that, that were used internally on older systems like PowerBooks and iBooks using IDE. The wires are actually etched onto a flex cable in a weird pattern that I assume allows the cable to have an impedance similar to that of a normal SATA cable. It surprises me that we haven't heard more about them failing, especially with a ZIF connector, but I don't see a swath of posts about them, so I guess it works.

My girlfriends 2010 MacBook Pro was having the same issues and she was about to order a new SATA cable until I read the posts about insulating the cable. I just applied some electrical tape to the inside of the removable case bottom where the cable was located and sure enough it booted right up. Before you go spending 30ish bucks on a new cable, buy a roll of electrical tape for a dollar and try this.

I think I have the same problem, however, my MBP is acting very odd. I mean, for example, if I barely hover over any of the menus or apps on the top they'll automatically drop down the menu that it is. I am thinking of calling tech support again tomorrow if I have time to myself. That way, I won't inconvenience anyone by taking me to some mac repair shop and going back in a few days if it takes longer than a day to fix. (I have to find a new one somewhere. The one I went to changed what they service....)

Does anyone have any app that can check for a faulty HDD or even any other vital part that could go bad? I just have the black magic disk speed test app and the readings that matter to me are pretty bad.

I talked to tech support yesterday. After screen sharing with my MBP, even the two technicians were stumped. I did something by their suggestion and was asked to use my MBP as normal for a few days and get in touch with them in a few days and go on from there.

Currently, I still can't get a HDD reading at all. (I mean what's on the color-coded bar.) I haven't checked the black magic speed test, but I don't anticipate any better readings.

(BTW. For the person who said just apply electrical tape. That might be an option, but I have at least two people in my life that can fix this with a better option if need be.)

Hey guys, think I may have just encountered this issue on my MBP 13" mid/late 2011.

Have a 1tb Samsung SSD inside that I installed maybe 10 months to a year ago, no issues, working flawlessly. A few occasional glitchy boots over the 12 months, but I'm talking literally maybe 2 in 10-12 months, of multiple boots a day, so I don't think there was any issue before.

Closed it down this morning, took a walk to work with it in my rucksack in its neoprene case, ended up not using it, walked home, went to boot and had the flashing folder with the question mark.

After much panic (I'd literally JUST finished sorting 500 gb of music on musicbrainz yesterday and hadn't made progressive back ups, and I'm a DJ) about the SSD being just dead (which I guess it still might be), and a opening up the MBP to check the cables were sound and all that, I stumbled upon a lot of information about the cable issue.

Back inside the MBP I went, lifted the ribbon cable and lo and behold on the underside (on the outer part of the right angle where it bends and sits flush with the casing) it seems to be worn white/silver in a straight line over maybe 60-70% of the ribbon.

Don't have any electrical tape to hand and as it seems to have worn through multiple internal cables (it appears anyway) I'm not sure it would be entirely helpful as I feel it may be more worn than just needing insulated.

Basically just posting to hopefully have a few people put my mind at ease and say "oh man yeah, it's more than likely the cable" because it's too late at night to do anything about it and I'll probably just stress myself out.

Thoughts?
[doublepost=1476735930][/doublepost]Also for clarity, I didn't sort 500gb of music yesterday, I just finished months and months of slow progressive work on that yesterday.

Please put my mind at ease, so I can sleep less fitfully tonight.
[doublepost=1476736144][/doublepost]Also I tried restore but the disc repair app within doesn't recognise the drive at all, not the Windows bootcamp partition or the OS X one, which makes me think that this is definitely hardware one way or another.

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Thank you for your advice! I ended up trying it in my external SATA USB dock after; A) It sporadically just booted B) I remembered I had one.

It boots and runs without issue when booted from the USB caddy, which is a massive relief!

Going to try my luck at Stormfront UK, the authorised Apple dealer, today citing some of the things you've said. If not, I guess it's buy a third party one online and install it myself! This is where I get annoyed about proprietary cables and connection types, but them's the breaks as a trade off against design/form factor I guess. It somewhat peeves me to hear some people be advised by Apple that their drive is irreparably dead though, when as far as I can tell and from what's been said; this is a known issue, far from a rare occurrence and easily diagnosable with a USB caddy, other machine or spare cable.

Thanks for the advice iMacC2D, it's much appreciated! I will report back when all is resolved.

Homelesskitty said:

Thank you for your advice! I ended up trying it in my external SATA USB dock after; A) It sporadically just booted B) I remembered I had one.

It boots and runs without issue when booted from the USB caddy, which is a massive relief!

Going to try my luck at Stormfront UK, the authorised Apple dealer, today citing some of the things you've said. If not, I guess it's buy a third party one online and install it myself! This is where I get annoyed about proprietary cables and connection types, but them's the breaks as a trade off against design/form factor I guess. It somewhat peeves me to hear some people be advised by Apple that their drive is irreparably dead though, when as far as I can tell and from what's been said; this is a known issue, far from a rare occurrence and easily diagnosable with a USB caddy, other machine or spare cable.

Thanks for the advice iMacC2D, it's much appreciated! I will report back when all is resolved.

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Just confirming that the insulations works perfectly as well. After almost 10 months the machine is working absolutely fine. Thanks guys for the tips.

Do any of you use the DriveDX app? I might get some (offline) help this weekend. I just need to know what I am looking at. When I got to go to the apple store. I had a bracket replaced without a new cable that connects it to where it goes.

a-m-k said:

Do any of you use the DriveDX app? I might get some (offline) help this weekend. I just need to know what I am looking at. When I got to go to the apple store. I had a bracket replaced without a new cable that connects it to where it goes. View attachment 673639

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After almost twice a months of buying HDD cable replacement in Ebay, I finally found a permanent solution for this problem.

One time I suddenly tried to look for this hdd cable replacement in Lazada, since eBay is already getting costly, I found this Generic Apple Macbook Pro Unibody 2nd Hdd Ssd Sata Hard Drive Caddy Optibay Superdrive

It's a caddy, additional drive for MacBook pro using DVD Rom drive of your mac. What a bright Idea, I never use my DVD drive so what the heck, I bought it and now Its permanent. I am using this caddy and install my SSD drive into it and remove my DVD Drive. DONE!!! FIXED!!! Hope this helps...

Are these connectors standard? After my third failure in the 2010 13" MBP, two with the cable tightly bandaged in electrical tape, I am seeking a permanent solution.

If the connectors are standard another cable, possibly with higher quality, could be adopted.

Looks like these sata cables are custom designed for apple as it also carries power for the front led.

You are right. I don't care about the front LED though. The SATA connector is standard. Is the logic board connector standard also?

I am thinking of using a late-2012 MBP cable. It seems like those have less issues and they look different, possibly redesigned.

The end of the cable that connects to the motherboard is definitely proprietary.

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iMacC2D said:

It's a flat locking solid platform connector, so not standard SATA, although the signals are standard.

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Dang.

The 13-inch Mid 2012 was the last MacBook Pro model to use a hard drive cable - the Late 2012 was a Retina. Could it be the 15-inch Mid 2012 cable you're referring to? Those are different, albeit similar, but they aren't a direct fit. The stepped portion of the cable extends over the speaker assembly in the 15-inch instead of over the optical drive in the 13-inch, which does make them more reliable, but also a different shape and length.

https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Mac/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Unibody-Mid-2012-Hard-Drive-Cable/IF161-100-1

Still installing these replacement cables regularly unfortunately, even after Apple has supposedly revised the part three times with new part numbers. The replacements look and feel identical to the originals (and fail in the same way as the originals), so I suspect Apple may intend to just keep replacing them until the clock runs out on these machines and they enter vintage or obsolete product status.

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You're right, I was referring to the mid-2012 13" non-retina unibody.

The computer is great, the only problem is these stupid HDD cables. I've had three fail on my 2010 13". I've found that when they start to fail, wrapping them in electrical tape can extend their lives for a year or so until they completely die.

It must be heat that kills them.

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The source of the issue is interesting to me. It does seem to be physical, because I've often had problems (delayed startup, strange performance issues) after physically moving the notebook. I suspect it is the cable at fault.

In addition, I've also had touchpad issues such as the mouse not showing up after a restart. Perhaps that cable is also on the way out.

Next time I buy a new cable, I am going to cover every mm in insulation and see what happens.

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Hopefully someone will investigate whether it is viable to produce an aftermarket replacement part, because this seems to be the only way to guarantee the reliability of these systems.

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I also hope this occurs. FWIW, the aftermarket cable I had failed the fastest.

This was an interesting post from Apple's forums.

My company provides repair services for Apple equipment. Failure of the internal drive ribbon cables in Unibody notebooks is somewhat common - we see about 1 failed cable per month. While no one knows for sure why they fail, our hypothesis is that repeated heating and cooling causes the spring-loaded pins on the logic board side of the cable to loose tension, eventually resulting in a poor or high-resistance coupling.



Like some posters here, we have replaced multiple cables in the same machines, and the one thing these machines have had in common is that they are used frequently and are very mobile - as opposed to being used predominantly on a desk. To save affected users reading this some time and aggravation, we've tried numerous methods to salvage these cables to no avail. When they fail, replacement seems to be the only remedy. The cable costs about $30 and can be replaced fairly easily if you're comfortable dissembling your notebook (and out of warranty). If having a shop perform the job, you should not be charged for more than 30 minutes labor.



Hope this helps,



John G

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If this was true, I feel like the optical drive cable would also fail as frequently which doesn't seem to be the case.

Yes, it makes that optical cable would fail to since both motherboard connections are so close to each other.

Seems that my 13" Macbook Pro mid-2012's SATA cable gave up few days ago aswell. Machine froze, then didn't want to boot up anymore. Was unable to reinstall macOS or partition the drive. I suspected the RAM at first but AHT extended test gave me 4HDD/11/40000004:SATA(0,0). So I tried an old HDD inplace of the SSD and the HDD worked. Sent the SSD to warranty and got a new SSD but that didn't fix the issue. SSD worked fine in an USB enclosure. Also tried insulating the cable but no luck. After insulating I wasn't even possible to boot up with the old HDD at first. Removed the insulation and at least got my Macbook to work again.
Ordered a 3rd party SATA cable from Amazon. It should arrive in a few days. Let's hope this fixes the issue. Using HDD is kind of painful.

I too have had HDDs work better with a bad HDD cable than an SSD. I don't know why.

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iMacC2D said:

I suspect the reason HDDs work when SSDs don't is because HDDs often negotiate a slower link speed and transmit data on the bus slower than an SSD. When the signal is degraded, sending data at a slower throughput may work, but increase it to the kind of read and write speeds the average SSD can produce, and the signal degrades to the point where it simply doesn't work.

That's a theory, at least.

I'm considering experimenting with making replacement cables from standard insulated ribbon cable, same as the 80-conductor IDE cables of yesteryear. The drive connector is low profile SATA power and data, the connector on the Logic Board is a Molex connector, possibly a SlimStack fine-pitch 22-circuit board-to-board connector. The hardest part is building the solid platform to solder the connector and wires to, although I don't see why a business specialising in printed circuits wouldn't be able to make something suitable.

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Sounds logical. My system info showed link speed 6gb/s but negotiated link speed 3gb/s.
Seems to me like the HDD is faster even in an USB 3.0 enclosure.