unfortunately these owc drives still use crappy sandforce controllers. so they can still fail like all the mac air toshiba sandforce ones that have been failing. almost all within 14 months. it seems the only safe way to avoid the failing issue again is to purchase a samsung drive either from ebay or a reseller.
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OWC SSD "Upgrade" 2012 Macbook Air - Buyer Beware
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It's not the Sandforce controller failing, as I believe they're used on the Sandisk too. Sandforce is actually quite good...
The sandisk SSD's in our MBA's thankfully use Marvell controllers, not sand force.
Courtesy of ifixit.com, the SSD in the middle is a Sandisk 128gb module pulled from a 2013 MBA 11.
Notice the Marvell controller.
Been through many SSD drives over the last 4 years. Not one Intel, Samsung, Marvell controlled SSD failure, but have had several Sandforce based drives from several manufacturers die on me.
A few things.
Do you go to restaurants and see a bunch of 1 star reviews posted on the wall?
DODGY is a company that offers macrumors $5000 to remove all threads badmouthing OWC.
INSANITY is allowing scarring, bad reviews of a product to be featured on the product's sale page.
BUSINESS SENSE is only having positive information about the product on the product page.
You probably won't see Obama being eulogized by Ann Coulter, nor will you walk into a restaurant or a bar with a ton of 1 star editorials on the wall. Toyota dealerships don't advertise that cars with faulty computers had nonfunctioning brakes that killed Americans. This is all fair game. On one's own turf, they can hide bad reviews.
Is it dodgy for any type of ad press to be silenced? Yes. But that's not what's being done here.
That's five people. Maybe even ten by the time of this post. Out of thousands, tens of thousands of this product that have been sold. This is not a real sample size to determine a problem.
Of course people have problems. And when you have a thread discussing a problem, all the "me too!!" people will flock to it, to say, yes, I had that problem as well. This is to be expected, because it's a mass manufactured product. Anytime you do something in volume, you have lots of pissed off people. This does not make it true. What we see are the complaints, what we don't see are the thousands of other happy users, because they aren't registering to say "I didn't have a problem, it worked" on macrumors.
For all we know this SSD is a steaming pile of *******. I'm not defending OWC, I'm stating that FIVE PEOPLE'S complaints is not a damning death sentence to the product. It means five people claim to have a problem with it.
Another business reality to break out here.
99.9% of the electronics you buy have never been tested before you turn them on.
This is the ONLY way to compete in an industry where every cent matters. Where you have to buy a $120 product and sell it for $130 w/ free shipping to compete.
Look at the financials for some electronics retailers. Newegg will gross 2.4 billion and net maybe 20-25 million off of that. This is under 1% profit margin. 1% profit margin does not mean you can hire a tester to open every single product and test it.
If you want to damn every company that does not personally test products before shipping them to you, go back to spending $7000 on an HDTV or $12,000 on a computer. We as a society have decided we would rather have cheap and hope we're in the 99% of the lucky than spend tons of money to have a 100% guarantee that we'll be happy the first time. It's a good compromise.
adcurtin has many posts in this thread. I am going to simplify it for anyone who hasn't gotten far enough to read all of them.
Some people get free screwdrivers and think "thank you!"
Some people get free screwdrivers and complain, "AND THEY'RE NOT EVEN LABELED?!!!"
He is telling you that he is the latter. What OWCgrant wants to say, but unfortunately would get fired for wording it like that, is It is not a stretch that someone who can barely tell torx from pentalobe can't plug an SSD in all the way.
ust read the above - he is complaining about the labels on the free screwdrivers.
IMO, it is a good idea to post a basic set of advice to ease customer concerns and present one's side of the story professionally. This is what OWCgrant did. Once people start trolling about your unlabeled screwdrivers, just call it a day.
I think OWCgrant has done an excellent job of biting his tongue in spite of some of the asinine crap in this thread, and think it's great that they actually give a damn about their image enough to reach out & try to solve problems on public forums. OCZ used to(and probably still does) this, and it's why a ton of people owned nothing but OWC memory & power supplies 2005-2010.. same here. DFI raked in money in the mid 2000s off the lanparty boards because people knew they could go to DFI-street and get support for their products.
Do you go to restaurants and see a bunch of 1 star reviews posted on the wall?
DODGY is a company that offers macrumors $5000 to remove all threads badmouthing OWC.
INSANITY is allowing scarring, bad reviews of a product to be featured on the product's sale page.
BUSINESS SENSE is only having positive information about the product on the product page.
You probably won't see Obama being eulogized by Ann Coulter, nor will you walk into a restaurant or a bar with a ton of 1 star editorials on the wall. Toyota dealerships don't advertise that cars with faulty computers had nonfunctioning brakes that killed Americans. This is all fair game. On one's own turf, they can hide bad reviews.
Is it dodgy for any type of ad press to be silenced? Yes. But that's not what's being done here.
That's five people. Maybe even ten by the time of this post. Out of thousands, tens of thousands of this product that have been sold. This is not a real sample size to determine a problem.
Of course people have problems. And when you have a thread discussing a problem, all the "me too!!" people will flock to it, to say, yes, I had that problem as well. This is to be expected, because it's a mass manufactured product. Anytime you do something in volume, you have lots of pissed off people. This does not make it true. What we see are the complaints, what we don't see are the thousands of other happy users, because they aren't registering to say "I didn't have a problem, it worked" on macrumors.
For all we know this SSD is a steaming pile of *******. I'm not defending OWC, I'm stating that FIVE PEOPLE'S complaints is not a damning death sentence to the product. It means five people claim to have a problem with it.
Another business reality to break out here.
99.9% of the electronics you buy have never been tested before you turn them on.
This is the ONLY way to compete in an industry where every cent matters. Where you have to buy a $120 product and sell it for $130 w/ free shipping to compete.
Look at the financials for some electronics retailers. Newegg will gross 2.4 billion and net maybe 20-25 million off of that. This is under 1% profit margin. 1% profit margin does not mean you can hire a tester to open every single product and test it.
If you want to damn every company that does not personally test products before shipping them to you, go back to spending $7000 on an HDTV or $12,000 on a computer. We as a society have decided we would rather have cheap and hope we're in the 99% of the lucky than spend tons of money to have a 100% guarantee that we'll be happy the first time. It's a good compromise.
adcurtin has many posts in this thread. I am going to simplify it for anyone who hasn't gotten far enough to read all of them.
Some people get free screwdrivers and think "thank you!"
Some people get free screwdrivers and complain, "AND THEY'RE NOT EVEN LABELED?!!!"
He is telling you that he is the latter. What OWCgrant wants to say, but unfortunately would get fired for wording it like that, is It is not a stretch that someone who can barely tell torx from pentalobe can't plug an SSD in all the way.
ust read the above - he is complaining about the labels on the free screwdrivers.
IMO, it is a good idea to post a basic set of advice to ease customer concerns and present one's side of the story professionally. This is what OWCgrant did. Once people start trolling about your unlabeled screwdrivers, just call it a day.
I think OWCgrant has done an excellent job of biting his tongue in spite of some of the asinine crap in this thread, and think it's great that they actually give a damn about their image enough to reach out & try to solve problems on public forums. OCZ used to(and probably still does) this, and it's why a ton of people owned nothing but OWC memory & power supplies 2005-2010.. same here. DFI raked in money in the mid 2000s off the lanparty boards because people knew they could go to DFI-street and get support for their products.
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i have had a 480gb retina ssd from owc and i measure temperatures of 57C with a laser therm. on the surface of the memory chips.
this is the 3rd ssd replacement i have had.
your ssd's do not last , my company has 6 of them and 4 have been returned 1 time each and mine 3 times.
its been ok , i pay 30$ to ship it there every time so i am into almost 100$ in returns on my already expensive 750$ drive.
most would call it quits by now.
Sandforce is absolute junk... just say no to them. People use them cuz they're a cheap way to get a controller and some memory chips on a PCB and call it an SSD they made, but its exactly that... just a kit to build/market SSDs to the ignorant. Its the same mess you get with Windows, Intel CPUs, 3rd party motherboards, and components from all over the place cobbled together to make a PC.
And look what happened to Intel SSDs after they put in Sandforce controllers? Failures galore... and their rock solid reputation with SSDs from the X25 days totally ruined.
Not sure if this is the best place to post...
Looking for 240GB SSD for my 2012 Macbook Air. I have been looking at the OWC since it seems to be the only option I can find online. But this thread has convinced me otherwise.
There are several mentions of getting some other drive somewhere else. I haven't been able to find any other SSD to fit in the 2012 Macbook Air. Where can I find other alternatives?
Whats the deal with the pricing too. I've seen 240GB SSDs running as low as $110, but the OWC is $260. Why more than double the price?
Thanks
Looking for 240GB SSD for my 2012 Macbook Air. I have been looking at the OWC since it seems to be the only option I can find online. But this thread has convinced me otherwise.
There are several mentions of getting some other drive somewhere else. I haven't been able to find any other SSD to fit in the 2012 Macbook Air. Where can I find other alternatives?
Whats the deal with the pricing too. I've seen 240GB SSDs running as low as $110, but the OWC is $260. Why more than double the price?
Thanks
As a posted here https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1731143/
I have had two OWC drives FAIL, one just over a week old and the other (a replacement for the first) just under one week.
They are crappy products... I'm just so glad that another company (Transcend Drives) is giving us Macbook Air owners another option now.
Thanks for the warning ... I just wish I would have seen it before my purchase and before my over $500 loss.
Thanks
I have had two OWC drives FAIL, one just over a week old and the other (a replacement for the first) just under one week.
They are crappy products... I'm just so glad that another company (Transcend Drives) is giving us Macbook Air owners another option now.
Thanks for the warning ... I just wish I would have seen it before my purchase and before my over $500 loss.
Thanks
Follow up:
Just for fun - I wrote the Transcend Sales Department asking if I could return my OWC drive to them instead for a discount... I will see what they say.
Thanks
Just for fun - I wrote the Transcend Sales Department asking if I could return my OWC drive to them instead for a discount... I will see what they say.
Thanks
I can't remember the last PC I bought with Windows, an Intel CPU, and a "third party motherboard" that had GPU defects left and right for four years running.
Get a genuine Apple drive, from someone who upgraded theirs to 512.
Check eBay or post a wanted ad in the marketplace.
^^^^Today that's a totally bogus answer. The Transcend SSD solution fits and works great. And it is priced right.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1729071/
Lou
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1729071/
Lou
3 Strikes...
My 3rd Aura 240GB failed in April. I took it out, put back the Apple 128, and fumed/pouted til the end of the semester.
Now I'm ready to fight. How do I get OWC to give me a refund (as opposed to a replacement)?
My 3rd Aura 240GB failed in April. I took it out, put back the Apple 128, and fumed/pouted til the end of the semester.
Now I'm ready to fight. How do I get OWC to give me a refund (as opposed to a replacement)?
^^^^I think you waited too long. I had an OWC SSD in my MBA (also back in April) The darn thing was too tight, ran hot, and had to be reformatted twice. When I went to return it one week later, OWC wanted me to pay for return postage and wanted to charge me a restocking fee. I elevated my discussion within OWC, and ultimately got that decision reversed. They sent me a label by eMail and refunded me the full price. OWC, IMHO, is not a good company to do business with, very unfriendly policies, and I have my doubts about their quality. My MBA now has a Transcend SSD and is running like a charm.
However, since this was you third replacement, I would elevate your discussion within OWC and demand a REFUND!!!!!! Threaten them with the BBB, and tell them you'll post your experiences on the web - HERE - and other Mac sites. Insist, but don't let it elevate into anger.
Lou
However, since this was you third replacement, I would elevate your discussion within OWC and demand a REFUND!!!!!! Threaten them with the BBB, and tell them you'll post your experiences on the web - HERE - and other Mac sites. Insist, but don't let it elevate into anger.
Lou
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But my issue is I don't want another one of the Auras.
I know I'm outside of whatever return policy window they have, but my thought is -- given that these drives are demonstrably unreliable, just give me a credit or something. Just don't send me another one of those booby traps.
Oh well, see what they'll say. Stay tuned...
im with you 100%
there ssd's are crap , i have had 5 replaced now.
im at the point where i feel this SSD is unusable and completely not reliable.
i guess were not only a few with bad drives , i have found ALOT now.
its possible we can get this to class action status.
they have sent me 2 ssd's that were bad out of the box.
OWC Nightmare! Beware!
I know this is an old thread but just wanted to post my thoughts (which I posted in another thread/forum):
-----
Let me start by saying that, in the past, I've had a good experiences with OWC and am incredibly bummed by latest experience!
I recently ordered the Aura Pro SSD Kit (Envoy + Tools) for my MacBook Air as my original one died. When I received it all seemed to work fine but then within a day or two it was locking up within 10 minutes of startup. I requested an advanced replacement for just the SSD which they kindly helped me out with.
Now here's where things get a little fishy. I was then sent the regular Aura (not the Pro), as a replacement. I contacted customer service to figure out why this happened. The customer rep told me that I ordered the Pro kit, but that on the original order, the part number (each part in the kit has their own part number) for the SSD was the regular Aura (not the Pro)! And that is why the regular Aura was sent as a replacement!
I was very concerned at this point as they now gave me the impression they were scamming me by sending me the regular Aura in the original order rather than the Pro even though I had paid for the Pro!
I called them up and they were unable/unwilling to explain and were only willing to give me free shipping on my next order. Feeling that I was being scammed, I cancelled my order completely and am no longer their customer.
I'm not sure if this is their common practice as I never doubled checked my orders in the past. I wanted to post here to inform any of those that have shopped with them in the past or will be shopping with them in the future. Just make sure you double check everything you get from them to confirm you are getting what you paid for! This may definitely have been just a one time thing but they were unwilling to make it right to the customer in this case.
I know this is an old thread but just wanted to post my thoughts (which I posted in another thread/forum):
-----
Let me start by saying that, in the past, I've had a good experiences with OWC and am incredibly bummed by latest experience!
I recently ordered the Aura Pro SSD Kit (Envoy + Tools) for my MacBook Air as my original one died. When I received it all seemed to work fine but then within a day or two it was locking up within 10 minutes of startup. I requested an advanced replacement for just the SSD which they kindly helped me out with.
Now here's where things get a little fishy. I was then sent the regular Aura (not the Pro), as a replacement. I contacted customer service to figure out why this happened. The customer rep told me that I ordered the Pro kit, but that on the original order, the part number (each part in the kit has their own part number) for the SSD was the regular Aura (not the Pro)! And that is why the regular Aura was sent as a replacement!
I was very concerned at this point as they now gave me the impression they were scamming me by sending me the regular Aura in the original order rather than the Pro even though I had paid for the Pro!
I called them up and they were unable/unwilling to explain and were only willing to give me free shipping on my next order. Feeling that I was being scammed, I cancelled my order completely and am no longer their customer.
I'm not sure if this is their common practice as I never doubled checked my orders in the past. I wanted to post here to inform any of those that have shopped with them in the past or will be shopping with them in the future. Just make sure you double check everything you get from them to confirm you are getting what you paid for! This may definitely have been just a one time thing but they were unwilling to make it right to the customer in this case.
Aura and Aura Pro are both SSD's. Aura uses asynchronous flash chips and has a 3 year warranty. Aura Pro uses synchronous flash chips which improves compressed data write performance and has a 5 year warranty. Both Aura and Aura Pro use the same sandforce controller I believe. The difference is all in the flash type (and possibly firmware changes to tune for the flash type).