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2013 MacBook Pro SinTech problem

My Dime Is Up

My Dime Is Up

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 24, 2018
32
1
Philadelphia, PA
Hi everyone.

This is copied from the post I made in the NVME thread. Thought it deserved its own thread.

#1189
I seem to be stuck in an install loop. I bought a Late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina 15" (A1398) off of eBay without a hard drive. I have a Samsung PM951 and the SinTech ST-NGFF2013-B adapter. I booted into ubuntu, formatted the drive, and booted into my High Sierra USB and formatted the drive as APFS. When going through the installer, it said my drive had to be Mac OS Extended (Journaled). So I reformatted it as Journaled and continued to the install screen. When around "2 minutes remaining", the screen would turn black and would go to the apple logo with the loading bar. When the bar reached around 1/8th completion, it would go back to the Mac OS Utilities main menu, as if I just booted back into the USB drive. I've been stuck here no matter how much I try.

I have another mac laying around with an apple hard drive. Should I possibly put that into my 15" and reinstall High Sierra, then put the SinTech adapter in and install High Sierra? I'm confused as to what to do.
 
Audit13 said:
Was the MBP running the latest version High Sierra off an original Apple SSD before installing the PM 951?

Did you apply kapton tape to the adapter?
Click to expand...
Hi there,

I'm new to this. What is kapton tape and I'm not sure if it had High Sierra previously but the drive is detected in the High Sierra USB install.

I think I already saw some orange type on the adapter.
 
Before swapping drives, I always recommend installing the latest version of High Sierra on the original Apple SSD. When installing the latest version of High Sierra, the MBP's bootrom will be updated if necessary during the installation. Once the latest bootrom has been installed, you can then install Sierra of High Sierra if the drive supports formatting in 4k. You must install High Sierra if the drive only works in a 512 byte format.

See the picture for the taped area.
 

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Hi,

Just searched and my SM951 has a 512 bytes per sector rating. I will grab the apple AHCI drive out of my 13" and pop it in my 15", reinstall High Sierra, and then swap it with my adapter when I get home. For this to work, do I have to do a clean install on the apple AHCI drive, or can I just pop it in, boot up, and then shut down and swap it for my SM951?

Also, I will take a photo of my adapter when I get home but I do remember that tape being there when I received it.
 
I don't think booting a Macbook with a HS drive will update the bootrom. It would be safer to create a backup of data/files on the original Apple drive, put it into the Late 2013, then use disk utility to wipe and install HS.

After installing HS, I suggest checking for any OS updates. The latest OS is 10.13.4.
 
I wanted to check before I rip the AHCI drive out of my 13" and put it in my 15". Is there a command (Maybe in terminal) to check the bootrom while I'm booted on my High Sierra bootable USB? Could save a lot of time and frustration.
 
I usually run the terminal command "system_profiler" bitmit doesn't work in the terminal app from the installer. I'm not sure how to get that information without installing an os.
 
My Dime Is Up said:
I wanted to check before I rip the AHCI drive out of my 13" and put it in my 15". Is there a command (Maybe in terminal) to check the bootrom while I'm booted on my High Sierra bootable USB? Could save a lot of time and frustration.
Click to expand...

If you can boot to Ubuntu, you can try :
grep "BIOS MBP" /var/log/kern.log

For me this shows "BIOS MBP111.88Z.0145.B00.1802091341 02/09/2018" which for my mid-2014 13 MBP looks about right.
 
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masw123 said:
If you can boot to Ubuntu, you can try :
grep "BIOS MBP" /var/log/kern.log
For me this shows "BIOS MBP111.88Z.0145.B00.1802091341 02/09/2018" which for my mid-2014 13 MBP looks about right.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much. Here is what was returned
BIOS MBP112.88Z.0138.B25.1702171721 02/17/2017

Is my Boot ROM out of date to use the NVMe SM 951? MBPr Late 2013 15" A1398
 
My Dime Is Up said:
Thanks very much. Here is what was returned
BIOS MBP112.88Z.0138.B25.1702171721 02/17/2017

Is my Boot ROM out of date to use the NVMe SM 951? MBPr Late 2013 15" A1398
Click to expand...

Looks like an old version - MBP112.0138.B25. I believe the current version for your MBP, installed with High Sierra, is MBP112.0145.B00. This post ... https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/page-2#post-24779606 ... seems to indicate Samsung SSDs need the High Sierra bootrom - in which case you do need to update.
 
EXCELLENT! I've got it working. I'm typing on my new NVMe as we speak. I fixed the sleep problem the pmset hibernatemode 25 but when shutting the computer down, it hangs on the black screen, forcing me to hold the power button down. was wondering if anyone else has experienced this glitch and if there is a way to fix this.

Thanks for the help everyone!
 
I understand your hesitation but adding kapton tape to both sides of my green adapter, which only worked at x2 in my Air 2015, changed to x4 but didn't affect anything else. I did not have any reboot or sleep problems with the Intel 600p.
 
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