Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

2015 Macbook Air Intel 760p SSD Upgrade Process

O

OW333

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 22, 2019
10
0
Canada
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
First step is make sure your running the most recent version of Mojave or High Sierra.

So far I have created a full Time Machine backup, I will do another backup immediately before the drive swap.
I have also created a back up of all my files from Bootcamp in Windows.

Next step is creating a bootable USB drive by following these instructions https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

From what I understand the bootable USB is needed as a way to reformat the new SSD. Until the drive is reformatted is is not recognizable as a start up drive, but Disk Utility should recognize it. I'll be finding out how it all works this weekend.
 
Well I went though installing the drive. No issues.

  1. Open the back, and disconnecting the battery.
  2. Remove the old drive by removing the single support screw.
  3. Install the adapter. I found it was easier to fully seat the adaptor without the new SSD attached to it.
  4. Install the new SSD into the adaptor and secure it with the new longer support screw provided with the adaptor.
  5. Reconnect the battery and close the back.

  1. Next insert the bootable USB and press the power button while pressing option.
  2. When the computer starts up select the bootable usb to boot from.
  3. Next you will get to a screen that will gives you a few options. Select Disk utilities and format the new SSD to MacOS journaled
  4. Exit Disk utilities
  5. Select instal MacOS or Restore from time machine.
Next I will be setting up Bootcamp. I will post notes on that progress later.


Read speeds 1500MB/s
Write speeds 1350MB/s
SSD temperature 40C plus minus 5C
 

Attachments

  • IMG_5858.JPG
    IMG_5858.JPG
    2.7 MB · Views: 358
  • IMG_5854.JPG
    IMG_5854.JPG
    2 MB · Views: 368
Last edited:
I seem to have found one problem.

Sleep doesn't seem to be working properly. I am seeing about a %25 drop in battery over an 8 hour period.
I know others have found ways to resolve this so I'll be doing my research and going about solving that issue.

Other then that the drive works incredibly well. I never did speed test the original drive but I have to say it seems to be as fast or faster. Absolutely no panic like some people reported with other drives.
 
coit2200 said:
I heard that you can not use 3rd party ssd
they motherboard wont recognize it.
Click to expand...

I can confirm that my early 2015 Macbook Air is comparable with 3rd party drives through the use of an adaptor.
It seems a few other models are also compatible.


OW333 said:
I seem to have found one problem.

Sleep doesn't seem to be working properly. I am seeing about a %25 drop in battery over an 8 hour period.
I know others have found ways to resolve this so I'll be doing my research and going about solving that issue.

Other then that the drive works incredibly well. I never did speed test the original drive but I have to say it seems to be as fast or faster. Absolutely no panic like some people reported with other drives.
Click to expand...

Well I ended up flipping from hibernation mode 3 to 25 by entering (sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25) in terminal.
I will post back if this fixes the issue.

mode 25 apparently transfers ram to storage and powers down the ram
mode 3 seems to transfer ram to storage just inches the battery dies but keeps ram powered

mode 3 seems to cause some kind of problem with the intel 760p drive where the data doesn't stop being transferred between ram and storage. Im going to try contacting Sintech as the 760p is one of their recommended drives
 
Last edited:
Well update...

Bootcamp installed, no issues installer worked perfectly.
Drive seemed to function better than the original when using memory intensive applications.
I was testing it out with SolidWorks 2019 and a fairly large assembly that maxes out the available 8gb of ram pretty quick.

I seem to have fixed the sleep problem for now.
I have noticed in Activity Monitor that Spotlight has been consistently pulling an average impact of about 1.5.
This seems to track with what Ive read in a few places that say Spotlight will be indexing the new drive in the background for quite a while. Once I notice Spotlight stop this I'll try swapping the hibernation mode back.
 
Hi OW333! Thanks for sharing your worklog. I've just bought few Intel 760p 512Gb and want to install one of them into my MBA 2017. I have few questions if you don't mind.
1. How did you fixed the sleep problem?
2. Do you have any problems with hibernation?
3. Are there any tricks to install windows in bootcamp?
4. Are there any other problems using this SSD?
5. What total battery drop do you have now in comparison with original Apple SSD?
Thanks in advance for your answers!
 
IgorGIV said:
Hi OW333! Thanks for sharing your worklog. I've just bought few Intel 760p 512Gb and want to install one of them into my MBA 2017. I have few questions if you don't mind.
1. How did you fixed the sleep problem?
2. Do you have any problems with hibernation?
3. Are there any tricks to install windows in bootcamp?
4. Are there any other problems using this SSD?
5. What total battery drop do you have now in comparison with original Apple SSD?
Thanks in advance for your answers!
Click to expand...

1) No changes from what i posted above about changing the hibernation mode.
2) No problems with hibernation.
3) No problems with bootcamp installation. However you need to adjust PCI power management.
4) No other issues I've found so far.
5) Definitely a slightly higher power drain, but I'm very happy with the expanded storage size. I want to spend a bit more time with the computer on battery before I rule in completely on battery life.


So after running in bootcamp for extended periods of time I experienced a few random crashes. To fix this I tracked the problem down to the PCI power management settings. Not really sure what was up with it, but absolutely no problems since I switched the settings.

Go to your control panel, click on Hardware & Sound > Power settings (for category view) or Control Panel > Power options (for icon view) Select "CHange Plan Settings" next to whatever plan you have selected. Click on "Change Advanced Power Settings" Expand "PCI Express" > "Link State Power Management" and change that setting to "Off"
 
OW333 , Thank you very much for your comprehensive answers! I really appreciate that. I will get the m.2 adapter in a couple of days and install my 760p SSD using your instruction and post my results here. And again - thank you very much!
 
Hi OW333!
Just replaced the SSD in my MBA using your instruction (thanks to you). Do i understand correctly that i should change the default hibernatemode from 3 to 25? (btw, there is a little mistake in the command you've posted above "sudo pmset -a hibernationmode 25". The correct one would be "sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25".)
And is it correct to restore system from Time Machine backup on my new 760p, or it would be better to make clean install? For now i made a restore from Time Machine backup and don't know whether i was wrong or right.
Thanks in advance for your answers!
 
IgorGIV said:
Hi OW333!
Just replaced the SSD in my MBA using your instruction (thanks to you). Do i understand correctly that i should change the default hibernatemode from 3 to 25? (btw, there is a little mistake in the command you've posted above "sudo pmset -a hibernationmode 25". The correct one would be "sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25".)
And is it correct to restore system from Time Machine backup on my new 760p, or it would be better to make clean install? For now i made a restore from Time Machine backup and don't know whether i was wrong or right.
Thanks in advance for your answers!
Click to expand...

Thanks I corrected that in the previous post.

Yes I switched the hibernation mode to 25, but I'm not entirely sure if it was needed or if was just the drive being indexed. I haven't gotten around to putting it back and trying it.

Most people seem to suggest starting with a clean instal.
However I restored from Time Machine.
 
OW333
Well, i must say that everything works great. Speeds are good, battery drain is absolutely acceptable, there are no issues with sleep and hibernation modes.

I have only two small troubles with bootcamp:
1. Everything was installed without any issues except bootcamp utility itself under Windows 10 (1903, x64, Professional) - doesn't start when i'm trying to launch its "Control panel" (it says i have no rights to access the volume or smth like that);
2. MacOS doesn't see bootcamp volume in "System settings" - "Startup disk".
But i can choose OS (Windows or MacOS) to boot while pressing ALT (Option) key without any problems (by default the MacOS will be started if no key is pressed).

So, i can confirm that your instruction is great and anyone can use it as "step-by-step guide" without any fear to break something and everything will work like a charm.

Thank you very much!
 
IgorGIV said:
OW333
Well, i must say that everything works great. Speeds are good, battery drain is absolutely acceptable, there are no issues with sleep and hibernation modes.

I have only two small troubles with bootcamp:
1. Everything was installed without any issues except bootcamp utility itself under Windows 10 (1903, x64, Professional) - doesn't start when i'm trying to launch its "Control panel" (it says i have no rights to access the volume or smth like that);
2. MacOS doesn't see bootcamp volume in "System settings" - "Startup disk".
But i can choose OS (Windows or MacOS) to boot while pressing ALT (Option) key without any problems (by default the MacOS will be started if no key is pressed).

So, i can confirm that your instruction is great and anyone can use it as "step-by-step guide" without any fear to break something and everything will work like a charm.

Thank you very much!
Click to expand...

Your bootcamp issue seems to be from the drive not being partitioned in the initial steps.

If you have a bootable USB or windows on your Mac somewhere it will appear as a boot option when starting the laptop. So when I finished bootcamp there were 3 boot options. MAC Windows and Windows.

To see the partitions you should view them using disk utility.
 
OW333 said:
Your bootcamp issue seems to be from the drive not being partitioned in the initial steps.
Click to expand...
What exactly do you mean? I launched Bootcamp utility, chose ISO image with windows distributive, set the amount of space for Windows (bootcamp) partition and started the process. After some time the system rebooted and Windows installation procedure started. I chose the language of Windows installation and then, when Windows setup disk utility started, i chose the bootcamp partition as a target partition for Windows installation (the ordinary things which i made thousands times on PCs). Then Windows began to install. After installation was finished the bootcamp utility started and finished installation by installing drivers and bootcamp utility itself. That's it.

The last thing - the laptop always booted in Windows until i decided to boot into MacOS and pressed Alt(option) key. Then i saw only once three boot options like you said above. After booting into MacOS and later rebooting if i press Alt key there was only two boot options - Mac and Windows.

And yes - i can see all partitions including Windows in MacOS disk utility, but as far as i understand i should also see it in "Startup disk" menu, where i should be able to make quick selection of what OS i want to boot rapidly.
 
IgorGIV said:
What exactly do you mean? I launched Bootcamp utility, chose ISO image with windows distributive, set the amount of space for Windows (bootcamp) partition and started the process. After some time the system rebooted and Windows installation procedure started. I chose the language of Windows installation and then, when Windows setup disk utility started, i chose the bootcamp partition as a target partition for Windows installation (the ordinary things which i made thousands times on PCs). Then Windows began to install. After installation was finished the bootcamp utility started and finished installation by installing drivers and bootcamp utility itself. That's it.

The last thing - the laptop always booted in Windows until i decided to boot into MacOS and pressed Alt(option) key. Then i saw only once three boot options like you said above. After booting into MacOS and later rebooting if i press Alt key there was only two boot options - Mac and Windows.

And yes - i can see all partitions including Windows in MacOS disk utility, but as far as i understand i should also see it in "Startup disk" menu, where i should be able to make quick selection of what OS i want to boot rapidly.
Click to expand...


Strange.

I can see both Mac and Windows in the startup disk menu.

Sorry I’m not sure how to help with that.
 
OW333 said:
Sorry I’m not sure how to help with that.
Click to expand...
Oh, that's OK. Everything works excellent! I've just mentioned this two small bugs and they didn't bring me any problem at all - i can boot Windows in Bootcamp and i can boot MacOS. The main aim was to replace Apple SSD 128GB with the Intel 760p 512GB and save some money and it has been achieved with success. Thanks to you! ;-)

P.S. I forgot to add - i use "Espada M2Mac13-17". As i understand, judging by the wiring diagram, it is absolutely the same as Sintech short adapter.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back